Louis D

1 hour ago, 25585 said:

Good enough with eye cup screwed down. No need to prise off the rubber volcano top. Dark green coating

No reason to do this anyway.  Do you see the seam in the eyecup about 40% of the way down from the eyelens cap?  That top part screws off from the part with nameplate to reveal M43 threads to attach a camera for afocal projection photography.  That's the max eye relief you can achieve.  Unfortunately, Pentax recessed the eye lens a couple of millimeters for no particular reason compared to their older XL line and the Delos line.  As a result, they have slightly less eye relief than either of those two.

Hold the lens under a bright light.  There are something like 4 distinct colored reflections of the light coming off the eyelens.  Multicoatings at their best.

I guess I'll have to dig out my 2" 0.5x reducer and try it in my 125 Mak with 2" eyepieces someday.  I have yet to find a good use for it.  Perhaps if I was an astrophotographer it might have use for me.

1 hour ago, Lockie said:

A quick look on WEX photographic and I'm clearly priced out of the Gitzo's, but Manfrotto do have the following tripod rated at 9kg in my price range:

https://www.wexphotovideo.com/manfrotto-mt055xpro3-tripod-1549518/

I guess it's either that or a CG5/eq5

I have an older version of the 055 tripod, and it is no where near heavy-duty enough to handle that kind of load.

1 hour ago, Lockie said:

Photo tripods off the table

Professional video tripods can certainly be steady enough to handle heavy loads, though they cost well over $1000 to start.  You're better off to stick with telescope tripods unless you come across a heck of a deal on a used professional level video tripod.

I have my DSV-2B loaded with an AT72ED on one side and a 127 Mak on the other side.  It is mounted on a second-hand Manfrotto 058B tripod.  It is plenty sturdy, and I really like that I can change the splay of the legs to adjust the base height to be low enough to use while sitting, and the geared center column can be used as a variable height pier to make it easier to see objects at zenith.  With Sorbothane pads under each foot, dampening time is about 1/2 second.  It's not light weight, but I would never load that much weight on a lighter tripod.

On 11/25/2017 at 16:20, Moonshane said:

Hi Louis

I am going off memory but it's not CA in the typical sense where it shows as a fringe. Rather it seemed to be flashes of blue and pink as I moved my eye around to take in the view. It was like the moon was flashing colours as I observed and I found it very  irritating. It was present in 26mm Nagler, 16mm Nagler, 13mm Ethos, 17.3mm Deloss and 8mm Delos. To a lesser extent in 10mm and 8mm Radian but never in Delite, older Naglers  or Panoptics. Maybe it's just me or I was misinterpreting what I saw.

I don't know about blue and pink flashes, but I was astonished to see a nice rainbow wash over the field of my 14mm Morpheus when I put the moon near the edge of the field and then tilted my head to examine edge aberrations and sharpness.  I couldn't replicate it very easily, but it was there.  None of my other eyepieces, including my 12mm and 17mm Nagler T4s, showed any rainbow or blue/pink colors across the face of the moon last night.

1 hour ago, Moonshane said:

It was only on the moon John but I look at the moon every time out and need an eyepiece to work on all targets. I've ad the same issue with t5 Naglers but not t1/2. Perhaps it's my eyes!

Please describe in a bit more detail what sort of chromatic aberration you're seeing on the moon.  Is it visible when the moon is centered, at the edge, both?  Is it only on the moon's limb or is it visible across the face of the moon?  I have Delos, XWs, XLs, Panoptics, Meade 4000 UWA, ES-92, AF70s, etc., so I can look for it the next time I observe the moon in each if I know what I'm looking for.  There is some color fringing on the moon's limb at the edge in just about every eyepiece I've ever looked through.  It's usually yellow/violet though it can be red/blue.  I don't know if that's what your referring, though.

8 minutes ago, Timebandit said:

These eyepieces are like Marmite, love or hate relationship.

All this talk of Marmite makes me want to search it out and try it now.

I wonder how the original LVs compare to the SLVs with respect to ease of eye placement.  I never noticed any issues with my 9mm LV.  No kidney beaning, no fussiness.

24 minutes ago, F15Rules said:

I actually preferred the NPL (albeit at 20mm and 30mm) !!?? 

You're getting into the range where you naturally get long eye relief, so specialized designs are no longer necessary for viewing comfort.  Perhaps for improved edge correction, but not for eye relief.

1 hour ago, 25585 said:

Compared to LVW 42mm (still on A US) in its Michelin-man rubber, the Maxview has marginally less eye relief.

Its eye lens is larger however.

I measure 29mm of usable eye relief with the eyecup removed on my 40mm Meade SWA.  The cup probably costs it 3mm to 4mm of eye relief.  The eye lens is 39mm in diameter.  I also measured the AFOV to be 71 degrees.

1 hour ago, 25585 said:

Apart from ever getting that elusive Vixen LVW 22mm, and a nice 2 inch barlow, my eps need is sated. For now.

Famous last words from a budding oculaholic. 

2 hours ago, Timebandit said:

 

 

Looks a great counterweight to get my Dob to balance correctly?

 

 

 

 

?????. I would not start pulling my new eyepiece apart as soon as it comes through the post. I try to keep my new eyepieces in one piece ??

 

 

It was basically unusable due to balance issues (3 lbs with eyecup vs 2 lbs without) and not being able to get my nose alongside the eyepiece (long nose).  Same thing with the mushroom top 30mm ES-82.  That, and there was no way I was ripping so much extra pick-n-pluck foam out of my eyepiece case just to make room for the eyecup which I would always leave down anyway.  I had some misgivings, but after I was done and using them without cups, I was so satisfied I had sucked it up and removed the caps.

2 hours ago, 25585 said:

Not a LVW, but hopefully as good. 

Eye cup does screw up but is loose. It comes off completely leaving a bare metal red rim. 

Screwed down or removed made no difference to eye relief. I could see almost the FOV, less than on my LVWs. The eye lens is slightly concave but near top so not very recessed. 

This 2 incher is heavy, more than my 30mm NVLW, not much difference between this Orion & a 42mm LVW. 

Good feel to the construction and broad rubber grip ring. 

This 20 does not replace the LVW 22mm I want, but hopefully will dampen my yearning. Onto bigger things!

Looking forward to your first light reports on all of your new eyepieces.

2 hours ago, 25585 said:

ES MaxVision 40mm 68 degrees. I have lighter dumbell weights! Nicknamed "Hulk"

If it uses a glue similar to the Meade 5000 SWA line, it's easy to decloak this eyepiece.  I did that to my 40mm Meade SWA soon after buying it.  Just pry up the rubber cap from the metal ring with a butter knife (plastic may work as well to avoid marring anything).  Once this is done, the screw and bushing that the helical slot rides on becomes visible and can be unscrewed from the main body.  After removing the screw and bushing, the entire metal eyecup slides up and off.  You can then put the rubber cap back on it for storage.  Don't lose the little screw.  I put it in a baggy in the eyepiece box along with the eyecup for storage.  Next, clean off the lubricant from the main eyepiece housing, and you have a much more manageable, though still huge, eyepiece.

1 hour ago, John said:

The prices were good but once import duty and handling charges were added on the price was pretty much the same as it would have been within the EU.

Every time I read posts like this, I get infuriated.  As long as I stay under $800/day, I pay no import duties.  Sales tax is never applied to imports.  So much for free trade and reciprocity with the US.  Y'all need to start a Tea Party type of revolution over there to get government off your backs.  Brexit was a good start.

5 hours ago, Alan White said:

Where on earth are you finding the LVW's?
I am most jealous of the 13mm.

Hope they and the LV's all provide visual delight for you.

 

I found 6 ads for various LVWs just for the month of October on CN classifieds.  Perhaps they were more common on this side of the pond.

1 hour ago, 25585 said:

Just a Jessops camera kit bag with moveable, padded dividers inside. LVWs lie on their sides, LVs stand upright. 

 

Orion USA has a this dedicated eyepiece waist case.  It was reviewed on CN a decade ago.  It's probably best for small to mid-sized eyepieces.  The fact it is still being sold 10 years later speaks volumes about it.

2 hours ago, 25585 said:

Not  sure how the latter would compare to a 50mm LVW

It's a 50mm LV or 50mm NLV, not LVW.  The LV predates the LVWs and is only 45 degrees.  The NLV is recently discontinued, but also has a 45 degree AFOV.  I would stick with the 42mm LVW.  Hopefully you'll give your impressions report on it soon.  Here's a 2005 CN report on it and the 40mm Pentax XL and 40mm Rodenstock.

16 hours ago, celestron8g8 said:

Honestly I cannot tell the difference  in the prism

 The Celestron XLT to which you linked is a mirror diagonal, not a prism diagonal.  Is the 1.25" diagonal that came with your C8 also a mirror as opposed to a prism diagonal?

6 hours ago, 25585 said:

Eye lens diameter is 27mm (just noticed cup fold is torn & lens has prev owners finger print)

The Nagler T1 eld is 25mm. Holding this venerable ep to my un-bespectacled eye, rigidly, I can see about 70 degs. Twitch my nose & less!

Yeah, I've read more than few reports saying that the Vixen LVW was a bit shy of having the XL's eye relief.  Having a 3mm smaller eye lens would seem to support this view.

My 20 year old 9mm Vixen LV cup has all sorts of stress cracks in it.  I'm just waiting for the day it splits entirely.  I'm also not surprised at all by the finger print.

It sounds like the 14mm Meade 4000 UWA might be a good choice to swap your 13mm T1 for.  You can't really get any more than about 14mm of eye relief with that sized eye lens.  The Meade calculates out to 18mm of maximum eye relief, and I measured it at 17mm from the top of the housing using flashlight projection.  I directly compared it to the 14mm Morpheus, and the Morpheus's 37mm eye lens, 19mm measured eye relief, and measured 78 degree AFOV are hands down easier to use than the Meade's measured 80 degree field of view.  Yet, there was something special about that Meade I can't put into words.  Of course, nothing compares to the 17mm ES-92.  I swapped it in and out, and it was phenomenal.  Easy to use 17mm of usable eye relief, 43mm eye lens, 93 degree measured AFOV, pinpoint stars edge to edge, super crisp field stop, no egg-like distortion of the moon as it nears the edge, great glare control.  ES really knocked it out of the park with that one.

16 hours ago, 25585 said:

The eye cup pulls of, but doing so does not increase eye relief - but the cup rolls down. Eye relief is actually a better "20mm" than LV & (more definitely) SLV eps.

Yeah, I was really annoyed by having to roll down the stiff rubber eyecup of the LV series everytime I wanted to use it.  Occasionally, I'd slip and put a fingerprint on the eyelens.  The Pentax XL line (competitor at the time) could be stored cup down, so no issues using it straight out of the case.  That, and it screws up and down, so much easier to set the height than rolling.

FYI, can you measure the diameter of the eye lens?  The contemporary Pentax XLs (also 65 degrees) have 30mm eye lenses.  The XWs (70 degrees) have 35mm eye lenses by comparison.  The 9mm LV (50 degrees) has a 23mm eyelens.

16 hours ago, 25585 said:

One minor irk is that the LVW's cap, as for LV range, is too narrow to go over a rolled down eye cup.

Yep, my finding as well.  Thus, 20 years ago I went with Pentax.  Yes, the 14mm and 20mm have field curvature, but back then, I could accomodate it.  Even today, it's not bad because stars are pinpoint at the edge once refocused.

14 hours ago, 25585 said:

I would swap my Nagler 13mm T1 for a LVW 22mm, but unlikely to happen.....

I just picked up a smooth side Meade 14mm 4000 UWA recently.  With its 33mm eye lens, it is relatively easy to take in the entire 80 (measured) degree AFOV with eyeglasses.  Certainly much easier than with either a 12mm or 17mm Nagler T4.  I measured 17mm of usable eye relief and no SAEP (kidney beaning).  Stars are short, thin lines pointing back to center at the edge, but astigmatism seems well controlled, so it's just a function of the design.  It is also flat of field as far as I could discern.  Overall, not bad for a 30 year old design.

6 hours ago, 25585 said:

SLV 25mm. 

Compared to the LV20mm, the SLV25mm has slightly less effective eye relief as the cup and more recessed eye lens make a difference, though marginal. With spectacles neither gives whole FOV, without both do - the SLV still needing it's cup at lowest position but avoids eyelash smear which LV does not. 

SLV is slightly heavier but easier to hold. 

Waiting for a decent night to test both out on the night sky now. 

The LV eyecup can be rolled all the way down flush with the top of the eyepiece.  You're giving up 3mm to 5mm with it part of the way down as in your top photo.  I've measure my 9mm LV to have 18mm of usable eye relief with the cup rolled all of the way down.  It's very comfortable with eyeglasses to see the entire field.

4 hours ago, 25585 said:

Not noticed a curved field as such. I notice effects on smaller objects more than viewscapes though. 

Is a curved field most apparent when panning?

The curved field effect when panning is known as pincushion distortion.  It's also known as the rolling ball or globe effect.  Basically, the image is magnified more in the center than the edge.  It's still sharp and in focus everywhere, so it's not considered an aberration.

The curved field issue, as John did such a good job of defining and explaining, is when you can't bring the entire image into focus at once.  Young folks may not even be able to perceive it because of focus accommodation in their eyes.  I never noticed it in my 14mm Pentax XL 20 years ago, but I sure notice it now that I have presbyopia.  Basically, an object goes out of focus as it is moved from center to edge.  The image has to be refocused to make it sharp at the edge.  This assumes it's possible to do this.  An eyepiece with astigmatism at the edge may not be able to bring any object to a sharp focus at the edge no matter what position the focuser is set at.

6 minutes ago, 25585 said:

I have a TV 55mm Plossl as finder ep mainly. Did not know a 50LV made. Considering the 41 though. 

I have the 40mm Meade SWA 5000 and find it to be basically perfectly corrected across the flat field with pinpoint stars from axis to edge, much better than the 30mm ES-82.  It also has sharp field stop.  Multiple reporters have agreed that the 41mm Panoptic is also sharp across the field but has a fuzzy field stop.  You might still be able to find the 40mm Maxvision equivalent new for much less than the Panoptic.  Its weight can be reduced significantly by decloaking it.

I was interested in picking up a 35mm Panoptic until I read that it has a curved field like the 14mm and 20mm Pentax XLs/XWs.  Have you noticed it having a curved field?

3 hours ago, 25585 said:

Didn't. But as I also have a 35mm Panoptic, surely that must be better?!

I would like to try a 31mm Nagler as it's eye relief is 19mm. Need a store with it in stock. 

I'm sure the Panoptic is better.  However, if you were trying to complete a set, that would be a reason to buy it.  The 50mm LV is even more rare.

I have yet to try the 31mm Nagler for eye relief, but the original style 30mm ES-82 with the mushroom eyeguard is just usable with eyeglasses.  It's also sold as the Meade UWA and Celestron Axiom.  It's a little tight, but still doable to get a reasonably well corrected 82 degree field.

1 hour ago, 25585 said:

Had I not got a TV 32mm Plossl, I would buy a 30 LV too. 

You do realize the 30mm LV is a 2" eyepiece with a 60 degree field so not really comparable to a 32mm 1.25" plossl with a 50 degree field?

Impressive they still had the original box and caps all these years later.

I've got a 20 year old 9mm Vixen LV that I still use occasionally.  Very comfortable and sharp to the edge.  I'm sure you'll enjoy your 15mm version.  They're vastly undervalued on the used market, often going for $50 to $70 here in the states.  Mine was $90+ when new 20 years ago.

20 hours ago, ImmortalBee said:

Mine's not worthy of this thread  I have the EPs in their original boxes (except for a Meade 4000 series Plossl which I have in its little bottle inside a padded case) inside a plastic toolbox with gaps filled in using packing foam chips.

Nothing wrong with that as long as it protects your kit well.  I have my miscellaneous astro bits and pieces packed in a plastic tool box.  It has worked well for over 15 years.