Delite - new Televue 62 deg 7mm, 11mm, 18.2mm

[Rustysplit]

Well I am sure glad that I have the whole set of Radians, 18,14,12,10,8,7,6,5,4 and 3mm. I have no need to cause my bank balance any stress over these. I love my Rads, and any improvement these make over them will surely be small?

[alan potts]

Alan,

There was a 7mm Radian? Never seen that before.

Alan

[John]

Well I am sure glad that I have the whole set of Radians, 18,14,12,10,8,7,6,5,4 and 3mm. I have no need to cause my bank balance any stress over these. I love my Rads, and any improvement these make over them will surely be small?

I think this is correct Alan. Changes in seeing conditions, scope collimation and observer acuity and experience will affect the results much more than eyepiece upgrades when you get to a certain level of eyepiece quality.

When I read observing reports on here that really impress it's usually the conditions coupled with diligent and skilled observing that have produced the results. The eyepiece used is somewhat further down the list of factors.

[Rustysplit]

Ooops! Sorry Alan. Got carried away with the numbers Quite right, no 7mm.

One thing I have noticed is the increased numbers of Radians in the wanted and for sale ads lately. I would have thought that these are a better bet for circa £100 if you can get the fl's you want.

[alan potts]

Alan.

I have always thought ans said on here a few time, they are the best S/H buy there is, if you want a quality eyepiece. I have the 3 at the short end and have wish to part with them. I have to say they don't get the use they deserve but that is down to my collection of others and the fact that 2 of my scopes are a bit on the long side for using them. The 5mm and 4mm in  the 115mm APO though are superb, as is the 3mm but targets are a bit limited. When I bought the 3mm I was intending it for use on a 90mm 600mm F/L APO that I have still to buy.

Alan. 

[YKSE]

Alan,

I'm sure fixed focal eyepieces of the same quality beats a zoom, and the difference will be most likely comparing a Nagler with Nagler zoom for sharpness and contrast, which I'm sure you've noticed.

There will ALWAYS be newer, slightly better eyepieces coming out, if you want the best of the best, you'll be keeping on buying and buying. Alternative is to know what quality level you're able to live with, and enjoy using the gears we have for observing. Just my two cents.

[Stu]

The Leica is a funny old beast. Stunning at times and less good at others.

For Solar it is better than a 12.5mm BGO, better contrast and detail in faculae.

It is also pretty stunning on Planets and DSO's such as nebulae and galaxies but less so on double stars and OC's. To me the star shapes are not quite as good as other fixed focal length eyepieces, and the edge performance is not so good. This tends to neaten up when used with a good Barlow though. Still a pretty amazing eyepiece.

[alan potts]

Stu and Yong,

Firstly please let me say I was not trying to put this lens down far from I would like one.

There will always be areas where they had to make a compromise, we all know this, though Leica do make excellent with a capital E lenses, as I said I would buy this one if only I had not bought a new top line miter saw the other day.

I find sometimes my astronomy could use this type of eyepiece as some nights outside I am tired and zooms are just not as much messing about, what better way to tune into seeing conditions.. If I were going to buy a zoom of this type this is one I would buy.

One day soon,

Alan

[YKSE]

Stu,

I agree with you about yourobservations.

Leica has very mild pincushion, most AMD. The reason for stars at the edges are most likely caused by AMD, where the spacing gets smaller closer to the edge. If you look through Leica at a checkered paper, the squares become rectangulars in the horizontal and vertical edges, and keep square shape in diagonal direction but smaller closer to the edges, the straight lines are still straight lines everywhere.

For eyepieces with almost zero AMD, but lots of pincushion, such as Delos or Naglers, you'll see the squares have curves sides near the edge, but the end points of the squares keeps the same distances across the FOV. not the same orientations as they should be though. This can be easily seen in sketches done with eyepieces with pincushion distortion, the stars in the edge are not exactly like a star atlas shows you.

To my understanding, aberations and distortions increase with FOV, in different rates for different eyepiece design, the best optical quality for any eyepiece is on axis, therefore viewing on axis is my choice, edge performance are of low priority, as long as it's not distracting.

[Stu]

Stu and Yong,

Firstly please let me say I was not trying to put this lens down far from I would like one.

There will always be areas where they had to make a compromise, we all know this, though Leica do make excellent with a capital E lenses, as I said I would buy this one if only I had not bought a new top line miter saw the other day.

I find sometimes my astronomy could use this type of eyepiece as some nights outside I am tired and zooms are just not as much messing about, what better way to tune into seeing conditions.. If I were going to buy a zoom of this type this is one I would buy.

One day soon,

Alan

Hi Alan

No problems at all, I didn't think you were. I'll be the first to admit that it's not for everyone, and is not perfect by any means. It works for me, and despite having fixed eyepieces of similar focal lengths, more often than not I find myself using the Leica.

In the 16" at SGLX, it was often in the focuser when looking at smaller/higher mag targets including faint galaxies. Outside this I used the 21e and 31 mag for larger low mag targets

[alan potts]

Stu,

I am not good enough yet with the Dob to use anything other than wide field eyepieces, the way I perform with my nudging the 9mm 120 degree offering from ExSc looks a good choice.

Alan.

[DRT]

So we start off talking about 62° lightweight 1.25" eyepieces for travel scopes and find ourselves in the land of nudging 120° 2" monsters in a 16" Dob - excellent! This is the only place you can come on the internet to find any common sense

[Paul73]

Likewise. I was wondering how this thread has managed 130+ posts on an eyepieve that no one has looked through yet.

That said, I have quite enjoyed following the twists and turns!

Paul

[Highburymark]

The Leica is a funny old beast. Stunning at times and less good at others.

For Solar it is better than a 12.5mm BGO, better contrast and detail in faculae.

It is also pretty stunning on Planets and DSO's such as nebulae and galaxies but less so on double stars and OC's. To me the star shapes are not quite as good as other fixed focal length eyepieces, and the edge performance is not so good. This tends to neaten up when used with a good Barlow though. Still a pretty amazing eyepiece.

I know it's not in same sports arena as the Leica, but the Pentax XF zoom 6.5-19.5mm which I borrowed recently also has a great reputation as a solar eyepiece, and less so for detailed stargazing. Can any one zoom do everything to near perfection?

[John]

I know it's not in same sports arena as the Leica, but the Pentax XF zoom 6.5-19.5mm which I borrowed recently also has a great reputation as a solar eyepiece, and less so for detailed stargazing. Can any one zoom do everything to near perfection?

I think the Leica ASPH zoom is about the best there has been yet. It's a little like pot luck though because it and the Pentax were designed for terrestrial spotting scopes rather than for astronomy useage.

Theres a zoom made by Meopta which is gaining an astro reputation too I believe:

http://www.apm-telescopes.de/en/eyepieces/zoom-eyepieces/meopta-zoom-eyepiece-7-3-mm-14-6-mm-66-constant-field-of-view-1-25-thread.html?info=3810

Back on topic, I was thinking the same about how this thread has maintained momentum despite these eyepieces not being avalable until late Summer. The ones at the NEAF show in the USA recently are late prototypes I believe.

[jetstream]

The LZ is very good and it does have a personality. I have tested many eyepieces now and Televue chooses to leave a fair amount of pincushion in them, which isn't bad- everything a trade off. Correcting for either distortion leave the eyepiece with it's own personality and knowing this enables us to pick EP's with certain characteristics for certain things. This is one of the reasons I chose the Docter UWA- it has very little pincushion distortion, just enough to keep the other in check, so we have a widefield that is great for DSO and planetary/lunar.

I suspect the new Delite will be a very good eyepiece and at its moderate TFOV, the distortions may not be as noticeable on certain objects as some other EP's. Of course all this is just my opinion.

[alan potts]

Likewise. I was wondering how this thread has managed 130+ posts on an eyepieve that no one has looked through yet.

That said, I have quite enjoyed following the twists and turns!

Paul

That is because the likes of me being very naughty take the thread all over the place , I should know better.

Alan

[alan potts]

Gerry,

I think De-lite will be an all-round face lift on the Radian with different focal lengths, oh and a price hike.

Doctor 12.5mm is one I would like, so far I have only seen one in a case of others (all top eyepieces) and in Poland for 2400 Euros and he won't split them.

Alan. 

[alan potts]

I think the Leica ASPH zoom is about the best there has been yet. It's a little like pot luck though because it and the Pentax were designed for terrestrial spotting scopes rather than for astronomy useage.

Theres a zoom made by Meopta which is gaining an astro reputation too I believe:

http://www.apm-telescopes.de/en/eyepieces/zoom-eyepieces/meopta-zoom-eyepiece-7-3-mm-14-6-mm-66-constant-field-of-view-1-25-thread.html?info=3810

Back on topic, I was thinking the same about how this thread has maintained momentum despite these eyepieces not being avalable until late Summer. The ones at the NEAF show in the USA recently are late prototypes I believe.

Now that is a zoom to seriously think about, sorry for being off topic again, I don't De-lite in such practice.

alan

[russ.will]

Blimey! It's a couple of pages since I mentioned the 'Z' word and that's been fruitful!

But despite my best efforts, there's still no speculation on why DeLite stops at 18.2mm (they ain't going to make longer ones?) or which of the legacy Unc Al designs Paul Dellachiaie is going to consign to history?

I seem to recall posting that Al Nagler is rightfully revered, but the new generation of optical genius was statistically likely to come from China, sheer weight of population making it probable. I still think this will be so in the long run, but in the mean time PD seems to be re-writing the rules from within the House of Televue . So is the omnipotent Nagler UWA on borrowed time?

Yes it's off-topic, but until someone actually looks through a DeLite at a night sky, speculation is the name of the game.

Russell

[Stu]

So it was your fault we got onto zooms Russ

[DRT]

Incoming...

This is what is known as taking one for the team!

[Stu]

Your sacrifice is appreciated Derek

[alan potts]

Derek,

I could say I already have my set but then my nose would grow, nice one, we all expect detailed first light reports on all planetary and deep space targets, not forgetting a handful of doubles .

Alan.

[DRT]

Your sacrifice is appreciated Derek