Orion Epic II ED eye pieces?

[MahlerMoonMan]

Hi folks

I'm feeling a slight 'itch' to buy a new eye piece ....  I've got an Orion ED80 f7.5 scope .....  I'm thinking of getting an Orion Epic II ED, probably a 5mm ....  Does anyone have any experience of this EP?  Is it a good quality EP?  Any viewing strengths/weaknesses?  Is it generally recommended or not? 

Hope that some of you good folks out there can be of assistance

Kindest regards,

Donaldo

[John]

They are the same eyepieces as the BST Explorers / Starguiders except almost twice the price !

[rwilkey]

Hi Donaldo, the BST Explorers, as John says, are identical and cheaper here: http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_trksid=p2050601.m570.l1313&_nkw=bst+explorers&_sacat=0&_from=R40  Mahler's 3rd is my favourite, by the way.

[triton1]

+1 for the above,bst,s are the same but cheaper

[MahlerMoonMan]

Thanks guys, if I do go for a 5mm, just to give me a wee bit more mag without having to Barlow, then I expect I'll copse the BST option ... But then again, it's really the Pentax 3.5mm that I want ... .... But at the moment I can only dream, the 'bank manager' has really clamped down on my luxury spending!

I've never been a massive fan of Mahler's 3rd ... Bit's of it though are very good ... The solo vocal movement is so beautiful and the finale is quite special too .... Otherwise the great man's 3rd doesn't really do it for me. Going through a major 9th phase just now though ...!!!

Best wishes,

Donaldo

[rwilkey]

Hi Donaldo, I am not a fan of high mag, but if I was I would go for the Pentax - very good ep's and will knock socks off the BST.  A quality view is everything from my point of view.  It's a long time since I listened to Mahler I am afraid, Leoš Janáček changed my tastes quite completely.

[chiltonstar]

Are the BSTs the same?? They certainly don't look it, although I suppose the glass could be the same in a different barrel. This is the Orion ED-2 range:-

I have an Orion Epic ED-2 3.7mm which I bought in the US; it works extremely well with my ED80 giving me about x150 with plenty of eye relief. This ep cames out tops in a Sky at Night review I recall.

Chris

PS I love Mahler - don't all "stargazers"?

[ronin]

The present Orion Epic ED 2's are the same as the BST/Paradigms and a few others.

The others shown are Orion Epics but not sure if ED's or not - simply don't know, or cannot recall.

They were around a few years ago and you could get them from Widescreen Centre and I think that WS then sold them under their own brand name, still had "Epic" on their name I think however.

I nearly bought them, but they disappeared before I made up my mind if it was worth it.

Takes me a long time.

Present (?) Orion Epic ED 2 can be found at SCS Astro.

Quick search and yes the ones shown are ED's as well (see telescope.com), about the only difference is they are advertised as 55 degree not 60 degree. However they may have limited the angle to deliver a sharper image across the field,

I wonder if that means the optics were designed some time back and didn't catch on until someone altered the housing and allowed the full field to be available. Simply 55 degrees was too close to the TV plossl's at 50/52 degrees back then.

[rwilkey]

Hi Chris, there are two Orion eyepieces with the same name, the ones you refer to have 55 degree field, whereas the BST branded ones have AFoV of 60 degrees and cost double the BST's at £99 here: http://www.scsastro.co.uk/catalogue/orion-epic-ed-II-series-eyepieces.htm  I have also checked Bill Paolini's great book and he confirms the Orion ones to be in the same 'competition class'.

[MahlerMoonMan]

I'm not sure if my eye piece strategy is 'sound' .... Without using a Barlow I've got x17, x25, x50, x60, x75 and x100 .... With my Orion Shorty Plus Barlow I've then also got powers of x120 (with my Pentax 10mm - would you Barlow a Pentax XW?!), x150 (with my 8mm BST), and x200 (with my 6mm Orion planetary) .... I could rely on my Barlow to get my higher mags, and see a wee bit more on Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, the moon, and split some tighter doubles ... Or should I get a good 5mm and/or a really good 3.5mm (the Pentax that I would really love to stretch to right now!!) .....

Just not sure ....

Donaldo

[rwilkey]

Hi Donaldo, in my opinion you would be racking up too much power, unless you are using the high power for astrophotography, but for visual it is too much power, with or without the Barlow.  The max usable power on the ED80 is 160x.