Celestron Luminos

[Stu_]

Has anyone got any experience of these eyepieces?

I'm looking at the Luminos, as they offer good eye-relief & wide FOV, this will be to replace my 25mm stock, in a 150p f5 newt.

I've got an 9mm X-cel & like how it performs.

Or, are there any better options, up to this price range?

Cheers.

[rwilkey]

Hi Stu, I have some of their earlier incarnations, the Axiom LX's, and they are very good, good widefield and good eye-relief, the twist-up eyecups are also very clever, just twist the body and the eyecup comes up, really good for fixing your eye at just the right height.  The Luminos are exactly the same as the Ax's, just cheaper and were brought out when SW released their cheaper Sky Panaorama versions, which I believe are exactly the same ep, but in different clothes.  Yes, I do recommend them, but I have also progressed to the Explore Scientific 82's which I now prefer out of the two, you might want to give these some consideration as well, but eye-relief is much shorter on the ES's.

[andrew63]

I've used a couple of the 1.25 but the 2"  23mm is a very big and heavy eyepiece -  around 1 kg in weight and could be a strain on your focuser and balance.  The 25mm x cel will do a good job if you like the 9 version but 2" 82 deg eyepiece are a different ball game !

andrew

[Stu_]

Thanks for the replies, it's good to know they are good eyepieces, I'll have a play with my 10mm stock, to see if can get on with a shorter eye-relief.

But then I can get 2 x-cels, for the price of 1 Luminos, plenty to think about, me thinks.

[jetstream]

I own 3 Luminos and like them despite some flaws and their lack of poularity.At f4.8 the 23mm Luminos shows a lot of astigmatism and field curvature-not recommended at this focal length.The 10mm and 7mm are good eyepieces even at f4.8 but are prone to ghosting on Jupiter and other very bright objects.It is an eyeball reflection I think(the ghost).If you can get the ES 82 for around the same price or a bit more they would be worth it,they are really good IMHO.Just keep checking around for EP reports,some good information on here.The ES 82's are a bit tighter on the eyerelief.

[lardy]

I have some Axioms LX's and rate them very highly in my F9.2 and F7 scopes, I did hear that the Luminos were cheaper than the Axioms due to cheaper materials used.

[jetstream]

I have some Axioms LX's and rate them very highly in my F9.2 and F7 scopes, I did hear that the Luminos were cheaper than the Axioms due to cheaper materials used.

I heard that a different manufacturer makes the Luminos vs the Axiom which may account for a difference.l also heard of some people voicing the same issues with the Axioms as the Luminos.What flaws do you see (if any ) with the Axioms?In my f7 refractor there isn't really any issues aside from some minor light scatter on Jupiter with the Luminos and they are very good on DSO.I like them,very comfortable,great eyecups and eyerelief in a short package.

[lardy]

Never looked through an Luminos ... I believe the relief is slightly different between the two, it would be interesting to do a comparison though.

Flaws .... the 31mm is a big old lump, but I have never found anything that I don't like. A good all round package.

[astrorabbit]

I own 3 Luminos and like them despite some flaws and their lack of poularity.At f4.8 the 23mm Luminos shows a lot of astigmatism and field curvature-not recommended at this focal length.The 10mm and 7mm are good eyepieces even at f4.8 but are prone to ghosting on Jupiter and other very bright objects.It is an eyeball reflection I think(the ghost).If you can get the ES 82 for around the same price or a bit more they would be worth it,they are really good IMHO.Just keep checking around for EP reports,some good information on here.The ES 82's are a bit tighter on the eyerelief.

Do you think a coma corrector in a fast dob would fix this issue of field curvature etc? Also for very bright objects such as the moon and planets using a dob wide open may not be ideal, I'd consider stopping down the scope to loose a bit of brightness etc.

[jetstream]

Do you think a coma corrector in a fast dob would fix this issue of field curvature etc? Also for very bright objects such as the moon and planets using a dob wide open may not be ideal, I'd consider stopping down the scope to loose a bit of brightness etc.

A coma corrector should help the coma,but I'm not sure how much I see is coma or astigmatism mixed together.Field curvature is complex as are the other parameters of EP design,it can be the interaction of the telescope design and the okular and the human eye that makes some things visible, more to others than some.

I tried stopping down my VX10 to a 4.7" aperture equivalent and tested the 23mm Luminos-it worked great.The focal ratio was about F10.No ghosting,minimal coma and less astigmatism and better contolled astigmatism that was visible.I do like these EP's,in my 10" the view of the Veil nebula from a mag 21.7 sky was unreal,so bright....it made me go buy an Ethos 21mm!(which has issues too,but much more controlled).At a slower F ratio and possibly smaller aperture these things work excellent.The thing is the ES 82 deg series are very close to Nagler performance for only a bit more than the Luminos.

I have a great link to how eyepiece design and human vision interact if you are interested.You may already know all about this though.

[astrorabbit]

I'd be interested if you could pm me the link?