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Vixen 80MF Refractor CLEARANCE

FLO

By FLO
in Sponsor Announcements and Offers

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Ben Ritchie

Ben Ritchie

Posted
Posted
Can someone clarify the differences here? For me any PST applications are off in the future, for now I'm interested in it just as a long(ish) focal length achromat for visual use.

Had guessed from the image that it was a 1.25" focuser, which isn't an issue for me. So do I care if it's Chinese or Japanese? Are the optics the same?

FLO?

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NickH

NickH

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Ken ...Second etalon will also have the lens assembly though, and don't you have distance/focus issues?

Sorry if I am missing something.. but I would have thought a clean two etalon (i.e just etalons) rig would be much better?, e.g. two PSM40's or two LS50 front filters? (sans ERF's of course)

If that's the case...time to find a second rock hot etalon for my PST mod, but I'd want to go larger aperture too...so

something like a 5" refractor, with a sub aperture ERF inline in the tube (cost/thermals), and two etalons..

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FLO

FLO

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FLO?

We have been digging around for reviews and opinions, without much success. The general feeling is that the Japanese manufactured optic and overall fit and finish is a little better but we haven't found any tests or reviews to back that up so cannot confirm that. We don't have both here for comparison. The Japanese version does have a rather nice 2" R&P focuser whereas the Chinese version is 1.25"

HTH

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Merlin66

Merlin66

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Nick,

As they say " A Merlin sketch is worth 2000 words!"

The etalons should be positioned as close as possible to each other.

My quick calcs say the sub-diameter ERF should be >50% of the objective....

Who's going to be the first to trial it....you or me!

Ken

post-15261-133877485428_thumb.jpg

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Ogri

Ogri

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Aaaarrrghh! I have been so lusting after one of these 'scopes for such a long time now, drooling over them on the American sites where they seem to have had access to 1,000's of them, how I missed this thread I'll never know. :p

And I've just gone and bought a netbook, and am completely stuffed until after Christmas now. ;)

Fingers crossed you can get more . . . . . . :)

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  • 3 months later...
FLO

FLO

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We have sourced some more Vixen A80MF refractor telescopes to sell at the same £159 price.

Vixen_A80MF_refractor.jpg

The last time we offered these they were hugely successful. Interestingly, whilst the responses to this thread have concentrated on how popular it is amongst those wishing to modify their Coronado PST, most were bought as convenient grab-and-go telescopes or for use as a guidescope.

(We also have a small quantity of Japanese-made versions with 2" focusers to sell at £219, please email/PM if interested).

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NickK

NickK

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Ok, I caved. My first scope :eek:

I thought, rather than spend ~£2K on a VC200L+mount, that I should learn to look at the sky and not the technology. So I've bought one plus a little porta mount, figuring a fully manual setup would force me into navigating by stars rather than GOTO menu.

I can then use the scope as a guide scope or travel scope later.

£159.. by 18 minutes :)

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  • 3 weeks later...
FLO

FLO

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The Vixen 80MF refractor at £159 is proving just as popular second time around :D

We currently have a handful remaining for overnight delivery but a price rise is incoming so we have ordered another sixteen scheduled for delivery in March.

Hope that helps,

Steve

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  • 7 months later...
FLO

FLO

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The Vixen 80MF refractor at £159 is proving just as popular second time around :)

We currently have a handful remaining for overnight delivery but a price rise is incoming so we have ordered another sixteen scheduled for delivery in March.

As often happens in this game they arrived later than expected and we recieved less than ordered but we do now have more Vixen A80MF refractors in stock at the same £159 price :(

Vixen_A80MF_refractor.jpg

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Dr. Phibes

Dr. Phibes

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Also caved and purchased. Just got to get the money together for the mount now, grrr.

If I am doing my research right, these were about £400 in the Vixen catalogue when they were in production?? But looks to be a good purchase regardless. I wanted a no fuss starter scope to later become the grab-n-go instrument at a later date so ideal for me.

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Ben Ritchie

Ben Ritchie

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It's a really nice 'scope and i'm pleased with mine, but I don't think there's any way it would have a realistic £400 valuation - fit and finish is pretty basic, especially the focuser. At FLO's price it's good value and a real pleasure to use, so should fit your criteria well.

There was/is a 2" focuser version favoured by PST-modders (possibly with other differences too? I don't know - FLO will***) and that might be closer to the £400 figure you found, this one is limited to the 1.25" format. Not that that's really an issue IMO, this 'scope is at its best at higher powers that only need 1.25" eyepieces.

***edit: unless things have changed, maybe not

We have been digging around for reviews and opinions, without much success. The general feeling is that the Japanese manufactured optic and overall fit and finish is a little better but we haven't found any tests or reviews to back that up so cannot confirm that. We don't have both here for comparison. The Japanese version does have a rather nice 2" R&P focuser whereas the Chinese version is 1.25"

I found similar suggestions about the Japanese version being somehow 'better' optically too, but nothing concrete about how it was better and I have no complaints about the performance of my Chinese one

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