Vixen - 260mm VMC260L (f/11.5) Catadioptrical Reflector Optical Tube Assembly - Atlux/AXD Compatible

 VMC260L 260mm Catadioptrical Reflector Telescope w/o Accessories for ATLUX MOUNT

Like the popular Schmidt-Cassegrain, the Vixen 10.24" VMC260L is a true all purpose telescope. Despite its long focal length, the tube is only about 50cm (20”) long. As a result the instrument is very portable. With its large aperture of 260mm the Vixen VMC200L collects enough light for serious visual and photographical applications of both the planets and the deep sky.

Vixen's special Catadioptric design consists of two mirrors and two corrector lenses, one of which is a meniscus lens. The corrector lenses, placed in front of the secondary mirror, virtually eliminate spherical aberration and field curvature. Focusing is through primary mirror movement. The VMC has very good contrast. It is an excellent telescope for observing globular clusters, double stars and distant planets. With its open tube the telescope cools down quicker than an SCT or classical Maksutov-Cassegrain.

Astro-Imaging

Another strong point of this telescope is its capability for high-grade astro-imaging. The meniscus correcting lens offers a large, corrected field. With the optional reducer you get shorter exposure times. The basic configuration already contains a piggy-back camera holder. You can then take photos through the telescope, using a telephoto lens parallel to the main instrument, or you can use the VMC260 for guiding while the camera sits on top.

The image of the spiral galaxy Messier 81 (AKA Bode's Galaxy) was taken by Robert Fields using a VMC260L Catadioptrical OTA on a Atlux Mount. The detail that is shown is very clear as the image shows. Obviously, the effects of coma can range depending on how fast the focal ratio of an optical tube is.

Although the VMC260L has a slow focal ratio and doesn't suffer as many coma effects as Newtonian reflectors do, Vixen has gone to great efforts to eliminate as much coma as possible for both visual and astro-imaging amateur astronomers by including a well designed meniscus lens, a concave-convex shaped based lens that serves in most catadioptric based optical tubes and telescopes to fix spherical abberation.

While coma correction is great for visual use, hard core astro-imagers will also find great benefit by using the Vixen VMC260L Catadioptric Reflector OTA, specifically with larger CCD sensors. Especially when taking longer exposures without correctors, the effects of coma at the edge of the screen will appear even more emphasized. Not any more! The VMC260 catadioptric OTA is a state of the art professional amateur astronomer designed telescopic design!