Jump to content

Banner.jpg.b89429c566825f6ab32bcafbada449c9.jpg

help me spend £300

nicks90

By nicks90
in Discussions - Eyepieces

Recommended Posts

nicks90

nicks90

Posted
Posted

its not often you get an open invite like that! But due to some strange turn of events, my credit card is £300 in credit and this card has zero visibility from 'she who must be obeyed'. So its getting spent on some eyepieces  :grin:

I have 2 scopes but the main scope is my skywatcher 300mm F4.9 truss dob. The other is a fast cheap 80mm frac, but thats always a secondary scope, so eps are always primarily for the dob!

Current EPs:

38mm SW panaview 2" - my finder ep - exit pupil is too large, but is covers a huge amount of sky and is actually really sharp. So this is staying

32mm SW panaview 2" - nice and sharp, but I find it really distorts / fishbowl effect in the outer 10%. More than happy to sell this.

Antares x1.6 2" barlow.  Works incredibly well and definitely a keeper!

16mm Maxvision 1 1/4" - want to sell it as the eye relief is way too tight.

15mm SW UWA 1 1/4" - not as good as the maxvision, but i can actually use it with glasses!

SW x2 ED barlow 1 1/4"

I'm more than happy to sell all my glass - with the exception of the two barlows and the 38mm - to put towards the new EP fund, but I really want a bit of advice from the collective on what would be a good choice for me to spend my cash, based on DSO being my main target with the dob and needing to observe with glasses. I know some eps dont work with barlows at all, but it would be good if your recommendations did, as the antares barlow is brilliant - even moonshane liked it - so it would be good to have the extra flexibility by using the barlow with any new purchases.

But based on the above, what do you guys recommend?

Nick

Link to comment
Share on other sites
  • Replies 26
  • Created
  • Last Reply
Scooot

Scooot

Posted
Posted

I can't see the whole FOV of my 13mm ethos with my glasses on mike, and the 13mm is said to be the best of them for eye relief, despite measurement wise they're all meant to be the same. The only reason I get away with it is because I use a Dioptrx with my glasses off.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
faulksy

faulksy

Posted
Posted

I can't see the whole FOV of my 13mm ethos with my glasses on mike, and the 13mm is said to be the best of them for eye relief, despite measurement wise they're all meant to be the same. The only reason I get away with it is because I use a Dioptrx with my glasses off.

thats fair enough richard, didnt think there was a problem with eye relief. good for others to read this then :smiley:

Link to comment
Share on other sites
alan potts

alan potts

Posted
Posted

Any of the Delos range will de-lite you and them as well when they come out on sale. Eye-relief on the 20mm plus Naglers is workable for you as is the longer Panoptics. Any secondhand Radians will not disappoint and if you could find them you could get three.

I would have though ER was a bit tight on all the Ethos range as would be the T6 Naglers. T4 Naglers I know will be OK, a number of members have them that wear glasses.

Any form the Pentax XW range, all are with good ER. You can aslo look at the Vixen SLV Range all with very good ER and again you could get 3 for your money.

Alan.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
nicks90

nicks90

Posted
  • Author
Posted

thanks for all the suggestions people - looks like 'green and black' are the eps to have if picked up second hand!

Just 2 very quick questions before I start trawling / bidding ..... Do the larger FL televues barlow well? Was thinking a 27mm tv would also make a nice 17mm with my antares barlow. 

I could then sell all my current eps and buy an 11mm tv plossl for higher powered work in the dob and as a general all round ep for the little frac.

Alternatively, do I purchase new and get 28mm + 16mm sw nirvanas? Will I really notice that much difference? I have to admit the 82deg fov is tempting.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Chris

Chris

Posted
Posted

Are you sure about the 11mm TV Plossl and glasses? I think an 11mm Plossl is just about ok without glasses. 

They have a 12mm SLV left on the FLO clearance section for 80 pounds, way better bet with glasses and about as good as any top ortho optically. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites
alan potts

alan potts

Posted
Posted

The only trouble with barlows is they increase the eye relief which is a plus if using a short Plossl or Ortho but longer Panoptics and Nagler don't really need it, so I should think this would annoy me. I once had a X2 Powermate which has no effect on the eye-relief and with this yes they halved their power well. My favourite was the 10mm and 8mm Ethos in the Powermate to give 5mm and 4mm 100 degree FOV eyepieces, the downside of it was the length of the construction, I could almost view from the kitchen while the scope was outside.

Agree with Chris the 11mm TV Plossl is tight for me!

Personally I would not recommend but I note you have a 1.6X which may not be as bad.

Alan.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
SpaceWalker

SpaceWalker

Posted
Posted

..... Do the larger FL televues barlow well? Was thinking a 27mm tv would also make a nice 17mm with my antares barlow. 

That's a good question! It's high chances that not only the TV, but any low power wide angle (68*AFOV+) eyepieces will show vignetting being combined with a telenegative Barlow. For example, I have a ubiquitous 2" ED Barlow and recently tried to use its removable nosepiece (works like ~1.35x) on my 18mm ES82 and it did show vignetting. I suspect that the entire Barlow that works like 2x will show even stronger vignetting.  If you want to barlow 2" 82*AFOV eyepieces I'd think about telecentric. Not necessary the TV Powermate, but some cheaper ES or Meade competitors like the ES Focal Extender or so.  And unlike telenegative Barlow it doesn't affect the eye relief as Alan said.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
  • 3 weeks later...
awestruck

awestruck

Posted
Posted

A set of celestron binoviewers and double set of mid class eyepieces such as the celestron xcel-lx 25mm's might just fit perfectly into your budget. If the new experience of binoviewing doesnt sound like its for you then a nice low power televue panoptic might be a nice alternative to your current low power options.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
jetstream

jetstream

Posted
Posted

Barring a zoom, a 10mm XW/Ethos would be a great galaxy EP in your scope and for the great nebulae, a 20mm ES 100 or of course a 21 Ethos. The 10E must show up used around your price point and is a stunning EP, one of my favorites.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
John

John

Posted
Posted

The early Naglers (T1 and T2's) are quite a lot less expensive than the more recent T6's, T5's and T4's. There are some performance differences as well but the older models are pretty good.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
John

John

Posted
Posted

The older Naglers have tighter eye relief than their newer counterparts so maybe not so good for the OP who needs to wear glasses when observing ?.

The T4 Nagler is the best UWA choice for those who do need to wear glasses to observe, IMHO.

The alternative is to look at quality WA (68-72 degree) eyepieces such as the Delos, Pentax XW, Vixen LVW and ES 68 I reckon.

The risk with getting one top drawer eyepiece in the box is the risk of creeping dissatisfaction with the other occupants of said box ...... :rolleyes2:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

Go to topic listing

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue. By using this site, you agree to our Terms of Use.