Naglers 1st light

[John]

I've recently splashed out on a couple of used-but-mint Tele Vue Naglers - a 5mm Type 6 and a 13mm Type 6. A big investment for me but as I'm now down to a single scope now I figured I might as well treat it to some nice eyepieces !.

Had my 1st views with them tonight and they are truly impressive. In my relatively short focal length scope (F6.5) the stars really were sharp right across to the very edge of the 82 degree field. The double cluster in Perseus was a sight for sore eyes through both - in the 5mm I could still get both clusters in the field of view even at 132x !.

The Dumbell Nebula showed good contrast through the 13mm and the 5mm showed a wonderful enlarged image that enabled me to really study the nebula.

One of the nice things about the wide field of view is that, even at higher powers I've got more time to study objects as they drift across the field (I mainly use an alt-az setup at the moment). I've also found that these EP's barlow well (2x Celestron Ultima barlow) - overkill with the 5mm of course but with the 13mm you get a 6.5mm with 12mm of eye relief and still retaining the 82 degree field- there is probably some loss of light transmission (10 glass elements !) but I could not notice it when comparing the view with that of an unbarlowed Tele Vue 8mm Plossl.

I also used the 5mm on Alberio in Cygnus and that coloured double was beautifully defined. The 13mm had no problems with Polaris and it's 9th magnitude companion as you would expect.

I guess the shorter focal length Naglers might not be everyones choice of high power eyepiece but, as a regular user of an alt-azimuth mounted scope that wide field of view is very helpful and the objects stay sharp and very well defined right across it.

I've got a 7mm Nagler on the way now as well but that is the older type 1 design so it will be interesting to see how that compares to the more up to date type 6 design.

They say once you have tried a Nagler (or other brands of premium wide field eyepieces) there is no going back - unfortunately (for my bank balance) I think I understand what they mean now

I can't wait to see a crescent moon in a 132x 82 degree field - a "space walk" experience perhaps ?

John

[tom.yates]

Yep superb eyepieces in a class of there own

[Whippy]

Nice one John. One day I'll have some, one day......

Tony..

[Albireo380]

Good report John. I have the 13mm T6 Nagler as well, and it is the cream of my (slowly expanding) eyepiece collection. Pin sharp to the edge and Wiiiiiiide FOV.

Tom

[GordonCopestake]

The 13T6 is a great eyepiece, i've not tried the 5T6 yet. Nice review John