Panoptic 35mm

[osbourne one-nil]

I spent a nice couple of hours last night out in the garden, and got to use my Panoptic 35mm properly for the first time. When it's described as being corrected right to the edge, it really is; absolutely amazing! The one problem I found though, is I found it very, very difficult to keep my eye in the right position. There was a real sweet spot where everything looked amazing,but the rest of the time it was a big black blob.

Am I alone in finding this with this eyepiece?

I've just received a 24mm Panoptic in today's post, which is way smaller - I'm quite surprised how much smaller it is - so it'll be good to compare the two, and their comparative ease of use.

[DirkSteele]

Have to say I have not really found an issue with my Panoptic 35mm. It is a great EP, one of my favourites.

[Damo636]

I also found eye placement quite fussy with the 35mm Panoptic. From memory I think the eye relief is pretty long at 27mm, & as a result, eye placement can be a little tricky at first. Stick with it though, its a great eyepiece. The Televue eyeguard extender would probably make life a bit easier (6th item down from top of page)...

http://www.green-witch.com/acatalog/Eyepiece_Accessories_-_TeleVue.html

[osbourne one-nil]

I think it will be a case of plenty of practice, which I shan't mind at all. I think that's a good idea about the eyepiece extender too, as I did realise I was going in too close as I found backing-off to be counter-intuitive.

What a work of art these things are though - compared to my Baader 31mm (my previous wide angle eyepiece) it's a completely different beast.

[brantuk]

I have both and they are superb eyepieces - never given me a problem and I can't make my mind up which is better. The 35mm in a 20" dob is awesome on galaxies and the 24mm in a 925 Sct is stunningly crystal on globs. What scope were you using Ozzy?

[Moonshane]

glad to see my old 35mm Panoptic is still going strong Kim! I agree this is a superb eyepiece although personally I'd rate the 24mm even higher with my scopes and is one reason I hope to buy another in the future.

[MartinB]

I have a 27mm Panoptic and like it a lot. The problem is called kidney beaning. If you move the eye in close with long focal length wide angle lenses some of the converging light is blocked from view. The Panoptics have good eye relief so it really shouldn't be necessary to get that close to take in the whole view. Much more of a problem with some Naglers.

[osbourne one-nil]

I have both and they are superb eyepieces - never given me a problem and I can't make my mind up which is better. The 35mm in a 20" dob is awesome on galaxies and the 24mm in a 925 Sct is stunningly crystal on globs. What scope were you using Ozzy?

Last night, it was in my Televue 85. I'm no expert, but it did look, as far as I could tell, absolutely perfect in every way. I'm looking forward to trying it in my 10" Newtonian too, but am a bit worried that the eyepiece weighs more than the telescope itself, (well, almost) so will have to think of some counterbalance method. Perhaps I should buy another and stick it on the mirror housing?

[John]

I use a magnetic knife rack at the bottom end of my dobsonian tube and a couple of old weights from some traditional scales as needed to counterbalance heavy eyepieces. One of the members here, Damo, used this approach and I nicked the idea from him

The knife rack cost just a few quid from e.bay. A couple of my eyepieces weigh 2lbs each so the scope needs counterweighting as it drops below about 50 degrees and the nose weight overcomes the "sticktion" of the bearings.

Some wide and ultra wide eyepiece designs do take a bit of getting used to re: eye positioning. Invariably it's worth the effort though and soon becomes 2nd nature

[Luke]

I've not noticed a problem wtih eye position with the 35mm Panoptic, though I'm fairly tolerant with EP's. The only issue I've had with it was when the exit pupil got too large for me when I used it in a fast dob, causing it to look washed out, but that's not the EP's fault. Very nice EP.

[scarp15]

I use mine in both my scopes, though at dark locations where the views and not washed out. It can be fantastic for framing subjects such as M31/M32/M110 and for grouping together galaxy clusters such as in Virgo / Leo. I enjoy the relaxed eye relief compared to some of my naglers / plossls and it makes for a superb finder eyepiece.

Some people do not like the pin-cushion distortion - an effect when panning around the sky. I think that this is personal though as I do not find this to be a problem.

[faulksy]

a few of you have got me concerned about my future purchase of a nagler, are the naglers quite difficult to get the sweet spot, im thinking of the 22mm. or should i go for something else, sorry to spam

[John]

a few of you have got me concerned about my future purchase of a nagler, are the naglers quite difficult to get the sweet spot, im thinking of the 22mm. or should i go for something else, sorry to spam

The 22mm T4 Nagler is about the easiest Nagler to view through. It's large eye lens, "Instajust" top section and comfortable eye relief all contribute to that.

I've owned most of the Naglers at one time or another and never really found any significant issues with using any of them. Any quirks they have are soon got used to and the view is what dominates the experience

[alan potts]

The 35mm Panoptic is a touch difficult to view through at first but in a few weeks you will wonder why you raised this post.

Alan.