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On the 31T5 Nagler


Special K

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It's big.........it's heavy.  But holy cow, this is a beauty!  I've just got my hands on a 31mm Nagler and VERY impressed with it.  :)    

I'd been researching widefield EP's for my ED80 for the better part of three months, when an unexpected second-hand 31T5 came up for sale that proved too hard to resist.  The journey included just about every make and model between 25 to 35mm and there's so much to choose from, and certainly some great equipment out there for decent prices.  I have to admit I'd been scared off going to 35mm due to my local LP and didn't want a washed out field to spoil things, so when the 31mm Nagler came up, this seemed a good alternative to keep good contrast.   A quick comparison with the standard 28mm that comes with the scope showed the background to be about the same degree of darkness, but obviously a much wider slide of sky:  the Double Cluster plus the whole of Stock 2 can be fit into the same field of view with a little room to spare!

Exit pupil is kept down to 4.13mm to meet my local conditions, but high enough to give a 34% throughput of target surface brightness [pupil exit squared, then times 2, if this formula is accurate].  I've been keen to get that brightness up there, with a view toward getting 2" nebula filters to weed out the bad light.  Hopefully, that experiment will work on some of the larger, low surface brightness targets out there.

In the f/7.5, the 82 degree AFOV gives me a True Field of just over 4 degrees of sky with a nice 19.4x magnification so is near-binocular in appearance.  There's just a little less sky than the finder scope, so this is going to be great to work with!  I think there's going to be an amount of eyeball retraining with this EP compared to what I'm used to, but generally, I didn't find the eyeplacement to be too much of an issue, nor was kidney beaning a noticeable problem.  The clarity of stars really is amazing up to the very edge, which I've read so much about in reviews.  To see this in action is very nice indeed.  My observations were done in a very short period and included a few trips into the house which spoiled any dark adaptation I had built up.  However, upon returning to the EP with the Double Cluster in view, I was totally blown away by the visibility of the faint background stars which I hadn't noticed before.  Perhaps I had adjusted the focus of the EP or was paying more attention to the foreground stars before, but this was a huge surprise and looked like a photograph!   

This is a lovely piece of kit in the ED80 and satisfied that the EQ5 is chunky enough to handle the significant weight and that it doesn't overwhelm the telescope.   Sadly, following my "second-hand purchase QA checks" it will have to be turned over to Santa, but I look forward to putting it to good use in the new year under

Clear Skies

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Welcome to the club Special K. I love my 31 nag, as you say it gives near binocular views whilst maintaining a reasonable exit pupil. Well worth taking to a really dark site too, North America Nebula or Veil with an OIII are lovely :-)

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Lovely eyepiece indeed. Used to love mine..................

Shane

Don't let Calvin near your dob with that 21mm ethos at SGLX. You have been warned.

Shane is next door to me... I'll pop my 21e in whilst he's not watching ;-)

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A very nice report there many congratulation on the new eyepieces, I can tell you are pleased with it. I have better skies than you by the sounds of it when mine are not cloudy, which I have to seems to have become the norm, I tend to use my 35mm Panoptic the most though I have been trying to give the fat one more exercise, well last time out anyway.

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Congratulations on the "Terminagler".

The Nagler 31 is my last Nagler - I used to have an "all Nagler" set. It's my "Veil" eyepiece :smiley:

I don't actually use mine that much because I have some LP to contend with but it's fabulous under dark skies :smiley:

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Congrats on your new ep it does give some fantastic views...@Stu, binoviewers and pop them both in Steve's[emoji85]

Great idea ;-)

I think we might need to look like this though.....

8965268b83b9bc97b4da158aac9414b0.jpg

;-)

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Congratulations on the "Terminagler".

The Nagler 31 is my last Nagler - I used to have an "all Nagler" set. It's my "Veil" eyepiece :smiley:

I don't actually use mine that much because I have some LP to contend with but it's fabulous under dark skies :smiley:

Thanks John. I definitely backed off the 35mm idea based on your comments on previous posts about the LP. I figure if the 31mm is still too much I'll have to go shorter here at home base.

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Thanks all, this club certainly is expensive! It will be an O-III next!

I did get a very good deal on the piece as it shows no visible signs of wear or use.

A lovely EP :)

I would recommend the UHC filter with smaller apertures.  Others may have differing views on this ;)

Cheers

Paul

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A lovely EP :)

I would recommend the UHC filter with smaller apertures. Others may have differing views on this ;)

Cheers

Paul

Paul, I think a lot depends on the conditions. Under a very dark sky, with good dark adaptation I have found the OIII to still be marginally better even on smaller scopes.

If you are not able to get fully adapted because of local light pollution then I agree that the UHC is better as it cuts out less light, the OIII can be a bit dim.

Stu

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It's big.........it's heavy.  But holy cow, this is a beauty!  I've just got my hands on a 31mm Nagler and VERY impressed with it.  :)    

just don look trough a 21ethos as it will just become an expensive paper weight.

they are great EPS  im sure you will love it

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just don look trough a 21ethos as it will just become an expensive paper weight.

they are great EPS im sure you will love it

I've got both Dan and still use both. There's something about the 31 which I wouldn't want to be without

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I've got both Dan and still use both. There's something about the 31 which I wouldn't want to be without

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I agree with this 100%. If anything I use the Nagler more!

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