VMC200L or VC200L

[Tandum]

I'm looking at buying of of these scopes. Why is the VC considered superior for photography than the VMC? I seem to see people say this in forums all over the place but they never back it up with facts. I also notice the big vixen scopes are all VMC scopes.

[madtuna]

I own a VC200L, but I've had no experiance with a VCM, so can't add any personal user imput as to one verus the other.

When I bought mine I based my choice on a zillion different reviews plus spending time with a couple of owners and using thiers and listening to them.

All I can say is I was disgustingly happy with it, it suited every requirement I wanted of it, so I didn't even bother looking at the VCM

[Tandum]

Cheers tuna,
There is a significant price difference at the moment, the VMC can be had without accessories for several hundred dollars less than the VC, and without a definate "don't do it because", I don't see why not.

[Terry B]

I own a VC200L and when I purchased it the VMC didn't exist.
They are of different design. The VMC has a longer focal length at 1950mm vs 1800mm.
The VMC has a meniscus lense infront of the secondary and is more similar in design to a mak. I read one review that commented that the corrector gave a "weak tea" hue to the moon visually. I don't know how flat the field is with this scope and that is probably the most important petential difference between the scopes.
I can image with my VC200L with my 40D and have star sizes and shapes exactly the same across the entire field. With the vixen focal reducer it isn't quite as good and there is a slight elongation of the stars in the very corners of the image. This is still much less than most of the ED refractors give.

There is a review of the VMC here
http://www.astromart.com/articles/article.asp?article_id=486

[madtuna]

what I can't rave about enough is absolutely no mirror shift like a standard SCT :D

[Tandum]

Cheers Terry,
I came across that review a number of times while looking. I notice it is purely a visual report. It seems most reviews around are old and only refer to the VC. As I said, all the big vixens (260 - 330) are now VMC scopes, so I'm thinking VC scopes are now legacy scopes, or more likely the VMC is cheaper to make.

[Tandum]

I'm won over and I've ordered a VMC but I have 2 weeks to change that if I want to :)

[madtuna]

I'm sure you'll be happy..and we look forward to a first light report when it arrives!

[Tandum]

First Light round here is either the neon or sodium street lights over my back fence :lol:

But I'm looking forward to a quality product.

[Terry B]

I'm sure it will be fine. Vixen scopes are very well made and relatively cheap. I agree that the VC200L is probably on it's way out due to manufacturing costs.
On the vixen scopes newsgroup there has been a glowing review of the VMC260 photographically. I hope the 200mm version is as good.

[ozstockman]

I am looking at these two OTAs too. As far as I know VC200L has a great comma free flat field while VCM200L doesn't. So I think VC200L would be much better choice for astrophotography.

Here is a page where they are compared
http://www.astronomie.be/Tranquility.Base/vc200lpage.htm

The bad thing about these OTAs is that they have a big fat spider and stars dont look better because of this. Besides from this VC200L is reported to be a great imaging scope.

Check this image of M31 (http://qhyccd.com/ccdbbs/index.php?PHPSESSID=35faed4cb361d33 5ccb398d3c9e38f61&topic=488.msg2770) that was taken with VC200L and QHY8.

Also I could not find VC200L locally. Instead there is VC200L DG model available. Unfortunately there is nothing available to tell you what the difference between standard VC200L and the one with DG letters.

cheers,

Mike

[davewaldo]

I think it is as simple as its colour... "DG" stands for Dark Green. The OTA is Dark Green in colour.

I could be wrong... but thats what I've seen in other online stores...

[ozstockman]

:-) I guess you're right. However I remember I saw in some webshop a green OTA on its picture while it had "VC200L DG" and "white colour" in its title.

[allan gould]

Sorry but the image was NOT taken with a Vixen but with his homemade astrograph. Martin does have a Vixen but uses the other scope for astrophotography due to its fast focal ratio (see below).
Image is mosaic of two APS-C fileds oriented vertically. Taken with homemade N185/610 corrected with Televue Paracorr. Guided with Borg 77ED and TVGuider, EQ6 mount used. Total exposure time was 205 minutes (10x10min x 2 fields and 5x1min for core. Gain 53, Offset 110.

Allan

[Terry B]

I don't mind the spider. Here is one of my images taken with the VC200L with a focal reducer.