Finally, a decent 1.25" collection!

[Stratis]

So I'm a 2" eyepiece evangelist, the first time I looked through a 32mm 2" Plossl I knew I would never be able to use a 1.25" again without yearning for a larger field lens, greater eye relief, and that spectacular FoV.

That being said, it recently occured to me that this 2" eyepiece collection was becoming somewhat unwieldy; the bag holding it all (ranging from a 37mm ex-NATO Konig to the excellent 8mm Ethos) has become heavier than any of my telescopes, and each one is such a unique shape that short of a military bandolier I have no way to safely transport them anywhere.

So, after many months of accumulation, I have finally ditched all of my horrible early 1.25" purchases that caused me so much grief (I could write a whole article on bad eyepiece choices...) , and have completed a decent range. 

This new collection was built around three principles:

Small and light; I wanted 'conventional' shapes for this set, no hand grenades

Exemplary views; I wanted the best views, not a uniform set to look at on a shelf

Not extortionate; I hoped to buy the whole set for less than a single Ethos (and almost did)

Finally after many months, I have assembled a range I am happy with, and is small enough to take anywhere:

• Tal Super Plossl 40mm
• Takahashi LE 30mm
• Tal Gen-2 Plossl 25mm
• Takahashi LE 18mm
• Meade Research Grade Ortho 10.5mm
• Takahashi LE 7.5mm

Honorable mentions go to an 18mm Baader Classic Ortho and Pentax XW5, but I dont find myself using them nearly as often.

Briefly;

Tal 40mm: suffers from spherical distortion, but extreme TFoV for the 1.25" format without flare or ghosts

Tak 30mm: matchless, sharp, bright and clear from edge to edge. Superb DSO hunter in any scope.

Tal Gen-2: distorted outer 20%, but so so very bright, moreso than any Tak, somehow!

Tak 18mm: default choice for my fast scopes, decent magnification but also bright enough for faint fuzzies

Meade RGO: The best small planetary EP I can imagine; razor sharp and no colour cast, the only downside is the eye relief

Tak 7.5mm: Only useful in short scopes really, but it is the brightest planetary EP behind the Pentax and is useful for teasing out fine detail with a comfortable eye relief

Technically, a fine selection of TeleVues and Pentax XW would probably best these modest (yet well-executed) choices, but the exchange would be for a huge investment in cash and a large increase in size and weight. 

If you're after a nice tidy set of eyepieces that will show you beautiful things without emptying your wallet or demanding a heavy handbag all their own, I heartily recommend each and every piece here. 

I paid a total of ~£400 for all of these, if your budget doesn't stretch as far I'd recommend the Tak 18mm and Tak 30mm, plus a very good Barlow lens. I use an Astro Engineering Supreme Barlow, which has a detachable 1.5x element; in theory with just those two EPs and the Barlow, one can achieve 30mm down to 9mm in a pinsharp and comfortable format.

Anyone else had any experiences with these?

[nightfisher]

That is a very nice range of 1.25`s, cover all situations

[rikroe666]

The Meade and the 25mm Tal look familiar, i think you may of bought them from me a few weeks ago? 

Very nice collection!

[Stratis]

The Meade and the 25mm Tal look familiar, i think you may of bought them from me a few weeks ago? 

Haha probably

I buy all my eyepieces used, the only EP I ever got 'new' was a Meade QX 4000 (free with my dielectric diagonal) which was one of the most atrocious eyepieces I've ever used. I still have it, I don't have the heart to sell it to anyone

[Dude_with_the_tube]

Meade Research Grades are very familiar to me because i own 2 full sets of them (orthos and the wide fields).i like them more then BGO`s because of the vulcano tops,these are super lightweight coz of the aluminium barrel,image these produce are flawless in all focal ranges and simply stunning in binoviewers.Love them and my ones are not going anywhere for time being.

Meade Rg`s are also collectible now and only 7mm ortho and the 20mm erfle are relatively easy to find with other focal length popping up on rare occasion.All other focal length are difficult to find.Last time 32mm erfle went for 500 USD alone!

Not so found on TAL`s,TAK LE`s are very nice.

Great collection

[F15Rules]

That's a really nice collection, congratulations

I've owned a few of these:

Tal 40mm plossl - very sharp and solid build, I just don't like 40mms as they are (for me) too tunnel-like.

Tal 25mm Plossl Gen II - one of my favourite 1.25" eps ever. Simply stunning performer in my long fracs (I have read that it's actually a Koenig design rather than a plossl), and sharp out to 85-90% in my F15 frac. Sold mine to a friend to make a binoviewing pair and he raves about their performance. Huge eye lenses and if you put eyeshields on them they are simply amazing for what they cost. I agree about the great light transmission/brightness.

Meade RG 10.5mm - I've had the 7mm and the 10.5mm. I think their prices have got silly but they are good eyepieces - the 10.5mm I had was better than the 7, and eye relief was also better due to longer FL. On most nights I struggle to see the difference over a BGO or BCO but I like their volcano top design and the very lightweight ali barrels.

Tak LEs. I've owned both 12.5mm and 18mm, not a 30mm sadly. Not had the 7.5 but did have an Ultima and Parks Gold 7.5, same optics I believe.  The 7.5 eye relief is too tight for my liking, the 12.5 and 18 much better. The ones I had were optically superb and I had an 18mm pair for binoviewing that were just brilliant. New I think they are a silly price, but used at c £80-£90 they do seem a good buy and have great eyeguards to keep stray light out - and they hold their value for further resale. I can imagine the 30mm Tak would be fabulous.

I'm using more 2" eps lately, (and my beloved Baader Zoom) but still like good 1.25"s. I recently acquired a genuine (not cloned) Burgess/TMB 5mm planetary for high power use (gives c 240-250x in my scopes). Not had first light yet but daytime view of my local tv aerial test object was very impressive, very  sharp indeed, to 95% or more out in my F16 and not much worse in my F9.5 AR127l. Great build, great eyecap adjustment range (rotary) and good eye relief/FOV  versus an ortho. I might well look for the 9mm too. I've also just ordered an ES Argon purged 6.7mm (82deg  ) for planetary/doubles and will be intrigued to see how such a totally different ep compares to the TMB. Based on reviews and my other ES eyepieces I have high hopes!

Thanks for the review!

Dave