ES 9mm 100 Degree EP

[Lorne]

After liking my 20mm and 14mm ES eyepieces so much, I took advantage of Bresser.de's ex display sale and bought the ES 9mm 100 degree EP.

200 Euros - £148 for what is essentially a brand new eyepiece. It arrived on Tuesday, safely held in its star chart decorated box inside another huge well padded box,  Got a brief opportunity to try it out tonight as the sky partially cleared and the winds dropped.

Physically It's slightly smaller than my 20mm and 14mm but its still a fairly large chunk of glass. When fitted in my focuser, the EP comes to focus less than a quarter turn from maximum outward focuser travel (close to using my 35mm extension tube) and like the 20 and 14, NOT parfocal with the rest of the range. Not something I worry about but some folks prefer EP sets to be parfocal. 

The rubber eyecup is pretty soft and folds over when the end cap is placed back on so I had to fold it up when ready to look through the EP, this can fold over again if I press too hard on the EP when viewing. This was mentioned in previous reviews of other ES EP's in this series. 

Now for my brief report. The Moon was in the clear spot so spent some time looking at it. While not full tonight - I imagine I would fit the whole full moon in the FOV of this eyepiece, the kind of Michael Collins view (the one who didn't) Whether or not I would SEE it or not is another matter - a lot of eye/ head movement was required to see from one edge to another. What I could see though was fantastic. Sharp, well defined craters and clear details of features and shadows all along the terminator. I did notice some colour variation - yellowish to my eyes, not where I was looking at, but peripherally if that makes sense, kind of hard to explain. 

By this time more clear patches were appearing - I swung round to M57. Nicely sized but washed out a bit due to the brightness of the Moon. I moved round to Hercules for the globs M13 and M92. These both looked good for being in the LP half of the sky where I live. Both were well framed resolving stars to the core.

Moving round to M31, the bright core of the galaxy took up a lot of the view, again washed out due to the moonlight - and M33, barely visible but well sized in the FOV - hinting that at a darker site with no moon the view will be stunning.

I found the eyepiece very easy and comfortable to use but tonight was probably not the ideal test of this eyepiece due to the Moon brightness and my limited sky view from home. I'll get round to a more comprehensive review when I get the chance of a decent session at our groups dark site. 

Thanks for reading,

L.

PS.... the EP's look dull in the picture as they are dewed up, I had just brought them in from the cold into the warm house!

[John]

Excellent report - sounds very promising

I've owned the 20mm ES 100 and thought it a really nice eyepiece. All the feedback I've read on the others in the range (including yours now) indicate that the quality continues through the other focal lengths.

Love the low fat baked beans tin next to some rather portly eyepieces !

[Lorne]

Some would say its the eyepiece owner that is portly...... just getting it in before someone else does

[Chris]

Great report Lorne I had the ES100 set last year and really enjoyed my time with them.

I really like the dish shaped eyelens which allows you to dip your eye right into the immersive 100 degrees. If you try this with the ES82 series, it results in 'lash to glass' contact!

[laudropb]

Nice report. Looks like this is a nice series.

[John]

I've been lucky enough to try a number of 100 degree eyepiece ranges out from different brands and I've actually found them all to be very high quality. While not everyone likes or wants a 100 degree field of view it seems that those that do are rather spoiled for choice in a niche that just didn't exist just a few years ago

[alan potts]

Nice report on the eyepiece, that really was a bargain! What next I wonder 50% less beans?

Alan

[Mr Spock]

These do sound rather good and, at a reasonable price too. It's great to have a choice of eyepieces, as well as beans - I quite like Morrison's Savers - shows sometimes the cheapest suit you better than the rest

[gooseholla]

When will you be posting a review of the beans?!

[Lorne]

When will you be posting a review of the beans?!

I have...... line 3 of my review. The wind picked up soon after 

[spaceboy]

I think the 9mm is the strongest of the 3 optically but the 14mm usually offers the best FOV for most DSO's in my f/5 scopes.