Naughty Neal

In the most part 99.99% their is no disharmony like some other forums, advice is variable as is the hobby of astronomy. Great pics of set ups and soooo many ep recommends, one ends up buying ep's though one knows they aren't needed. Take the sv215 zoom, it is just a must have ep for the money. It is exceptionally good.

Take a look at the Svbony sv225 mount , it appears to be a take on the Porta 2 mount and they claim 10kg loading . The scope arm can be set at an angle to enable zenith.

That's the issue with science, always two camps . One say's yay and the other nay.

Yes , Bazz is.

Bazz you will be in your grave when it happens, it has many 1000's of years to go yet. Estimates from the scientists are anything from 1000 - 100,000 years before it exhausts all of it elements.

Doing some homework I have found that another ep appears to be on a par with the 24mm UFF and it is the 22mm uf 70 deg angel eyes/ oberwerk ep , though a little wanting at F5. Two CNer's have reviewed the 22. The 22mm appeared to be equal to the 24mm and was only bettered a little by the more expensive LVW and ES 68. If the price is right the 22mm offers the same or better value but not by a massive amount but worth seeking out. Currently 22mm can be had for about £75, if one doesn't mind the Angeleyes branding. The ep is the exact same as the Oberwerk.

Both ep's will give totally different views in th ST102 as the FL is very short so the increase in fov would be telling , a different story if one had a longer FL frac. The two ep mags won't be far apart at a bit less then 1.2x in mag increase, the fov will be some what telling. In the example below we can compare a skywather 25mm 50 deg plossl vs a 30mm 70deg uff .

The 18mm UFF I have gave me pin point nice stars in my slow acro frac, how it would perform in a faster telescope I don't know . The reviews of the other FL's are great inc the 10mm so I doubt one will be dissapointed with the 18mm's performance.

Although off topic of the main thread , like wise the three 70deg Oberwerks are now available under the angeleyes brand name for a lot less money.

Typically Don it's not about the list you have on CN and what is available but more about forumites user recommends and ep's they actually use . We see so many which ep's for beginners or those on a tighter budget that a more meaningful ep thread may be of better interest, forum users can peruse and see those that forumites are actually using. We know for instance that the paradigm/BST's are recommended a lot but not all the range is great so a good place for users to have their say and recommend the better FL's and the various ep's from experinece rather then having posts of just hearsay.

A thread where all can place their top buys in one place , one could include used ep's but that defeats the object so lets keep this one to brand new ep's. I took the Q as Michael aka Mr Spock alluded to the title and sounded reasonable for those who are on a tighter budget. My SV 18mm UFF branded ep was a delight to look through last evening , it brought the night sky alive with pin sharp bright vista's to the edge in my f12.5 scopetech 80mm acro it gave 55x mag, now looking forward to giving it an outing in my f11.2 ed 102 Ascent . Typically about £109 though my one was had for a bargain new price of £51.66. The uff is sold under a range of other branded names and celestron ultima edge is one as well as stellalyra UFF. UF or UFF typically they are sold as, the range consists of 10, 15, 18 & 24mm in 1.25" form for sub £150 with 60 - 65 degree fov. The other ep is a 2" 30mm ep and world class but over the price range of the thread. Sv 215 zoom an absolute little gem of an eyepiece, superb value at under £130 typically offered at. But even so much better when on offer with 50% off, it is a no brainer to buy at that price on a Black Friday or xmas offer price.

Yep 100% agree , inconsiderate neighbours.

I think you will like that nice looking SV trinket Mike , had first light with mine last night and was pretty well impressed with the views esp as it was at an AliExp bargain price. At the 8mm the view in it was as good as the excellant 8.5mm XF, taking it down the stops to 5mm 200x I had good seeing on Jupiter early last evening. It was only the higher mags from 222x - 285x that my 80mm acro couldn't handle on J. Certainly in my eyes and others have said it is a keeper eyepiece that belies it's value.

I feel quite fortunate none of my neighbours have of yet have blinding night gardens at night, some do have night lights but they are usually only on if they are out for a while otherwise they are turned off. I have neighbours left and right, no other neighbours as my 150' garden backs on to the V2B rail line so the views are just trees and the odd light from an express as is passes thru or stops at the signals. After 22.00 hrs 99% of any rear internal house lights are off and all are tucked up in bed or likely watching tv so makes any of my viewing quite pleasant.

In away we could be looked upon as stargazers and in my skies last night the title would have lived up to it's name. Any one living in my neighbourhood looking up into the night sky would wonder what the fuss is about ? One can see some fairly bright stars and make out others , the three main belt stars eta ori, epsilon ori & zeta ori in Orion. Rigel , betelgeuse and salph etc all visible and with good sight one can just make out M42 is a faint blur. Those who had never looked through a good telescope with good/ great ep's wouldn't appreciate what the night sky has to offer, but look through a good telescope with an equally good ep and they would have simply been blown away and gone WOW !! Last night with the clear skies in my Bortle 6/7 skies placing the slow 80mm acro with 18mm UFF in the direction of Orion and KERPOW the viewing is instantly changed, a whole new vista of vibrant stars is opened up before your eyes into a completly new world. Instead of just seeing a few brighthish /faint stars the 18mm uff exposes a whole magnitude of 100's of vibrant stars invisible to the eye, crisp clear pin point stars with little in the way diffraction and distinct out of focus perfect rings either side of perfect focus. Then there is the trapezium and the nebula that is drawn out even in a 80mm acro. Use the az/alt control knobs and one can pan side to side and up and down and the bright far stars keep appearing in their ten's& ten's in numbers. So yes we can be labelled as stargazers at times and at times I'm quite happy to see the magnificent vista's to be seen through a lens without really having the need to search out any single body.

I also forgot to mention that I had first proper light with my DIY obs seat tonight as well, I posted about this earlier in the year in the DIY section. The viewing is and was so much more comfyand relaxing being seated rather then standing.

Just come back indoors from another near hours viewing, I live in an area of Bortle 6 -7 sky's with my main azimuth for viewing being quite small due to severe lp. From my rear edge of town garden It is a little darker, the viewing I have is only small typically 100 degrees view from approx. 165degrees to approx. 265 degrees as my viewing sky . The rest of the sky N/W , E and to almost the South is all pretty much lp'd . Industrial estate lighting, housing and street lighting, leading to poor viewing. I have to pick varying hours of night to select objects , this time of year it is 4am ish to view Bootes, Cannes Venatici, Coma Berencies, Virgo and the Leos. With Jupiter being the first bright object it is the obvious one to set up and view at the moment soon after dusk, then slowly other celestials appear. Tonight was first light with a few newer ep's that I had yet to try out so in the main I concentrated on Jupiter early on and in the last hour swapping out and going between Sirius and the trapezium /M42. XF 8.5 a lovely ep in my slow frac, crisp and clear to the edge of view. Jupiter being a gem to look at with 117x power. SV215 zoom like wise nice good clear viewing to the edges with only the lower settings below 5mm being to much power for Jupiter. 200x being the most I could coax out of my 80mm acro. M42 I opted to try out the 65 degree 18mmm uff at 56x , this one being the SvBony badged ep. I can say in the slow acro this ep rocks with beautifully clear views to the edge, I saw little colour to the nebula using a AE uhc or a lumicon oiii though they did enhance the nebula cloud far better. The neb in my sky's is faintly visible to the naked eye.

Very much the same as John has seen , I was out at just after 6pm with my 80mm f12/.5 acro. Jupiter and the four moons absolutely looking fantasticat approx. azimuth of 220 degrees from my back garden and sitting pretty high up in the early pm sky, sadly yes the GRS on the wrong side but viewing pretty good early pm. XF 8.5 and sv215 zoom good up to 5mm giving some nice views. Also very nice clear views of the small crescent moon to night using the same two ep's. I haven't been outside with the scope for nearly two weeks as suffering a very heavy cold which is proving hard to shake , still suffering sinus and asthma issues due to it's effects but nice crisp clear skies early pm. Still currently set up outside on the Vixen p110 pillar so may go out for another hour session.

For ebay be very wary , document any item in detail with pics.

Bar the 10mm at 60 degrees the others are all 65 degrees so quite a nice FOV.

Generally the whole UFF range is regarded as being rather good for a mid - higher end budget ep. As said the 30mm is regarded as a top premium ep and the 24 mm not too much of a slouch either, the 24mm often touted as a panoptic alternative at a far cheaper price. The 10mm is regarded as not bad and a keeper amongst a few on CN , I have the 18mm bought via SvBony for a mere £51. The ep's are sold under a few names but are all the same glass internally coming from the same manufacturer in China. Names to be found under are SvBony UF, Skyrover uff, stellalyra uff, celestron ultima edge are just four brands.

For my penneth worth the lt114az is pants , though the Starsense unit is where the value lies. I bought a 114az for £100 / $125 used purely to have the Starsense unit, the rest got recycled as the quality is as mentioned quite pants. Being a budget telescope like any telescope the tripod/mounting system is often more important then the telescope itself for stability when viewing. Also eyepieces will be poor ones , upgrades are always a foot when buying so one idealy will likely have to at least double the budget whne outlaying money on a telescope. A max budget one is willing to go to and the area of usage, think also of where the telescope is to be stored and where it will be used. The other issue is sourcing any product, prices and availability will vary from the USA here in the UK.

Sounds like a good new thread /starter topic Michael.

I noticed the same EP's on AliExpress under the angeleyes name. https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005006478453221.html?spm=a2g0o.detail.pcDetailBottomMoreOtherSeller.1.356eOjuOOjuOYD&gps-id=pcDetailBottomMoreOtherSeller&scm=1007.40000.326746.0&scm_id=1007.40000.326746.0&scm-url=1007.40000.326746.0&pvid=08989adb-917e-4705-b487-758f1cf022c2&_t=gps-id%3ApcDetailBottomMoreOtherSeller%2Cscm-url%3A1007.40000.326746.0%2Cpvid%3A08989adb-917e-4705-b487-758f1cf022c2%2Ctpp_buckets%3A668%232846%238108%23197&pdp_npi=4%40dis!GBP!87.32!68.11!!!107.12!83.55!%40211b813b17073984834926804ea211!12000037348611337!rec!UK!!AB&utparam-url=scene%3ApcDetailBottomMoreOtherSeller|query_from%3A

Only the other week the 1952 Sound Barrier film was screened again , in a couple of clips Nigel Patrick and Ralph Richardson are seen viewing thru an enormously large mounted frac on an equally impessive tall pier.