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25mm x-cel vs 28mm ES maxvision 68 degrees


Joe12345

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This thread follows on from my first,' yet another case of which eyepiece', where I narrowed it down to the 2 listed above. I have read lots of posts say that the ES 82 degrees are really good, but how do they compare (apart from fov) to the 68 degree eps? If you haven't read my previous post, I have a tight budget of £100 and after a few days changing my mind constantly, I would like a wide fov, long fl ep. If anyone has any other suggestions please put them here. Also, any money left over will be put towards another lower focal length ep in the future.

I would be grateful for any advice!

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The MaxVision 68° is supposed to be pretty much the same as the ES version. I believe that it is considerably cheaper. It gives very nice views for the money. There is a little field curvature, but you do have to pay a fair bit more to cure that. A lot of people swear by them! I had the whole MV 68° range up to the 28mm and have upgraded to the 82° ES range. These are very different eyepieces and are a definitely a step up in quality. But also a big price jump.....

The 24mm MV 68° is great and is 1 1/4 inch fitting so you don't need to mess about with 2" filters (costly).

Hope that this helps.

Paul

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The X-Cel LX (I assume you mean that one rather than the earlier and not so good X-Cel) has a field of view of 60 degrees rather than 68, The 25mm X-Cel LX that I had for a while rather annoyingly seemed to pick up dust motes on one of it's large internal lenses which were impossible to clean off and appeared sharply defined against any bright extended object you viewed becaue the offending lens is right on the focal plane of the eyepiece. The other focal lengths in the X-Cel range may not have this issue.

The Maxvisions were originally intended to be Meade 5000 eyepieces I believe but Meade decided not to take the production run up for some reason so they have been sold since as Maxvisions and seem currently to be part of the Explore Scientific group of products. Of course Meade are again part of that same group again now !

The dust issue rather put me off X-Cel LX's but apart from that they seem optically pretty good and I suspect optical performance differences between them and Maxvisions would be very slight at most.

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The X-Cel LX (I assume you mean that one rather than the earlier and not so good X-Cel) has a field of view of 60 degrees rather than 68, The 25mm X-Cel LX that I had for a while rather annoyingly seemed to pick up dust motes on one of it's large internal lenses which were impossible to clean off and appeared sharply defined against any bright extended object you viewed becaue the offending lens is right on the focal plane of the eyepiece. The other focal lengths in the X-Cel range may not have this issue.

The Maxvisions were originally intended to be Meade 5000 eyepieces I believe but Meade decided not to take the production run up for some reason so they have been sold since as Maxvisions and seem currently to be part of the Explore Scientific group of products. Of course Meade are again part of that same group again now !

The dust issue rather put me off X-Cel LX's but apart from that they seem optically pretty good and I suspect opritical performance differences between them and Maxvisions would be very slight at most.

Yes, go for the max vision, how very interesting i had the very same problem with a new 7mm xcel lx and i now one person had the same with an 18mm, this is a shame as i like the way the design, but i wont go near them now

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I was just looking through FLOs eps when I came across several eyepieces which I didn't properly consider:

http://www.firstlightoptics.com/skywatcher-eyepieces/sky-watcher-swa-70-eyepieces.html   skywatcher swa

http://www.firstlightoptics.com/skywatcher-eyepieces/skywatcher-panaview-2-eyepieces.html  panaview 2"

would any of these be better than the maxvision?

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For simply keeping it easy I would suggest that you restrict yourself to 1.25" eyepieces, at least initially.

When you start incorporating 2" you can have several items in your hand(s) at once, so you lose time or drop something.

The biggest 1.25" fitting on the Skywatchers are 17mm, so that means the magnification is higher and you lose field of view, which seems counter productive.

There is little to be gained from what you are asking with a combination of wide field eyepiece and a short focal length

Just for information the Skywatcher SWA's are made by Barsta who produce the BST's.

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I was just looking through FLOs eps when I came across several eyepieces which I didn't properly consider:

http://www.firstlightoptics.com/skywatcher-eyepieces/sky-watcher-swa-70-eyepieces.html   skywatcher swa

http://www.firstlightoptics.com/skywatcher-eyepieces/skywatcher-panaview-2-eyepieces.html  panaview 2"

would any of these be better than the maxvision?

The short answer is NO.

The SW SWA is a rebrand of well known Celestron Ultima LX and AstroTech AF70 (I have a couple of them). IMO, an improved version of Hyperions. Some of them are pretty good, e.g. the 22mm AT AF70 I have, but the ES/Maxvision/Meade 5K UWA no doubt are in a different league.

The Panaviews are surprisingly good for the money but a step behind the ES/Meade 5K UWA etc. But this step costs $$ even second-hand as everything in the low power world. A rule of thumb, wide field, well corrected, inexpensive, you can choose only two :grin: .

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Having used some of the Skywatcher SWA's (and reviewed them on the forum sometime back) I feel neither they or the Panaview would be equal to, let alone better than, the Maxvision.

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Thanks, so for my budget the MV will definitely be best.

I know this is a bit off topic, but I have never collimated my scope! I have read a site saying that you only need a collimating cap-is this true or do I need to spend £30 on a laser collimator?

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I don't know what scope you have but if it's a newtonian then I find the cheshire eyepiece the best collimating tool to use. I adjust the collimation on my 12" dobsonian each time I use it but it's just a bit of fine tuning to ensure it's going to give it's best.

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 I have read a site saying that you only need a collimating cap-is this true or do I need to spend £30 on a laser collimator?

It's solely a matter of convenience and also depends on the scope. I have a Dob and use both the Cheshire EP and the laser collimator (stock, arrived with my scope). The Cheshire is quite precise and convenient when you do it at home. The laser collimation (I do barlowed collimation) is faster and more convenient when you are in the dark at your scope, IMO.

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Thanks, so for my budget the MV will definitely be best.

I know this is a bit off topic, but I have never collimated my scope! I have read a site saying that you only need a collimating cap-is this true or do I need to spend £30 on a laser collimator?

Cheshire.

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It's solely a matter of convenience and also depends on the scope. I have a Dob and use both the Cheshire EP and the laser collimator (stock, arrived with my scope). The Cheshire is quite precise and convenient when you do it at home. The laser collimation (I do barlowed collimation) is faster and more convenient when you are in the dark at your scope, IMO.

I do have a laser collimator (itself well collimated now), a set of the Tectron tools and I use the barlowed laser method from time to time as well. I still find the simple cheshire the most accurate and intuative to use. My favourite one is a cheap plastic one that came with an older Skywatcher newtonain years back. Star testing has proved it to be very accurate despite that fact that it looks like something that came out of a christmas cracker :smiley:

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I was just going through the specifications of the 28mm maxvision when I found out it had a exit pupil of 4.74. Is this too much?[/quote"]

You should be fine with 4.75.

Most people are fine up to 5mm. Many are ok with 6+mm. But advancing age can reduce this.

Paul

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Ok, so I bought the maxvision and it arrived today.

I haven't tested it yet - and tonight there is thunder where I am, but so far I know that I've got my money's worth! It feels satisfyingly heavy and big - so much that, as someone mentioned in my previous post, it toppled my scope! It looks like I will need the tightening screws for my 8" dob after all!

I will test it as soon as possible and post the results.

Thanks again for anyone who has put their opinions forward,

Joe

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Ok, so i took my telescope down to a nearby field, and when I looked at Jupiter through the clouds I couldn't see any surface detail in either eyepiece (skywatcher25mm or maxvision 28mm). Both Jupiter and Venus looked exactly the same through both eps. Usually I can clearly see the bands on Jupiter through my skywatcher ep, although tonight it was just a brown blob. It is probably down to the atmosphere, although I am puzzled and worried as to why there was no difference. Are my views going to get better?

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I don't know what scope you have so it's difficult to be exact.

If the 25mm shows you some banding on Jupiter then the Maxvision 28mm will do the same although the size of the planet will be smaller. Sounds like it's poor seeing conditions / viewing through cloud that is causing the issue for both eyepieces.

These are not planetary eyepieces though, unless used in a really, really long scope. They are more suitable for showing wide chunks of sky, star clusters, that sort of thing. Shorter focal length eyepieces are generally used to view planets.

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