100 Degree Eyepieces

[alan potts]

Now I am not totally sure who invented the 100 degree eyepiece and this is not really what I am making a point about, who ever it was we have: Nikon, Televue, Exsc and a while ago making use of left over tractor tyres Meade. All have 100 degree eyepieces and I may well have missed one or two that I am not aware of.

What I am getting at here is does anyone consider it strange that Celestron have not joined in, given the fact that a few years back Meade and themselves were the two main players in this field. There is of course Sky watcher who are now big and they have not joined in either.

Alan.

[Mzungu]

Do they produce their own kit, or just buy existing white branded gear? If its their own kit, then they might not want the expenditure. Also, I imagine they're just biding their time - why rush in when you can let others take the risk with a new market?

[Stargazer_00]

Celestron re released the axioms as luminos instead. Are eyepiece designs patented? Maybe There isn't much market at 100' to fit their business model?

[E621Keith]

The 100 deg eyepiece is not new and wasn't invented by TV. There are a few Zeiss designs floating around in the past, as well as Al Nagler's Apollo lunar simulator. However, I think most of those were one off eyepiece made for specialist application. Credits to TV for being the first to mass produce 100deg for the astro market (and 82deg and 65 deg).

I guess people at Celestron/Synta probably don't have the expertise to clone Ethos or ES or develop one themselves. After all, eyepiece is ES/JOC's main business so they will dedicate more resource to eyepiece R&D. Synta's main business is scope and mount, so they will focus their R&D on those rather than on eyepieces.

Meade seems to have some relationship with JOC, so I will not be surprise the ES100 and the Meade XWA shares the same optics, just like ES82 with S5k UWA, and ES68 with S5k SWA.

[John]

With one or two exceptions, Celestron have never seemed to me to be leaders in the eyepiece market. The exception was the old Ultima range and 2x barlow which rivalled the Tele Vue plossls.

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

When I got my C8, the EPs were all from Vixen, even the two Celestron-branded ones.

[E621Keith]

With one or two exceptions, Celestron have never seemed to me to be leaders in the eyepiece market. The exception was the old Ultima range and 2x barlow which rivalled the Tele Vue plossls.

I thought the Ultima was rebranded Masuyama that was also sold as Meade series 4000 super plossl (1st gen) and Baader Eudiascopic.

[alan potts]

Thanks Keith as ever for the background on these and I very informative explanation. Do you think Meade are still in bed with JOC as there range seems to have had a major change. I know you can 't just base it on one but I have the 5.5mm UWA which seems to match no other from JOC and that seems a good eyepiece. If you recall I put it against the Delos 6mm at almost 3 times the price and it punched its weight fairly well and didn't let the Meade name down, assuming you agree they have one.

Alan..

[E621Keith]

You are right, The first generation S5000 UWA was made by JOC, but the waterproofed second generation is probably made by someone else. However, I am doubt there are many Chinese manufacturers out there with the same capability as JOC and none of the other big OEMs list any 100deg in their catalogue, so I would not be surprise Meade uses JOC optics in the XWA.

I agree with you on 5.5mm's performance. I think it's better corrected than 5mm LVW in my f6 apo. The only thing I didn't like was its relatively short eye relief.

[John]

I thought the Ultima was rebranded Masuyama that was also sold as Meade series 4000 super plossl (1st gen) and Baader Eudiascopic.

Yes I think thats right - Celestron was the most prominent branded version of it in the UK as far as I was aware. It was not made by them for sure.

The design was also sold branded as Antares, Orion (USA) and Parks (USA) too.

[rwilkey]

Celestron re released the axioms as luminos instead. Are eyepiece designs patented? Maybe There isn't much market at 100' to fit their business model?

This was a result of the challenge from the SW Sky Panorama ep's, which I believe are the same with a different coat, but Celestron renamed the Ax's as Luminos so that they could compete with the Sky Panorama price. I wrote to Celestron at the time, and they gave the simple explanation of 'manufacturing reasons'. Yea, right. The Ax's were over-priced in my view anyway, I only have some cause I bought them cheaper s/h. They are good ep's. The 7mm is a favourite.