5mm + 10mm nagler or 10mm nagler and 2x powermate

[OneEyedSam]

Decisions decisions...

for roughtly the same outlay you can buy 2 naglers 5 + 10mm, or get the 10 and use a powermate to give you the 5....

Thoughts anyone would the 10 + powermate be much different to the standalone 5 ???

[swamp thing]

Hi Sam

Televue don't make a 10mm Nagler. A 9mm or 11mm but no 10mm. They do make a 5mm.

TBH I use the 2" Powermate and it's an awesome tool. It's no different than using the equivalent eyepiece.

I have the 12mm T4 this Barlows extremely well giving me a 6mm Nagler with great eye relief and a huge eye lens. Mmmmmnice.

[newman]

If it's a question between two eyepieces or one ep + powermate, I'd just get two eyepieces to cut down on the amount of fiddling required when swapping eyepieces in the dark. But if you own other eyepieces the powermate would be useful with, than it's worth considering. Either way, you won't go wrong as both Naglers and the Powermates are excellent pieces of kit, so it's mostly down to personal preference. Of course, the lack of a 10mm Nagler might have you re-plan your collection. There's a 10mm Ethos and it's brilliant but also a lot more expensive than 9 or 11mm Naglers. Another option would be a 10mm Delos, if you don't mind a 72 deg AFOV as opposed to Nagler's 82 degree one. The Delos are based on the same design as Ethoi, and basically described as performing on par / even surpassing the Ethos by a small amount, with a smaller AFOV and a much lower price tag. This does make them an interesting choice imo.

[OneEyedSam]

Yes, sorry 11mm !

Great endoresement, lots of options and possiblities (just working out the permutations in excel for a given focal length and eyepeice/powemate combination

Of course, I'm using 1.25", so the powermate is 2.5x not 2x

Are their barlows worth considering ?

[newman]

I haven't tried a Tele Vue Barlow, but I've also only read favorable reviews on them. Or any TV gear for that matter.

[swamp thing]

With your long focus scope. You could afford to put considerably cheaper eyepiece in it than Naglers, Ethos, or Delos.

Noting wrong with buying premium Televue products of course but you could get equal results with a lot cheaper designs, if you wish to save yourself some considerable expense.

[OneEyedSam]

Steve, I had read that before, but didnt really beleive it....whats the reasoning ?

..and by cheaper designs, what would you suggest.

[newman]

The reasoning is that "faster" (lower f/ratio) scopes are more demanding on eyepiece quality. The steeper light cone with such scopes will make any optical aberrations or defects way more noticable. An affordable eyepiece that works great at f/8 often won't work well at all at f/5 or below. That all being said, you do get what you pay for. Premium quality means more rigorous quality testing, better coatings, body design, etc. Since I consider eyepieces a one time investment which I intend to keep for a long, long time (short of dropping one on the floor), I find it still pays to invest in premium quality if finances allow it. They'll always work great, no matter what scope you try use them on.

To answer your question though, I've heard very good things about the Celestron X-Cel LX line. Haven't tried one myself, though, but if I were in the market for a reasonably priced good performer, I'd give that line a serious look.

[OneEyedSam]

All good information, I know my Hyp. Zoom gets a good write up, but I do find it a little "soft" at the 8mm end of the range.

I agree, an EP is for life, not just for xmas ... and I do eventually want a 80-100mm refractor, so the nagler would cover all the bases....

tricky stuff

[swamp thing]

What Newman has written is true.

There are a few good eyepieces that work extremely well even in fast scopes that are considerably cheaper than the TV ones. The UWANS, Nirvana's are very good indeed. The Meade UWA,S work too. These will all work fine in any Scope.

I've only mentioned wide angle eyepieces as Naglers are what you were originally posting about.

If you are prepared to lose a few degrees AFOV, Pentax among others is a name that often comes up.

If budget is a factor any of these other brands would see you well.

[OneEyedSam]

I'll look at those brands plus the baader hyps. My mate has the 10mm baader and its a got a fabulous wide field of view, and was discernably (just) sharper than the zoom set at 10. Also the Baader genuine ortho (6mm??) for planets, all food for thought during these rainy times....

[newman]

What you need to know about BGO's, or any orthoscopics for that matter, is that eye relief on orthoscopics is typically just a bit below the eyepiece's focal length. I'd expect a 5mm BGO's eye relief to be a bit below 4mm, or at least around that figure. This is something to keep in mind if you wear glasses or simply dislike almost touching the eyepiece with your eye. Another drawback of orthoscopics is a relatively narrow AFOV, iirc around 42 degrees (someone correct me with an exact figure if I missed it). With BGO's, however, these two are the only drawbacks and the views through them are otherwise excellent. It's just good to be aware of any optical design's limitations before buying. If tight eye relief bothers you, you could always consider barlowing a 10mm orthoscopic instead of using a 5mm one - this would give you close to 10mm eye relief. Just need a good quality 2x barlow so you don't lose out on the sharpness and light transmission.

[OneEyedSam]

OK, whilst i dont wear glasses, I do want some eye relief.. thanks for the heads up.

This whole effort started when I let my wife look through my scope at saturn .... "Is that it" were her exact words, "why dont you buy a bigger telescope".... well my initial reaction was to take her at her word and upgrade to 11" .. BUT hand on heart I love my 8SE and am sure a better set of EPs plus something at the higher mag end of the scale for planets would be a better use of my childrens inheritance....I'm thinking 300-350x is the realistic limit, so I want to get something around the 6mm mark, so my wife can get a good view of saturno....does that sound about right

[faulksy]

you will struggle to use that sort of power i have managed just below 300x with my scope but its very rare, the image will not be sharp so what you gain in size you will lose in clarity