And you wondered why it's gone cloudy?

[russ.will]

To be fair, I've had a week of clear nights with the 9mm, but with the 14 & 20mm turning up today, it was always clear that those massively over-sized ES boxes were going to contain some serious cloud:

]

Now I've had some decent sized EPs - ES82 30mm is one and the even larger Maxvision 40mm SWA (pictured) being another. My outgoing TV Delos weren't exactly shinking violets. But when the 14 & 20mm turned up, I was genuinely taken aback at the size of these things. In that picture, the top of my Maplin cheapo EP case is not bent - That's it bowing under the weight.

Price and availability wise, it was a bit of a hunt around.

The 9mm was a straight purchase from ES Europe, the GBP to Euro exchange rate meaning these have never been cheaper - £241.92 delivered.

the 20mm actually came from Agena Astro in the States. For some reason (only two showing in stock) they seem to be doing a bit of a deal on the 20mm. £321 delivered including VAT, duty, etc. ES would have been £382 - A £61 saving.

The 14mm wasn't showing stock anywhere I could find, except at Telescope House. £396 - Gulp! I pinged an email to ES Europe about their 'in stock in 120 days' showing on the website. The reply came back, that they had a couple of show display examples and would I like one, fully warrantied at £211. A £70 saving on their website and a mere £185 cheaper than TH. I didn't need asking twice. 

All in all, it was an outlay of £222 over the prices I got for the three Delos, which says as much about the resale value of Televue products, as anything.

I'm looking forward to giving all three a proper run out and all of them will be travelling along with the ED80 to the Alps this weekend. If that doesn't ensure more snow than I know what to do with, I'll be surprised, but the skiing will then be awesome by compensation.

Russell

[John]

Excellent eyepieces Russell - congratualtions

[YKSE]

Congrations Russ   It always feels good when you've done a better deal than you had expected.

That dwarf 20mm MV is my mid size/weight EP

[russ.will]

I know - In turn, it would dwarf a BST, in girth at least. I did have a hunt around for a 10 or 25mm SW MA freebie, just to complete the perspective, but it looks like I've managed to out them all.

Russell

[YKSE]

Just done a simple calculation, my 16 EPs weigh 4185grams and total length 1272mm, that give an average 260g and 80mm, MV 20mm weighs 280g and 76mm high.

[russ.will]

Cripes! It must be cloudy up there if you're that bored! 

Russell

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Congrats on that great line up

[Roy Challen]

That dwarf 20mm MV is my mid size/weight EP

I didn't even see the 20mm first time of looking!

[russ.will]

Grrr! Lovely clear days - burning my face off through the factor 50 clear days, in fact - but every night has been a hazy nightmare. You think being 1200m up might cut you some slack, but cloud has no respect for altitude...

On the plus side, there is a fantastic selection of red runs for me and the mini me has gone from never having seen a pair of skis until last Sunday, to graduating to his first green run tomorrow. I have to say, the Ecole du Ski France tutors are incredible; but would you really want to take ten 5-6 year old kids up to a run that starts at 2000m altitude, is 3.2km long, with a vertical drop off one side and no fence? And yet they do, day in day out, for four-five months of every year.

It makes worrying about using a half decent EP at an outreach event look churlish.

Russell

[russ.will]

Update. Finally had a confluence of clear skies and legs that were still able to stand!

However, with the 80 Triplet and the 9mm delivering little more than 53x, I can say little more than the ES100s are wide and very sharp.

The main issues are that when the ground in basically 50cm of snow, it's very hard to get everything on an even keel. Also, in due deference to the amount of stuff you need to take skiing, I only brought along a Manfrotto tripod and video head. Now, this works just fine at 52deg North for subjects that hover around the ecliptic. However, at 46deg North, it turns out that I run out of declination. Stamping, kicking and ramming the rear leg of the tripod deeper eventually gave up the extra adjustment, but it wasn't exactly as stable as you'd like.

Basically, I couldn't be bothered to fight the conditions, but got to show the kids and their parents M42 and Jupiter. Jupiter was obviously a crowd pleaser, but M42 which we take for granted, was something they were equally baffled by and excited to see. That makes it worth the effort.

A proper first light report will have to come later.

Russell