ES 28mm 68° any good at f/4.7?

[RikM]

I have been looking for a wide field low power eyepiece to replace my 30mm 60° Vixen LV. With a couple of unexpected expenses I can't afford what I really want but these eyepieces look very nice and seem to fit the bill on paper.

I had been holding out for a second hand 27mm Panoptic but I am a little worried by reports of pincushioning when panning about. 'Pincushion king' was used in one review! The same review compared the 27mm Pan to the Meade 5k 28mm 68° that is a stablemate of the ES, which I believe to be the same optics with argon purging, upgraded multicoating and better styling

Also (and this is how sad/OCD I am ) it fits in with the numbers printed on my other EP's: 7, 10, 14, 20, 28 More to the point, using the occulars plug in on Stellarium it gives exactly the field of view, eyerielief and exit pupil I am looking for.

Has anyone used one in a 254/1200 Dob and was it any good?

[JamesF]

I've not noticed any problems yet with my 27mm Pan in my dob (which has the 250PX primary). Then again, opportunities to use it have been few and far between.

I did ask around about the ES eyepieces at the time I was looking for a new wide field eyepiece and opinion was that whilst they'd generally be pretty good they might be a bit soft towards the edges of the field of view. I don't have any however, so I can't provide direct evidence.

James

[RikM]

Well I couldn't help myself Buoyed by Scotland's win in the rugby, I went ahead and ordered one. Fingers crossed

[alan potts]

Rik,

Making the assumption the Meade 28mm SWA was almost if not exactly the same glass and coatings. Mine was fine in the M/N 190 which is F 5.26, it was one of my favourite EP's until I got Televueeyepieceiussyndrome .

I can't see that your scope is going to degrade the image a great deal, you may just start to get a bit of softness at the very edges.

Alan.

[Bart]

Rik

Might not be any good to you but I had the 20 and 16 mm 68* ES EPs and thought they were very good. Obviously not the 28mm. In my f5 they were very very good, suffered slightly at f4.5 but were by no means ugly. Good luck with the 28mm I'm sure it will be a great addition to your already impressive EP collection, ahem. No, I'm not related to Rik.

Shouldn't be talking to you after the rugby...

Barry

[RikM]

Well I am very happy to be able to report that this EP does everything I hoped it would

The focus position is a bit further out than my XW's but still well within the useful range of my focuser. The view is not as sharp and contrasty as the XW's and it has a little bit warmer tone perhaps but then it cost less than half a 30mm XW would, so I am more than happy with my choice. I really can't tell the difference between the 68° of the ES and the 70° of the XW's. It is smaller and lighter than I expected as well. Pretty much the same as the 10mm XW.

I also happy to report that the FOV according to 12dstring and the Stellarium occulars plug in are both quite accurate as well. For an idea of what you can see through one of these have a look here http://stargazerslounge.com/topic/179132-seven-sisters/

[crazyjedi]

I have the 24mm ES 68 degree EP and find it excellent at f5. I have heard around the forum that f5 is the cliff edge so to speak when it comes to EP performance. Meaning that below f5 EP performance is tested harshly and few EP's can compete with TV or Pentax on such fast instruments. I have not had the chance to try the EP on anything faster than my own scope so I can't tell you how it measures up on anything faster than f5 but as your scope is only a little faster it may perform well.