Eye relief. Whats it all about?????

[John]

Eyepieces are a very personal thing. What one person finds really comfortable to use will not necessarily suit another at all.

Also you need sometimes to experiment with eye cup positioning to find one that suits you. I found this with the Pentax XW's whixh have 20mm of eye relief. They are supplied with the top sections screwed right down but, having now read the manual, that is for those that wear glasses. For me, the best position was with the top sections at almost their full extension. They are now very comfortable eyepieces to use, despite the short focal length of mine (5mm and 3.5mm).

It's good to see this facility being used by other eyepieces too, eg: the BST Explorers.

[RikM]

I wear glasses with the XWs and I have the tops screwed up about 3 full turns from the bottom. It is quite a fine thread so I am guessing that about 17 mm eyerelief is what I find most comfortable. It took a few evenings to get them dialled in just right.

[andyboy1970]

You can't beat getting out to a darksite with other observers and trying their eyepieces.

I always thought the TV Ethos eyepieces must be the bees-knees but my eyes didn't agree with them.

Had a shot of a TV Nagler and wow, loved it.

Tried Celestron X-cel's again not for me.

Recon I've saved myself £100's by trying first.