I have a fondness for these 4" Fluorite refractors imported from Vixen by Celestron and then later Orion. Twenty-one years ago an older Celestron branded version gave me some fantastic views of Saturn. At that time - 1986 - I was a senior in high school and had a a couple of 4" Newtonian's of modest quality nevertheless I thoroughly enjoyed the views. My interest in Astronomy was waning because, well, I was just out of high school and had other priorities. But the view of Saturn in that little 4" APO was spectacular and I have never forgotten it even today when my planetary scopes of choice are a restored 7" StarMaster Oak Classic and a 14.5 goto/track StarMaster dob.
In an effort to recapture those past glorious views through the 4" Vixen Fluorite, I ran a WTB ad here several weeks ago. I ended up with a couple of these blacktubed Celestron C102F's. One was in excellent condition and the other was cosmetically challenged. Optically both were really quite good with one showing a slight more SA when testing outdoors and inside using a collimated light source as an artificial star.
Looking for a project, I decided to restore, as best as I could, the scope that had the poorest cosmetics... Attached is a picture of the OTA before the rehab; all kinds of scratches,chips and faded decals etc.
In an effort to recapture those past glorious views through the 4" Vixen Fluorite, I ran a WTB ad here several weeks ago. I ended up with a couple of these blacktubed Celestron C102F's. One was in excellent condition and the other was cosmetically challenged. Optically both were really quite good with one showing a slight more SA when testing outdoors and inside using a collimated light source as an artificial star.
Looking for a project, I decided to restore, as best as I could, the scope that had the poorest cosmetics... Attached is a picture of the OTA before the rehab; all kinds of scratches,chips and faded decals etc.
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