Help me drop 150 quid on a mid Focal Length Eyepiece.

[Chris]

Hi,

I've realised that mid FL eyepieces get a lot of use in my 200p dob, this combined with being wowed at the difference a decent EP makes to your viewing experience has inspired me to sell and save a bit, and I now have about 140-150 quid saved for a decent EP.

The EP that recently Wowed me was the Explore Scientific 68 degree Maxvision, and I'm now considering more AFOV by getting the 14mm ES82 whichis about 130 Euros.

Before I hit the buy button I would be stupid not to ask you knowledgable folks if there is any other EP that fits the bill which I should be dropping a 150 pounds on?

Also with a 200p dob 1200 FL f/6 a 14mm will give 86x mag, would you guys choose this focal length EP if it was to be your prized EP? If not what FL would you pick and why? Obviously its a bit scope dependant but I'm interested in the consensus as I've not long got hooked back on visual after being solely an imager for a couple of years.

Many thanks for any thoughts:)

Chris

[alan potts]

I have had the Meade 14mm UWA for a long time, I only sold it a few weeks ago. It is a very fine eyepiece and I would say as good a the Pentax XW 14mm but that is only from memory. Having a wider FOV the outer part cannot be compared of course.

Now the element arrangement is the same in the ES 82 but the coatings could be different even from the same company as the Meade was, JOC in China. Now I really don't think there is going to any difference in the performance of these two, whether both the same or one slightly better than the other I don't know.

I would say the ES 14mm would be a fine addition to your eyepiece collection or is there a Maxvision 14mm 82 degree, that will be the same as I had.

There is another Meade version now of the 14mm 82 degree that Telescope House carry though I am not sure of the optics. I had the 5.5mm version and that was very good but no indication of how good the others are.

The other thing you could look for is a S/H 14mm Radian at around 100 pounds or a little more the 13mm Nagler at around 165, they come up fairly often on Astro Buy and Sell, they also don't get much better than that.

Alan.

[Stargazer_00]

You will love the es 14mm. I did a review on it and then others in the member equipment review area on a scope with the same focal length as yours so the name magnification. Then scope was a 10 inch though. Have a read. The 14mm is my favourite DSO eyepiece of the bunch.

[John]

When I had a 200P dob I used to have a Skywatcher Nirvana 16mm (same eyepiece as the 16mm William Optics UWAN) which spent a lot of time in the scope for deep sky use. You can pick those up for under £100 on the used market or £145 new from First Light Optics. The eyepiece shows 1.1 true degrees of sky at a useful 75x magnification.

I "upgraded" the 16mm Nirvana to a 16mm Nagler T5, at some cost I should say, but found the Nagler did not do any better in the 200P dob and actually had less eye relief.

[Chris]

I have had the Meade 14mm UWA for a long time, I only sold it a few weeks ago. It is a very fine eyepiece and I would say as good a the Pentax XW 14mm but that is only from memory. Having a wider FOV the outer part cannot be compared of course.

Now the element arrangement is the same in the ES 82 but the coatings could be different even from the same company as the Meade was, JOC in China. Now I really don't think there is going to any difference in the performance of these two, whether both the same or one slightly better than the other I don't know.

I would say the ES 14mm would be a fine addition to your eyepiece collection or is there a Maxvision 14mm 82 degree, that will be the same as I had.

There is another Meade version now of the 14mm 82 degree that Telescope House carry though I am not sure of the optics. I had the 5.5mm version and that was very good but no indication of how good the others are.

The other thing you could look for is a S/H 14mm Radian at around 100 pounds or a little more the 13mm Nagler at around 165, they come up fairly often on Astro Buy and Sell, they also don't get much better than that.

Alan.

Thanks for your reply Alan, I've just looked at the Meade UWA 5000 on the Telescope House site and they do the 14mm at 128 pounds, looks like a very solid EP so I might add this to my second hand wanted list. ES Maxvision do a 82' at 18mm which is priced very well indeed! Its still slighty tempting even though I have a 20mm 68' but it would be more sensible for me to go for a 14-16mm EP.

http://www.explorescientific.de/maxvision-82deg-okular-18mm-p-25565.html

I was also thinking about the Radians alhtough I wouldn't mond a bit more FOV than 60 degrees, very nice Build and quality though if my recently departed TV 15mm Plossl is anything to go by.

I think I heard the that the ES82's compare well to the Naglers at a fraction of the price but I guess if I found a second hand Nagler it might hold its value better. I'll give that one some thought

Thanks

Chris

[Chris]

You will love the es 14mm. I did a review on it and then others in the member equipment review area on a scope with the same focal length as yours so the name magnification. Then scope was a 10 inch though. Have a read. The 14mm is my favourite DSO eyepiece of the bunch.

Hi and thanks, I've had a little look around for your review but can't seem to find it, do you have the link please, the ES82 14mm does seem to tick a lot of boxes

Cheers

Chris

[Chris]

When I had a 200P dob I used to have a Skywatcher Nirvana 16mm (same eyepiece as the 16mm William Optics UWAN) which spent a lot of time in the scope for deep sky use. You can pick those up for under £100 on the used market or £145 new from First Light Optics. The eyepiece shows 1.1 true degrees of sky at a useful 75x magnification.

I "upgraded" the 16mm Nirvana to a 16mm Nagler T5, at some cost I should say, but found the Nagler did not do any better in the 200P dob and actually had less eye relief.

Hi John, I do like the look of the Nirvana's on the FLO sight, they seem to be sold out at the moment but I will add it to my wanted ad list, thanks

[Chris]

Thanks everyone for your help and advice its very much appreciated This is a big chunk of change for me so what I think I'll do is re-advertise for the ES82 plus some of your guys suggestions, maybe I'll just ask for a ultra wide EP at around 14mm and see if I get any offers, this might be more straight forward. If I don't get any replies that fit the bill then I'll hit the button on the ES82 14mm.

Thanks again for the advice:)

Chris

[faulksy]

as john, i always read lots of reviews on any astro items i buy and when i was in the market for a ep around 14mm the 16mm nirvana kept popping up so i bought it and it realy is amazing ep.

[Lorne]

Another thumbs up for the 16mm Nirvana from me. The only downside I can find in the range is the gap between the 16 and the 7mm. A nice 11 or 12mm 82* would fit in quite nicely

[John]

Another thumbs up for the 16mm Nirvana from me. The only downside I can find in the range is the gap between the 16 and the 7mm. A nice 11 or 12mm 82* would fit in quite nicely

I agree - if there had been more UWAN / Nirvana's in the range they would dominate the ultra-wide market now I reckon.

[Chris]

I guess theres a reason why the Nirvana's are sold out at FLO then, and don't worry enjoy researching astro bits and bobs, not sure my wife enjoys it as much though .

I stumbled across this thread which seems to suggest that the WO UWAN's are at least as good as the Nirvana's, or maybe the same if there built in the same factory to the same spec?

Anyway they are also out of stock at FLO so the ES EP's still look good to me. I did come across the Meade 5000's 60 degree's which are obviously not 82's but I did hear good things about them having pin sharp stars over the entire FOV and the fit and finish is also rather stunning plus I could affored two if these! I should perhaps stick to my guns though as I am after an upgrade in FOV from my TV 15mm Plossl and I'm not sure the Meade 5000's would be enough of a jump? Would they be any better than say a BST 15mm? Sorry for the tangent, the more I read the more unsure I'm getting

[alan potts]

I don't understand why there is not a greater range of these, other manufacturers manage to make many more, ES make 8 of them. It would be nice to see how they compare with each other.

I remember reading something about 2 years back which was called something alone the lines of UWAN out Nagler the Nagler. Only a mans opinion butjust goes to show how good they must be.

Alan

[Stargazer_00]

Hi,

Here's that link: http://stargazerslounge.com/topic/183154-explore-scientifc-82-degree-eyepiece-range-first-light-report/

Hope it helps you make up your mind

[Chris]

Hi,

Here's that link: http://stargazerslou...t-light-report/

Hope it helps you make up your mind

Thank you

[John]

I've owned and used both UWAN's and Nirvana's - they look identically finished, apart from the logo, to me and performed identically. I've also compared them directly to their Nagler counterparts and found very little difference unless the scope is a fast one (ie: faster than say F/5) and then the Naglers do remain a bit sharper at the outer edges of the field of view.

These eyepieces need to be compared directly to each other and on varying objects, under varying conditions to see their differences. Fast scopes test them much more than slow ones as well, which is worth bearing in mind.

This is why Star Parties can be dangerous places !

[Chris]

Hi John, your message has got me thinking! my f/6 scope might not be that demanding on EP's in which case would the much cheaper Swan 72' work ok, I'm not too worried if the last say 10-15% of the FOV falls off into coma. I didn't even think about these before and 72' would be a big jump from my departed 52' 15mm plossl. I think one reason I'm stalling is that 150 quid for one EP is something I need to get my head around. I see that you have Ethos EP's John so I could understand if you don't understand, if you know what I mean?

[John]

Most of my time in the hobby has been spent looking through much less expensive eyepieces than Ethos's (or SWAN's even). It took me years to incrementally work my way to the set I have now so I've used eyepieces of all shapes, sizes and quality over the years and enjoyed many of them. So I do understand

As a guide, your current BST 8mm and Maxvision 20mm will be at least as good in your F/6 200P as a SWAN would, probably a bit better.

[Chris]

Hi,

Here's that link: http://stargazerslou...t-light-report/

Hope it helps you make up your mind

Great review, I really enjoyed reading your experiences with all your ES82's. It sounds to me like these EP's almost open up another world to people who haven't previously looked through a premium EP. The 14mm sounds like a winner, also the 11mm might be as good looking at the numbers. I also noted that one of the replies spoke very highly of the ES68 at 16mm which I'll think I'll take a look at. A was thinking of getting the 16mm Maxvision but have been warned of almost unusable eyerelief so that one was out the window before I started this thread.

[bingevader]

I was looking for a 14mm.

The 14mm ES 82^o was what I'd had in mind and I was waiting until Christmas!

Then a Meade UWA 14mm came up second hand and it's lovely!

I did e-mail Optical-Systems previously about a 14mm Maxvision but they said there isn't one available.

I have the 18mm ES and it's great. The 14mm is about £120 which is well under budget!

Cheers

[Chris]

Well guys I've just hit the bay button for the ES82 14mm! I'll be honest, I nearly setteled for a 15mm BST or Swan instead, but thought what the heck its only money and you only have to buy a premium EP in a particular focal length once in you life, don't you?

It should be here in about 7 days

[Stargazer_00]

You'll love it I reckon

[faulksy]

congrats mate, at least when you receive it the moon will slowly be out of the way. good luck

[Chris]

You'll love it I reckon

If its anything like my ES Maxvision 68 then I will very pleased Now all I need is a decent object finding eyepiece around 32mm then I should be sorted for a while and can fill in the gaps over time.

Any suggestion for a good object finding eyepiece of around 32mm 70 quid budget, I've sold a few things recently including my 32mm Plossl which perhaps I shouldn't have sold because now I need to replace it Hopefully something even more widefield.

Chris

[Chris]

congrats mate, at least when you receive it the moon will slowly be out of the way. good luck

Thanks mate, Yeah I can't wait to let it loose on some DSO's