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Ostara?

Dom1961

By Dom1961
in Discussions - Eyepieces

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John

John

Posted
Posted

Ostara seem to be a branding that is put on a range of products made in the far east, some quite good and some not so good. Their eyepiece range is a bit of a mix to be honest. You will find many of them also for sale under different brandings as well, sometimes less expensive.

If you could link to a specific eyepiece then it would be easier to comment in detail.

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triton1

triton1

Posted
Posted

bst star guiders are good plus they work at f5 wheras a lot of others won,t.They,re £49 at skies the limit on eBay a very good deal.However they only go as low as 25mm but they do have 60* fov.

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SpaceWalker

SpaceWalker

Posted
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I am currently searching for a cheap-ish wide field eyepiece for my F5 Newtonian, ive come across a brand called ostara, are these any good?

This Ostara isn't wide field, it's just plain 50*AFOV Plossl. Your Newtonian is fast and demanding on eyepiece quality especially off-axis. And long focal length wide field are generally expensive not necessary just on FLO.

If you tell what's your budget, scope brand or FL, what eyepieces you've already got and what you are specifically looking for it would be easier to make some suggestions. Otherwise,  I agree with laudropb, buying used is an excellent option to get quality eyepieces on cheap.

The rule of the thumb is, wide field, high quality, inexpensive, you can choose only two.

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John

John

Posted
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I've used the 10mm in that range. It's a very average quality plossl to be honest but for under £20 I guess thats to be expected.

I can't recall if you have actually got your scope yet. If not I'd suggest holding back for a little while, try it out a few times with the supplied eyepieces, then have a think about your next steps with regard to accessories.

It does come as a shock when you realise that a decent set of eyepieces will cost a good chunk of what your scope has cost but eyepieces are precision optical items too so there is some cost associated with getting decent ones.

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Dude_with_the_tube

Dude_with_the_tube

Posted
Posted

you will be better off looking for a Moonhisfh 30mm clone what has 80 degree FOV and will do miles better then that Ostara plossl.Moonfish are cheap,but at least will give you better views until you get better budget and can afford better quality eye pieces.

And as posters above said:You get what you pay for.

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alan potts

alan potts

Posted
Posted

Go secondhand and you will not lose out if you don't loike it. Eyepeiecs at First Light Optics are very well priced but they are in a different class to brand you were looking at, as said you get what you pay for. I have not used them myself but BST's eyepiece range gets a lot of air time on this site and must be good judging by the amount that have them. These do come up for time to time on Astro Buy and Sell and will outperform Ostara I would have thought.

If you can save a bit any of the S/H Maxvisions, Meades 5000 ranges or ExSc ranges of eyepieces will do you for life without absolutely breaking the bank.

Your scope at F5 will find out poor quality eyepieces much more so than an F10 scope!

Alan

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russ.will

russ.will

Posted
Posted

As the OP's scope is a 130p with a focal length of 650mm, I'd have thought a 25mm EP would be more than wide field enough at 26x?

@ Dom1961 - I recently bought a few EPs to try out for binoviewing. They included a GSO Plossl (very much on a par with the SW Plossls at £25) a Vixen NPL (a well rated Plossl at £35) BST Starguiders at £49 and some Williams Optics 66deg WAs that tend to come bundled with Binoviewers. They can be found for about £40 each second hand.

These are all basically EPs I had in the past and have continued to recommend, based on memory. It was interesting to refresh those impressions, despite being used to more premium glass these days. The first thing I learned was that actually, if you give up rushing into wide apparent filed of view (AFOV) then it's surprizing how good the budget Plossls are and all would be a substantial upgrade over the stock Modified Achromat EPs, particularly the GSO which I found gave the best contrast and was a sensible size. The Vixen was too big for its intended role, but also suffered a lot of internal reflections. Some of the plastic edges were very rough too.

The WO WAs aren't too bad, but virtually all the extra AFOV they deliver over the Plossl suffered from astigmatism and chromatic aberation, increasing toward the edges of the field. This is what cheap wide angle EPs do - Give you something extra but not of a quality that's worth having. I estimate that the outer 30% of the field of view was actively distracting.

The BSTs, I'm relieved to say for my own memory, were very good indeed. Sharp and well corrected, with only a little CA as a subject approaches the field stop. The Moon stayed round all the way to the edge of the field and a hint of filed curvature meant only a slight refocusing for subjects way off centre. 60deg doesn't sound like a large increase in AFOV over the 50-52deg of a Plossl, but it's very noticeable back to back. Put it another way, I still had a Maxvision SWA at the beginning of my test and the jump from 60 to 68deg (a true SWA) was not as noticeable in use.

So based on recent experience, I'd say stick to the humble Plossl. It ain't sexy, but it is very effective for not a lot of cash. After that, don't bother spending unless you can get a BST Starguider and they do crop up for £35 second hand. I think they're a no brainer at £50 and indeed, had my nose been smaller, I'd be buying some more, specifically for binoviewing. You know what? If my financial world went pear-shaped and I had to live with the BSTs again, it wouldn't be something I'd fear.

Russell

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John

John

Posted
Posted

The Revelation plossls are pretty good - they are made by GSO and, as Russell says, are good plossl eyepieces.

The wide angle Revelations fall into the type that Russell warns about, low cost, wide field but won't look pretty in an F/5 scope.

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