Ever since I got my first decent telescope, the Celestron NexStar 5SE, I've been looking at the moon, planets, and stars as often as I could. And like most people that I've seen in this hobby, I soon wanted something bigger that I could see more with. I'm always watching Mercari and Yahoo auctions to see what might pop up. Recently, I saw this Vixen VMC200LDG telescope. I'm still brand new to this hobby and have been learning on my own for the most part. Since my friend had a Celestron, I decided to stick with that brand for my first telescope. After learning a little more about the hobby and feeling a little more adventurous, I was open to trying something different.
Since I was buying used, I looked at anything and everything. I've never really looked at Vixen products since I started this hobby, but once I discovered that they were made in Japan, my interest was piqued. I've lived and worked in Japan long enough to know that Japanese-made products are typically very high in quality. My Celestron has a 5" aperture so I was looking for something around 8" for my next one. I started searching for Vixen telescopes and soon came across this VMC200LDG. Size-wise it is comparable to the Celestron 8SE. After reading a little bit about the differences between a Schmidt Cassegrain and a Vixen Modified Cassegrain, I was interested in the point of not having to worry about the front corrector plate fogging up. With little time left before the auction ended, I quickly asked ChatGPT some questions and decided to bid. No one bid against me so it was soon mine.
As with any used purchase, there's always a risk regarding its condition. After receiving it, I quickly looked over it, and there was nothing majorly wrong with it. The only thing was that the primary mirror had some residue on it. Seeing that it's possibly over 20 years old, that was expected. I've read from the majority that you should not touch or attempt to clean the primary mirror unless Absolutely necessary. Well, seeing as it is somewhat dirty, and getting some good advice from someone who has successfully cleaned theirs, I have decided to attempt it. I will post the results after I'm done. For the time being, here are some pictures of my new unit. You will see in the pictures that I also bought a 2nd hand equatorial tripod for it. It's the SkyWatcher EQ5 with the GOTO upgrade kit installed. It's missing the Motor controller, so that is another project that I may write about in a separate blog.
Has anyone reading this ever bought a used telescope? What was your experience?
