BGO 7mm & 9mm available

[Stargazer_00]

are you talking about tal barlows or BGOs there russ?

Put it this way, 2 months ago I had no intention of getting an ortho. I wanted wide, wide, ultra wide. wider the better.

then out of nowhere I got reading articles about crisp, beautiful, clear, contrasty narrow view orthos. and the late great BGO (que fanfare!)

I simply had to get one. disposable income and rave reviews are a powerful selling tool for the idle astronomer.

about the only thing that stops me looking for the next thing to buy is actually sitting in my garden using the things i already have! I never spend time thinking about bigger scope or other eyepieces while im out there. all im thinking about is the thing im looking at, how majestic it is and how awesome the hobby is.

[Naemeth]

I see that a couple of TAL barlows have gone on UK Astro Buy & Sell for £100 the pair. They were £35 each when you could buy them new weren't they ?

They are sale pending now too.

Yet other stuff which is out of production, such as Celestron Ultima eyepieces, which were as good if not a wee bit better than Tele Vue plossls, stuggle to sell for 40% of their original purchase price

I do think it's rather unfair that TAL Barlows have gone so through the roof price wise. I doubt I'll be selling mine for any more than £35 when I do , I think I paid that for it.

EDIT: Just realised I've probably let myself in for a lot of PMs, please don't message me about buying the TAL Barlow, when it's up for sale I'll do it so it's as fair as possible.

[faulksy]

thanks for the heads up bigmak, she said she had pretty much sold it but obviously hasnt. just sent her a message and offered her 80 inc p+p, i will let you no what she says. regards mike

[russ.will]

are you talking about tal barlows or BGOs there russ?

Both! Althought the BGO situation is worse, because there is a verifiable direct, nay identical, replacement available. At least with the TALs, you could argue that they're gone for good, but that's still not a persuaive argument for the rates they're fetching.

Upon pondering further on the economics of why Baader dropped them - I'm wondering if they were priced too cheap in the first place? I mean, Hutech are using the original manufacturer, admittedly re-tooled (and that ain't cheap as an investment), so the tsunami wasn't the death nell in the long run. After all, what were the owners and employess of the factory supposed to do? Give up and go do something else having built up all of that knowledge and experience? No.

Also, Hutech aren't having them made for philanthropic reasons and nor are they big enough to market them as a loss leading technilogical tour de force. So they must be making some money.

Did Baader just call this one wrong for the sake of a tenner?

Russell

[russ.will]

Duplicate post - Pesky Firefox!

[russ.will]

thanks for the heads up bigmak, she said she had pretty much sold it but obviously hasnt. just sent her a message and offered her 80 inc p+p, i will let you no what she says. regards mike

But the Hutech is only £10 more brand new, perfect condition and carries a manufacturers guarantee, plus it has distance selling protection if you don't like it...

Russell

[Dunkster]

So wait....I'm getting confused

The Hutech are a retooled BGO but selling for a tenner more.

The BCO is no good? For 40 notes less?

[russ.will]

Ever so slightly not quite as good for £40 less, is the way I read it.

Russell

[faulksy]

claire e mailed me back, she told me the seller pulled out. she will not take 80 quid for it she wants the going rate 100 quid, i havnt responded

[russ.will]

Tell her "But it's not going, is it?" And then ask her to show you one where it went at £100.

Then buy the Hutech.

Russell

[John]

The BCO's are great across the central 40-45 degrees of their 50 degree FoV. Within this area of the field I've only once or twice seen any difference between the views they give and the equivalent BGO and that was extreme targets such as splitting Sirius and the difference was small. You seem to have an outer ring of the FoV where things become unsharp with the BCO - I feel it might be due to the abbe orthoscopic design optimizing sharpness and contrast across a smaller field than other designs so Baader chose to provide larger lenses and a bit more FoV for comfort and framing purposes. Obviously I don't know what was really in the designers mind though !.

The Baader GO's and now the Hutech orthos have a level of finish and solidity that is a step up from the rather plain BCO's though and you can see why they would cost more to manufacture. Plus they are made in Japan whereas I think the BCO's are probably Chinese or Taiwanese, possibly from the same manufacturer which makes the Hyperions as the finish is similar.

The BCO range is somewhat smaller than the Hutechs at just 3 orthoscopic models.

As to why the Hutech's are £10 more than the BGO's were, well I don't know, although perhaps it's connected with re-establishing the manufacturing capability following the Earthquake / Tsunami ?.

I'm not sure that Baader dropped the BCO's out of choice.

Do you know, I've never seen so much interest in orthoscopics on the forum as there has been since the BCO's ceased production though. You don't value what you have until it's gone, as they say !

[russ.will]

Good God! The BCOs have bought it already!!!

Russell

[John]

Good God! The BCOs have bought it already!!!

Russell

Oh darn it - typing to quick for my brain

I mean BGO's being dropped / ceasing to be of course !

What initials shall we give the Hutech's ? - Astro Hutech Orthos = AHO's

[russ.will]

I like HO. As in 'look at my HO'.

I'll get me coat...

Russell

[Stargazer_00]

being £10 more than the previous price is probably linked to retail price index or inflation. It's essentially a new brand and as things don't go up in price on a financial year they are simply coming to market at a price which will sustain their business model for a few years to come. That's all. It's just economics.

[Stargazer_00]

You have pentax xw though. trade your a 6mm bgo for a xw?

[Dunkster]

Thanks for the summary John!

It's always good to have options... BCO sounds like a bargain to me, shame about the range of FL

Russ - As much as I like HO's, AHO just sounds a little bit less kerbside

Graham - there's always room for more

[Stargazer_00]

if bco had a better range id buy some of them I think. I could use a 5 4 & 3. I'm planning on putting a nagler zoom there but would consider puttting dedicated orthos if I could get a matching range down to 3mm from 6mm inclusive

[alan potts]

Faulksy,

Why don't you get a Hutech 18mm like I have had to get a Hutech 12.5mm, I am sure the differences are so small that it isn't really worth worrying over. I know it is nice to have sets of things but this one was admitted to having paintwork missing, so it was not like new or anything like that. On the 18mm I have gone for a Kasai, not sure what that will be like but site seems to think it will be of good quality.

Having now bought the 6mm and 9mm BGO and the other two I have just mentioned, I hope I like them because if I don't I would not keep them just for the sake of it. The trouble is all my top end F/L's are 20mm eye relief, Delos, Radian, and Pentax XW. I don't know yet how I am going to fair with the Nagler zoom, I had a bit of a struggle with the 7mm Nagler the other night with my eyelashes and I am sure that has more eye relief than some of the orthoscopics and maybe the zoom.

Alan.

[alan potts]

Stargazer00,

I don't think I have ever seen a 3mm orthoscopic. There is the 2.5mm XO from Pentax and 4mm ortho that TS advertise but I have not seen a 3mm. There are few eyepieces in this general area of all types really, even ExSc stop at 4.7mm as you know.

Alan

[Stu]

7mm Nagler has 12mm ER and the 3 to 6 zoom has 10mm which is probably similar to the 12.5mm Hutech, maybe a touch more.

http://www.televue.com/engine/TV3b_page.asp?id=214&Tab=

Stu

[John]

Isn't eye relief with orthos generally 80% of the focal length ?

A 3mm would need to nearly be glued to your eyeball !

I used to have a University Optics "volcano top" in 4mm. I could get away with that because the shape of the top seemed to help get close enough to the eyelens. I still felt like I was about to poke myself in the eye with it on a few occasions and finding a tiny eye lens against a black barrel, in the dark can be a challenge too !

[Stargazer_00]

that must be why they stop at 4mm then I know the nagler 3-6 zoom wont be ortho quality but certainly it'll be good (i expect) and I think it's analogue scaling between focal lengths is a real appeal (assuming its strong enough to hold itself where you leave it between clickstops with a little contact from head to eyepiece). I handled one in a shop and it seemed like a lovely eyepiece and one that is exactly what im after, something you can squeeze the maximum out of your scope with on any given night without needing a barlow.

[Naemeth]

that must be why they stop at 4mm then I know the nagler 3-6 zoom wont be ortho quality but certainly it'll be good (i expect) and I think it's analogue scaling between focal lengths is a real appeal (assuming its strong enough to hold itself where you leave it between clickstops with a little contact from head to eyepiece). I handled one in a shop and it seemed like a lovely eyepiece and one that is exactly what im after, something you can squeeze the maximum out of your scope with on any given night without needing a barlow.

The Nagler Zoom will be great quality, Shane's (Moonshane) got one and a few orthos so it would be good to ask him

[John]

I've had a couple of Nagler 3-6mm zooms over the years. They are excellent - certainly as good as a Circle-T ortho and pretty close to Baader GO quality. Add the extra eye relief, larger eye lens and the all important flexibility to "tune" the magnification to the seeing conditions immediately and you can see why they are so well regarded.

For some odd reason I never got on with mine though - maybe I was heavily into ultra wide fields back then and found 50 degrees a little claustrophobic ?. It was almost certainly me, rather than the Nagler zooms, that were the weak link !