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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 23 เม.ย. 2022
- Additional notes:
There were 2 versions - the lighter and cheaper SX, and this one - the SXW
The price was anywhere from $2000 to $2600 depending on which version you bought, and when in the product cycle you bought it
The tripod leg locking nuts are placed on the inside (thank you)
The slew rate is based on how zoomed in you are on the chart map, nice touch
The declination shaft retracts into the mount housing for storage
The equatorial head weighs about 11 lbs
They have a new version with an updated Starbook “Ten”
Vixen Sphinx Starbook update link: global.vixen.co.jp/en/update/...
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This guy’s the best. “I have a prediction. Because it’s a Vixen, it’s gonna be quirky.” I love the deadpan delivery.
I have the SXD version of the Sphinx. I concur with most of what you said. I got mine back ~2013 and one of the reason's was because the fit/finish was (at the time) much nicer than the typical competitors. About a year after purchasing it (the StarBook driving me nuts) I upgraded/modified it with a NexSXD kit from a guy (astronomer) in Spain. The kit was a replacement motherboard for the SXD so that a Celestron handcontroller could be used (purchased separately). This, IMO was a tremendous upgrade and transformed the mount and made it much better, the convenience of using the Celestron hand controller with the stability & capacity & aestetics of the Vixen. I don't use it much now (I should), I upgraded a few years later to an AP. If a used NexSXD comes up, I'd recommend at least considering it (it won't be mine, because I'm passing mine on to the grandkids).
Great video. Have this mount and didn't use it for the last 10 years. Definitely need to bring it out and use again! Great to know it is up to 2024.
I’ve read much about the problems of the first generation sphinxes, issues well illustrated here. I currently own the SXP version with StarBook 10, and I love it. Mechanically it’s great and the controller is a real highlight. Other than price, Vixen later addressed most of the issues of the early sphinxes, albeit too late to change the public opinion.
I love your videos. I enjoy how you do your videos. 2 years ago I got a 8inch dobsonian. I love it. Thanks for the great recommendation.
I’ve had one of these for years and love it. The goto speed is adjustable with the latest firmware update.
always a great day when you have a new video ed. always love to watch them.... so helpful and informative.
As a side note on this device, is this before companies realised to look at any colour other than red on a screen, can be a major negative on your eyes.
Also, paying a fee for an autoguider port???seriously??
I bought one of these a couple of years ago and found it quite a challenge at first. It is possible to add a Wifi adapter and control the mount via a tablet using SkySafari Pro which makes the goto operations much simpler. Thanks for another interesting review Ed.
Nice review as always Ed. I've just bought the SXD2 with SB10 for a bunch of (to me at least) sound reasons. I'm happy to pay extra for Japanese manufacturing QC, it appears to be very well made, the offset counterweight body means it is pretty portable for a 14kg rated mount, SB10 works very well for go-to, and it connects straight to an ASIAirPro via a crossover LAN cable or by a LAN connection to a Nano router (no cable!). First run out and it was synced and slewing and plate solving no problem. Polar aligned using the AAP, guiding to better than 0.5 RMS in bortle 8.
That's an interesting setup!
Thank you! As usual, informative and straight to the point. A nice looking mount with some weird idiosyncrasies… I don’t think it was competitive enough even then much less now - especially price wise. But maybe I shouldn’t say much because the only Vixen’s product I’ve ever known was and still is their achromat A80Mf… btw, a nice and trusty medium focal length refractor (but not made in Japan).
That display system takes me back, it reminds me of a Gameboy or something. Nice to see this Ed.
Thanks for the great review, Ed. I had longed for one of these mounts some 15 years ago but decided to stay with my GP-DX with sky sensor. A pity the Sphinx was not as good as it's predecessors in both price and usability.
Ed, I enjoy watching your reviews but would love to see some instructional or observing session videos. It would be fun to tag along on one of your typical observing or photography sessions.
I wish you would just review new items that are easily accessible and not so much hard to find items ,but I love your channel!
Thank you.
Mount and star book kinda looks like something you’d find in a hospital room 😆
Had a chance to buy a Vixen Super Polaris Achromatic refractor 102M (manufactured in 1989) on a Vixen mount here in the UK. Didn't have the funds at the time to buy it, and it went for £471, which I think is a steal.
Ed,
Nice review! I've always been curious about the later Vixen mounts. I know you are a Takahashi fan; have you ever reviewed a Takahashi mount?
Interesting mount, the hand controller looks like a gameboy
Ahh hear it is, since you told me in the comments a few videos back you were doing this video I was interested in seeing it. Nice job! There is one with a rs200ss for sale near me for about 7500$... That may take a while to sell lol, I like Vixen stuff but they are already vastly overpriced new in my opinion.
The newer ones with Starbook 10 have much improved software. The slop in the slow motion movement is gone and the database is much better. I did find a couple of NGC/IC objects not in the. My new SXP-2 is much more finicky with voltage ⚡ than my old SXD. Had to upgrade my battery for winter use. Still learning it.
I just figured out with SB10 the menu button doubles as a toggle between NGC and IC. So this video inspired me to troubleshoot something today.
I still love and use my Sphinx SX. The only thing is that the blue plastic parts are falling apart (the ones that cover the sides and the tap of the polar alignment scope). I am afraid these are not available separate, right?😮
Will you do videos with Losmandy and Takahashi mounts? Not too many out there.
Hi Ed, I'm trying very hard to remove the primary mirror cell from the back of my dobsonian (SkyWatcher 8 inch), and is doesn't come off. Have you had this problem before? Any ideas?
Also you can power on the starbook by itself and it becomes a planisphere!
I think the alignment routines are correcting for initial orientation issues i.e mount not pointing exactly north and cone error i.e. the telescope isn't pointing in exactly the same direction as the mount. Its not really building a model of the sky just a model of how out of whack your setup is.
Yes, the poor old Sphinx & Starbook combo left a lot to be desired, even in its day. I reviewed it in 2005 for Sky&Telescope and said this back then - "I was expecting the Starbook to provide at least the modest capabilities of planetarium software running on a Palm Pilot but not so. I really wanted to like the Starbook, as the prospect of having an electronic atlas at the telescope without any need for a separate laptop computer is very appealing. But the shortfalls in the Starbook’s current software made it far less attractive than I thought it would be."
And that was two years before the iPhone came out and four years before SkySafari for the iPhone was issued. The Starbook was a valiant attempt at a graphical user interface but it just never delivered. I see Explore Scientific, now carrying Vixen in the US, just carries their optics -- no Vixen mounts.
Ever since I started researching about mounts I had no idea why vixen was so unpopular. Other than their price (which could be offset by their mechanical build quality) I didn't knew of any reason of their decline (in the market share). But now that you mention it, it makes perfect sense that their software implementation was a major turndown. Justifying paying a premium for a product that doesn't perform well, you might as well pay a little more for a Tak or an AP (or whatever premium mounts were available at that time). But for budget oriented folks, that didn't make any sense.
Interesting what they offered at the time, I wish the modern handsets were as advanced as they have seemingly gone back in time to more basic ones!
That's because the movement now is towards WIFI control and using tablets, computers, or cellphones to control mounts.
Tablets and cell phones are hard on night vision. Hand controller's print is too small for an old guy to read. I wish the movement was to make things work well in the real world.
@@johnmarler6735 Programs like skysafari and such have a night mode that's red light. Use that and dim it, and it's not bad.
@@XShadowAngel I have and it's bad. I prefer to use a magnifying glass to read the controller display, at least until someone can develop a product that is real world practical.
Hey Ed, I've got 2 questions I would like an answer to, first of all, I've got 4 pairs of binoculars lying around, (7×50 - 10×50 - 12×50 - 16×50) which one of these is able to view planets and at least the orion nebula
The second question: When I buy a telescope I would like to also buy 2 filters:
1- a svbony cls light pollution filter
2- any moon filter
I would like either a yes or no because I have no other filters available to me and amazon doesn't ship to my country.
Unless I missed it, I don't think that you mentioned that the autoguider activation was included for free in later versions of the firmware.
Yes, I spend several minutes in the video demonstrating how upgrading the firmware activates the autoguider port.
Sky90 makes a cameo. 🙂
It looks like a piece of artwork Ed, rather than a telescope mount! I have to admit I'd prefer a good pair of setting circles myself, about 3 or 4 inches diameter and painted black and white rather than the green which Skywatcher chose, it's the worst colour for viewing in red light! How did they come up with that?
Hello. I would like to have the cloudynights link. I can’t find the updates online.
Hi, I just added the link in the description. It was there before, I don't know why it disappeared!
@@edting Hey Ed! Thank you very much for the fast response!
That Fisher-Price video game controller - NO. Clear blue plastic? NO. Weird shape and inaccessible drives and electronics? NO. It's almost a shame it's a good mount :) nice review
yeah
The only Starbook I need is Uranometria 2000.0.
Hello Sir!
I really need a help in making a decision for going for either 102mm refractor or a 200mm reflector…I wanna do deep sky astrophotography of galaxies and nebulas…it will be my first one but i need it for a long term.
I have option of:
BRESSER MESSIER AR-102S / 600 Refractor with EXOS-2 GoTo Mount
Or
BRESSER Messier NT-203/1000 Hexafoc EXOS-2
Or can you please suggest me any other..
Thankyou
I have had very poor luck with the EXOS series of mounts. The "2" is new and I haven't seen it yet though. If you've seen my other videos, they will tell you to avoid all thoughts of astrophotography for at least a year or two. It is just to difficult. I'd still start with a 6" or 8" Dobsonian.
@@edting but is it really difficult to maintain reflectors…or it’s just for few days…i am really scared of buying reflectors but I want it at same time
And as for EXOS…thanks for your opinion…it really means a lot
Once upgraded its autoguide port is an standard st4 port?
In theory, yes. It worked on mine, but others have reported theirs still doesn't work after the firmware upgrade.
What would you consider an attractive price? Thank you
One recently sold in our club for $600 if that helps.
Thank you. Just purchased one for 520. I’m sure it will challenge me. New n want go to but am 74 n low income n bumped into the vixen totally synchronistically.
It has an uhh, color screen. Thats just... special, lol.
Hi Ed I've got one of these mounts collecting dust in my spare room, it was originally mounted on a pier but I had an adapter made so the pier adapter could fit on a skywatcher tripod, the starbook is weird and my mount has no polar scope so I'm clueless on how to polar align it. I'm interested in putting the latest firmware on it now though so thanks for the link. The last time I saw one come up for sale was on ebay and that went for a little over £300 here in the UK. Its such a shame there's no cable out there so it could possibly work with Ascom if that's possible of course but there used to be a mod where a custom board was made for it and you plugged in a Celestron hand controller to the mount, not only did it track better but the goto function was vastly improved, sadly you cannot buy these boards anymore which is a shame as it would be a great upgrade now.
Thanks for letting us know your experiences. There are a couple of these in our club and the owners have mixed opinions of them.
Cold sweat.... Sounds all to familiar...
Youll need a good telescope to see IC Weiner.
Just a caveman here with an unpowered Great Polaris recalling dreams of upgrading to a Sphinx…
Hated that mount.
If you're looking 'longingly' at a CG-5 or AVX, that tells me everything I need to know about the Vixen mount . . . don't buy it. Nothing against Vixen, of course, it's old and from a different period, but considering what I went through with my AVX, that tells me I don't want anything to do with this moutn.
It isn't a good sign when the reviewer would rather be using a product that costs less than half the price.
@@mitrovarr not really. How much was a cell phone when they first came out? Couple of thousand dollars for just a basic cell phone? Now, for a lot less money, you can get a fully functional smart phone at a much lower cost.
Technology changes and advances, and prices go down