Underrated Eyepieces

[dannybgoode]

What leftfield gems do people have. You know, the unfashionable ones, the eBay specials, the ones no one has heard of.

For me, the Ostara ED's. I have the 7.5mm-paid around £35 for it off ABS and it's an absolute peach.

Tack sharp in the centre and pretty good toward the edges. Useful focal length for a range of scopes and good to at least f5 (haven't tried it on anything faster).

Can still be seen on eBay and Amazon new for around £50 our second hand for £30-35. If you see one, particularly in a focal length that fills a gap then I would recommend checking it out.

[John]

Good tip off

[nightfisher]

the forgotten gem for me is the skywatcher silvertop plossl`s, i find these a cracking ep for the price they can be had missed out on a 12.5 other week but ummed and arred as i have a 12.5 ortho

[alan potts]

Danny,

I does rather depend what you putting it into scope wise, it may not be so good on a real fast scope.

For me the most underated of eyepieces are the Televue Radian range, about 100 quid S/H for a top eyepiece. I really like them, but so many more or less dismiss them for the colour caste in them which I feel is over talked. I really must put the 5mm XW into bat with the 5mm Radian, maybe I missed something.

alan

[ronin]

I think the Ostara ED eyepieces came out originally under the Orion brand, they were also branded and sold by Widescreen under their name or brand.

They never really caught on and so sort of faded into the background. Actually think SCS sell them still as Orion ED..

[John]

The Ostara ED's do seem to be the same as the original Orion (USA) Epic ED-2 range. These have now been replaced by the Orion Epic II ED range which seem to be the same as the BST Starguider / Explorers / Astro Tech Paradigms etc. Confusing eyepiece naming does not help !

Celestron caused similar confusion with their X-Cel range being replaced by the improved X-Cel LS range.

[alan potts]

John,

Don't say it too loud or we could have Ethos HD out next.

Alan

[dannybgoode]

and those Orion ED II's look the same as the BST Star Guider!

@Alan, quite agree it might not be the best for a reason fast scope but then I doubt any £30 EP would be!

[John]

and those Orion ED II's look the same as the BST Star Guider!

Yes, they appear under many brandings !

You could have some under your own name if you were able to order a few hundred from Barsta who make them.

[damnut]

BST Starguiders are little gems, and I have a Seben (!) zoom that is very good. It confused the heck out of some seasoned tv users.

[John]

I bought a Seben zoom for some outreach stuff that I was doing. It was pretty good for a bit less than £30.00. I don't think I got it confused with any of my TV's though, with respect to it  

[Moonshane]

I hesitate to suggest that the old Nagler type one and two are underrated. It might increase their prices before I complete my collection!

[russ.will]

Under-rated EPs? Round here, anything without green lettering.

BTW, BGOs do not count as under-rated. They had green lettering, it just that it falls off.

Jolly nice EPs though. Now I have a scope with a FL that doesn't require me to use the BGOs that you glue to your eyeball, I'm tempted to pick one or two up again, just for the laugh of it.

Russell

[F15Rules]

There are older Circle T and Circle V Kellners that come up cheap from time to time and in my slow scopes they work very well..with just 3 elements their simple design delivers good contrast and excellent light transmission notwithstanding their older coatings.

A more modern bargain is the Teleskop Service RKE range which are Reversed Kellners in 2" format. They have a nice 55 deg fov and are again a simple 3 element design but very effective- remember the old Edmund's RKE range with similar design?- they are very sought after in the USA and command top prices. The TS ones are around £35 plus shipping new, and made by GSO, who for me are one of the best value/quality makers around. Here's a link to the 32mm which is my personal favourite. And they barlow very well too, so the 26mm in a x2 barlow gives a 13mm moderate-high power with great eyerelief and nice fairly wide field :-) http://www.teleskop-express.de/shop/product_info.php/info/p2254_GSO-2--RK-eyepiece---32mm---55----maximum-transmission.html

Dave

[ghostdance]

A new old one to me (and I've never owned/used one - tbh, never heard of them before a day ago) but I've been reading about an Orion plossl range called the Highlight...seem to have been rated back in the day, with the possible exception of the 10mm..??? Whether they're under or over-rated I couldn't say.

[John]

"Back in the day" plossls were held up as being top line premium eyepieces and preferrable to orthoscopics. Or so the 1980's catalogues told you anyway. The choice was Kellners, Orthos, Erfles or Plossls. Oh, and some exotic barrel of a thing from the USA called a "Nagler" but that cost about as much as a small car so they were off most folks radar.

From the early 1990's the Celestron Ultima line was pretty good and definitely as good as Tele Vue plossls. Orion Ultrascopics, Antares Elite plossls and Parks Gold plossls are the same design more or less. I've seen all these for low prices on the used market so they are worth looking out for. 

[Luke]

I have two answers!

The first one isn't what you meant, but I did under-rate it and sold it. I would like to get another one at some point!: 19mm Panoptic. It was such a lovely eyepiece, I did not think I needed it with Delos and a 21mm Ethos. However, it is much smaller, and 19mm works out as quite a nice focal length for some lower medium power viewing with my scopes. I especially miss its compact size and light weight. I found eye relief okay and more important so did my wife, who is more fussy than me and is the main reason why we let our small and rather good Type 6 Naglers go. I under-rated a quality small package.

Lesser cost, I really like my 9mm TS HR Planetary, I think I paid about £45 new for it at the time. Light, compact, and while not quite as sharp to the edge or as snappy on focus as my 8mm Radian, it runs it close at a fraction of the cost. But I hear a lot of good things about BST but I haven't used them so I can only say I am pretty happy with the TS, can't see me selling it really given how much I would get for a decent performing eyepiece that is compact and light.