As if I need a new telescope...

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Bigzmey United States of America
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Re: As if I need a new telescope...

#41

Post by Bigzmey »


I still consider CN as a good knowledge base but not for a novice. You need to know how to mine a bits of knowledge from ... the other stuff. :D
Scopes: Stellarvue: SV102ED; Celestron: 9.25" EdgeHD, 8" SCT, 150ST, Onyx 80ED; iOptron: Hankmeister 6" Mak; SW: 7" Mak; Meade: 80ST.
Mounts: SW: SkyTee2, AzGTi; iOptron: AZMP; ES: Twilight I; Bresser: EXOS2; UA: MicroStar.
Binos: APM: 100-90 APO; Canon: IS 15x50; Orion: Binoviewer, LG II 15x70, WV 10x50, Nikon: AE 16x50, 10x50, 8x40.
EPs: Pentax: XWs & XFs; TeleVue: Delites, Panoptic & Plossls; ES: 68, 62; Vixen: SLVs; Baader: BCOs, Aspherics, Mark IV.
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Filters: Lumicon: DeepSky, UHC, OIII, H-beta; Baader: Moon & SkyGlow, Contrast Booster, UHC-S, 6-color set; Astronomik: UHC.

Observing: DSOs: 3106 (Completed: Messier, Herschel 1, 2, 3. In progress: H2,500: 2180, S110: 77). Doubles: 2382, Comets: 34, Asteroids: 255
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OzEclipse Australia
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Re: As if I need a new telescope...

#42

Post by OzEclipse »


Bigzmey wrote: Tue Jan 14, 2020 9:16 pm So how difficult is VMC collimation? I remember reading some horror stories on CN...
I have a VC200L. The VC's are collimated with both primary and secondary. VMC's spherical mirrors are collimated by secondary only so a bit easier.

When I bought mine(2015), the previous owner, who fancies himself as a "scope restorer" had put it well out of collimation in his attempts to collimate it. He is well known for messing up scopes and mounts in the name of restoring them. He bought it for about USD1300, de-collimated it and convinced himself it was a dud, sold it to me 7 weeks later for USD$450. Before buying, I went back through a classified archive, found & contacted the original owner who assured me the optics were excellent and it must be a collimation problem. It was.

Star collimation is pretty easy but takes a bit of time & patience going back and forth between the spider and the eyepiece. Took me about 2-3 hrs to collimate it. Patience and being systematic is the key. It's not difficult. It has ridden in my car for the past 5 years, dozens and dozens of times back and forth to my dark site (50 mi 75km each way) including bouncing over the 400 metre rocky track to the clearing at the back of the block where we observe. After 5 years of this treatment, it is finally in need of another bout of minor collimation - I can see it's just a touch off.


There is a VMC260L for sale 2nd hand for about USD1100. Mirror is very dirty. Would need to be completely disassembled, mirror cleaned and reassembled. I am very tempted to buy it. I can't tell from photos if it is just dirt or mould, fungus or damage to the coatings and it's on the other side of the country. It's located in the tropics so that's why I am not sure about fungus.

Like others have stated here, lack of dew collector, I mean corrector :D , relatively light OTA weight, and excellent optics are big selling points. Vixen's are difficult to resell. I think this is because people don't understand how good they are. VMC260L's in Australia are usually advertised for about 6-12 months before they sell.

Reviews are very positive and the only negatives they list state that the corrector lens coatings impart a red-yellow hue to the image and the image looks a little dim for a scope of this diameter compared to a newt. I've heard the same said about SCT's. Planetary performance is reputed to be really superb as you'd expect from a Maksutov variant. The surface detail on the disks of larger bright planets Mars, Jupiter and Saturn is reported to be very good but you have to accept the less aesthetic diffraction spikes running away from the limbs which don't seem to degrade the surface detail.

Joe
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Amateur astronomer since 1978...................Web site : http://joe-cali.com/
Scopes: ATM 18" Dob, Vixen VC200L, ATM 6"f7, Stellarvue 102ED, Saxon ED80, WO M70 ED, Orion 102 Maksutov, ST80.
Mounts: Takahashi EM-200, iOptron iEQ45, Push dobsonian with Nexus DSC, three homemade EQ's.
Eyepieces: TV Naglers 31, 17, 12, 7; Denkmeier D21 & D14; Pentax XW10, XW5, Unitron 40mm Kellner, Meade Or 25,12
Cameras : Pentax K1, K5, K01, K10D / VIDEO CAMS : TacosBD, Lihmsec.
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NGC 1365 Australia
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Re: As if I need a new telescope...

#43

Post by NGC 1365 »


Hi Joe, that VMC 260L does look tempting, but as you said, not sure what the issue is with the coating.
Ivan
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Lady Fraktor Slovakia
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Re: As if I need a new telescope...

#44

Post by Lady Fraktor »


The reason I was looking around the Bresser site is I still have store credit and was thinking about trying the 102mm f/13.2 again, now that they seem to have gotten it figured out now.
Either replace the 102mm or go with a Maksutov.... it will be a while before I decide either way.
https://www.bresser.de/Astronomie/Teles ... Tubus.html
https://www.bresser.de/Astronomie/Teles ... Tubus.html
See Far Sticks: Antares Elita 103/1575, AOM FLT 105/1000, Bresser BV 127/1200, Nočný stopár 152/1200, Vyrobené doma 70/700, Stellarvue NHNG DX 80/552, TAL RS100/1000, Vixen SD115s/885
EQ: TAL MT-1, Vixen SXP, AXJ, AXD
Az/Alt: AYO Digi II/ Argo Navis, Stellarvue M2C/ Argo Navis
Tripods: Berlebach Planet (2), Uni 28 Astro, Report 372, TAL factory maple, Vixen ASG-CB90, Vixen AXD-TR102
Diagonals: Astro-Physics, Baader Amici, Baader Herschel, iStar Blue, Stellarvue DX, Takahashi prism, TAL, Vixen flip mirror
Eyepieces: Antares to Zeiss
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OzEclipse Australia
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Re: As if I need a new telescope...

#45

Post by OzEclipse »


NGC 1365 wrote: Sun Jan 19, 2020 6:32 am Hi Joe, that VMC 260L does look tempting, but as you said, not sure what the issue is with the coating.
Hi Ivan,

I've seen others come on the market in Oz much better condition for AUD2600-$2800.
Also seen Mewlon 250's minus CRS baffle corrector go for AUD4500-AUD5500. I am not in any hurry.
I have heard that Vixen's have special uneven coating that forms part of the figure so you can't just send it to
any old re-coating service. That might only be on the VC not the VMC, I'm not sure.

I have been in a holding pattern on the build of a small observatory for a couple of years while doing
other astro projects. Until that's finished, I don't want or need a bigger OTA so I'm in no hurry. The site has
bad dew on some occasions. The VC200L has proven quite resilient to dew formation as I expect would any
open tube cass variant which is why I'm keen on that design.

So I'll probably let this one go through to the keeper.

cheers

Joe
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Amateur astronomer since 1978...................Web site : http://joe-cali.com/
Scopes: ATM 18" Dob, Vixen VC200L, ATM 6"f7, Stellarvue 102ED, Saxon ED80, WO M70 ED, Orion 102 Maksutov, ST80.
Mounts: Takahashi EM-200, iOptron iEQ45, Push dobsonian with Nexus DSC, three homemade EQ's.
Eyepieces: TV Naglers 31, 17, 12, 7; Denkmeier D21 & D14; Pentax XW10, XW5, Unitron 40mm Kellner, Meade Or 25,12
Cameras : Pentax K1, K5, K01, K10D / VIDEO CAMS : TacosBD, Lihmsec.
Cam/guider/controllers: Lacerta MGEN 3, SW Synguider, Simulation Curriculum SkyFi 3+Sky safari
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Re: As if I need a new telescope...

#46

Post by Voyageur »


Lady Fraktor wrote: Sun Jan 19, 2020 8:18 am The reason I was looking around the Bresser site is I still have store credit and was thinking about trying the 102mm f/13.2 again, now that they seem to have gotten it figured out now.
Either replace the 102mm or go with a Maksutov.... it will be a while before I decide either way.
https://www.bresser.de/Astronomie/Teles ... Tubus.html
https://www.bresser.de/Astronomie/Teles ... Tubus.html
That refractor really appeals to me. Wish it were available in the USA. Attractive price, and it would be a great scope for all the outreach I do in Michigan from May - October. We serve up to the public primarily views of the planets and the Moon. In a forest of SCTs and mid-sized Dobs, a nice long shiny white refractor would be a standout... Oh well...
Scopes: Vixen VMC200L, D=200mm, F=1950, f/9.75; Televue 2" Everbright diagonal. Coronado PST; AstroTech EDT 80mm, F=480, f/6.
Mounts: Vixen SXW/Starbook (original); Stellarvue M2C alt-az.
Eyepieces: Televue: 55mm Plossl, 22mm Panoptic, 17.3mm Delos, 13mm Nagler, c. 1980, 11mm Plossl, 7mm Nagler, 5mm Radian; Meade 15mm Super Plossl; VERNONSCOPE 2.4X BARLOW
Binoculars: Leica 8x32 Trinovids, circa 1997; Orion Megaview 20x80, Orion Paragon Plus mount.
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Re: As if I need a new telescope...

#47

Post by Lady Fraktor »


For people in the USA they can be purchased through Teleskop-Service and at a slightly lower price for some reason:
https://www.teleskop-express.de/shop/pr ... embly.html
See Far Sticks: Antares Elita 103/1575, AOM FLT 105/1000, Bresser BV 127/1200, Nočný stopár 152/1200, Vyrobené doma 70/700, Stellarvue NHNG DX 80/552, TAL RS100/1000, Vixen SD115s/885
EQ: TAL MT-1, Vixen SXP, AXJ, AXD
Az/Alt: AYO Digi II/ Argo Navis, Stellarvue M2C/ Argo Navis
Tripods: Berlebach Planet (2), Uni 28 Astro, Report 372, TAL factory maple, Vixen ASG-CB90, Vixen AXD-TR102
Diagonals: Astro-Physics, Baader Amici, Baader Herschel, iStar Blue, Stellarvue DX, Takahashi prism, TAL, Vixen flip mirror
Eyepieces: Antares to Zeiss
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Re: As if I need a new telescope...

#48

Post by Voyageur »


Lady Fraktor wrote: Sun Jan 19, 2020 4:13 pm For people in the USA they can be purchased through Teleskop-Service and at a slightly lower price for some reason:
https://www.teleskop-express.de/shop/pr ... embly.html
Thanks, Gabby! Boy, that is a temptation.
Scopes: Vixen VMC200L, D=200mm, F=1950, f/9.75; Televue 2" Everbright diagonal. Coronado PST; AstroTech EDT 80mm, F=480, f/6.
Mounts: Vixen SXW/Starbook (original); Stellarvue M2C alt-az.
Eyepieces: Televue: 55mm Plossl, 22mm Panoptic, 17.3mm Delos, 13mm Nagler, c. 1980, 11mm Plossl, 7mm Nagler, 5mm Radian; Meade 15mm Super Plossl; VERNONSCOPE 2.4X BARLOW
Binoculars: Leica 8x32 Trinovids, circa 1997; Orion Megaview 20x80, Orion Paragon Plus mount.
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John Baars Netherlands
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Re: As if I need a new telescope...

#49

Post by John Baars »


Lady Fraktor wrote: Sun Jan 19, 2020 8:18 am The reason I was looking around the Bresser site is I still have store credit and was thinking about trying the 102mm f/13.2 again, now that they seem to have gotten it figured out now.
Either replace the 102mm or go with a Maksutov.... it will be a while before I decide either way.
https://www.bresser.de/Astronomie/Teles ... Tubus.html
https://www.bresser.de/Astronomie/Teles ... Tubus.html
Some years ago I did a comparison between a 102mm refractor and a 140mm Maksutov. Depending on the purpose of use and personal preferences, one could choose both one and the other. I don't have to tell you anything about that.
https://www.astroforum.nl/articles/1284 ... tov-omc140
From personal experience I can say that it is nice to have such a Mak between the refractors, just for a change.
Enjoy the selection process and then the new instrument!
Refractors in frequency of use : *SW Evostar 120ED F/7.5 (all round ), * Vixen 102ED F/9 (vintage), both on Vixen GPDX.
GrabnGo on Alt/AZ : *SW Startravel 102 F/5 refractor( widefield, Sun, push-to), *OMC140 Maksutov F/14.3 ( planets).
Most used Eyepieces: *Panoptic 24, *Morpheus 14, *Leica ASPH zoom, *Zeiss barlow, *Pentax XO5.
Commonly used bino's : *Jena 10X50 , * Canon 10X30 IS, *Swarovski Habicht 7X42, * Celestron 15X70, *Kasai 2.3X40
Rijswijk Public Observatory: * Astro-Physics Starfire 130 f/8, * 6 inch Newton, * C9.25, * Meade 14 inch LX600 ACF, *Lunt.
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pakarinen United States of America
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Re: As if I need a new telescope...

#50

Post by pakarinen »


Lady Fraktor wrote: Sun Jan 19, 2020 4:13 pm For people in the USA they can be purchased through Teleskop-Service and at a slightly lower price for some reason:
https://www.teleskop-express.de/shop/pr ... embly.html

Nice; but they still persist in selling these things with less than desirable Sucherfernrohrs. Oh well, I guess that's just the way it is. I do like the carrying ring / handle.
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