Hi all,
Has anyone got their hands on one of these? I'm looking to upgrade to a nice 4" APO for grab-and-go and this Vixen looks pretty attractive at around $1200. I would expect it to have superior mechanicals and QC compared to the Orion 100mm ED. Does anyone here know if this Vixen has comparable color correction to the Orion, in other words does it use FPL-53?
The Vixen SF Series scopes are the Orion/Synta scopes. That means mechanically, they are the same, in this case the same "adequate" Single Speed Crayford. It means Optically they are the same, in this case the same FPL-53 doublet.
The difference is that the Vixen comes with a case, a straight through 9x50 finder, tube rings and a dovetail plate, and a 1.25 inch flip mirror. From my experience one really needs a Right Angle finder on a refractor because it puts the finder's eyepiece comfortably close to the main eyepiece. Straight through finders put you down on your knees quite often. The flip mirror is probably of limited use to most, they ought to include a 2 inch diagonal and a RACI finder...
As far as QC goes, well, some will say the Vixen is better, myself, I had a Vixen A80MF and a Celestron A80MF, both Synta 80mm F/11s. The OTAs were identical and I saw no differences other than the tube color, both were "typical" Synta and mechanically the fit and finish was a cut below a Meade/Mizar 310 from the 1980's.
In my thinking the Synta ED-100s are great values and pretty darn good scopes, particularly if you buy a used one on Astromart. Yesterday someone was selling the Celestron version which has a rack and pinion focuser for under $500.
When I was faced with this decision, a 4 inch Grab and GO ED/APO refractor, I went with one of the 102mm F/7s, in my case the Astro-Tech AT-102ED. There are others, all quite similar though the new ATs have a Feathertouch focuser. Orion, SV, WO have similar scopes. These do not have the FPL-53 glass of the Orion/Vixen/Skywatcher but the mechanicals are significantly better including the rotating two speed focuser and the sliding dew shield. And the tube rings... they are nice...
The main advantage of this scope is the more compact size, its about 10 inches shorter than the ED-100s and with the sliding dew shield it gets even shorter. This makes for a much more manageable OTA as well as a wider field of view. The high power performance is not a clean as the ED-100s but it is still very good. It is small and light enough that it can be used like an overgrown 80mm F/7, portable and light and with quite good performance. Here is a review I wrote of that scope:
http://www.cloudynights.com/item.php?item_id=1748
Jon
