Mewlon 210, Vixen VC 200L

[ozstockman (Mike)]

Fahim, I think Tandum is right and it's actually quite clear from the examples shown on Customs website.

And of course William shouldn't have Australian GST included as it's not his responsibility. However considering that the price is over $1000 we will be asked to pay GST by the Customs as buyers when an OTA arrives to Australia.

Tandum, yes it seems that AO price is with GST which makes it the best in AU.
I've just sent them an email to double check and if it's true and William has no more left I'm going to buy from Astro Optical. Thanks for letting me know about their offer for VC200L.

I saw that they are official dealer of Vixen but since they don't have VC200L OTA listed I didn't ask them to provide a quote.

cheers,

Mike

[netwolf]

Tandum might be correct on this one, I have seen the examples before. But got the information from some one else's post i read at some point in time.
I have also posted previously on the topic of Duty, duty as pointed out in an earlier post in this thread should not be applied to Astronomical equipment including mountings for astro gear.
AO prices seem quiet good, the one nag i alwasy had with there website is that it only indicates a price range and not a price. I dont understand this system.

Based on the HK prices you provided from another HK supplier.
10900 VC200L +700 shipping would come to 1581AUD + 10% of 581 would come to 1639.1. When you consider local warranty from AO then there price is quiet good. Still most optical issues would be resolved by sending back to Vixen. So I would ask how long is the warranty, what does it cover. Will AO pay for shipping back to Vixen for service or will you have to fork that out. If AO will cover all costs during the warranty period then I would go with AO or other local providers who will and will match the price.

I have not bought anything from William so i will leave him to comment on how and if Warranty would be available on purchases from him.
My eye was on the used equipment that he sometimes has and in that case Warranty would not matter. I currently am looking for a 8" Newt and the R200 looks real nice, but I am yet to be convinced it will outperfrom a GSO 8" F4 in my suburban sky conditions. If i go with Cassegrain i will wait till i can afford the VMC260L or something in that size for Planetary imaging.

Regards
Fahim

[Tandum (Robin)]

The 2nd hand VC he lists was sold a year ago so I'm guessing the SS has also. In his email he said he was updating the site today with a relaunch tomorrow. I agree that it's worth an extra couple of hundred to have local support for the product. When you boil it down, prices are pretty similar across the board and the US is being ripped off on the VC for a change I didn't bother asking about 260L prices, I just figured it'd be around $4K.

We appear to have hijacked this thread into a 'how cheap can you get it' thread

[netwolf]

Vixen and TAK pricing I find is quiet the same all over. Given the dollar rate its a good time to buy optics from Japan.

[Hagar (Doug)]

Very spirited thread and just to throw the cat into the pidgeon coupe. Has anyone thought of or even heard how the Meade LX200 ACF performs as an astro imaging scope. What is its field like?? Flat or what?? Optics ??? They are not overly expensive as an OTA.

Your thoughts please.

[Zuts]

Originally Posted by Hagar

Very spirited thread and just to throw the cat into the pidgeon coupe. Has anyone thought of or even heard how the Meade LX200 ACF performs as an astro imaging scope. What is its field like?? Flat or what?? Optics ??? They are not overly expensive as an OTA.

Your thoughts please.

Hi,

Definately a nice scope, the 8 inch is about the same price as the Vixen. However I have decided I dont want blobby big round stars. Does anyone have any idea how 'spot size' figures in this and for the various full and reduced FL setups for the Meade, Vixen and Tak what the 'spot size' is?

The only problem I can think of with the Meade is that if you are unlucky you may get significant mirror flop, which you wont get with the Vixen and from all accounts only minor mirror flop on the Mewlon 210.

Still an eight inch meade is a nice compact scope and would compare well in weight with the Vixen and Mewlon, i seem to remember....

At 10 inches the Meade is quite heavy, nearly as heavy as a C11 OTA.

Cheers
Paul

[madtuna (Steve)]

I have to admit...that mirror flop was one of the deciding factors when I bought my VC200L
I had a C8 and have a C11. atleast Meade got it right with the mirror lock

[marki]

Most of the mirror flop in the meades can be dialled out by adjusting the main focus knob. Just undo the single allen screw and turn the knob clockwise until it becomes tight, then back it out a touch and tighten it up. The rest is taken care of by the mirror lock and using a crayford. I haven't seen any spot diagrams for the LX200R/ACF series but the field is pretty flat with nice round stars to the edge but you do get some bloating in red (green and blue are spot on) when imaging. Both the meade 6.3 and 3.3 FR work ok but you need to put in a large format visual back in front of the crayford if you want to use DSLR or large format CCD as the original has an obstruction which reduces the 2inch clear aperture to about 1 and 3\4. I dont know if these are available for the 8 inch.

[ozstockman (Mike)]

I've been thinking about 8" LX200-ACF as well, especially because it seemed to be cheaper than VC200L and I've already got micro focuser and Meade f/6.3 focal reducer that will fit it. However now after discovering that a VC200L OTA can be even cheaper than LX200 ACF I am not so sure. I guess they both are great imaging scopes but Meade LX200-ACF has a corrector plate which will collect dew.

From the other hand I don't have noise pieces and a focal reducer for VC200L and it means I need to invest more in VC200L if I want to make it faster.

cheers,

Mike

[Hagar (Doug)]

Looks like the Vixen VC200L is the winner for me based on FL, flat field and vixen's quality and price and no mirror slop.
I wonder if we can get a better price for a bulk purchase.

[netwolf]

Doug, the VC200L is certainly a great buy, i could only wish they also made a 10" version. But what i have read about them indicate that there performance on planets is not as good. But for DSO work its great. Another thing to consider is how flat the field stays when you focal reduce it and when you barlow it up. I also wonder how this would perform in comparison to the upcoming GSO RC 8" scopes which are likely to be 2-3times as much. I have not been able to find any Optical quality measurements on the Vixen's.

Regards
Fahim

[Terry B]

My experience is that the field is perfectly flat across a 35mm frame without the focal reducer. It isn't quite as good with the focal reducer but stars remain almost perfectly circular towards the edge but not quite. Certainly no seagull shaping that other scopes seem to get.