Al.Grant Posted May 26, 2013 Author Share Posted May 26, 2013 (edited) I was bidding on an eBay auction for a SW 200P (black) on a manual EQ5 mount yesterday, but the auction was ended early when the price was still below £175. Pity as I could have used the 200P and sold the EQ5 mount to fund a new focuser! The seller was in Nottingham so nice and easy to collect ...... Ahh well! Edited May 26, 2013 by Al.Grant Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Al.Grant Posted May 28, 2013 Author Share Posted May 28, 2013 Any carefully thought out plan for a scope upgrade pretty much went out the window this weekend! I now have a (second hand) Vixen VC200L sitting on my HEQ 5 Pro mount Same as the one in this pic: (but this is not my actual one) These details taken from FLO website: Objective lens 200mm VISAC aspherical mirror, multi-coated Focal length (Focal ratio) 1800mm (f9.0) Resolving power, limiting magnitude 0.58 arc sec., 13.3 Light gathering power 816x Tube size & weight (OD) 232mm x (L) 620mm, 6.0kg (13.2lb) Finderscope 7x50 finderscope, field of view 7° Adapter thread / visual back 60mm on scope body. 42mm for T-mount and 31.7mm push-fit on flip mirror. 50.8mm option* Accessories included Dovetail mount rail and flip mirror Photography** Prime focus, eyepiece projection and afocal imaging At 6kg it seems to sit well on an HEQ5. It is an F9 scope. There is an optional focal reducer that brings it down to F6.4. The reducer is something I'll look at in the future. It's a bit of a step up from a Skymax 127. They seem to get good reviews, although they have quite a large central obstruction and wide vanes. Being 'open ended' it is supposed to cool down far quicker than a standard cat. The standard focuser is supposed to be fairly good, but there is an option for a dual speed upgrade if needed. It has a 'flip mirror' diagonal on the back that allows quick switching between 2 different ep's or an ep on one and webcam on the other, a turn of the dial switches the light path between the two .... not sure how good these are in practice .... but might be useful if I can have an ep on one and quickly switch to a webcam on the other. It came with Vixen 9mm, 25mm & 40mm ep's, not their latest ep's but the 9 & 25 look far better than the standard SW ones I currently have at that size. It isn't the scope I had planned and I almost didn't buy it ..... However my wife was all for it, so how could I say no (I can always blame her it it's wrong!) Typically as soon as I collected it the skies clouded over, so I won't really know how happy with it or if I made the right decision until I've had a chance to use it. .............. Only time will tell! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+RonC Posted May 28, 2013 Share Posted May 28, 2013 Is it a RC scope? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dawson Posted May 28, 2013 Share Posted May 28, 2013 Blimey! That looks good. Impressive. James Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
catman161 Posted May 28, 2013 Share Posted May 28, 2013 That's great-congrats. The flip mirror is cool I need I get one for when I am doing webcam work. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xanthic Posted May 28, 2013 Share Posted May 28, 2013 Looks like a nice bit of kit there Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Al.Grant Posted May 28, 2013 Author Share Posted May 28, 2013 (edited) Hi,i picked this up on Monday afternoon and since I got home the skies have been full of cloud & rain, all I really know about this scope is from the reviews I've read, but they do all seem to be consistent in what they say and for the most part it's very positive ..... especially for DSO imaging (even better with the focal reducer).All scopes have some limitations in addition to their good points and this one is no different. The large central obstruction and vanes seem to be the main ones mentioned with this scope. I WAS aware of that when I bought it, but not really sure just how this will impact viewing/imaging ....... defraction spikes get a mention (i can live with that).This review seems fairly typical : http://www.chuckhawks.com/vixen_VC200L_telescope.htmAlthough it does say "The VC200L is really too big for comfortable terrestrial use," - Well that's is then ... no peeking on the neighbours!All reviews seem to agree that due to the open ended design it is very resistant to dewing Is it a RC scope? No - but I have seen it described as the 'poor mans RC' (that's cool, I'm not rich ) - It is a form of 'modified' Cat design Vixen call VISAC (Vixens Six-Order Aspherical Cassegrain) that vixen describe as being virtually free of coma, curvature of field & spherical and chromatic aberration, giving pin point stars right across the field of view.Can't comment on how true that is! Blimey! That looks good. Impressive.James Looks are one things ... but how it performs is another. I'm either going to be impressed or very dissapointed LoL That's great-congrats. The flip mirror is cool I need I get one for when I am doing webcam work. That's what I'm hoping. I've also seen that these flip diagonals can take a dslr on the horizontal axis, so could be very useful.The focuser seems very smooth, but I'll only really know once I've tried to focus on something. The inclusion of a good focus locking knob is also welcome.Can you believe that the man I bought it off has never taken it 'outside' - he used to observe out of the window of his first floor flat! Edited May 28, 2013 by Al.Grant Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Al.Grant Posted May 28, 2013 Author Share Posted May 28, 2013 That's great-congrats. The flip mirror is cool I need I get one for when I am doing webcam work. Just read this about the flip mirror: http://www.opticstar.com/Run/Astronomy/Astro-Accessories-Telescopes-Vixen.asp?p=0_10_5_1_2_20 It looks like either ep holder can take a dslr. "You can also unthread either 1.25" eyepiece holder tube to reveal standard T-2 42mm threads. These let you attach a 35mm camera using a standard T-ring, allowing you to observe through an eyepiece and immediately switch to a pre-focused camera for imaging." Not exactly sure what they mean by a 'pre-focused' camera, surely the focus for an ep and the focus for the camera would be different ? But really looking forward to giving this a try! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+RonC Posted May 28, 2013 Share Posted May 28, 2013 You will need a 'par focal' ring, first focus the scope for the camera, then adjust the ep in or out of the 1.25 holder and when focus is found screww the par focal ring to the ep barrell. I use this system sometimes with an OAG setup. Cheers Ron Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Al.Grant Posted May 28, 2013 Author Share Posted May 28, 2013 OK thanks, not seen that before, I'll have to look into it at some point. I have a Canon eos 400 without live view and have struggled getting good focus on the past through the view finder. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted May 29, 2013 Share Posted May 29, 2013 OK thanks, not seen that before, I'll have to look into it at some point. I have a Canon eos 400 without live view and have struggled getting good focus on the past through the view finder. My prehistoric DSLR doesn't have live view either. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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