Nagler Zoom for a spectacles wearer

[bomberbaz]

Ok so here's the thing. I have a chance of upgrading to one of these bad boys for £250, they are £340 ish new. However the ERelief on these is only 10mm and as a spectacles wearer, wouldn't work if I kept them on.

So question is, are there any spectacle wearers who have one of these and how do they cope. I have actually viewed at higher magnification without glasses and the difference between wearing and not is minimal. In my scope the exit pupil will be between 1.2 & 0.6 (6 to 3mm) (magnification 250, 300, 375 & 500) I realise 500 would have to be under exceptional skies also.

Its a pity the radian's are withdrawn as this would have been another option but thats life.

All I am thinking is that for high mag work a couple decent EP's or the zoom would be better than using the Hyperions I have.

Steve

ps, Keep telling the mrs its my tax rebate, hehe

[Moonshane]

hi Steve

I have the Nagler zoom and it's a spectacular eyepiece in my opinion. I (genuinely) use it regularly at between 260x-450x in a variety of scopes and it provides brilliant capability with regard to doubles and the moon. for planets it's good too but often too much power. I once saw Mars in it on a night of good seeing at 300x (last opposition) and it was really very nice.

Although I wear contacts I just tried it with my glasses on and I'd estimate that only 30 degrees of field is visible with glasses on although I consider it comfortable with glasses off. Unfortunately, I could not recommend it for those that need to wear specs when observing unless they consider the monocentric offers an acceptable apparent field of view.

You'd be welcome to come over and try mine if the clouds ever clear. Just in case, you do of course realise this eyepiece offers only a 50 degree AFOV, not the usual Nagler 82?

[estwing]

hi steve I got one two weeks ago and only got to use it for 15mins or so on Saturn at 280x,gave great views.I wear glasses but not to observe so can't help sorry!

[alan potts]

Steve,

I am doing some notes at the moment on a 6mm eyepiece get together, one of them is the Nagler 3mm-6mm zoom. I was going to try and see what is was like for glasses wearer by using my own reading glasses. Of the trio it was only the Delos as I am sure you could guess that I could see all. I could see some field with the Nagler zoom but not enough to justify spending 50 pounds on let alone 250. The BGO, let just say they are not for people that wear glasses.

I only did this as I had my glasses on while making notes and forgot them, so I though, lets put it in the review, so you get it first.

In my opinion it is a no with glasses. It would be nice to hear from someone that uses but views without, I guess it comes down to how bad your eyes are, sorry there is no nice way to say it.

Alan

[John]

My guess is that there will be few people who wear glasses to observe who would have purchased a Nagler 3-6 zoom as 10mm of eye relief seems generally considered to be too tight for most glasses wearers.

I'm not a glasses wearer myself and even I find 10mm of eye relief starting to get a little on the "tight" side. This might be one reason why, despite owning a couple, I've never held onto the Nagler zooms for very long.

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Anything below 16mm eye relief is a pain in my experience. With astigmatism, I really do not like observing without glasses, even at a small exit pupil. I have ruled out most zoom EPs based on this (bar a seriously expensive Zeiss one, but then though the better of that, because you could get 2 Delos EPs for the same price)

[bomberbaz]

Cheers Alan, John and Michael, you kinda said what I already suspected. However as Shame has kindly offered me the opportunity to try his out, I shall take him up on this.

Like you Michael I am an astigmatism sufferer but I want to give the zoom a try before I make a firm decission. It might be a case that my eyes (without glasses) cope with the EP better than yours so it would be foolish not to at least give it a go.

If this option is not a goer as it were, my other consideration is to go for 3 nice eyepieces at 5,4 & 3.5mm. However this would mean the cost of one zoom eyepiece against three others. An increase in overall cost of about £280.

But we all know the true cost is about £70.00 isnt it darling (explanation to swmbo )

I am stuck on 5mm eyepeices and have made another thread on this.

Thanks again all,

Steve

[Naemeth]

Steve, I've picked up on this thread rather late but how severe is your astigmatism? Having looked at my prescription about two months ago, my astigmatism in my left eye isn't severe enough to need glasses on below 2.5mm exit pupil. This has lead me to trying no glasses on with all of my eyepieces, and I've come to the conclusion that even at a 5.2mm exit pupil, the astigmatism isn't really visible (for some odd reason, perhaps it's astigmatism in the eyepiece which counteracts the astigmatism in my eyes with my 26mm).

HTH

[bomberbaz]

Steve, I've picked up on this thread rather late but how severe is your astigmatism? Having looked at my prescription about two months ago, my astigmatism in my left eye isn't severe enough to need glasses on below 2.5mm exit pupil. This has lead me to trying no glasses on with all of my eyepieces, and I've come to the conclusion that even at a 5.2mm exit pupil, the astigmatism isn't really visible (for some odd reason, perhaps it's astigmatism in the eyepiece which counteracts the astigmatism in my eyes with my 26mm).

HTH

my astigmatism is severe, I mean I cant read the third line on the standard opticians chart without them. I have tried viewing without my specs before but it has always appeared less contrasty and detail. That said, i have never actually given my eyes sufficient time to adjust and I think that needs to be my next test, try viewing for a night without specs and see if the views improve when (read if) my eyes adjust.

That said, i am actually going off the zoom idea a little and swinging over to two quality ep's and a barlow as someone suggested on another thread. But I will see out the idea of a zoom and give it chance.

Cheers for the input though, Steve

[John]

If you come across a used Radian at a decent price they are pretty good and worthy of consideration. I've been using a 4mm Radian on Saturn this evening with my ED120 refractor (giving 225x) and the views have been razor sharp and very contrasty between the clouds