Complete eyepiece collection?

[John]

.... The zoom only has an AFOV of 50 degrees which at 5mm would give me a FOV of 10' whereas the Pentax 10mm XW (AFOV 70 degrees) x2 barlowed would give me a FOV of 14' (almost 50% increase) and a high mag of x300 is probably, like you say, a more realistic high power to aim for. I'd probably never get a chance to use the Televue zoom at the shorter FL's.

The field of view of eypieces becomes an important issue with a dob IMHO. Both my scopes are undriven alt-az mounted and therefore I've found the ultra-wide field that my Naglers and UWAN give extremely useful in extending the tracking time between nudges.

That's the reason that I parted with my Nagler 3-6mm Zoom - brilliant eyepiece but the 50 degree field was too limiting for me.

John

[John]

I've now got a set that I have (almost !) convinced myself that delivers the goods in my scopes:

- KK Widescan III 30mm, 84 degrees FoV - it's my only 2 inch eyepiece.

- TV Panoptic 24mm, 68 deg Fov - superb !

- William Optics UWAN 16mm, 82 deg FoV - impressive and very Nagler-like.

- TV Nagler T6 13mm, 82 deg FoV - along with the 24 Pan, my favourite.

- TV Nagler T6 9mm, 82 deg FoV

- TV Nagler T1 7mm, 82 deg FoV

- TV Nagler T1 4.8mm, 82 deg Fov

- Celestron Ultima 2x Barlow

Well I did say "almost" didn't I

The Nagler 7mm Type 1 has now been replaced by a Type 6 version and I snapped up a Hyperion 3.5mm at the high power end. No sign of a bargain Nagler 31mm Type 5 as yet ........ just as well probably

John

[Tiny]

Mrs Tiny has

an Omni 1.25" 40mm,

an Antares 2" 32mm swa 70 degrees,

a Televue 1.25" 8-24 zoom,

a Televue 1.25" 3-6 zoom.

Nice and simple and it covers needs her for SCTs and wide field scopes.

[mike bacanin]

Hello,

i,like andrew, have gone through countless eyepieces (and scopes) to reach the elusive holy grail.

i've had many naglers,meades,and other eyepieces, but as a planetary observer ,i use a tak mewlon 210 and sold all my gear a couple of months ago to purchase one, but i don't regret it!

my planetary eyepieces are now : zeiss jena orthos 6mm 10mm 12.5mm 16mm and 25mm

pentax smc orthos 7mm 12mm

takahashi ortho 18mm

TMB supermono 9mm

some were incredibly difficult to find, particularly the zeiss 12.5 and pentax 12mm, but the views especially in the zeiss are incredible.

why did i go down this route?, well, i wanted the sharpest ,highest contrast views with least glare possible, and the zeiss orthos deliver on all counts.

these eyepieces are all .965 inch, except the supermono. and they are typically less expensive than naglers.

but again, let me stress i'm a visual planetary observer, so the narrow fov is not a problem.

regards

mike

[iancandler]

My updated list..

I have pretty much settled on these now.. though still seeking to clear the 16mm meade and the 26mm celestron and add a panoptic 24mm and a 3-6mm nagler zoom.

Celestron e lux 26mm

Televue Panoptic 19mm

Meade 5000 SWA 16mm

Televue Radian 14mm

BO/TMB 9mm x 2

BO/TMB 6mm

Meade IR 9mm

BO Binomates 20mm x 2

2.5 x GSO APO barlow

2 x OCA

1.6 x OCA

BO binoviewers

[John]

Well my "bargain" Nagler 31mm did come along in the end so this is where I am at now:

31mm Nagler Type 5

22mm Nagler Type 4

16mm Nagler Type 5

13mm Nagler Type 6

9mm Nagler Type 6

7mm Nagler Type 6

5mm Nagler Type 6

2.5x Powermate

2x Ultima Barlow

I guess I've pretty much "sold out" to Tele Vue now

John

[Viking]

John,

Impressive, but not quite "sold out" to Uncle Al.

I don't see any of the ultimate eyepieces in your collection.

Only kidding, or at least I think I am!!!

The good thing about the TV products is that they tend to hold their price and don't take long to shift on the secondhand market.

Clear skies to you all, but not in South East Gloucestershire.

John

[coliea]

Something like this. I'm really torn between the Pentax 10 and the Ethos. On the one hand the Pentax 10 is the 'sweet spot' for my 'scope and cheaper and on the other hand the Ethos is way expensive and will reduce the mid-power mag from x150 to x115 but look at the AFOV it will give me. Considering the difference in magnification it's not much less than the Pentax 30 which gives a low mag of x50.

(click to enlarge)

I've always found these FOV charts useful. What software applications are capable of generating these?

Col

[Andrew*]

Oh, my god. I can't believe I actually thought I was done with that lot! I don't have any of those left any more and have been through umpteen eyepieces in between. I do enjoy a bit of eyepiece shuffling!!

The current line-up is still only 4 strong (well, actually will be 5 when I get that 5mm ortho from Craig):

32mm TeleVue Wide Field (Smoothside) - cheap and cheerful compact wide field that gives great views in a 65° fiel, with a bundle of ER to boot. The widest field for my dob - 57x with a 7.1mm exit pupil.

18mm Meade Series 5000 UWA - largest TFOV available from an ultra wide field in a 1.25" barrel. Tight on ER and some "ring of fire", but incredibly sharp across most of the FOV even in my f/4.5 (uncorrected) dob. Provides nice mid power for general purpose DSO viewingin the Lightbridge - 102x.

8.5-12mm Antares Speers-WALER - this rather unusual eyepiece is arriving early next month from Canada. It will provide medium-high power in my dob (152-215x) with a constant 82° field - gorgeous!

7mm TS Planetary - this high-contrast 60° beauty will be my higher power eyepiece when seeing allows - 261x. Also quite pleasing on ER.

I also have a Celestron Ultima 2x on hand in case seeing is so kind as to allow me to use over 300x.

It's possible I will find that one eyepiece is not enough to fill the gap between the 12mm and 32mm, so there may be a new one there, but otherwise, I HOPE I will be content with this lot....

(click to enlarge)

Andrew

[Ben Ritchie]

I have what i think is a near-perfect line up (unless I change 'scopes again!). But getting there took this lot...

* 3.5mm TeleVue Type-6 Nagler

* 3.5mm Baader Hyperion

* 4mm TMB/Burgess planetary

* 4.8mm Tele Vue Nagler

* 5mm Pentax XW

* 5mm TeleVue Type-6 Nagler

* 5mm Baader Hyperion

* 6.4mm Meade series 4000 Plossl

* 7mm Pentax XW

* 7mm TMB/Burgess planetary

* 8mm Baader Hyperion

* 9mm TMB/Burgess planetary

* 9.7mm Meade series 4000 Plossl

* 10mm Pentax XW

* 11mm TeleVue Plossl

* 12mm Coronado CeMax Plossl

* 12mm TeleVue Type-4 Nagler (1.25"/2") (x2)

* 12.4mm Meade series 4000 Plossl

* 13mm TeleVue Type-6 Nagler

* 13mm Baader Hyperion

* 13mm TeleVue Plossl

* 14mm Meade series 4000 Ultra Wide (1.25"/2")

* 15mm Meade series 4000 Plossl

* 17mm TeleVue Type-4 Nagler (2") (x2)

* 18mm Coronado CeMax Plossl

* 19mm TeleVue Panoptic

* 20mm TeleVue Type-5 Nagler (2")

* 20mm Coronado Kellner (supplied with PST)

* 20mm Meade series 4000 Plossl

* 20mm TeleVue Plossl

* 24mm TeleVue Panoptic

* 26mm Meade series 4000 Plossl

* 26mm TeleVue Type-5 Nagler (2")

* 31mm TeleVue Type-5 Nagler (2")

* 32mm Meade series 4000 Plossl

* 35mm TeleVue Panoptic (2")

* 40mm Meade series 4000 Plossl

* 40mm Meade series 4000 Super Wide (2")

Sold out to the guys in green totally now, just waiting for the 24mm ethos...

[Andrew*]

Wow!!

You have a 3-6mm Nagler zoom in your sig. Do you have one of those as well?

How do you choose which eyepiece to use? And (how) do you take them all around with you?

If only I had the cash spare...

Andrew

[thing]

Got mine down to 4 and a bit now at last. No more option anxiety.

x2 Celestron Ultima Barlow

20 mil Celestron Plossl that has my crosshair permanently installed for aligining stars

33 mil Swan 2"

13 mil Hyperion

8 mil Hyperion

5 mil Hyperion

Which gives me 2.38 Degrees at x30, .78 degrees at x78, .54 degrees at x125 and .34 degrees at x200. Double the mag and half the FOV with the Barlow. Although I'm tempted to trade the 5 mil Hyp for a 5 mil Baader Ortho.........

[Ben Ritchie]

How do you choose which eyepiece to use? And (how) do you take them all around with you?

Ah, that's not the collection ... that's what's been and gone to decide on 'the perfect set'!

[Andrew*]

Ah, sorry - totally misread that last sentence!

Andrew

[Ben Ritchie]

I wasn't exactly clear - the perils of trying to type with an overexcited 18-month-old trying to eat the keyboard

[Andrew*]

Ah, yes, I know the feeling!

Here's my complete and unabridged list of the departed and sadly missed (approximately in order of appearance):

Unbranded SR4 (x2)

Unbranded 20mm SMA

Unbranded 10mm SMA

Unbranded 2x barlow

Unbranded 12.5mm Huygenian

10mm Orion Sirius ploessl

25mm Orion Sirius Ploessl

3x Antares barlow

15mm Celestron Ploessl

32mm Meade Series 4000 ploessl

19mm TeleVue Panoptic

32mm Meade Series 4000 SWA

25mm Celestron E-Lux ploessl

6mm Antares Ortho

4mm Telescope House Ortho

26mm Revelation SuperView

8-24mm Baader Hyperion zoom

19mm Tele Vue smoothside Wide Field

21mm Baader Hyperion

20mm Meade Series 5000 SWA

32mm Meade Series 5000 Ploessl

3-6mm Tele Vue Nagler zoom :crybaby:

14mm Meade Series 5000 UWA

21mm Orion Stratus

26mm Meade Series 4000 QX

10.5mm Tele Vue smoothside Ploessl

9mm Antares Ortho

Andrew

[blinky]

:shock: You have owned 27 EP's

[Andrew*]

Yes. I was quite surprised too!!

But two of those are barlows, and 4 came with my first scope...

I've actually owned 29 eyepieces, including ones I have at the moment :shock:

Andrew

[John]

I'm not even going to try and list the ones that have got away

I did that with scopes recently and came up with a number in the low 20's !

I really must try some Pentax EP's out - so far I've not had that pleasure.

John

[A McEwan]

I have no idea how many eyepieces I've owned, but having had about 22 telescopes I'm guessing it's quite a lot! However, my current 'family' will be more or less firm for a while to come:

Pentax XW 30mm

Vixen LVW 22mm

Pentax XL 14mm

Pentax XL 10.5mm

Meade S4k Ultra Wide Angle 6.7mm

Pentax XL 5.2mm

Siebert Starsplitter 3.9mm

There are also the following which I use on my PST or for when I'm using more than one scope:

Meade S4k 32mm Plossl

Circle T 18mm Ortho

Circle T 12.5mm Ortho

Circle T 9mm Ortho

Circle T 7mm Ortho

TeleVue 13mm Plossl

I think I'm finally happy with my selection! :shock:

[GazOC]

I've got a full set of Hyperions 24mm down to a 2.1mm (a spare 3.5 with adjustment), a full, mixed set of othos 4mm - 25mm and a load of Plossls that I've picked up along the way that I really should get around to putting on Ebay!!!

[Helen]

Sorry, I'm not in the same league.... I've only ever sold 3 eyepieces (and 2 of those went with the scope they came with!)

I currently have:

The anniversary set of Meade plossls, although some of these are out on loan to my nephew Richard.

10mm Vixen, used for the PST

AE 8-24 zoom, for its versatility

3-6 Nagler zoom, great for the ZS66 and Megrez 90mm

Revelation 2 inch, for wide field views

Meade QX 36mm, haven't used much at all (must give it another go..)

and my favourite...the 16mm UWAN

Also a 2.5 powermate

I'm now thinking of buying one or two premium eyepieces

Mike was looking in AN this month and there was the advert for the Ethos...he said he's happy to buy me one for Christmas So what do you think I should go for - given my scopes??

Or would I be better with a pentax or UWAN... (or both?)

Helen

[Neon]

Mine's pretty eclectic:

6mm Japanese Orthoscopic

8mm Baader Hyperion

12.4mm Meade 4000 Plossl

24mm Baader Hyperion

32mm Celestron Erfle

Meade Shorty x2 Barlow

I'm planning on getting a couple of 2" eyepieces next, as well as a decent (but small) eyepiece in the region of 16 - 20mm primarily for terrestrial viewing. I generally break my kit down by size, so that I have smaller eyepieces that are easier to carry to other sites and larger stuff like the Hyperions for back garden viewing.

[Tiny]

I have lots of eyepieces. Like gardening the job of getting the right balance never seems to end. New scope - new balance. But I do like the high mm wide angles and also the 24-8 and 6-3 zooms in general more than the others. With a zoom you can use the same eyepiece all night depending on the scope.

[StarMan1701]

Currently in my eyepiece case:

4mm Vixen Lanthanum

7mm Vixen Lanthanum

12mm Vixen Lanthanum

18mm Vixen Lanthanum

25mm Vixen Lanthanum

30mm Vixen Lanthanum (2") - 20x magnification and a 3 degree TFOV in my 80ED.

5mm Vixen Lanthanum Widefield

13mm Vixen Lanthanum Widefield

TeleVue 2.5x Powermate

I also have:

Antares 7mm HD Orthoscopic

Antares 9mm HD Orthoscopic

Plus a few Meade / Tal / Fullerscopes Plossls.

As you can see, I do like my Lanths...

Lee.

I've recently added both the 8mm and 17mm Vixen LVW's to my collection as well. Now only got to get hold of the 22mm and I'll be happy...

Lee.