Vixen 200 VCL f/9

[TrevorW]

I'm seriously thinking about buying one of these in the new year for both visual and photography

please from existing owners

fors and against would be appreciated

:welcome:

Happy New Year

[miki63au]

Hi Trevor,
A Happy New Year to you and everybody!

I had this scope and I was very disappointed with it.
Definitely not a visual scope. 42% CO, thick spider vanes,
no cooling holes/fans on the back etc.
On Jup. the two major band barely visible. And yeah I collimated the
s@#$t out of it at 500x mags, with no improvements.

Mick.

[TrevorW]

Sorry its the VC200L that I was referring to details below

Vixen's unique catadioptric design features a high precision sixth order aspherical primary mirror, a convex secondary mirror and triplet corrector lens. VISAC is an abbreviation for Vixen's Six-Order Aspherical Cassegrain. The primary mirror is held by a retaining ring, instead of hooks to decrease flare and enhance contrast. The VC 200L is an 8" f/9.0 highly corrected, highly specialized telescope for astro imaging. The VISAC provides high-definition star images to the edge of a wide viewing field and offers exceptionally outstanding performance in astrophotography.Even at the edge of the 35mm film format (larger CCD chips) stars are sharp ( smaller than 15 micrometers) This is smaller than the resolution of fine quality CCD cameras, which means that the telescope does not limit the image quality.With its elaborate aspherical optical design it achieves an excellent image correction throughout the large illuminated field. (42mm diameter fully illuminated)
http://www.vixenoptics.com/reflectors/VC200L.jpg

[AlexN]

I was going to buy one when I bought my C11... The only thing that stopped me was its planetary performance.

For me it would have been for imaging only, but I needed a scope that would be great for planetary imaging, and for narrow field deep sky...

From what I know of them, they are a fantastic deep sky imaging scope... Brilliant optical quality, enough aperture, beautiful flat field, illuminates a large imaging sensor... What more could you want?? Well.. I could want a smaller obstruction and thinner spider vanes.

I've seen someone online take a dremel to the spider. He ground it down to 1mm, and the resulting diffraction spikes were much more pleasant. Not for the faint hearted though.

[supanova]

I bought a Vixen VC200L when they first came on the market.I found it to be a fabulous scope for the aperture,when compared to other commercially available scopes in the same price range,ie sct offerings from the large manufacturers and all the commercially available newtonians.Images were super sharp and with much better contrast than any of the sct offerings.With such good contrast I found that I could see all but the smallest and dimmest objects that I could see in my orange tube C11,which gives much better contrast and colour rendition than the later black tube C11s,and has been tested many times visually.The quality of the VC200L is first class,and I have often thought that if they made a larger apperture version,then I might be persuaded to part with some hard earned cash or even my C11 to enjoy what I am sure would be another wonderful adventure.In my opinion,you could do far worse in the class of telescope you are considering and not a lot better,especially for anything near the price.

clearskies

[AlexN]

Supanova - Welcome to IceInSpace! :D

Have you considered the VMC260L? I dare say that optical quality wise its much the same as the VC200L, as with overall build quality... The optical system is slightly different, but overall I think that it would make a stunning scope.. Pricey, though, not as pricey as a new C11..

[Hagar]

Hi Trevor, I have a VC200L for imaging and cannot speak highly enough about its performance for this facit. I can honestly say I rarely use it for visual work but for the few times it has been used it is a real performer. I had an 8" Newt and this blows it away. I have had a problem with the secodary freezing up in sub zero tempratures but this is easily fixed with a dew shield. The thick spiders are the biggest thing to get used to with stars , particularly bright ones causing quite a difraction spike. I don't mind this. I have a focal reducer which lowers it's FL to 1200mm at F6.4.
One of the big advantages is that there is no mirror flop as the primary mirror is fixed by a retaining ring and focusing is carried out with a rear rack and pinion focuser of good quality and collimatable.
As for planetary work or imaging I really can't comment but with a focal length of 1800 it is a bit short. Most planetary imaging is done at about 12 to 14M.

I can recommend this scope as an imaging scope for DSO's and Galaxies.
Check out some of the images on my website and see what you think.
The VC200L images are here.
http://www.darkskyau.com/cm/thumbnails.php?album=10

[TrevorW]

Thanks for the feedback

[TrevorW]

I got a price two days ago from a store in Qld and it was $2150 but I didn't get it in writing when I asked for confirmation in writing the price suddenly went up to $2900. Well unless someone knows where I can get one near the first price the acquisition goes on hold

PS: I noticed Andrews GRO Rd is now $2750 for the 200mm

Cheers

[AlexN]

$2750 is a big amount to throw towards a completely untested scope... That said, You might pay the money and find that its by far the best instrument available in the price range... However Im still waiting on a users unbiased opinion on the GSO RC... Having said that, when they release the 10" F/8 RC I'll be jumping on like there is no tomorrow... (If I've not built one by then...)

[Tandum]

Trevor,
I see them for US$1900 at optcorp. (http://www.optcorp.com/product.aspx?pid=1-599-1088-6667) That makes that one worth AU$2720 at todays exchange rate, plus freight. That one has already gone from Japan to the US so drop AU$150 making it worth AU$2570. Add $100 international freight to here = AU$2670 plus GST = AU$2937 then add local frieght of $60 = AU$2997.

I have one and it's easy to carry, doesn't need any coma correctors ect, but, the focuser end is not a normal 2" job you are used too, it requires adapters. 2" filters don't screw in to anything. The focal reducer stops you from poking stuff up the spout like you used to.

I don;t regret getting this one, but I wouldn't buy a new one at the moment.

robin

[TrevorW]

Not that long ago you could get the OTA for $1399 US

Prices are crazy, all I can say the money stays in the bank until things improve

[Tandum]

Nods, I've stopped buying from overseas in general. Even Hong Kong is expensive now.

[Hagar]

Peter Tan in Hongkong has them at a good price and will send them at a good price and even correct the amount on the customs card if you ask him. http://www.tan14.com/gears.htm
Probably get one for about $1900 delivered. He is an honest dealler I have bought quite a few things from him.

[Tandum]

Dream on doug ... I'd guess $2500 + freight + GST.

I recently quieried him on qhym9 prices. cheaper here.

Not that I'd buy one anyway ...

[AlexN]

Robin, Despite prices, I would advise if buying a QHY camera to buy it from Theo... You will not get service from Peter Tan like you will from Theo...

[AlexN]

:P QHY11 + VC200L would be a stupendous combo!! eh??!! EEEHHH??? Think about it :P :D

[Tandum]

A price on the bloody filter wheel would be nice.

No one any where has one ....

This has nothing to do with VC200L...

[TrevorW]

Got feedback from the supplier

and I quote

"No probs Trevor.. yeah I know..
Usually the USD and YEN have been closely aligned but since Japan has fallen into recession the gap has grown. It wasn't that long ago I was able to do that scope for about $2K"

[Doomsayer]

A potential weakness of the VC200L is the R&P focuser - although it is a good one and has a large throat to minimise vignetting, it can get a bit challenged by a heavy CCD camera rig if you are using some sort of conventional motorised focus. I use an FLI DF2 for fine focus and keep the R&P locked up - works very well. The focal reducer however, eats up much of the back focus necessary for a large imaging train. There is an example of one of these scopes which has the native focuser replaced by an Optec TCFS focuser - very impressive but not for the faint hearted - it would be tricky to deal with the internal corrector lens inside the focuser tube in this conversion.

guy

[Hagar]

Robin, Instead of making rash comments try looking at the site. $9,### HK which even if it is near 10000HK is still only 1800AU.

I have purchased quite a few items from Peter and found his prices, particularly for high end Tak equipment very good indeed. He arranged a Focal Reducer for My FS102 at about $200 cheaper than I could buy the same item here.

I certainly agree with Alex that a camera purchase where warranty is important should be purchased here from a local distributor but items which warranty is less of a problem could be purchased at best price.

[Omaroo]

I've used Peter a number of times too (Tak FS60-C and accessories) and always found his prices to be far better than what we can get here - and transport turnaround was stunning. I ordered my Tak on a Wednesday and had it here the following Friday morning. The VCL200 he has is, as you say, around AU$1,800 - plus if I can guess that Peter would charge around HK$600 for fast courier it'd come in at well under AU$1,900 - landed.

[ozstockman]

I love my VC200L and I think that's the best scope I've ever had. It's a great scope with great optic and it's comma free. And I like a handle on top.

And the other pro for this scope is that you can buy a cheap electirc focuser (http://www.myastroshop.com.au/products/details.asp?id=MAS-112) and install it on a VC200L OTA with no modification at all.

cheers,

Mike

[ozstockman]

Rubby (http://cgi.ebay.com/TELESCOPE-VIXEN-8-VC200-UNIQUE-8-CATADIOPTRIC-DESIGN_W0QQitemZ260342716711QQcmdZV iewItemQQptZTelescopes?hash=item260 342716711&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=72%3A1205%7C66%3A2%7C65%3 A12%7C39%3A1%7C240%3A1318%7C301%3A1 %7C293%3A1%7C294%3A50) still sells them on ebay for that price + $125 US for shipping. However if Peter sells them for AU$1900 with shipping included I'd buy it from Peter.

[Zuts]

I would imagine you need to add 10% to that for GST and about another 50 AUD for customs clearance?

Cheers
Paul