Orion/Vixen 102fl Fluorite
Looking for opinions, for those who upgraded your Focuser, was it worth it?? I am looking at getting the Moonlite.
Thoughts? Thanks...Steve
Orion Vixen 102FL Fluorite
Started by sws105, 02/25/2013 10:56PM
Posted 02/25/2013 10:56PM
Opening Post
Orion/Vixen 102fl Fluorite
Looking for opinions, for those who upgraded your Focuser, was it worth it?? I am looking at getting the Moonlite.
Thoughts? Thanks...Steve
Posted 02/26/2013 10:42AM
#1
I strongly believe it will be when I finally get it done. I've been held up, immersed in this AP thing and the focuser upgrade is no longer a priority since I decided not to use the 102 for imaging. I bought an SV70ED as my "training" scope along with Orion mini guider, adaptors and a new DSLR. But, I will get it done and have the 2" replacement focuser boxed up and ready to send to Crawmach so they can match a flange for me. My only concern is the short lip on the ES focuser and wonder if its compatible with a custom flange.
I didn't know you had the Orion/Vixen 102 fluorite you lucky dog! Talk about a scope that not many people know how really good it is. Well, newbies anyway because the word has been out about the excellence of those era scopes. If I were smart I should buy one if one ever becomes available. I know of one that was posted for sale a few months back, in my opinion the owner was asking too much for it and I know it sat for a long time with no bites. If he had it listed in the $1,300 to $1,450 range it would have sold quickly. But I believe he had it listed it on the high side, you might remember the ad better than me. For all I know he sold it for what he was asking and considering the Fluorite has a reputation equal to scopes priced 2x to 3x more, then his price is fair after all. Like I said, what do I know?
Theres a guy by the name of Tom Chris who has the same Orion/Vixen 102 achromat like I have and he upgraded to a Moonlite focuser and paid more for the focuser than he did for the telescope. But he likes the scope enough to upgrade the focuser and he was thinking about imaging with it so a better focuser was called for. I believe Tom is over on the Cloudy Nites site if you want to track him down and ask how he likes the set up. Down the road and if I ever get half way competent, I'll give my 102 a try at imaging just to see how much CA it throws up. I don't have a problem with the optics, they are superb and the CA is fairly minimal, only on bright stars. I ran into a couple of 102 fanatics in the last couple months and as a matter of fact one of them also upgraded his with a Moonlite focuser. I almost forgot about that. I'll get a hold of him and get an update opinion on how the Moonlite is working out for him. I know there were some minor issues (to me) that he encountered with the product and I believe he resolved them. I to would like to find out how its going with him and the focuser.
John
I didn't know you had the Orion/Vixen 102 fluorite you lucky dog! Talk about a scope that not many people know how really good it is. Well, newbies anyway because the word has been out about the excellence of those era scopes. If I were smart I should buy one if one ever becomes available. I know of one that was posted for sale a few months back, in my opinion the owner was asking too much for it and I know it sat for a long time with no bites. If he had it listed in the $1,300 to $1,450 range it would have sold quickly. But I believe he had it listed it on the high side, you might remember the ad better than me. For all I know he sold it for what he was asking and considering the Fluorite has a reputation equal to scopes priced 2x to 3x more, then his price is fair after all. Like I said, what do I know?
Theres a guy by the name of Tom Chris who has the same Orion/Vixen 102 achromat like I have and he upgraded to a Moonlite focuser and paid more for the focuser than he did for the telescope. But he likes the scope enough to upgrade the focuser and he was thinking about imaging with it so a better focuser was called for. I believe Tom is over on the Cloudy Nites site if you want to track him down and ask how he likes the set up. Down the road and if I ever get half way competent, I'll give my 102 a try at imaging just to see how much CA it throws up. I don't have a problem with the optics, they are superb and the CA is fairly minimal, only on bright stars. I ran into a couple of 102 fanatics in the last couple months and as a matter of fact one of them also upgraded his with a Moonlite focuser. I almost forgot about that. I'll get a hold of him and get an update opinion on how the Moonlite is working out for him. I know there were some minor issues (to me) that he encountered with the product and I believe he resolved them. I to would like to find out how its going with him and the focuser.
John
Posted 02/26/2013 09:42PM
#2
The focuser on mine got upgraded to Moonlight while the scope was briefly owned by another chap. I don't think it was money well spent. The original focuser on these was pretty good already. I used it mostly for visual planetary observing. Maybe for imaging or something like that you'd want a finer focus control. Or maybe higher weight capacity if you plan to routinely use a 31 Nagler on it. But for simple visual observing I don't think the upgrade added much. At least thats my opinion.
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