Revelation EP set

[northwalesparry]

After some research I decided to upgrade my stock SW ep with the revelation photo visual ep set . I must admit im very impressed its a huge improvement on my SW ones . The 32mm is excellent for scanning the skies . Ive not had a chance to try all EP yet but so far very impressed. Does anyone else have this set? because im not to sure why the 32mm (barrel )if that its called slides out and is adjustable.

[JamesF]

I bought the same set a couple of years ago and found it excellent for the money. I still use the 32mm eyepiece even now I have upgraded most of the others.

The 32mm ep has a collar that unscrews to reveal a T-thread for fitting on a camera for afocal imaging. I believe the barrel has the sliding adjustment to allow the image scale to be changed slightly, but I've never used it for afocal imaging, nor in fact ever done any afocal imaging at all, so I'm not absolutely certain.

James

[JamesF]

Still use the 2x barlow that came in the set too, come to think of it.

James

[alan potts]

I would normally tell someone never buy an eyepiece set as I always feel you can do so much better with other eyepieces, however it would seem I need to review my thoughts. I have read a good number of positive things about Revelations equipment and I know after exchanging many e-mails with Telescope House they rate it very highly. So I say to clear skies and I hope you enjoy them. Alan

[JamesF]

When people ask I usually reply that it depends what you're hoping to get out of it. If you want to experiment with a range of eyepieces and accept that you may want to upgrade in time, or you have more than one scope and want a range of eyepieces to suit them all then I think a set such as the Revelation one can be worthwhile.

On the other hand, if you really only need one or two eyepieces to fill out the range you're likely to use with a single scope for the foreseeable future, I reckon it's better to buy individual eyepieces.

My only real criticism of the Revelation set is that the filters are really not worth bothering with (I've never used mine) and it would be better value to leave them out and lower the price or to replace them with one more eyepiece. Even so, at the price I paid when I bought mine I was getting five reasonable quality plossls (much better than the kit ones) plus an equally acceptable barlow at £20 each. And now I've replaced most of the kit with BGOs, Naglers and Panoptics I have a set I'm quite happy to let the children use without the worry of the cost of replacement if they drop one

James

[alan potts]

James,

I am sure if you read some of my posts of last week you would have seen you don't need children to drop eyepieces when you have a Alan around. As usual good points made by yourself. I noticed TH are doing an ever increasing amount of Revelation branded product from the likes of GSO and others, I rate their opinion as high as FLO's, there seems to be some good value for money gear coming from this brand which is good for our hobby. Alan

[mallorcasaint]

I've had a the Revelation set for a couple of years and I really rate it. As I do mostly imaging I don't need expensive EP's but the Revs have been a great set and well worth the money as a first upgrade from the usual supplied EP's. I do use them on my PST and they are fine.

[great_bear]

The Revelation Eyepiece Set is a superb piece of kit - no doubt about it.

As individual eyepieces, the Plossls in this kit have been best-sellers under various famous brand names for many years now, and so assertions that "You're better off buying individual eyepieces rather than this kit" don't make economic sense given the individual prices of each eyepiece. The barrels of all of the eyepieces in my set are well-worn now, so fears that "Not all focal lengths will be used" have proved unfounded for me. The Barlow is especially well-known and respected, and has the additional feature that the lens unit can be screwed directly onto any eyepiece in order to give a smaller (~1.6x) magnification boost. You could quite feasibly purchase this set and never need to buy another eyepiece - although in practice curiosity will probably get the better of you sooner-or-later.

What's not to like?

Regarding Plossls in general (not specific to this kit):

• Plossls don't work too well at F5, and stars can become distorted near the edge of the view at F5. Again, this is not specific to this kit, but is true of Plossls in general. Tele Vue have cured this by modifying the design for their (expensive) Plossls, and you can reduce the issue with other Plossls (such as these) by making use of the Barlow lens.
  
• Plossls have short eye-relief, and thus require you to get closer to the eyepiece during viewing than many people - even non-spectacle wearers - might like. The Barlow can be used to help with this issue too.
  

But the above is - as I say - just the way of things with Plossls, and is not a reflection on this kit.

With regard to this kit in particular, the 15mm eyepiece is very sharp but it does lack a field-stop. This is however, quickly forgotten in use, and might be regarded as me simply being a bit "picky" about such things. Some eyepieces can control glare a bit better, but again this is nit-picking at this price.

Ultimately, the quality of the Plossls in the Revelation eyepiece set is unquestionable given their heritage. A bigger question is whether traditional Plossls - as an eyepiece design - are the right option for you. There are many modern alternative eyepiece designs available these days which many people prefer, such as the BST Explorer / Starguider eyepieces, and the TMB-inspired "Planetaries" to name but two.

Although I use a wide range of other eyepieces these days, I still have my Revelation eyepiece set, and find them useful to refer to if I am having difficulties and want to double check whether the issue is an eyepiece one or just poor atmospheric conditions.

I have bought and sold many eyepieces, but I am keeping my Revelation Eyepiece Kit.

[JamesF]

Good point about fast focal ratios. What really pushed me into buying some Tele Vue eyepieces was the fact that the ones from this kit just couldn't cope with my f/4.7 dob.

James