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BGO's out of favour?

A McEwan

By A McEwan
in Discussions - Eyepieces

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A McEwan

A McEwan

Posted
Posted

Hi,

I seem to remember that at the beginning of the year the whole world was crying out for Baader Genuine Ortho's. I myself completed a set of them, selling some volcano-top circle-T ortho's to help fund them.

Just now there seem to have been an awful lot of adverts for BGO's on the classifieds. Now having used them for solar and nighttime observing for the last several months, I can't find any obvious flaws with them so will be keeping mine as I love the views that they give.

Is it the eye relief that people can't put up with, or the slightly narrower than a Plossl field of view? I'm happy to "put up" with both for the intensity of the views that I get through them...

Ant :icon_salut:

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paul mc c

paul mc c

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I have a 9mm BGO which i replaced an 8mm TV with,and it is an eyepiece that wont be going anywhere,in fact a am hoping to add a 6mm BGO any minute now[just waiting on an email].

I also am happy to put up with the eyerelief and fov as you say Ant,for the excellent views they give.

Paul

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John

John

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Over the years I've browsed the used equipment market I've noticed short lived trends like this from time to time. Don't know what it is, coincidence, fashion, who knows ?.

Last year large achromats could be picked up for peanuts but they are have had a surge of interest lately so the prices seem to have picked up. Thats your fault Ant :icon_salut:

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Moonshane

Moonshane

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I have a 9mm BGO which i replaced an 8mm TV with,and it is an eyepiece that wont be going anywhere,in fact a am hoping to add a 6mm BGO any minute now[just waiting on an email].

I also am happy to put up with the eyerelief and fov as you say Ant,for the excellent views they give.

Paul

hi Paul - glad you like it! I am buying another now I have the funds to replace the one you bought - have been saving for a bit to get some money back in the pot after buying a Giro mount.

the 9mm really hits the sweet spot on my 6" f11 dob at 178x and I miss it.

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andrew63

andrew63

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I have a 9mm BGO which i replaced an 8mm TV with,and it is an eyepiece that wont be going anywhere,in fact a am hoping to add a 6mm BGO any minute now[just waiting on an email].

I also am happy to put up with the eyerelief and fov as you say Ant,for the excellent views they give.

Paul

Out of interest how did the view in general compare to the TV8 - as the TV as a good reputation as a planetary lens.

andrew

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A McEwan

A McEwan

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I apologise here and now for any effect I may have had on the market for large achromats... :D

I wonder if it can be as simple as people discussing things in the forums, then wanting to try them out? The people who like them keep them but the ones who don't then sell them on, producing a brief (or not so brief) spate of adverts in the classifieds.

Right everybody, lets all talk about the Skywatcher 150mm ED Esprit.... :icon_salut:

Ant

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Moonshane

Moonshane

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unless you need a wider field for the object you are observing, for me they are the best eyepieces you can buy for about £50 used.

at 178x in my 6" f11 it takes Jupiter about 52 seconds to traverse the eyepiece so even without a driven mount the nudging is not too bad.

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Moonshane

Moonshane

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Your making me feel bad Shane...but i will get over it! It is a lovely eyepiece mate.

Paul

seriously mate, don't. it allowed me to get a great mount and I can now buy a new one with the funds I have accrued since! I had to fall back on my 13mm Ethos and 10/8mm Radians so I survived OK :icon_salut:

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andrew63

andrew63

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Thanks for that Paul - i'm after a lens for DSO of around 12mm- in my 4" 60x - the choice is 11mm TV plossl but from what has been said about these BGO a 12.5 could be a serious option - perhaps it will have an edge on faint smudges too! Also a lot less of a financial outlay than say an 11mm nagler, the more natural choice.

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spaceboy

spaceboy

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My BGO's are by far the best EP's I have. It may be a personal thing but I find with a BGO in the focuser I can see so much more detail on planets. Sure the eye relief and lens is tight but I doubt I will ever part with mine. I'm sure they would be great on other targets but the short FOV may let them down on most targets. I'd be interested to see M42 in a BGO.

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great_bear

great_bear

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the TV was a nice eyepiece but compared to the BGO the latter in my eyes was sharper and had better eye relief making it more comfortable to use.

Yeah, that TV 8mm is tough on the eyes! The 9mm BGO on the other hand is pretty effortless for non-eyeglass wearers...

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spaceboy

spaceboy

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40' in an ortho. Super plossls give 50' but it comes at the cost of another lens. Gives a better FOV but there is more glass for the light to travel through and so the argument stands that the BGO is better visually due to the minimalistic design. For planetary work FOV is of no real issue as the main focus is seeing detail on the planet surface but some may prefer to see more of the orbiting moons around a planet at the same time.

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great_bear

great_bear

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40' in an ortho. Super plossls give 50' but it comes at the cost of another lens.

Most "Super Plossls" don't have the extra lens. The Meade Series 5000 Super Plossl - at 60 degree field-of-view - is the obvious exception (Antares Elite Plossl is the other).

But Meade Series 4000 Super Plossls and Sky-Watcher Super Plossls, and indeed Tele Vue Plossls, are all four-element eyepieces just like the Orthos are.

Another curious thing about the BGOs is that although their apparent field of view is "officially" 40 degrees, in practice, it looks a lot more like 45 degrees (although I've not personally measured it). One thing's for sure - it has changed over time. Someone on CN got two different 12.5mm BGOs from different sources and found that the field-stop on one was substantially smaller than the other.

This leads me to believe that the BGOs might have originally been 40 degrees but may now be somewhat larger.

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MjrTom

MjrTom

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I have a decent selection of Televue eyepieces but I still struggling to resist the temptation of a couple of these eyepieces... Just cant make up my mind which focal lengths are best for my scopes.

Thinking 5, 7, 9mm :)

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FLO

FLO

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BGO's out of favour?
They still sell well but we have noticed a shift towards more comfortable models like the William Optics SPL and Celestron X-Cel LX series. They don't have the absolute clarity, contrast and definition of a Baader Genuine Orthoscopic but they aren't far off and offer more eye-relief and a wider FOV.

HTH

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spaceboy

spaceboy

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Most "Super Plossls" don't have the extra lens. The Meade Series 5000 Super Plossl - at 60 degree field-of-view - is the obvious exception (Antares Elite Plossl is the other).

But Meade Series 4000 Super Plossls and Sky-Watcher Super Plossls, and indeed Tele Vue Plossls, are all four-element eyepieces just like the Orthos are.

Another curious thing about the BGOs is that although their apparent field of view is "officially" 40 degrees, in practice, it looks a lot more like 45 degrees (although I've not personally measured it). One thing's for sure - it has changed over time. Someone on CN got two different 12.5mm BGOs from different sources and found that the field-stop on one was substantially smaller than the other.

This leads me to believe that the BGOs might have originally been 40 degrees but may now be somewhat larger.

Thank you for correcting and educating me GB. Sorry for my misguided info Dex.

From what I have read I was under the impression to get the 50' another lens was required and this is what distinguished the super plossl from a standard plossl. You live and learn :)

We are agreed that a BGO is 40' FOV thought ???

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