Driving myself mad.......

[nephilim]

Well I'm STILL debating on which ep to get next Several weeks ago (yes weeks!!) i was going to go for a 28mm Panaview for my 200p f5 newt. Now things have changed & i'm after a 12" dob BUT need to sell the 200p first which isnt easy as I'm in Cumbria & postage aint guna be cheap. Anyway, I'm after an ep that will work well in both (the dob will be f5 also) i'm now able to up the ££ to around £200 or so & i'm after something that'll do well with globs. I'm thinking ES 82*(18,24 or 30mm) or meade uwa 30mm.

Another thing i'm concerned about with the big bits of glass is weight on my focuser (at over a kilo for the es30 it may be a bit much??)

One last thing, I'll be getting whatever from Agena astro in the states & wonder if anyone has used there own brand wide angle ep's & if they're any good as they're alot cheaper than the others.

OH, if anyone has any other ideas i'll be happy to listen. Deadline for this is Friday as this is when i'm paid & the 'urgency' to buy big expensive glass is becoming too much (plus my girlfriend is sick to death of everything I say ending in either 'Mmmmm 82*' or 'Ooooooh look how big it is compared to a tin of beans' )

Steve

[scarp15]

For globulars and at that aperture I would look for something in the medium to high power range. With my 12" dob at a dark location, once found I switch to a 9mm or 7mm 82 degree ep, in which they are quite superb. So 13mm or higher would be my advice. Nagler's in this range are small and light and I think come in at around £150 to £175 or so second hand.

[foundaplanet]

If I was looking to get a couple of ep's I would be going for a 24 and something around 11-16, probably learning to towards the 16 to barlow down to 12 and 8. Maybe the 24 es and the 14 giving me 24, 14, 12 and 7. If I was going for one I'd go for a 24 over 30 which with a barlow are two very useful mags for my f1200 newt.

[Mr Flibble]

In my F5 dob I use a 28mm Nirvana as a finder eyepiece and for larger DSO's such as M42, M31, etc. It's a rebranded WO UWAN and performs really well. For GCLs though it would be worth getting a much shorter f/l eyepiece - I'm a fan of the TV plossls and BGOs (now Hutechs) but they do come with relatively tight eye-relief.

[russ.will]

Maxvision 24 & 16mm 68deg, are cut price Meade SWA/ES 68, which are within a gnats dangler of the best (excluding Nikon) that you can buy. I can't comment on that latter points, but the 24mm is better than my 18mm ES82 across the actually accessible area of the FOV. At the currently available prices, they're a no brainer.

Russell

[ronin]

'Mmmmm 82*' or 'Ooooooh look how big it is compared to a tin of beans'

Get the tin of beans, at least you can eat them.

Alternatively the ES 82's are seemingly good, so get one of them and start collecting.

The 18mm will give just under 1.5 degrees, maybe therefore the 24mm giving fractionally under 2 degrees.

From reading bits the newer ES 82's are now Argon filled, used to be Nitrogen but ES changed recently.

[bingevader]

Maxvision 24 & 16mm 68deg, are cut price Meade SWA/ES 68, which are within a gnats dangler of the best (excluding Nikon) that you can buy. I can't comment on that latter points, but the 24mm is better than my 18mm ES82 across the actually accessible area of the FOV. At the currently available prices, they're a no brainer. Russell

they're a no brainer.

Although I happen to like my ES 18mm a lot!

Cheers

[nephilim]

I've made the final decision (Thanks to some good advice) to get the 16,20 & 24mm Maxvision 68's, not quite what I was thinking about to start with but i'll get a lot more use out of those 3 than I would with 1 big expensive grenade. Thanks for everyones input.

Steve