| The Vixen VMC110L is a 110 mm (4.33 inch) aperture modified f/9.4 Cassegrain optical tube. The Vixen catadioptric optical system is a sophisticated variation of the Maksutov-Cassegrain design that eliminates much of the weight and cost of conventional Maksutov optics. The Vixen optical tube starts with a Maksutov’s two high-precision multicoated spherical mirrors to help eliminate spherical aberration and yield a sharp image with no hint of false color. But it doesn’t use the thick, expensive, and heavy full aperture meniscus corrector lens found at the front of a conventional Maksutov’s optical system. Instead, the VMC110L uses a small meniscus corrector lens placed in the light path in front of the secondary mirror. This serves the same optical purpose as a Maksutov’s full aperture meniscus corrector lens, but in a much smaller, lighter, and less expensive form. In addition, the VMC110L uses a curved spider vane secondary mirror holder to reduce diffraction effects, such as the spikes seen on bright stars in images taken through telescopes using conventional straight-vane spiders. The reduced diffraction of the curved spider vanes helps improve contrast and increase image sharpness. Like a Maksutov, the Vixen VMC110L offers excellent performance within the solar system, for high contrast visual observing and high-magnification eyepiece projection imaging, as well as high resolution/high power deep space observing of binary stars, globular star clusters, compact planetary nebulas, etc. As its unique design permits a much faster focal ratio than a conventional Maksutov (f/9.4 versus a Maksutov’s f/15), the Vixen is better suited than a Maksutov for observing a wide variety of faint deep space objects – diffuse and compact nebulas, galaxies, open star clusters, etc. This gives it an advantage in all-around observing over the more expensive but similar-aperture pure-Maksutov design. The open tube (no full-aperture corrector lens) design eliminates the dew problem on a conventional catadioptric scope’s corrector lens that is common with Schmidt- or Maksutov-Cassegrain systems. No cumbersome dew shield or power-hungry dew heater system is needed to keep the VMC110L free of image-degrading dew all night long. The Vixen VMC110L comes standard with a non-magnifying red dot finder and a 25mm 1.25" Plössl eyepiece that provides a magnification of 41.4x. The scope has a built-in flip-mirror star diagonal. There are dual 1.25" eyepiece holders, one at the top of the tube and one at the center rear of the tube at the Cassegrain focus. These allow you to use two different magnification eyepieces and change powers by simply moving your head from one eyepiece to the other and flipping a lever at the side of the scope. Alternatively, you can connect a camera to the Cassegrain focus eyepiece holder and quickly switch from viewing to photography (for terrestrial nature photography, lunar occultations, solar eclipses, etc.) Its compact size (only 5" in diameter and 14.2" long) and light weight (only 4.6 lbs.) make it very easy to transport. It is an ideal size and weight to use with an optional German equatorial mount such as the Vixen Great Polaris or Sphinx go-to mounts, the altazimuth Vixen SkyPod go-to mount, or the manual altazimuth Porta Mount. It is equipped with a dovetail mounting rail that fits all of the above Vixen mounts, as well as Celestron CG-5 Advanced Series mounts (both conventional and go-to) and the Meade LXD-75 go-to mount.
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Terestrial Photography
Star Cluster, Nebula, and Galaxy Photography