Dilemma: powermate 2.5x or not?

[Piero]

I have been thinking about this for a while and I would be happy to hear your

opinion on this. 

My current eyepiece set, which is used with the TV-60 F6, is:

Panoptic 24 - 68deg

Plossl 20 - 50deg  <-- not much used 

Nagler 13 - 82deg

Nagler 7 - 82deg

Vixen 5slv - 50deg

Nagler 3.5 - 82deg

I have a Bresser SA 2x which adds the following options:

Plossl 10 - 50deg

Vixen 2.5slv - 50deg

Nagler 1.8 -82deg

My problem is that I feel I miss something around 9-10mm, BUT with a consistent fov between the Naglers 13 and 7.  

I have been very tempted to go for the Nagler 9, but I wondered if a powermate 2.5x would actually be a better choice.

With this I would get: 

Pan24 => Pan 9.6 - 68deg (1.7deg > 1.5 deg of Nag 7mm)

Nag 13 => Nag 5.2 - 82deg

Nag 7 => Nag 2.8 - 82deg 

vixen 5 => vixen 2 - 50deg (if I want to push to 180x). 

With this set I would only need:

Pan24, Nag13, Nag7, Nag3.5 and powermate 2.5x for covering almost everything. 

I could use the Plossl 20mm as supplementary eyepiece, and the vixen 5mm 

for Solar (72x) where it works wonderfully or for zooming up to 180x on the moon/saturn. 

Would this make sense to you or it seems a silly investment?

Thanks very much in advance for reading and your help anyway. 

Piero

[estwing]

I'd say sell the 13 and the 7 nag and get a 13 ethos then a x2 powermate job done...

[Piero]

I'd say sell the 13 and the 7 nag and get a 13 ethos then a x2 powermate job done...

That is a 'big' advice, also in size, estwing! 

I will not fall in the "Ethos Syndrome"!  I bet they are the best eyepieces but they are too big for my tastes and 82 deg is at the limit for me.

To be honest I am also very happy with a 68 degrees that a panoptic offers. I should have said anyway that I want to stay with 1.25" eps of 'little' size though. 

Thanks for your help! 

[John]

Have you actually got a gap in your collection ?. I'm not so sure with utra wide eyepieces because I found that I was skipping straight from the Nagler 13 to the 7 most of the time when I owned them and used them mainly in my 663mm focal length refractor.

One way to find out would be to buy a used low cost but nice 10mm such as a Baader Classic Ortho and see how it fits in. If you use it lots then you can sell that and go for something more exotic. If it's not used much / at all you can get most of your money back.

[estwing]

TBH I've never looked through a panoptic lots have and state what a wonderful ep they are to use...

[Piero]

Have you actually got a gap in your collection ?. I'm not so sure with utra wide eyepieces because I found that I was skipping straight from the Nagler 13 to the 7 most of the time when I owned them and used them mainly in my 663mm focal length refractor.

One way to find out would be to buy a used low cost but nice 10mm such as a Baader Classic Ortho and see how it fits in. If you use it lots then you can sell that and go for something more exotic. If it's not used much / at all you can get most of your money back.

Thanks for your comment, John. 

I think there is a gap in terms of image brightness, rather than fov. The N13 gives a lovely bright image, whereas the N7 is sometimes/often a bit too dark for some open cluster (at least I think). 

You are right about the 10mm. I have the tv plossl 20mm which can be barlowed giving a 10mm already. Silly of me that I have not tried this combination much.. maybe this means something.. In this case, yes, the  fov between this 10mm and the N7 is odd because the N7 shows a larger fov.. 

Maybe I am just too picky and should just keep what I have. I thought replacing the bresser 2x with a powermate 2.5x would simplify and maximise the use of the panoptic+nagler, and use the 50deg eyepieces only for specific types of observation. I guess things are getting just more complicated instead.

[YKSE]

Piero,

If I were you, I would take a serious consideration of a bigger scope instead of upgrading eyepieces.

[Piero]

Piero,

If I were you, I would take a serious consideration of a bigger scope instead of upgrading eyepieces.

 Don't tempt me!    I would really like to! 

But I cannot right now, as things must be much more settled in terms of work, accommodation, LIFE, ...!  

I might not even be in the UK in the next two years and if so, carrying around a big telescope is going to be a problem.. Not that now this isn't as I don't have a car or garden either.. 

So, for now, I stick with the TV60 and use it as much as I can.

In the future, an F5 or F6 dobson will be on the list! No doubt!   

[damnut]

Hi Piero,

I think as John above, even when barlowed your gap is around the 10mm, I recently bought a used Axiom 10mm 82 deg and its a keeper.

[Piero]

Thanks damnut. I will start using then 20mm with the Barlow, testing a 10mm, more often as John and you suggested and see how much this seems required. Then I will take a decision. Thanks everybody for your help and answers. They have been very useful.

Piero

[Piero]

I have tested the 10mm (20mm plossl+barlow 2x) on a few targets last night.

I agree that this doesn't seem necessary and one could simply jump from 13mm to 7mm at these short focal length telescopes.

The 7mm does the job as 'high power for certain DSO' pretty well. The 10mm does not show things better than what I already have, in my case at least.

I would like to thank everyone for your comments and I apologise for having opened a silly post about something I could have tested by myself directly.

It was useful to read about your opinions though and see that in your perspective and experience, this does not make much sense.

[damnut]

No such thing as a silly post, points you down a direction, much better if you then subsequently analyse and resolve yourself.

[YKSE]

Agree

No such thing as a silly post,

Agreed! A Swedish saying: there're no stupid questions, only stupid answers.

[damnut]

A bit of a welsh one  -- no stupid questions,  just stupid mistakes from not asking the question

[Piero]

Thanks! Very encouraging! It is nice to belong to a community like this one!   

I should actually post my observation report for last night. Apart from the 10mm ep thing, there were lots of nice targets and a lovely Saturn too!