15 or 16mm eyepieces?

[russ.will]

Note that I do not find any of my ES eyepieces, except the 24mm 68*, to be usable during the day when my iris is contracted. Having a wide open iris helps because it allows the eye to be moved back beyond the stated eye relief while still accepting the full fan of light rays. This is particularly true for wide angle eyepieces where the light rays diverge rapidly.

Good point - I find all of my EPs are an entirely different proposition when solar viewing. As a non-glasses wearer, I'm not sure I'd class any of the ES/Meade/MV SWA/UWA variants as being particularly relaxed in terms of eye relief IF you WANT to see the field stop. I don't, so it's less of an issue.

The new Skywatcher 8 element SWAs at less than £90 are going to be popular for spec wearers I feel ( looks like the poor mans Delos) although at 13 & 17mm, they fall slightly outside of the OPs stated focal lengths.

Russell

[Moonshane]

what about a 14mm or 18mm Radian. you'd have to get used though I think. 20mm adjustable eye relief, 60 degree field and lovely sharpness and contrast.

[Andrew*]

Thank you all for the suggestions. I know it's a bit pedantic, but I was really looking for a 15mm or 16mm eyepiece, no larger or smaller as it fills a gap. It turns out it doesn't actually exist, despite the incredible selection of eyepieces available on the market. Either the field is too small, the eye relief too tight or the focal length wrong.

However, I have now settled on quite a nice line-up without the need for the 15-16mm:

40mm Skywatcher Aero

24mm Meade Series 5000 SWA

17.3mm TeleVue Delos

10mm Pentax XW

7mm Pentax XW.

With my 2x Zeiss barlow and 2.5x TeleVue Powermate I have the following focal lengths available:

40mm, 24mm, 17.3mm, 12mm, 10mm, 8.65mm, 7mm, 5mm, 4mm, 3.5mm and 2.8mm

As you can see, this is fully comprehensive as it offers a selection of magnifications from low power to high power in my three scopes: 90mm f/6.7 TS triplet, 120mm Skywatcher ED and 12" f/6 Dobsonian, and likely any scope I may own in the future.

The Pentax XW is the most pleasurable line of eyepieces I've ever used. I find them extremely comfortable and optically infallible, and a ~70° FOV is most comfortable for me to use with glasses. So this line-up never going to be superseded. That's right, NEVER!

[Stargazer_00]

And if you didn't think that way I'd never have gotten the Delos off of you

[Damo636]

Just a thought but what about using your 24mm Meade in an Antares 1.6x barlow? I use one of these with my 21 Ethos (gets me to 13mm) and my XW's to max out my high power range. The latest incarnation has a new twist lock clamping system and like the previous versions is optically excellent.......

[John]

Just a thought but what about using your 24mm Meade in an Antares 1.6x barlow? I use one of these with my 21 Ethos (gets me to 13mm) and my XW's to max out my high power range. The latest incarnation has a new twist lock clamping system and like the previous versions is optically excellent.......

I tried one of those very recently. The optics are still great and they have put a 2" filter thread onto the bottom of the barrel now as well as the twist grip compression ring. All well and good but in making these changes they have moved the position of the barlow element in respect to eyepieces that will be used in it and the amount of additional inward focus travel that is now needed to bring eyepieces to focus has grown alarmingly. Only a couple of my eyepieces would come to focus in any of my scopes and none in the newtonian, which already has a low profile focuser

So the Antares 2" 1.6x went back and I was given a full refund. You would be OK in an SCT or Mak with lots of focus travel but watch out if you want to use one in a newt or refractor with limited inward focuser travel available.

Shame as I'm sure the optics are still top notch.

[Damo636]

Bad luck John! I seen your thread on CN and have to admit I was a little concerned re the inward travel but took a chance anyway. Luckily enough I've been able to bring all my eyepieces to focus. In saying that though, it was a close call with the 21Ethos with only approx approx 3-4mm to spare.