Mak the Night

I can get a 3.1mm exit pupil on my Mak with the 40mm enabling me to use a UHC filter. The 32mm is a much nicer EP to use from an ergonomic point of view if I don't utilise the UHC filter. So, I have the choice.

I wouldn't say that I have a lot of eyepieces, but the variety can be enjoyable. Recently I was observing M42 with my 16mm Nagler at about 81x. It looked great, but I dropped down to 54x with a 24mm Panoptic for an alternative view. Next I used a 40mm Plossl with a UHC filter for 32.5x to see more of the nebulae cloud. I finished with an immersive view right up there in the nebulae cloud at 130x with a 10mm Delos. Four very different and very enjoyable views of one target object with a 4" Mak. I think having a comprehensive eyepiece collection can add to the enjoyment of the hobby. I couldn't have had those views with the 10 and 25mm EP's that were supplied with the 4" Mak!

There's still room for more vertically stacked cases yet!

New home for a pair of orphaned SWANs as their original home had been invaded by some orthoscopics with attitude. And ... my foam fitting OCD finally cuts in ...

Orion case purged of any eyepieces with old-style safety undercuts. Anti-clockwise starting with a 40mm Plossl are TeleVue 25mm, 20mm, 11mm and 8mm Plossls. Then an 18mm Astro Hutech orthoscopic and a 15mm Celestron Kellner. In the centre are a TeleVue 2.5x Powermate, a 2x Barlow and a 16mm Nagler T5.

Bino Case Revision Umpteen Plus One!

Celestron 'Luminos' not Luminosity! I hate the spell checker on Android! Lol Below: The 10mm 'Luminosity' combined with a TeleVue 3x Barlow. The Luminos is a nicely made and engineered eyepiece although it can suffer from visual problems, particularly with the 10mm version. Plus, it has an old style safety undercut which can often hinder a smooth extraction from Barlows like the TV 3x above which features a brass compression ring. Especially problematical if, like me, you have a physical disability. Smooth barrelled eyepieces and those with the newer tapered lower lip undercuts work fine. The combination Luminos/3x Barlow did produce superb results at 270x with some planetary objects, particularly Venus and Saturn. Saturn looked magnificent at that magnification and the 17mm field stop and 82° Nagler-like FOV were very useful for keeping the target in frame. I bought the Luminos predominantly for lunar viewing as I like its 'spacewalk' view. However, it can suffer glaring and whiteout problems sometimes, which at first I thought were due to conditions. After comparing it side by side with a 19mm TeleVue Panoptic I realised the problem was with the Luminos. I don't regret buying it though, even though it has now been replaced with a 10mm Delos.

When you say unusable what do you mean exactly? A 10mm Plossl can be hard work compared to a 13mm as it is significantly smaller. Those 3mm make a lot of difference IMO. A 10mm Delos on the other hand is a very rewarding experience. When conditions are good I can easily get over 200x with my scopes. I've had good lunar and planetary views in the past with a 10mm Celestron Luminosity combined with a 3x Barlow to give 270x.

Depending on how big, bear in mind that a 13mm EP will be getting close to the maximum usable power in an SCT if you have any light polution. My CPC1100 (2.8m focal length) performs best at around 17mm and needs good seeing to allow the E13mm to show its best. It depends on what you are looking at I guess. I live in the greenbelt in a village bordering farmland away from town lights so light pollution isn't bad. A 13mm EP will give me 180x on a 2350mm f/l scope, which is a nice planetary magnification. I regularly get an easy 200x plus with a 4" Mak and could get a good 300x with a 130mm Newtonian, so I'm pretty sure I'll get those with a 9.25" SCT.

Start with the TV 40mm Plossl - no point having it and the 32mm as they show the same FOV. Then move on to two or three of those diagonals - how many do you need? Next is the 15mm TV Plossl and then the 16mm T5 Nagler. You now have enough for an Ethos 13mm and haven't lost much in terms of flexibility of your kit You know it makes sense Hmmm ... I'm not so sure. A ridiculous amount of logic (we're talking Mr Spock-like logic here lol) went into those eyepiece choices. OK, maybe not the TV 8mm Plossl, that may have been genuine OCD (I so wanted the set). The TV 40mm Plossl gives me a 3.1mm exit pupil on my 4" Mak enabling me to utilise a Baader UHC-S filter. The 40mm Plossl’s FOV is actually only 43° I believe as opposed to the 50° of the TV 32mm Plossl. Both enable me to have decent low power combined with wide exit pupils on my Mak (f/12.7) and the 235mm SCT I plan on getting. As I'm planning on keeping the Mak as well, possibly used with a lighter alt-az mount as a grab'n'go. All of the diagonals have a particular use, The William Optics is an erecting diagonal with a helical focuser and brass compression ring so no good for a bino with its helical focuser.Celestron EP's with safety undercuts can hang-up in the WO compression ring but TV & WO EP's are fine. The Celestron is a conventional diagonal without a compression ring, the Antares & TS Optics are also Amici prism diagonals neither has compression rings and are used predominantly with my binoviewer. The Antares diagonal has a shorter nosepiece and filters can be more easily threaded and stacked without it poking too far into the Mak and colliding with the mirror. The bino is used mainly for lunar and planetary as I like a correct image view for that. The 15mm TV Plossls are for the binoviewer and will give me magnifications of (approx) 87x, 139x and 173x with my Mak and 157x, 251x and 313x with the 235mm SCT I am planning to get. All good planetary magnifications for the respective apertures. The 16mm T5 Nagler, apart from being one of my all time favourites, is light enough to combine with a Powermate for 200x views on my Mak yet will give me a nice 82° FOV, 81x on its own. Around 80x is one of my favourite magnifications for M42. The Nagler will also give 147x, and with a 2x Barlow, 294x on the proposed SCT. I'll get the Ethos anyway, eventually. *wink* "Fascinatingly logical, Captain ... " *Leonard Nimoy voice*

Sell stuff! Shock horror! I'm getting a much bigger SCT soon, so I'll certainly consider an Ethos then. I've never regretted buying a TeleVue eyepiece, not even the 8mm Plossl. Although I think I've only used it once. It's there for when I need an 8mm Plossl.

The thing with this thread being basically 'eyepiece pr0n' ... it makes me want to buy more eyepieces lol. Seriously though, I love looking at the eyepiece collections here. Keep 'em coming. If the weather prevents me from looking at actual astronomical stuff in the night sky, at least I can drool over some of the great collections here. I so want a 13mm Ethos ...

Yeah, one of the best views I had of Jupiter was with a cheap Celestron Kellner. A lot of it is luck and conditions.

Binocase revision umpteen! I've added my Celestron 32mm Plossl in a correspondingly big square hole, proving that round eyepieces will fit in square holes! Although for normal cyclops stargazing I prefer my 32mm TeleVue Plossl, this Celestron (originally from the Celestron Eyeopener Kit) still rocks. Due to being disabled and consequently inherently lazy (lol), I tend to just take the one bino case out for bino sessions. As I usually have to reposition my chair back in front of the diagonal after finding the target with the RACI (in a seated position) the 32mm with its low power wide kick-ass view is useful to re-acquire the target before I place the set-up bino unit in the diagonal (I have to sit on a ground sheet to thread or place anything into the bino before insertion into the diagonal). I like to make sure everything is tightened up and secure before insertion as I can only effectively utilise my left hand to manipulate everything. Plus, it seemed a shame to leave the Celestron 32mm Plossl gathering dust on a shelf, and nobody likes to be left on the shelf!

Ooh ... very nice!

It should be able to thread into something in the light train.

Revision # umpteen: Orion case with 40mm TV Plossl plus eyeguard extender and snug as a bug in a rug.

I think a lot of astronomy is experimentation. It's good to push the envelope.

Thanks. There seems to be some subjectivity to how specific exit pupil sizes can be utilised on particular targets. At least if you are aware of the advantages and disadvantages of different designs of telescopes you can predict how they will behave, hopefully lol. Because of clouds I haven't had a chance to look at M42 with the 40mm Plossl. It will be interesting to view the nebula cloud with the UHC filter with an exit pupil of just over 3mm.

Well ... apart from the fact I can say I now own all of the current 1.25" TV Plossls (it's an OCD thing lol) ... my reasoning is that, if I've got my sums right, I will get a 3.14mm exit pupil on my 102mm Mak for a 32.5x magnification. It's the best I'll get on the Mak to utilise the Baader UHC-S filter on some nebulae, particularly M42. Plus the 40mm will work well on the 235mm aperture SCT I plan on getting next year. Although the 24mm Pan gives me 54x it only gives me a 1.89mm exit pupil, which is fine, but it darkens the M42 nebula with the filter a bit too much for my liking. I found the 32mm Plossl gave a brighter image with the filter, although it was reduced to 41x. So, I would like to see how brighter it will be at relatively decent 32.5x with the Baader filter. A few days ago I observed M42 with the 10mm Delos (unfiltered) and I could see the trapezium quite well. It looked great, but I was curious about how low a magnification I could get on the Mak as well. The 10mm gave me 130x which I think is probably the maximum decent magnification on a 4" Mak for M42. So the 40mm Plossl was a logical step for a useful low magnification on a f/12.7 Mak.

Slight revision. Modified Celestron case now with 40mm TV Plossl.

Recently Modified Celestron Eyeopener case, 10mm Delos replacing a 10mm Luminos.

Orion case, now modified with the aid of a Swiss Army Knife and the use of some profanity, for carrying extra filters and with an additional 15mm TV Plossl.

Not quite Panzerfaust? lol

You're welcome, you may find this interesting. http://www.brayebrookobservatory.org/BrayObsWebSite/HOMEPAGE/forum/Smyth-Barlow%20lenses.html