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24mm Panoptic

Naemeth

By Naemeth
in Discussions - Eyepieces

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Naemeth

Naemeth

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Nice new piece of green and black. Looking forward to a first light report.

Looking forward to making one, hopefully it'll be clear tomorrow and I'll give it a whirl in the big dob :). If it's clear for long enough, I might even try it with more than one scope on the same night!

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Qualia

Qualia

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Cracking eyepiece and I think you're going to find it a keeper :p It's very comfortable, extremely light, with sufficient field of view for star-hoping and finding objects. Unless you're moving into the 2" range, at this kind of focal length I really can't see it being bettered. Nice one :grin:

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Naemeth

Naemeth

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Pockets of clear sky here - enough for me to take out the dob tonight, might have a first light tonight after-all, and it gives me the largest TFOV of all the eyepieces I have (apart from with the LV 50mm, but that's really for the slower scopes ;))

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Naemeth

Naemeth

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I've come in from the most amazing session of stargazing I've ever had, also the longest. The only reason I came in was that it clouded over, it actually felt like 5 minutes but I was actually out for about 2 hours 40 :D.

First Light Report: 24mm TeleVue Panoptic

Telescope used was the Skywatcher 10" F/4.7 Dobsonian

Having only received the eyepiece today, I initially thought I'd have no chance of a first light, and it certainly appeared to be the case at about 15:00 - 16:00, however, by about 16:30 the sky started to clear, gaps started appearing in the clouds and I began to think I had a realistic hope of seeing a first light. So, on that note, I checked again at 20:00, this time the sky had darkened quite considerably, and to my luck, it was clear - although there was quite a lot of high cloud around. So, I rushed upstairs to get down my 10" dob and assorted gear (eyepiece case, S&T pocket atlas, head torch) and headed outside.

I didn't feel the need to collimate - I knew I wasn't going for high power views and the scope seems to hold collimation quite well, so I set everything up and took all the caps off and put the Panoptic in the focuser. Now, I hadn't moved my focuser from my last session (with TV plossls), and was surprised to note that the focus was only slightly off, very convenient then to change between the TV plossls and the Panoptic.

So, anyway, I swung the scope around the sky, really noticing the high cloud as the field of view wasn't as filled with stars as usual. One thing that did strike me was how comfortable the eyepiece was, and the FOV felt very roomy, eyecup was up and it did a great job of shutting out the surrounding light.

I first went to an old favourite, M57, and saw the traditional ring like structure. I could've swarn I saw a bit of colour, but I didn't dwell on it too long as I thought I would try and get more objects this time :).

My next favourite spot is always the lovely star fields around Cassiopeia, I think this is truly where the 10" dob shines. It's a really lovely star rich region around there, and in this scope they all look marvelous and, importantly, bright. When I was in this region, I decided to go for the double cluster, a favourite even in my smallest scope :). I could have stared at it for ages, the brilliantly black background of the Panoptic with a field of view that gave it a perfect framing, I really was in heaven. I even got some of the family out for a quick look :D.

Next up, Andromeda - how could I not? Sure enough, I found it easily enough, and once I was there I realised I could quite clearly see it in my RACI finder - something I'd not noticed before. Back to M31 I thought, I wasn't expecting to see M32 or M110, but sure enough I could see a slight extension to M31, past the core, which made M31 look a little bloated to one side. I knew this had to be M32, as M31 is elliptical. I looked around the FOV, and to my surprise I also clearly saw M110 as a small grey smudge, finally :D. All it needed was aperture, that or dark skies... mind you, I haven't actually yet observed in dark skies, so we'll have to see how that goes..

Moving across the sky, I went across to M29, I thought I saw it but can't be sure. Stellarium and the S&T Pocket Atlas seem to be disagreeing with the location of it.

I did try and get others, such as M56, but alas I had no luck. I spent so much time going back to the Double Cluster and Andromeda that the clouds came in and spoiled the fun. On the plus side, the weather forecast is looking even better for tomorrow night, so perhaps a second light report tomorrow :D.

Oh, and the Panoptic never left the focuser, could you tell?

Cheers :)

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Naemeth

Naemeth

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Great eyepieces have that effect Jonathan. My 20mm T5 stays glued to my 10" focuser most nights :)

Great report, thanks for sharing.

Thanks :)

Even so, I didn't feel like I got enough time. So much to see! :)

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Qualia

Qualia

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Lovely report and I'm glad you got a session in. To be honest, it's also one of my most used eyepieces as well. Oh, a naughty thought  :evil:  Maybe, just maybe, it's time to sell up the plossls and funnel that ready cash into a 10mm Delos for the 10" :evil: Always imagined a perfect 1.25" set up for a 10" would be: 24mm Panoptic, 14mm Delos (90x), 10mm Delos (125x, 2mm exit pupil), 6mm Delos (for Jupiter and objects which take mag well) :grin:

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Naemeth

Naemeth

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I want one

It seems to have that effect on people...

Lovely report and I'm glad you got a session in. To be honest, it's also one of my most used eyepieces as well. Oh, a naughty thought  :evil:  Maybe, just maybe, it's time to sell up the plossls and funnel that ready cash into a 10mm Delos for the 10" :evil:

Sell!? I'd never do such a thing. Give me another month and I'll think about buying it as well :evil:.

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Glad you like it Jonathan.I love the enthusiasm that you exude.It rubs off.I want to get out with my Skywatcher tomorrow night now.Looking forward to seeing comet ISON. :wink:

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AlexB67

AlexB67

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Lovely report and I'm glad you got a session in. To be honest, it's also one of my most used eyepieces as well. Oh, a naughty thought  :evil:  Maybe, just maybe, it's time to sell up the plossls and funnel that ready cash into a 10mm Delos for the 10" :evil: Always imagined a perfect 1.25" set up for a 10" would be: 24mm Panoptic, 14mm Delos (90x), 10mm Delos (125x, 2mm exit pupil), 6mm Delos (for Jupiter and objects which take mag well) :grin:

Sounds like an ideal line up in the long run for me :)  On the lowest power I would be inclined to go for even a 2 inch that offers the widest angle in that range without pushing the exit pupil too much.  How about a 27mm. Or something else. If there is one thing I miss in the 10 inch is that magic 2.3 degrees plus I can have without even too much cost in the heritage. I know I can push the 10 inch to about 1.8 or so, that plus coma corrector would be a dream, but will also tear the wallet apart, but will be worth it I think ... at some stage  :D

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Qualia

Qualia

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Sounds like an ideal line up in the long run for me :)  On the lowest power I would be inclined to go for even a 2 inch that offers the widest angle in that range without pushing the exit pupil too much.  How about a 27mm. Or something else. If there is one thing I miss in the 10 inch is that magic 2.3 degrees plus I can have without even too much cost in the heritage. I know I can push the 10 inch to about 1.8 or so, that plus coma corrector would be a dream, but will also tear the wallet apart, but will be worth it I think ... at some stage   :D

Ay, a nice wide angle with something like a 27mm Pan or 20mm Nagler . Ruinous affair on the pocket :grin: . Thankfully, Alex I'm saved from such a dilemma. Well, at the moment at least, for just as there are those who cannot be doing with chronic eye-relief in the form of orthos and the such, I'm such a lazy so-and-so I just can't be doing with changing adaptors, fitting 1.25" and then 2" and around again :p

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