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Which 24mm widefield EP?

emadmoussa

By emadmoussa
in Discussions - Eyepieces

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emadmoussa

emadmoussa

Posted
Posted

I have narrowed choices down to the following:

1. Explore Scientific 68-degree - 1.25"

2. Explore Scientific 82-degree - 2"

3. Explore Scientific 68-degree Maxvision Okular, 1.25"

4. Baader Hyperion 68-degree, 1.25"/2"

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Adrian

Adrian

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Unless you wear glasses to observe then I would cross the Hyperion off the list: the meade clones will be better at faster focal ratios and the maxvision is cheaper new than what hyperions tend to sell for second hand. The 20mm eye-relief is the only advantage to the Hyperion.

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rowan46

rowan46

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I recently bought the maxvision 24mm 82degree and have to say that it is a fine eyepiece especially for the price. i wouldn't know if it is as good as the panoptic. it's certainly not in the same class as my delos or xw but It gives me probably 90% of the performance at 50% of the price so it's not a bad trade off

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alan potts

alan potts

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Emadmoussa,

The only thing that the ExSc 24mm is in comparison to the Panoptic 24mm is cheaper. The 24 Panoptic is in many peoples eyes the finest 1.25mm eyepiece that ever went to market. I have had the Meade 24mm and the Pan at the same time.

Alan.

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emadmoussa

emadmoussa

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Yes, there's an element of marketing in there regardless of the actual product value. Similar to the old story of the Phillips webcam. Sometimes I had the impression it was the ultimate planetary camera :) I think I will go for the ES 68 degree, I can live with 2 or 3 stars less in the AFOV for the sake of saving £60 :)

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Moonshane

Moonshane

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Emadmoussa,

The only thing that the ExSc 24mm is in comparison to the Panoptic 24mm is cheaper.

Alan.

Not sure what you mean Alan? Do you mean that the only difference is price? Or do you mean the only advantage is price? I am interested to hear your views on this pair given your experience.

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Moonshane

Moonshane

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Yes, there's an element of marketing in there regardless of the actual product value. Similar to the old story of the Phillips webcam. Sometimes I had the impression it was the ultimate planetary camera :) I think I will go for the ES 68 degree, I can live with 2 or 3 stars less in the AFOV for the sake of saving £60 :)

there is no doubt that marketing has a part to play - it influences every single aspect of life. I am certainly a Televue 'fan boy' but the reason I am is not because of the marketing, it's because:

  • of the views of people I respected recommending I try them
  • every unit is tested against an f4 scope (which is what I use)
  • they hold their used value as well as any other accessory
  • they offer superb visual images - I know this through actually using them and comparing with others

The review posted above is a great review and very extensive as you say but some elements are still subjective and subject to local variation. In the end, whether you buy a relatively cheap eyepiece or a 'top of the range' eyepiece (whatever that means) is down to you. I am completely happy with my eyepieces and hopefully you will be. At the sort of quality level you are talking about, the seeing and collimation of the scope will have more impact than optical quality of the eyepiece on many/most nights in the UK. Personally, if I am going to spend this sort of money on an eyepiece, I do want to spend the extra £60 to get the TV option. If this means biding my time and saving a bit longer, I do so.

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emadmoussa

emadmoussa

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Nobody denies TV Eps are great ones, but they're not within the reach of some of us unfortunately. I definitely love to try them at some point. I'm no expert when it comes to eyepieces, but in my eyes I found that if you're willing to ignore some of the short comings of certain eyepieces, you'll end up finding your sweet spots. Funny enough, I found the standard Skywatcher 28mm 2" EP supplied with the 80ED DS Pro packages pretty good. A bit of seagulls on the side, but ...not bad...it's pretty comfortable as well.

Sorry for the misunderstanding, the £60 is the difference between the ES 68-degree and the ES 82-degree.

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Moonshane

Moonshane

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it's all about compromise. if you can afford a BST or an ES82 then you can afford Televue too, you just have to either have a somewhat narrower view or buy an older eyepiece. e.g. in this sort of range I recently bought a 25mm TV plossl (£60) and a 16mm Type 2 Nagler (£110). the plossl provides the same magnification (approx) as the 24mm's you are talking about but less field which is all sharp even at f4. the 16mm Nagler provides 80% of the true field of a 24mm Panoptic but 50% more magnification , so a darker sky/smaller exit pupil. for a third of the price of a 13mm Ethos, I get the same true field and a little less magnification.

with your main scope it's highly likely that there's absolutely no difference between many eyepieces of varying quality, this being an advantage of slower scopes; the disadvantage being you lose true field due to focal length.

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emadmoussa

emadmoussa

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I suppose it's usually down to personal taste. I've got a bunch of high quality Plossls...I like them, but don't enjoy using them as much as I enjoy using ''hefty'' wide field eyepieces. I remember the first time I used a wide field eyepiece...it blew my sucks off. For me now, a rich DSO visual observing experience should include a wide field eyepiece.

I see what you mean about the Televue. There's a significant difference in price between Panoptic 24mm and ES 24mm if you buy directly from Explore Scientific in Germany. It's roughly £110 difference in price. If I can find a second-hand Televue 24mm at an affordable price, then I might go for it. Like you say, they tend to keep their value and even a second-hand one will doubtfully come down to, say, £120. I stand corrected.

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Naemeth

Naemeth

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Between the 24mm ExSc and the 24mm Pan there is not only a monetary but also a performance difference.

Every eyepiece has it's positive and negative aspects because no eyepiece is perfect. For instance, orthoscopics usually excel on planetary details but lose out on eye relief and field of view.

Really, it is up to you, but with the amount of clear skies we get, I personally prefer to go for products with a vast amount of positive reviews for them (TeleVue). I'm also thinking of an F/4 dob at some point and I need to know I won't need to buy new eyepieces for it :).

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alan potts

alan potts

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My that is not a view it's a book on 24-26mm eyepieces.

Everyone has a right to their opinion, I am sticking by mine, for me the 24mm Panoptic is a better eyepiece than the 24mm Meade I owned and tested against. The Meade is a very good eyepiece though and I am sure the ExSc is no different.

Alan

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great_bear

great_bear

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Depends what you mean by "better' (as always ;) )

I found the Pan 24 vignetted in two of my three scopes, and I didn't like the eyecup not correlating with the eye-relief (I hated the same thing in the Tele Vue 40mm Plossl)

So - for me at least - the 24mm SWA was the better eyepiece, even though I could afford either.

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alan potts

alan potts

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No the Televue is opticlly better in my opinion, The panoptic 24mm is maybe the best 24mm ever. The Meade is very good, I bought one and paid a lot more for it than the Maxvisions. I think mine was eith 159 or 169, I forget now, not cheap.

Alan.

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michael.h.f.wilkinson

michael.h.f.wilkinson

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Optically better I never judge an eyepiece on anything else, other things you get used to. Without doubt I would make mention of likes and dislikes but the main course has to be the optics

Alan

You never get used to poor eye relief if you wear glasses. In my experience some of the Meade EPs come very close to TV territory (as they converge in price :rolleyes:). I compared the Meade UWA 14 to a Nagler 17T4 on an F/4.1 scope, and found the UWA 14 to be excellent. The UWA might be a smidgen softer at the edge, but it had somewhat less pincushion distortion than the 17T4. Other comparisons (at F/6 so less severe) showed little difference with a Nagler 12T4. The key difference was eye relief. The UWA 14 had only 14mm eye relief which is simply too short.

You should also consider the scopes you are going to use the EP in. If you are going to use this 24mm in the C11, I do not doubt it will shine, and be very hard to distinguish from the Panoptic. If you put it in a fast Dob, things will be different

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