Vixen R130Sf Reflector Telescope with Porta II Mount

Comments about Vixen R130Sf Reflector Telescope with Porta II Mount:

I’ve owned the Vixen R130Sf now for about 2 years. It has been right from the start a good scope. I bought it in the Porta mount package. The initial images of the moon and Jupiter were eye watering and I especially liked the way the slow motion controls kept the object in sight without making it all jittery like my older (and cheaper) scope did. Last summer we had the chance to get out in the country and that’s when the 5” mirror did its best. I was able to show my wife and kids some pretty cool clusters and nebula. It was just fun scanning through the Milky Way galaxy with the slow motion controls.
The two eyepieces that come with the scope are good but I did wind up buying an additional 40mm eyepiece for extra wide views.

Comments about Vixen R130Sf Reflector Telescope with Porta II Mount:

As my first real telescope I really like the Vixen. It has really lived up to the research I did before buying it. I searched the forums and found what folks were saying. Overall a good buy!

Comments about Vixen R130Sf Reflector Telescope with Porta II Mount:

i bought this scope from an authorised vixen dealer.at first sight the telescope is a real eye catcher.it is very easy to use and the optics are of exceptional quality.The 20mm and 6.3mm plossol was quiet remarkable,although the quality could have been a little better.the scope is good at astrophotography but if you are a serious photo enthusiast consider replacing the focusser as it is quiet shaky when you load a lot of heavy things to it.contrast,and sharpness was great and the visibility of the rings of saturn was remarkable.there are many things which affect a scopes performance including light pollution,turbulance, chill etc overall a great package .the scope can be upgraded to suit the users intrest.i suggest buying a quality filter set,barlow lense and u are good to go.

Comments about Vixen R130Sf Reflector Telescope with Porta II Mount:

I expected much more from this scope then what I got! I was sold on it's "Japanese origin" and workmanship only to discover that the salesman grossly misrpresented the facts(it's made in china). I'm an avid mid level astronomer who also owns a 10" dob and an excellent coronado PST so perhaps I expected to much for the money. Vixens 20mm and 6mm eyepieces just didn't work well, always just out of reach was decent contrast, the porta-mount while well constructed required the addition of vibration pads and still there was excess vibration whilst manipulating the slow-mo controls ect..The RF130S also arrived out of collimation and was very difficult to fix, owners manual was useless, focuser is made of plastic and very touchy and herky jerky. Viewing Jupiter was very telling as you couldn't really get a good focus, some of the cloud structure but not a chance at the really intersting detail. I could rail on and on but let it suffice that for just an extra 200.00 American I could have picked up an excellent celestron Omni series reflector or refractor. One plus is the scope looks nice so you'll have few complaints as to it's asthetics. Just REMEMBER IT'S NOT MADE IN JAPAN AS CLAIMED, it's ALL CHINESE so caveat emptor....

Comments about Vixen R130Sf Reflector Telescope with Porta II Mount:

The standard eyepieces were a disappointment, so I ordered the Vixen 8-24 zoom eyepiece. The better eyepiece helped a little, but I still expected more. Don't expect any real deep space viewing with this telescope. Saturn's rings were visible as "bumps;" I could see Jupiter's moons, but I could barely make out a couple of bands of clouds, and I'm still not sure that seeing them wasn't more a function of just knowing they were there to see. The alt-azimuth mount is easy to use, and I had no trouble finding objects with the standard viewfinder scope, but a little wind or turning the focusing knobs causes significant shaking. The documentation that came with the telescope wasn't helpful. If you buy this telescope, expect to spend as much again to make it work well.