It is undoubtedly my Vixen refractor f/9 102 ED . Built in Japan in the nineties of the previous century ( so it is a semi-classic), I bought it third-hand. The first owner could not handle it any more. The second one, a fellow-member of the public observatory I belong to, just had bought a 130mm Vixen Semi-apo and wanted the third owner of the 4 inch refractor to be an amateur-astronomer who could appreciate the grandness of this old lady. Having proven my preferences by being the one that was responsible for the purchase of an even older Polarex / Unitron for the observatory, he agreed on a price of 400 Dutch florins (some 300 US dollars) and a bottle of wine.
It was the OTA only. Pity the coating of the front lens was affected by what opticians call spiderweb craquelee. A rather known optician in the dutch amateur -community dealt with it in his private time and told me never to sell it ever. And if so... then to him! The new coating costed me 150 Dutch Florins. He even corrected the front of the lens to have a better figure. With the new Baader BBHS diagonal and a Pentax XO5 eyepiece it reaches a Strehl of 0.96, which is rather high for a factory made refractor of the nineties. I know, I know, modern premium refractors score a tad better, but I just love this grand old lady.
It is not a refractor for a museum, so I use it happily. I even take it along with me on holiday every now and then. My youngest son knows how I value this instrument, so it won't disappear to the scrapyard in future.
Enough said. Here it is on a Vixen GPDX mount.
At home: Pier and mount stay out all year under a tarp.
Schiedam Refractors on Vixen GPDX in frequency of use: * 120mm f/7.5 ED Evostar (all round), * Vixen 102 f/9 ED (vintage, upgraded by FirstLight) . On Alt/Az mount, grab-n-go : * 50mm f/4 ED TS Optics, * 102mm f/5 SW Startravel refractor (push to, widefield, zon), * OMC140 f/14.3 Maksutov (planeten, geen G&G). Often used eyepieces: * Panoptic 24 mm, *Baader Morpheus 14 mm, * Leica zoom 17.8 <- -> 8,9 mm A SPH, * Zeiss barlow, * Pentax XO5. Most used binoculars: * Jena 10X50, * Canon 10X30 IS, * Habicht 7X42, * Skymaster 15X70, * Kasai's Owl's Eyes 2.3X40. Observatory Rijswijk Telescopes: * 130 mm Astrophysics Starfire op NEQ6, * 150 mm Newton op GP, * C9,25 op NEQ6, * Meade 14" LX600 ACF, * Lunt.
Hi John. Wow that is a beautiful Vixen refractor I can see why you are so attached to it. Thanks for sharing these photos with us on here John and the best of wishes for many clear skies.
Six telescopes, lots of eyepieces, but plenty of dark clouds lately.
Hi John. Here is my little grab and go table top Mak-Cass (with tracking) that I like to take to a nearby park or a nice dark sky site about 35 miles from me.
and
Six telescopes, lots of eyepieces, but plenty of dark clouds lately.
