Dude_with_the_tube

looking forward to hear your thoughts on the hand grenade  

I would give my bet to Nagler out of your 3 contenders.

i am in Aberdeen outskirts,Cove Bay to be precise.

be carefull Shane,that road is slippery and doesnt have any grit

Alan,

i can confirm that the "coffee" warm tone of TV plossls will work nicely on Jupiter and will tweak out a bit more extra detail in comparison to other similar kind plossls,but that is as far as it goes.There will be no advantage of that coloring on any other object,but no disadvantage either.Like marmite,you either love it or hate it

If you are trying to build a collection of TV plossls,try sourcing the smoothside  version Circle NJ ones.they are the best ones of the bunch.Not that they come up for sale that often.Last full set of them sold for 1000 USD,but that one had all of them there and was in superb shape for they age.Single Eps pop up time to time and get snatched up practically immediately, and a  few focal length are quite rare to come by.Newer versions are great too and are more easier to come by for possibly a bit less pennies.

mmm Brandons

Always wanted to try one,but never got around  to get one as other Ep`s came up in the way lol.Very praised reviews and very nice Ep`s.

Will have to get one some day.

Silvertops are good.sharp field stop,comfortable to use,however,might struggle in fast ratio scopes on edges.These are becoming a collectors item and some focal length like 30mm are becoming hard to find.Will perform flawless in F6 and slower scopes.Also a great for binoviewer.price wise difficult to say but i would expext to pay more then 35-40 quid for a good sample.

well a bit too early as i am still awaiting on my 5mm BGO to arrive to complete the set of BGo`s,still,here is my "second" box of Ep`s .

Set of Meade Research grade orthos and Erfles,only 32mm Erfle is missing,but that thing is so highly collectable that it is practically impossible to find  at a reasonable price so i am currently not entertaining the idea of having one.maybe in some distant future.

Full set of BGO`s (5mm in post) and a 5mm Pentax Xo 5mm.

Review about Meade RG will be following shortly in another topic.

that is quite some change there from middle class Ep(budget) to a very nice performing Ep`s.

very nice DRT,very nice

that is going to be interesting to read what you think of the 5000 series plossls.14mm head to head will be interesting.There is no doubt that Delos or Pan will be great eye pieces,but how close or equal will be plossls to them is the big question.i am ditching 9mm ES in 100 degs to get one Delos as i am not using it that much and want narrower FOV on higher mags.Also there is a massive ortho head to head brewing up in the pipeline,but not sure when this going to happen as it seems i will be a bit busy in my work and will have to travel a bit.I have agreed with Anthony to do this and Anthony will be the one writing the review ,but no exact time is set so far. contenders will be: BGO,Pentax Xo and Meade Research grades.

apparently 14mm plossl from 5000 series was the crown jewel of the series.Very sharp with good correction.And yes,long eye lashes and tight ER orthos dont go well together.

shame Alan you are not in UK,as then i could send you a 4mm ortho just to test it.It is a proper pin hole and contact lens eye relief.Still usable but not in winter when its cold as you could end up with that thing permanently attached to your eye ball  

Don't quite agree with this as I had a full set of the Circle T volcano top Ortho's before I started collecting the BGO's. The Circle T's were very good, for sure, but when compared to BGO's back to back in same focal lengths there were quite noticeable differences, especially in the light scatter department. The BGO's had considerably less scatter.

I've had several Pentax XL's and found them too to be superb eyepieces on all targets. What I found great about them, and it is obviously the same with the XW range too, is that I never had to swap them out, like going from a "wide field eyepiece" to a "planetary eyepiece" - they simply did it all with no fuss.

I do miss them and would have them again if I could justify the purchases against what I have in my eyepiece case these days.

Interesting comparison with the Delos. I've never even seen a Delos yet, so it will be interesting to maybe one night try one. It sounds like it will take me back to my Pentax days, maybe...

Ant

My bad Anthony i picked the wrong ortho.meant to be BGO vs UO HD. i agree there will be noticeable difference between BGO and Circle T.

to be honest,i dont think either of you have done something wrong by choosing lets say Ethos over Pentax or Delos over Pentax.All 3 eye pieces are great and apart of FOV i really doubt there will be any visual difference.This is the same talk we are going back about orthoscopic eye pieces.you can have a BGO on Circle T orthos and visual difference will be so small that in majority of times you will not notice it,unless you are in the best spot in the world where you have 365 clear nights and you can go well beyond 500 magnification.But not in UK viewing conditions.Price wise there is not a major difference between Delos and Pentax range.Ethos obviously is more costly but thats what you pay for 100 deg FOV isnt?

Again difference in ergonomics of the way how eye guard is built will open the can of discussions :meade 5000 UWA vs ES 82 deg range.where again optically there where no difference and it was individuals choice between them.Same about Pentax`s eye guard vs Delos.

Blue vs black, black vs green.endless story and endless arguments

I go for the one who can give me best views depending on what i am observing .i like ultra wide views for DSo and narrow 40 degs for planetary.but thats again me personally.

And once again, i appreciate all the effort Alan has done for this comparison,it did make me think about Pentax or Delos and I will deffo get one of these Ep`s my self.

You should perhaps look into monocentrics. I will keep avoiding short orthos, and stick with the XW/Delos experience. 

at 470 euro a piece and 30 deg FOV you have to be very hard core planetary observer  to have them in your arsenal.I would take Delos,Ethos or Pentax or any other ortho over them any day.Saying that,if money was no object,i would love to have them in my Ep box.

i would be also interested to see observers views or reviews on lower mag Delos vs Pentax,lets say in 10 or 12-14mm range for DSO.

Very interesting read Alan. I have yet to sample that Delos range.  Having looked through a couple of pentaxes though they are my favourites in the case as overall performers  considering  ease of use, wide FOV,eyerelief as well.   I can dig why RikM ended up with a set of them, I am not jealous ......Who am I kidding 

The  only downside of such eyepiece once you have looked through them is I want more of them, and they ain't cheap, but worth the money and saving for IMHO.  I don't every see myself ending up with the 3.5 anytime soon, but the 5mm some day perhaps if I am getting too lazy for my beloved  5mm BGO. 

count me in for Delos too.never looked through one,but i will not give up orthos for planetary any time soon.thats why i have 2 sets of orthos

Very interesting report.Based on your report,it is really difficult to choose Pentax xw or Delos. both have pros and cons.Would love to try them both some time.

Appreciate your effort of making this review and comparison Alan.Superb as always!

not at present moment matey.But if i do decide,you will have the first call

hi dude, why are you selling your high power 100* dont you like them

there is a reason behind why i am selling off my 9mm ES.Dont get me wrong,ES 100deg range are very nice Ep`s and performance wise on the same step as TV Ethos what has been confirmed by quite a few highly placed astronomers.

i need to raise money (partly) to fund my new purchase of quite rare full set of EP`s And as my 9mm ES is getting least used,decision was made to sacrifice this EP.However,if this Ep doesnt sell,i will happily keep it as performance wise i cant fault it.

i have mentioned earlier that i deeply regret the day when i was forced to sell off my set of BGO and i made myself a promise to have a full set of orthos back again some day and this day is getting closer and closer

Like the idea of the re used microscope box   I still have my original fullerscope ortho's from the late 70's and the zoom barlow, would not part with them. Here they are alongside my latest acquisition for scale.

IMG_4343.jpg  

you would be absolutely mad if you decide to sell your vintage orthos,especially the 40mm one!Not only this one is ULTRA rare and practically impossible to find,they are still very high quality eye pieces and despite being over 30 years old,these Ep`s are still not passed in quality by ultra modern Eps in likes of TV,ES or anything else.

I personally got rid and getting rid of few modern Ep`s to be replaced with a whole set of 30years old eye pieces first part of set has been posted and i expect them to be with me in a weeks time,where second part will be posted in 12 days due to current owner being away on hols.

alternatively Michael get a 21mm Ethos or 20mm ES in 100deg and you will not need 24 or 26mm Nagler,but thats a dangerous route of 100deg  and its either love or hate them. i personally like the 20mm and lower,but getting rid of high mag 100 degs to be replaced with orthos and erlfes.So new box again for me looool.

Very nice looking collection Faulksy and grats on almost completing a set of BGO`s. Just 7mm left to get.

nicely written and spot on explanations to every beginning astro fan what to expect and what can be achievable.

your triplet with short focus travel is meant to be for astro photography where you do not require long focus travels and only one camera sits there pritty much permanently attached.For visual use focuser travel on refractors is normally much longer and rarely will require any extension tubes.You have 2 options there if you like your triplet:

1.Continue using it with a bunch of ext.tubes

2.Change focuser to one with longer travel what is meant for visual use. 

ED 2" 2x barlow. i intend to use barlow on these 3 EP`s to widen the range.

By default it is 2x but i can unscrew the element and screw onto the EP direct,by doing so this will give x1.25