Connected to the ExSc 120 eyepiece thread.

[alan potts]

I don't really know what to call this as Derek raised the thread on the ExSc 120 and this is connected but I don't really want to impose on his thread.

This has bugged me whilst I was scrubbing the floor. If some gave you 1029 pounds of what ever the 120 Degrees ExSc cost and you had to spend it on eyepieces or this eyepiece how many would accually buy it. Myself I would buy the 4.7mm and 3.7mm Televue and try and get both for this price .

What would you do? Something makes me think no one will get the 120 degree.

I realise it is a daft question but I have seen worse on site.

Alan

[ronin]

Someone will buy it, simply to say they have one.

When the ES 100's arrived I know of a few that sold their ES82's and bought the ES100's.

And that wasn't because the ES 82's are poor eyepieces.

This is also what I suspect ES are fully aware of.

Bit like people and cars, how many have a speedo that reads up to 160 when the car will struggle to do 100?

[John]

I've read a few reports on the 120 degree ES eyepiece on other forums. Some folks think they are amazing but other owners have more mixed views on them.

I couldn't bring myself to spend that much on any ES eyepiece though

[ronin]

I've read a few reports on the 120 degree ES eyepiece on other forums. Some folks think they are amazing but other owners have more mixed views on them.

I couldn't bring myself to spend that much on any ES eyepiece though

Got to ask it: Would you if it said TV on the side?

[John]

Got to ask it: Would you if it said TV on the side?

Only if it had "Ethos 6mm - 20mm Zoom" on it's side too

[russ.will]

Tassilo Bohm said to me - when I asked exactly this question of him at IAS - You should see the moon in it, fitting in and filling the entire FOV in X scope. I can't remember which scope it was, but he said it looks like you're orbiting it. I can see the appeal in that and I'd bet the sun looks pretty awesome in it too, for much the same reason. Mind you, I can't say I'm that fussed about an 82deg AFOV so it, along with Ethos, would be lost on me too.

As for who would buy it? Somebody who would look at Docters, Nikon NAV-HWs, etc. TVs are well spec'd BMWs and possibly all you would ever really need, but that doesn't stop people, wanting, buying and enjoying Porsches. Remember, VFM is a subjective judgement and isn't open for debate!

[RikM]

For about that money a 3-6mm Nagler Zoom, 12mm Delos and 24mm Panoptic or Pentax XW 5, 7, 14, and 20mm (but I already have those) Likewise, the chances are that whoever would buy an ES 9/120 would already have a boxful of nice eyepieces, so there would be no need to buy anything instead. If you like hyper-ultra-mega wide views then why not? Personally, I don't so I won't!

[luminova11]

I'd complete my set of My 68° and a part set of shower focal length Es 82° from 14mm down. A Made/Es/Bresser 2" 2x Telextender a Telrad and riser a RACI finder and a 1-10 conversion for the focuser and still have change to take the family out for KFC.

[luminova11]

That's a total of 8 eps which are of a quality I am likely never going to need to better.

[alan potts]

Ronin,

A very good point, if it had TV on the side. I don't think I would consider an eyepiece that expensive, sort of 500 quid is my top line which I have crossed once and got very close to a few times with other new Ethos buys. As Russell states they may well not the as good a Nikon and Docter's but they are not as rare either and at that I believe we are really talking tiny differences, I also do not believe that ExSc is in the same class as them as well, close yes but not there for me.

It may well be interesting to see what Tele-Vue do going forward but as I said in the other thread I don't think Mr Nagler is into copying, it is difficult to see where there is to go really, cheaper :grin: :grin: .

Luminova,

I too had many Meade eyepieces and in a fast scope do very well indeed and they are worth keeping. In fact for what I sold most of mine for after courier costs, I should have kept them. However you do start to see faults in them in faster scopes and some people can live with that. My trouble is for a lot of my working life I was a quality auditor finding fault in the products  and systems the Company produced and that has not done me any favours when it comes to eyepieces.

Alan

[YKSE]

ES' 100 degree EPs were no doubt copies of the Ethos, as the X-ray photo shown, but this 120 degree EPs is more likely a different design than the 100 degrees, some speculating about this Koehler's from 1960's on other site

http://www.quadibloc.com/science/opt04.htm

Meade was heavily slashed when it launched UWA and SWA on the other site as Nagler/Pan copies, but that didn't stop many astronomers from buying these eyepieces, the extra competion from ES made these SWA/UWA/XWA more affordable to many amateur astronomers who feel like a taste of extra wide Field Of Vview(FOV).

As to myself, I have my OCDs about weight and size of eyepieces, and I don't feel comfortable with the thoughts of seeing larger distortions in big FOV eyepieces, be it AMD(Angular Magnification Distortion) or RD(Rectilinear Distortion), and adding my requirement of comfortable seeing the extra FOV I've paid for, this eyepiece will only be of technical interest, never in wish list.

[Don Pensack]

Only a couple comments here:

1) the concavity of the eye lens is perfect to reflect all peripheral light into your eye.  Use a hood, a black cloth over the head, or hands cupped around the eyepiece to prevent that.

2) the edge of the field is SO far off axis that when you're looking at the edge of the field toward the top of the scope, your peripheral vision sees the sky!  Now that's off-axis.

See point #1 about a hood or cupped hands.

[Chris]

I'm curious about the need for 120 degrees if I'm honest other than it being a technical exercise?

Take my ES82's for example, I struggle to see the field stop even when I peer quite steeply round the "porthole" of the eyecup. I admit I'm very curious about 100 degree EP's such as the E13 I've heard so much about, if nothing else just to see if there is any difference in the immersive experiece over the 82's, also to compare how far you need to jam your eye in to see the field stop! I think I'd worry I would end up cross eyed with an 120 degree eyepiece, and thats a lot of money to spend on becoming cross eyed!

[John]

I'm curious about the need for 120 degrees if I'm honest other than it being a technical exercise?

Take my ES82's for example, I struggle to see the field stop even when I peer quite steeply round the "porthole" of the eyecup. I admit I'm very curious about 100 degree EP's such as the E13 I've heard so much about, if nothing else just to see if there is any difference in the immersive experiece over the 82's, also to compare how far you need to jam your eye in to see the field stop! I think I'd worry I would end up cross eyed with an 120 degree eyepiece, and thats a lot of money to spend on becoming cross eyed!

The Ethos 13mm has the same eye relief as the ES 82 11mm so your eye would need to be at the same distance to see the full field of either eyepiece. The ES 82 8.8mm has eye relief of 14mm so is just a touch tighter.

You really need to try these things to see how you get on with them though. Some folks find they can see the whole 100 degree FoV while some can't.  

The apparent field of view is just one part of an immersive experience I think - having a large eye lens like the Pentax XW's and TV Delos's can create the impression that the FoV is larger than it's actual 70/72 degrees.

These things are a matter of taste and preference as much as anything. Some love them and some don't 

Not developing a liking for ultra-wide fields of view can certainly save some £'s that's for sure !

[Chris]

Thanks john, I think you're right about the different factors contributing to an immersive experience. As with delos the large eyelens and eye relief of my maxvisions feels immersive, in fact the maxvisions are my favourite eyepiece I've owned! It's a shame they only go down to 16mm but I know the design doesn't allow this. I'm considering buying a 34 or 40mm maxvision for my 150mm maksutov.