12mm eyepiece advice appreciated

[woodmeister]

Hi everyone, I am currently looking for a 12mm eyepiece to fill the gap between my 7mm and 23mm. This eyepiece would also give me 2mm of exit pupil for use with small galaxies and some planetary nebulas and would give me around 2.4-2.5mm if I was to upgrade to a 12 inch f/5 dob in the future.

I would like any advice on any eyepieces to fit the bill for galaxy/planetary ect. I hear that the baader orthoscopic offers very sharp, clear images for the price. Any input on eyepieces with good contrast and decent FOV would be appreciated before I start splashing the cash.

[nightfisher]

What scope are you using?

I`m tempted to suggest a BST starguider 12mm very good for £47

[ronin]

Seeing you list a 7mm, what is that?

The one of that focal length most commonly referred to is the X-Cel. If it is an X-Cel then perhaps the 12mm X-Cel simply to maintain commonality.

They are very similar to the BST Starguiders but cost a bit more, £64 I think.

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Pentax XF12? I used to have the XF8.5 which was awesome (I wanted a bit more FOV, so got a Delos 8). The XF series have very good eye relief (unlike an ortho)

[Paul73]

How much are you comfortable spending?

I love my Delos 12mm in a f5 Dob. Some people have better self control than me (even I could see that "at least it isn't an Ethos" isn't a solid justification for the spend).

Paul

[Ruud]

I'm very happy with my 12mm Delos. As far as I can tell, it's perfect. I would like to get an 8mm as well, but the Delos are expensive.

[woodmeister]

I currently own a 8 inch skywatcher skyliner dob f/6.

The 7mm is indeed a 7mm celestron X-CEL-LX. I also own a 23mm celestron luminos.

As for the price I am not sure yet, maybe £100-£150, around £200 if I could get a second hand delos or nagler maybe if I dare spend that much on a single eyepiece.

Always seems to be spend spend spend in this hobby atm, got my luminos and my astronomik OIII filter not to long ago.

[alan potts]

I have the 12mm Delos which is about as good as it gets but also is about as expensive as it gets. I have not long since written a head to head on the 12mm delos and the 12mm Nagler, both are excellent. I know it is moving a tad away from your ask but what about the 11mm ExSc UWA, it is reckoned to be the best in the range, though I have not tested it myself, it is also much cheaper than anything Black and Green. The other thing is that there is not a massive gap between these brands in performance but many like me are happy to pay (well not happy but do) the extra for peace of mind.

Alan.

[rwilkey]

I have the 12mm Delos which is about as good as it gets but also is about as expensive as it gets. I have not long since written a head to head on the 12mm delos and the 12mm Nagler, both are excellent. I know it is moving a tad away from your ask but what about the 11mm ExSc UWA, it is reckoned to be the best in the range, though I have not tested it myself, it is also much cheaper than anything Black and Green. The other thing is that there is not a massive gap between these brands in performance but many like me are happy to pay (well not happy but do) the extra for peace of mind.

Alan.

I can confirm the ExSc 82 series 11mm is a stunning ep and an absolute experience to use, but bear in mind the eye-relief is tighter than the spec suggests if you want to get the whole view, but I love using it, esp. as the black & greens are out of my price range.

[Ruud]

I tried the 11 mm ES 82°. Had to wait months before it arrived. The view was good, but ,,,

• the field stop was unsharp to the extent that it seemed completely absent.
• the exit pupil was sensitive to kidney beaning
• the eye relief was much shorter than advertised
• the eyepiece would have needed cleaning after every use because of my eyelashes touching the glass
• in cleaning I discovered that even though the lens is waterproof it is still better to apply your lens cleaning solution to a tissue rather than to the eye lens directly.

About the last point: I sprayed my Baader Optical Wonder directly onto the eye lens and dried it with Kleenex. That was easy. The Kleenex left some lint behind which I blew off with my rocket blower. But instead of the lint just blowing away, the lens flooded again with liquid. I thought that somehow water, or maybe the Optical Wonder had found its way into my blower, but it would not blow any liquid onto my hand.  So I dried the lens again, with Kleenex, and uses the blower again, which got the glass all wet again.

It turns out that capillary action manages to capture a whole reservoir of liquid between the rubber of the eyeguard and the body of the eyepiece. In total, it took me four times of drying with Kleenex and blowing before the trapped Optical Wonder stopped reappearing.

I returned my ES82°. 

[Tiki]

The Vixen 13mm LVW is a possibility. Around 100 quid s/h. I have the 5mm and 8mm, both are pretty decent and very comfortable to use.

[Plantins]

• in cleaning I discovered that even though the lens is waterproof it is still better to apply your lens cleaning solution to a tissue rather than to the eye lens directly.

You should always apply the cleaning solution onto the microfibre cloth or tissue firstly. Never apply directly to the lens

[bomberbaz]

Well if you want to stay on a budget and get pretty good views with 80-85% fov clarity why not stick with the X-Cels http://www.firstlightoptics.com/celestron-eyepieces/celestron-x-cel-lx-eyepiece.html

However there is always these which never show up on the 2nd hand market, ask yourself why is no-one selling? http://www.firstlightoptics.com/vixen-eyepieces/vixen-lvw-eyepieces.html  Slightly over your budget but I believe these really are a suprb bit of glass. Excellent eye relief on these too.

Mini review here http://stargazerslounge.com/topic/192744-vixen-lvw-vs-pentax-xw-vs-delos/ 

steve

[Ruud]

You should always apply the cleaning solution onto the microfibre cloth or tissue firstly. Never apply directly to the lens

Actually, in one of their videos, ES suggests that you clean the eyepiece by holding it under a running tap.

[alan potts]

I can confirm the ExSc 82 series 11mm is a stunning ep and an absolute experience to use, but bear in mind the eye-relief is tighter than the spec suggests if you want to get the whole view, but I love using it, esp. as the black & greens are out of my price range.

Robin,

A very good point, I found the ER 2-3mm less than quoted figures to my eye, but at half the price I guess this can be forgiven, I was still able to use the 4.7mm which was the one I was refering to, I found the exact same issue in the test with the 8.8mm Meade UWA which I will write up in the next few days.

alan

[Charic]

A 12mm delos at £258 would be a nice EP and at £209 cheaper a BST 12mm is a very nice lens also!  That obviously depends on the telescope setup and in particular the eyes of the user!  I think there's a few EPs in-between this range somewhere, but not  having tried any,  I can only recommend the BST to anyone using  the F-1200 D-200 f/6 Sklyliner 

[Pig]

The 12mm Vixen SLV is a very nice eyepiece indeed, the FOV is only 50 degrees but if used in a frac you will still get a decent amount of sky coverage (1 degree in my 500mm focal length scope)

They cost £109 from FLO and believe you me they punch way above their weight  I haven't seen any on the second hand market as yet but you never know you may be able to pick one up.

[rwilkey]

The Vixen 13mm LVW is a possibility. Around 100 quid s/h. I have the 5mm and 8mm, both are pretty decent and very comfortable to use.

I bought my mine new for £99 at the SW Astronomy Fair from Opticon about three years ago, another stunning ep which I will never sale, even though I now have the ExSc82 14mm.  Great if you can get it s/h.

[rwilkey]

Robin,

A very good point, I found the ER 2-3mm less than quoted figures to my eye, but at half the price I guess this can be forgiven, I was still able to use the 4.7mm which was the one I was refering to, I found the exact same issue in the test with the 8.8mm Meade UWA which I will write up in the next few days.

alan

Hi Alan,

Just bought the ExSc82 8.8 and 6.7mm and looking forward to using them.

[andrew63]

I tried the 11 mm ES 82°. Had to wait months before it arrived. The view was good, but ,,,

• the field stop was unsharp to the extent that it seemed completely absent.
• the exit pupil was sensitive to kidney beaning
• the eye relief was much shorter than advertised
• the eyepiece would have needed cleaning after every use because of my eyelashes touching the glass
• in cleaning I discovered that even though the lens is waterproof it is still better to apply your lens cleaning solution to a tissue rather than to the eye lens directly.

About the last point: I sprayed my Baader Optical Wonder directly onto the eye lens and dried it with Kleenex. That was easy. The Kleenex left some lint behind which I blew off with my rocket blower. But instead of the lint just blowing away, the lens flooded again with liquid. I thought that somehow water, or maybe the Optical Wonder had found its way into my blower, but it would not blow any liquid onto my hand.  So I dried the lens again, with Kleenex, and uses the blower again, which got the glass all wet again.

It turns out that capillary action manages to capture a whole reservoir of liquid between the rubber of the eyeguard and the body of the eyepiece. In total, it took me four times of drying with Kleenex and blowing before the trapped Optical Wonder stopped reappearing.

I returned my ES82°. 

That's much the sort of experience you get with most types of 82 deg eyepiece -  they are not suited to everyone. At least you were able to return it and put it down to experience - wide is not always better !

andrew

[alan potts]

Robin,

I have had both the Meade variants and I found them very good, in a long scope it really is about at much as you need to spend if I am honest ( nose has not grown), it's only when you get to the difficult end below F5 there are differences to behold and then some could put up with it, on axis is generally very good it is when you start looking at the edges and if you have a Dob I guess you do that a fair bit.

It is a shame there is not something 12mm ish in the Meade range, as you know it went 14mm 8.8mm, maybe not such a big jump but ExSc saw fit to drop 11mm in the midst. Enjoy your eyepieces Robin.

Alan

[woodmeister]

Thx for the advice as I am slowly working out which eyepieces I am after.

I would settle for 11mm as I am tempted to get the exsc 82 degree eyepiece. I guess the minimum fov I am looking for is about 60 degrees. I saw the pentax XF's on FLO and wonder how they people rate them.

Just a quick question, how much would a second hand explore scientific 82 degree 11mm eyepiece sell for second hand?

[John]

........Just a quick question, how much would a second hand explore scientific 82 degree 11mm eyepiece sell for second hand?

A general rule of thumb for used astro equipment is around 60%-70% of the new price, asuming the item is in very good condition.

The complexity with ES geat is that it's more expensive to buy in the UK than from elsewhere in the world so the connundrum is whether thats a % of the UK new price or the lower imported new price.

[John]

PS: I notice that a used ES 82 11mm was listed on UK Astro Buy & Sell recently at £95.00. I believe it sold.

[alan potts]

I received and e-mail overnight from Telescope House saying they were now stocking all of them and most were in stock, though as you say a good bit more than the likes of Teleskop Services sell them. It is not really fair after all they are the same items.

Alan.