Telescope Reviews: Vintage Vixen Polaris GEM vs. new Tasco repro

I've long been a fan of the classic Vixen Polaris GEM as a solid, smooth, well-made and handsome GEM grab-n-go. Happiest carrying my 5" f/5 Newt, I often overload it with my tank-like 6" f/5 Newt and 6" MCT while retaining pleasing handling.

I recently discovered that Tasco sell a made-in-China clone of the Polaris. I had to find out how this reproduction compares with the original.

The Tasco mount (#302013) is usually delivered with a 4.5" f/8 Newt, and can be bought new on fleabay for $125 including shipping. As I have a fleet of 4.5" OTAs, I would have no problems comparing the Tasco with the Vixen back-to-back.

The Tasco arrived well-packed in a typically colorful Tasco box. The first major differences observed between the Tasco and the Vixen is Tasco's handsome black-wrinkle finish, a saddle that will only hold a 130-140mm diameter tube, smooth counter-weight shaft, and generic aluminum legs. I also note that the Tasco makes use of the larger eyepiece tray found on Vixen SPs rather than the smaller tray found on the Polaris. Assembly was fast and straightforward, and I soon had a Cometron CO114 (made by Vixen) on the Vixen, and a Towa (sold by Lafayette) on the Tasco. As an aside, regular readers of the Classics forum may recall my observations that the Towa performs significantly better than the Vixen optics.

More detailed observations of the 2 mounts expose more differences. It seems that the Chinese did make a valiant attempt to remanufacture the Vixen, but did take a few shortcuts, perhaps mandated by bean-counters, or engineering/artistic license.

As can be seen in the photos, I have hot-rodded the Vixen, replacing slo-mo controls, adding a Vixen saddle and CG-5 counterweight and shaft, and cleaning out the old grease, polishing bearing surfaces and using low-temperature grease that does not stiffen when the temperatures fall below -20F.

Handing impressions of the Tasco were positive. The Tasco is equally smooth, but will benefit from the same strip/clean/polish/relube that the Vixen has received. Dec axis handling is identical in both GEMs, and interestingly, I found the Tasco equally stiff in handling around RA to the Vixen. I have been meaning to polish an additional thous or two off the RA bearing in the Vixen to remedy this, so now I have to do it to the Tasco as well.

The aluminum tripod legs of the Tasco are not up to the standards of rigidity of the Vixen's wooden legs, but when I swapped in a set of white oak legs to the Tasco, vibration damping times seem identical between both GEMs.

All-in-all, I am delightfully impressed with the Tasco. However, used Vixens that require a little elbow-grease can be found for the same price as the Tasco. For the user who want new, or needs-it-now, the Tasco is a worthy contender for the Best Lightweight GEM award.

When in alt-az mode, I believe both Tasco and Vixen mounts provide the best-bang-for buck of *any* new alt-az with slo-mo controls.

Edited by hottr6 (02/24/13 03:51 PM)