Moonfish 30mm

[Matt1]

Hello everyone

I have  200P dob and I am looking into observing deep space such as nebulae, star clusters, galaxies

Has anyone come across the "Moonfish" 30mm 80 degree FOV eyepiece?

and I was wondering what where people's thoughts or experiences concerning this eyepiece?.

Cheers Matt.

[bambuko]

Have you seen this review here on Stargazer?

[bingevader]

The Moonfish and its clones were supposedly corking value for money if you didn't mind a little softness around the edges in the faster 'scopes!

Cheers

[Andy_E]

Just a quick word of advice. It is often wrongly stated that you will want a lower power EP for DSO observing. A 30mm wide field will serve you well for some of the larger star clusters and nebulae, but wont be of much use on globular clusters, the majority of galaxies or planetary nebula. A nice range of EPs is needed for DSO work, from a nice wide angle EP (such as the one you state) right up to the higher powers. If I'm brutally honest, my 32mm rarely gets used apart from perhaps for 5 or 6 objects in the entire night sky.

I only wish to state this to make sure you don't end up with an EP not fit for purpose; for the larger open clusters and certain large nebulae it's a good choice - but for galaxies, globulars, planetaries and other smaller nebulae it won't be of much use.

[Ludd]

I have a Moonfish 30mm EP and it's great for those rare times when I get to a dark sky.  An absolute bargain (£40 I think) when I bought it some 7 years or so ago, and Dani at Moonfish was friendly and helpful.  It is like hovering over a pool to observe - plenty of room to look around without having to move the scope, and sharpness was bearable in my f5 scope, and good in my current f6 scope.

I've not yet tried it in my C8 - might have a go if we get a clear night this week.

[John]

They are great in F/10 scopes but, to me at least, the edges of the field looked pretty messy at F/6.5 and faster. I guess for a £40 ultra wide thats only to be expected though. 

[Spec-Chum]

For the record, I've bought and sold a few ep's since I did that review and I've still got this one. It must be doing something right

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk

[nicks90]

what Andy-E said is spot on, I have a 300 dob and my 2" 38mm widefield ep is not really used to 'observe' much at all. Its a bit soft at the edges and the exit pupil is right on the usable limits. However it is awesome as a finder ep. You get more or less in the region with the (insert your finder here) and star hop / centre your target in the low power super wide field and then switch to something more appropriate. In my case thats usually my 15mm or 9mm UWA

.

It really has improved my ability to find targets by a massive amount, as finding stuff looking through a "drinking straw" narrow field ep meant plenty of frustration and having to know the exact star hops from a known point. An example is the ring neb, through my low power ep I can get sulafat and sheliak in the same field of view and see the ring as a diffuse 'star'. centre it and BANG, hit it with the 9mm. Get it in less than 30 seconds including swapping eps! For less obvious stuff, i can now just use approximate guidance to find it using an app on my phone zoomed out. M15 is centre Enif and right a bit towards the top of delphinus. Bingo, get it in the fov everytime! Dont need to know any of the stars that make the 'stream' that goes to it or anything. Purists will probably tut and mutter about not knowing the sky, but hey - its not a GOTO and it works for me!

Although I am looking forward to seeing pliaedes in it, as that is one of the few things that will fill the ep.

[coulthamst]

They are great in F/10 scopes but, to me at least, the edges of the field looked pretty messy at F/6.5 and faster. I guess for a £40 ultra wide thats only to be expected though.

+1

Jim.

[Northern Soul man]

Hi Matt, not sure if you observe under light polluted skies, only light pollution and low power really fight against each other - low powers under light pollution will probably wash out any of the contrast you need, so the fainter Galaxies will become "invisible" - probably trial and error for you - the brighter galaxies will probably be visible, but if your skies are like mine - once you get below 9.5/10 it becomes a real struggle, unless you go to darker skies.   Paul

[bingevader]

In an 8" 'scope, like you have, my experiences of a low powered EP (32mm in my case) are excellent. It's one of my most used EPs, and not just as a finder. I know it's all down to personal preference, but the low powered EP just frames DSOs splendidly. But then I'm not one for hitting them with high powered EPs anyway, 14mm is about as high as I like to go. And then, even after having studied them with the 14mm I invariably go back to the 32mm. M31 was truly awesome the last time I was out and only the 32mm really came anywhere near to doing it justice (and even then with bits missing!).

Horses for courses as always, but for £40 I don't think you can go far wrong.

Cheers