Wide angle eyepieces

[nitram100]

Hi guys,

I'm looking for a 2" low power wide angle eyepeice, something like a moonfish eyepiece. However, my scope is f4.8 and i've read that wide angle's don't work too well on faster scopes? can anybody recommend a good eyepiece that work relatively well with my scope?

I was looking at this one,

http://moonfishgroup.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=50&osCsid=2bca792218e7e4cbd0d17002fb4b091b

Has anybody used this eyepiece with a short focal ratio newt?

Thanks,

Martin

[GordonCopestake]

Depends on your budget. You pay for good performance in fast 'scopes. The best eyepiece is the 31mm T5 nagler which has great correction in almost any speed 'scope however it's about £500 new. The moonfish (GSO) eyepiece works well in 'scopes past say f/6. That being said, it depends on how you feel about coma, like chromatic aberation it affects different people differently.

As an aside, I have a 30mm 80 degree GSO eyepiece (identical to the moonfish branded one) for sale second hand in the buy/sell section.

[blinky]

Steve (FLO) Recomended I buy a 26mm 2" Revelation which I duly did and am VERY pleased with it. You really notice the diffrence with the wide angle. I have an F5 scope and I think anything else just does not give much magnification, turns your scope in to a large finder scope! The revelation cost about £50'ish and is a beautifull eyepiece to hold, well actually its the only 2" EP I have but it really feels like a quality piece of kit. I 'think' it comes from the same factory as Moonfish so it is the same thing but cheaper

[tom.yates]

35 panoptic £200 SECOND HAND

[FLO]

Blinky, the 26 and 30mm Revelation's (GSO) are 70 degree FOV so are different to the ultra-wide eyepiece in Martin's link.

Martin, if you don't ask too much (FOV) from a sub £100 eyepiece, you should be pleased. I have used both the Revelation 26 and 30mm 70 degree FOV 2" eyepieces in scopes down to f5. Whilst they won't give Pentax or Televue anything to worry about, they are still surprisingly good.

[nitram100]

Hi guys, thanks alot for the info!

I think in this situation, ignorance is bliss as i haven't a clue what coma and spherical abberation are, on a few of my eyepieces, things get slightly warped and soft towards the edges, i just that this was normal and hasn't really bothered me before, do you think if i can accept this then i can accept the shortcomings of a wide angle eyepiece on my f4.8?

Thanks again!

Martin

[Andrew*]

I caught a Meade SWA 32mm eyepiece off eBay for £65 and am mighty impressed with it. Its views are sharp almost to the very edge in my f/5 scope, and there's little if any false colour. Its FOV is quite generous too.

Andrew

[MartinB]

You will learn a lot about distortion if you use the moonfish 30mm UWA with that scope. I think it will be horrible. I have one. It is brilliant with my F10 SCT but only marginal with my ED80 - a lot of edge of field distortion. You need seriously good optics for ultra wide field with such a fast scope and you have to question whether you actually need such a wide field - you won't be able to take it all in in one go. It really pays with an SCT which has a narrow fov.

[moondog]

Yes, like Martin I have the Moonfish 30mm OWA. It's very impressive with the F9 TAL125R, but very unimpressive with the faster F6.8 Revelation 80ED. Edge distortion and softening in outer 60-70% of EP, and an F4.8 scope would be far worse.

MD