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My first Radian

John

By John
in Members Equipment Gallery

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John

John

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Pictured below is my "new" high power eyepiece line up. The 4mm Radian is the first one of this well known Tele Vue design that I've tried - I thought I'd better before TV phase them out entirely !.

The Radian was only delivered today so it's not seen starlight. It seems well up to Tele Vue's normal build standards. The "Instajust" eye cup adjustment is not as loose as I'd feared and seen reported - perhaps it's been tightened up a bit on these later versions ?.

Though they do duplicate focal lengths the 5mm and 6mm Baader GO's are nice to have for situations where I need to absolutely minimise light scatter and have proved the best for splitting Sirius.

The Delos remains the one type of Tele Vue eyepiece that I've not used - so far that is :grin:

Sorry it's not a better photo - I must work out how to use our little digital camera to better effect :rolleyes2:

post-118-0-92811000-1363824610_thumb.jpg

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Qualia

Qualia

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Gorgeous looking family of high power glass there, John. I look forward to your report and see how the new member favours with the other EPs.

Unless times get dire, I figure those little BGO gems are always worth holding on to. They're so small and light they hardly take up any room and make excellent travelling companions; yet their quality of sharpness and contrast probably makes them the keystone from which to compare other EPs. It's a real shame there's no one local - I assume that - who could lend you a Delos. I'd love to hear how that favours with the XWs.

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John

John

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I had the 8 and 10mm ones and liked them. I got used to instajust easily (the Nagler T4s also have the feature) and you soon know how many clicks are right for you. I do like the Pentax XWs and XF a bit more, however.

If there had been an XW 4mm I'd have gone for it Michael :smiley:

If you don't want to barlow / powermate, there is not a lot of choice in the premium 4mm market really. The Nirvana / UWAN 4mm's are pretty good but I fancied a change. The other option was the Nagler 3mm - 6mm zoom but I've owned a couple of those in the past but for some reason never hit it off with them despite their undoubted optical quality.

The 4mm is really an eyepiece mostly for my ED120 refractor in which 225x is a really useful high end magnification :smiley:

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Moonshane

Moonshane

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you'll really enjoy it John I reckon. I still have the 8mm and 10mm and love them. the instajust can be, well, adjusted by unscrewing the bit that moves, taking off the C clip and compressing it slightly then rebuilding. takes about 10 minutes and is an easy fix, making it tighter (which is more often what people want). unlike many eyepieces, nothing falls apart when you do this and it's dead simple.

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John

John

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you'll really enjoy it John I reckon. I still have the 8mm and 10mm and love them. the instajust can be, well, adjusted by unscrewing the bit that moves, taking off the C clip and compressing it slightly then rebuilding. takes about 10 minutes and is an easy fix, making it tighter (which is more often what people want). unlike many eyepieces, nothing falls apart when you do this and it's dead simple.

Thanks Shane, I might do that if it's bothering me :smiley:

Not that it's going to get first light for a while, looking at the weather :sad:

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RikM

RikM

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That's a very nice high power set John. The Radian is the only TV eyepiece type that I have never looked through. I use my XW 10mm and 2.5x TV Barlow to give me 4mm on those rare nights that it is usable.

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John

John

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The Radian and I don't get on :sad:

There maybe some fault with it but I was getting horrible ghosting around the moon last night. I know it was 99% full but my other eyepieces show the limb adjacent to almost pitch black background sky but with the Radian I was getting a broad arc of light, rather like a colourless rainbow, around the lunar limb. Not pleasant at all.

It's going back - I may try a replacement or just take a refund. I did pick up a Powermate 2x a couple of days back and that was giving great views (not haunted !) when used with my 8mm Ethos last night so I may use that for my 4mm focal length.

I think this must be an optical fault with the Radian as I've never seen anything like this before and I can't imagine others putting up with it :undecided:

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John

John

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I was not expecting this ghosting from the reviews I've read of them. Tele Vue are usually very good at controlling light scatter and flare so, yes, I suspect a faulty unit. No real problem as I can either get a replacement or a refund easy enough.

This is the 2nd unit I've had though - the first was supplied with no eye cup so that went back as well. Maybe I'm jinxed with Radians :undecided:

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John

John

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blimey - although maybe if you are getting them from your wide field dealer, he might be concerned that you are weaning yourself off that particular 'drug' and is sending dodgy units to ensure this does not happen :grin:

Good point - I'll ask for a 21mm Ethos in compensation for my disappointment :grin:

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Moonshane

Moonshane

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alright John, you need to demonstrate a renewed Ethos of positiveness and not turn into a Nag(l)er. one reason for this is that eyepieces discussions like this are for all the world to see - you could say such Pan Optic discussions are vital to all but I cannot think of a way to get in a Plossl pun (TAXI!!).

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