One Eyepiece

[Mr Moff]

Danny, don't know if I'm too late or if you already knew about it but Telescop Express still have there 'sale' on TeleVue products, I got my 13mm Ethos from there and saved a few quid plus it only took 3 days for delivery.

Thanks for that mike, I didn't know about it so I'm gonna check it out right away.

[allen g]

21 ethos is my all around favorite. Does it all in my 8" LX 90. Super quality and great space walk experience.

[alan potts]

Very interesting, some slightly longer focal lengths coming into play. First showing of the 21mm Ethos from Allen G and at the price is there any wonder, still I would love to have one. One can buy a good scope for the price. It is one of those eyepieces where I would need to look through it first, be smitten and then dig deep, very deep!

Keep them coming, no prizes to winner but I may just buy another eyepiece, I think the ethos range is out in front at the moment and the frontrunner is the 13mm, my must be some eyepiece.

Alan.

[Moonshane]

obviously you need to keep in mnd that although yes, the Ethos is a superb eyepiece in all honesty when I look through my 15mm TV plossl, the view is virtually the same other than the field. there may be very slight gains in contrast, detail and sharpness but you won't see anything in the Ethos that a plossl won't reveal.

[swamp thing]

1341392918[/url'>' post='1565278']no prizes to winner but I may just buy another eyepiece, I think the ethos range is out in front at the moment and the frontrunner is the 13mm, my must be some eyepiece.

Alan.

Worth bearing in mind is what people are recommending in scopes closest to your own scopes aperture/s

[fredster]

Fredster is cheating a bit, I like that man. I am very suprised with the tight focal range so far with the exception of Fredster picking a zoom which is still in range of the others.

I was surprised no one else had gone for one already. The only draw back on the zoom is the narrow field at the low power end. Basically Ortho narrow.

But the real question is, could anyone really get by with only one eyepiece? That would just take away some of the fun. It's great switching eyepieces, changing views.

[swamp thing]

But the real question is, could anyone really get by with only one eyepiece? That would just take away some of the fun. It's great switching eyepieces, changing views.

Many nights I have realised I've only used one eyepiece. In my 10" Dob, it's often my 20mm Nagler that's wedged in there all night, only giving way so I can drop the Powermate in to up the mag.

[Mr Moff]

Many nights I have realised I've only used one eyepiece. In my 10" Dob, it's often my 20mm Nagler that's wedged in there all night, only giving way so I can drop the Powermate in to up the mag.

Ive also had many nights with just one eyepiece. Mostly the tv plossl 25mm, or the Hyperion 31mm.

its funny,when I first started this I thought I'd spend most of my time on high mag eyepieces. But it didn't turn out that way.

when I first joined this forum everyone said lower mag is more usefull but I secretly thought they were wrong.

I'm happy to say I was wrong.

[alan potts]

STeve,

Point taken on the scopes, but I have a fair section to play with. What is interesting is most people are going medium power, no one yet has gone anywhere near 30mm.

Fredster, I agree you couldn't get by with one eyepiece for long, it's only a bit of fun and it has been eye opening for me a least. When I first started I couldn't afford any more than one eyepiece for 5 months or more, all I had was a Dixons 3 inch refractor with a 25mm EP that I guess was rubbish, to me it was the biggest telescope in the world.

Shane, I was almost in love with the 13mm ethos and, well you have just killed it off, 15mm TV it is.

Alan.

[newman]

I own both a 17mm and a 10mm Ethos, and if I could only keep one I have to say I'd struggle with the decision and probably keep the 17mm, giving up the 10 with a heavy heart. The 17mm is superb both as a finder and a low power DSO viewer making it quite versatile in my scope. The 10mm shows less sky, but what it does show is gorgeous, typically with a darker background than my 17mm making the faint nebulae stick out better.

[alan potts]

Newman,

Must be some eyepiece,many people have gone for the 17mm and the 13mm, both seem fabulous, I think I want to get one of them or maybe both. I would really love to see one in action.

Nice choice.

Alan.

[alan potts]

The sentence above should read BOTH, I've not opened my eyes yet!

When these 100 degree eyepieces came out I really did think they were a gimic and would be rubbish, seems like the only rubbish is my opinion!

Alan.

[newman]

There's no absolutes here. Some people don't like ultra wides, others are addicted to them. There's no right or wrong when it comes to eyepiece preferences; whatever works for you is what you should get no matter what others say. Having said that, just trying someone else's Ethos has been a rather expensive exercise for quite a lot of people I know; I have yet to meet someone who's looked through one and didn't immediately want to buy one The thing about the 100 degree AFOV is precisely that you can't see the hard edge of the field (unless you move your entire head to see it); the sort of a soft edge around a very wide field resembles looking through your eyes, thus creating a feeling of "being there". Some people like it, others don't, I still use my ortho sometimes but honestly I can't shake the feeling of looking through a toilet roll when using it - after the ethos's 100 degrees the ortho's narrow AFOV really feels constricted.

[Moonshane]

I am a strange one - yes, you probably know this already. what I mean is that on average I really like to see the field stop easily as this provides less 'strain' to see the whole field. therefore where it should be possible to see and take in the field stop I like to be able to do so - therefore I prefer a 7mm 40 degree ortho to a 11mm 52 degree plossl and find the former more comfy.

that said, where I know I cannot ever really take in / see the whole field stop (as with my 13mm Ethos) this takes off the 'pressure' of trying and I therefore relax. hope I explained this well enough to allow you to understand what I am wittering on about.

[Stargazing_Cliff]

Probably would be the highest number EP so get wider view of space. my simple scope 20mm

[Capricorn]

Probably a 12mm of one make or another.

Picked something smallish as all the scopes are relatively short focal length - Meg 90 being the longest refractor so something like a 17mm or bigger is pointless with 550mm FL.

Think I need a biger scope, Tal or build one ?

[Mr Moff]

Probably a 12mm of one make or another.

Picked something smallish as all the scopes are relatively short focal length - Meg 90 being the longest refractor so something like a 17mm or bigger is pointless with 550mm FL.

Think I need a biger scope, Tal or build one ?

Dob?

[RikM]

I've looked through an Ethos and definitely don't want to buy one. I like to see the fieldstop when observing but having a slightly wider field is very nice. The eyepieces that suit my eyes best are all about 60 - 70° aFOV. Hyperions, Vixen LV, Panoptics and Pentax XW.

[estwing]

maybe my 16mm carl zeiss ortho....the enjoyment it's given me over the years can't be measured

[John]

When I started out in astronomy, having no budget, I made some eyepieces from old binocular eyepieces. They were simple Kellners but had no effective field stop so when you looked into them you saw what appeared to be a limitless "sea" of stars. I loved this effect despite the distortion away from the centre of the field, so from then on I was drawn to eyepieces that gave as wide fields of view as possible at high, medium and low powers. This has stayed with me today which is no doubt why I've ended up making the major investment in the Ethos and Nagler eyepieces. The whole point of these things to me is that you can't see the whole field at once - it appears to have no edges - which I feel is a wonderful effect. When I look at the universe I like to do it though a picture window rather than a porthole

If you don't like wide fields of view for goodness sake don't buy a 100 degree field of view eyepiece - you won't enjoy it one bit !. In my case I've tried to enjoy fine orthoscopics and even monocentrics but, while I love the sharpness and contrast, I just cant feel as attached to them, and the views through as I do my ultra-wide fields.

There is no "right" or "wrong" way in this - it's personal preference and there will be many variations in that, as Rik, Shane and myself demonstrate in this thread

[Moonshane]

totally agree John - a healthy difference in preferences makes for great discussion and a healthy used market where people recycle their goodies!

[L8-Nite]

maybe my 16mm carl zeiss ortho....the enjoyment it's given me over the years can't be measured

I agree. With our reciently acquired Telementor, the limited views so far have been great, I'm eagerly looking forward to better weather.

Overall, with our long focal scopes, I would say the one eyepiece would be a 12mm Brandon; because as an observer with a Mak like ours said . . . . . " The view is as close as you will likely get to walking on the Moon".

[alan potts]

Rikm has looked through an ethos and didn't like what he saw. Interesting. So the first black mark. John made his own Ethos type eyepiece when he first started, maybe not to the same high quality though.

It is also very nice to hear that even members that own the Ethos of one type or another still find time for ortho's. I agree it must be like looking through a toilet roll.

I did say a few years back, 82 degrees, what's the point, now I have a case full of them. The other thing that just occured to me, People say Oh I can't afford an APO for example, just add the money in your eyepiece collection, staggering!

Alan.

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

It would be a toss-up between the 22T4 and 17T4, though the 31T5 is also used a lot.

[John]

.....Rikm has looked through an ethos and didn't like what he saw. Interesting. So the first black mark. John made his own Ethos type eyepiece when he first started, maybe not to the same high quality though.....

Eyepieces are a personal thing as already mentioned here and many times across the forum. What suits one person won't necessarily suit another. It doesn't mean that the eyepieces themselves are anything other than excellent of course (most are in fact) but what it does mean is that a prospective buyer / user, unless they have the chance to try different types, needs to assess, from reading whats written about them, whether their own preferences are likely to lie in one direction or another. Not always easy !

Over here we have an active used market so if you buy a decent brand and decide it's not for you then selling it, recovering most of your costs and picking up something else is quite feasible. I suspect this is not the case in Bulgaria though Alan which makes the choices more critical of course.

My DIY wide field was a million miles from an Ethos or any professionally made wide field for that matter but it did give me an appetite for wide field views. Thats cost me a lot of money over the years ......