new eyepiece purchase

[neil groves]

I have recently been looking to buy another eyepiece and I am deciding between the Orion Stratus and the Orion Q70 series....does anyone have any thoughts or experience with

these as far as image quality goes?

I was checking prices on amazon and seems the stratus is $40 more than the Q70s

and my other question is if I was to go briefly insane and spend $340 on a televue, would I notice a worthwhile image improvement over the lesser priced glass?

Neil.

 

Neil.

[triton1]

A Televue Ethos 21mm is nearly twice that.Your paying for the edge to edge sharp view across the fov and in fast scope F6 or faster a lot of cheaper ep's will give poor views at the edges also contrast and light scatter are other things to contend with.Is it possible to try before you buy?

[John]

I think ideally you do need to try them and see if you value the performance that they provide.

The Delos eyepieces are very popular though - this thread gives a taste of what they can do:

 

The Pentax XW's are also discussed in the thread and are very similar in both quality and price !

 

 

 

[Moonshane]

Even though I am a massive fan of Televue and other quality optics, the answer to your question is probably no.

As with many things in life there's a law of diminishing returns. I personally feel it's worth the extra (although I generally buy used) money to know I can make the most of the conditions but many people quite happily observe all their life with what some people would call 'budget' eyepieces. Pretty much all eyepieces these days would make Victorian observers drool with envy.

[neil groves]

11 minutes ago, Moonshane said:

Even though I am a massive fan of Televue and other quality optics, the answer to your question is probably no.

As with many things in life there's a law of diminishing returns. I personally feel it's worth the extra (although I generally buy used) money to know I can make the most of the conditions but many people quite happily observe all their life with what some people would call 'budget' eyepieces. Pretty much all eyepieces these days would make Victorian observers drool with envy.

That's very true when you think of all the discoveries that were made with what would be classed as budget eyepieces these days.....thankyou so much for that insight and that has actually told me all I need to know, I would rather buy three "budget" eye pieces ~ $300-400 than spend that money on just one that I may not get the most from anyway depending on sky conditions.

Neil.

[jetstream]

What is the eyepiece for? planetary?

[Mak the Night]

I have to say that I've never regretted shelling out on a TeleVue eyepiece. I got first light with my 10mm Delos with M42 at 130x. A fairly high magnification for the nebula itself IMO. I expected it to be a better view than my 10mm Celestron Luminos which cost under a hundred quid. I wasn't quite expecting what I saw and experienced though. I have a 24mm Panoptic and that's brilliant, but the Delos is a sublime experience! In that instant I forgot about the fact it was two and a half times more expensive than the Celestron. Of course, this experience is all highly subjective, but viewing retrospectively with hindsight binoculars, I would rather have spent the money on one really good eyepiece than the same on inferior pieces, even over a period of time.

[Moonshane]

I have never regretted buying a Televue eyepiece either (and they are all I have) but in my experience, almost without exception, you really don't see anything with TV that you could not see with 'inferior' eyepieces, you just see it slightly cleaner, sharper, brighter. Whether or not this is worth it is very individual.

[Mak the Night]

Don't get me wrong, I think my 'inferior' 10mm Luminos is a nice EP lol. It is well made and when I bought it I was impressed with it. I did notice its tendency to glare and whiteout at times though, later verified by other users of the Luminos series. I still think it's a pretty good eyepiece for the money. I think what really swings the Delos, bearing in mind that the Delos has over 4mm less field stop and 10° less FOV than the Luminos, is that huge immersive 35mm eye lens. I honestly never expected the Delos to be that good. And it was still cheaper than the 24mm Panoptic!

[Roy hanson]

Love the 24 pan optic,got a pair of em in my denkmier binoviewer

[neil groves]

ok so now i'm tempted to get a Delos just out of curiosity.....but what if I like it?.......I mean REALLY like it?...... and get addicted to Delos, it could be an excersise that may end up costing a couple grand or more over time *grins*

 

seriously wary of trying this.....maybe I can find somewhere that will let me try one out before actually making the purchase?...I observed M42 last night through a 20mm

skywatcher eyepiece and it almost filled the FOV and after a few mins the gas cloud became clearly visible, now that eyepiece came with the scope so I am assuming

it isn't the best eyepiece, so what would I see with a Delos?.....would the view make me pee my pants?

Neil.

[neil groves]

2 hours ago, jetstream said:

What is the eyepiece for? planetary?

Primarily yes, that's what i'm thinking for planetary use.

Neil.

[jetstream]

Very hard to beat a Delos for planetary Neil.

[neil groves]

9 minutes ago, jetstream said:

Very hard to beat a Delos for planetary Neil.

I have an ED120 which has a focal length of 900mm, what would be a good focal length eyepiece to look at for planetary use?....in particular Jupiter, Saturn and Mars...

Neil.

[neil groves]

Thinking about it I would do better to use the money for a scope with a longer focal length?

Neil.

[Mak the Night]

2 hours ago, neil groves said:

ok so now i'm tempted to get a Delos just out of curiosity.....but what if I like it?.......I mean REALLY like it?...... and get addicted to Delos, it could be an excersise that may end up costing a couple grand or more over time *grins*

 

seriously wary of trying this.....maybe I can find somewhere that will let me try one out before actually making the purchase?...I observed M42 last night through a 20mm

skywatcher eyepiece and it almost filled the FOV and after a few mins the gas cloud became clearly visible, now that eyepiece came with the scope so I am assuming

it isn't the best eyepiece, so what would I see with a Delos?.....would the view make me pee my pants?

Neil.

This is a Stellarium approximation of what you would see with a Delos 10mm in an f/12.7 102mm scope with a 1300mm f/l. The image is as seen through an Amici prism diagonal.

I doubt you'd see any colours in the nebula cloud though. I was surprised at the detail I could see with the Delos. IIRC it was at around 20° altitude at roughly 15° azimuth south. As I live in the greenbelt comparatively fairly high above sea level, I have little light pollution, particularly to the south and the west.

 

EDIT I believe that due to GIGO my input figure of FOV is wrong and should be 72°.

[jetstream]

1 hour ago, neil groves said:

Thinking about it I would do better to use the money for a scope with a longer focal length?

Neil.

More aperture Neil, if possible. An 8"-10" dob... they also have a longer focal length and more mag in the exit pupil sweet spot...

[Mak the Night]

OK, this is more like it lol.

[jetstream]

Neil, does your 120mm show M13 like this? The dobs will, and from fairly LP skies, observing near zenith. I actually used an 8mm Delos on this at the time, but the much maligned 7mm Luminos showed it nicely too. The sky was about SQM 19 +/-.

[Dave In Vermont]

A Delos would be more comfortable for planetary observations. But I can tolerate the up-close & personal nature of the (much less money) Orthoscopics. Unless I need glasses at some point, I think I'll spare my children from being sold into slavery - and stick with my tried & true old orthos.

"It's okay, honey - I didn't give TeleVue Little Tiffany's college-fund!"

Dave

[Joe12345]

have you looked at the vixen slvs? They're great little eyepieces if you don't mind dropping a bit of fov. The only difference between them and the deloi is the fov (pretty much), so you won't be dropping any quality by going for the slvs. They cost about £100 each here.

 

 

[Paul73]

+1 for the SLVs. Very sharp and great eye relief. I have a couple of SLV's for planetry use. The Delos are great. They do me very well for the mid range, but the 72° FOV just isn't needed for planetry work (if you don't mind moving the scope a bit more often).

Obviously, you would be very happy if you did go the TV / Pentax route.

Paul

[cloudsweeper]

10 hours ago, neil groves said:

I have recently been looking to buy another eyepiece and I am deciding between the Orion Stratus and the Orion Q70 series....does anyone have any thoughts or experience with

these as far as image quality goes?

I was checking prices on amazon and seems the stratus is $40 more than the Q70s

and my other question is if I was to go briefly insane and spend $340 on a televue, would I notice a worthwhile image improvement over the lesser priced glass?

Neil.

 

Neil.

Go insane, Neil!  I've got AFOV Fever, and am now looking at Meade 5000 MWA 100 degree EPs!  (Selling off stuff from my previous hobby to fund all this!)

Doug.

[John]

1 hour ago, cloudsweeper said:

Go insane, Neil!  I've got AFOV Fever, and am now looking at Meade 5000 MWA 100 degree EPs!  (Selling off stuff from my previous hobby to fund all this!)

Doug.

Be sure to check out the other 100 degree eyepiece options as well - the ES 100's and the Myriad / William Optics 100's are excellent as well - at least as good as the Meade's and can be somewhat less expensive.

 

[cloudsweeper]

Thanks @John.  A quick look at the ones you suggest has them as 2" versions or dual, and my focuser is 1.25".  (I did try a dual-fit EP a few weeks ago and was stunned by its size and weight!)  Do you happen know if there are any other good ones out there that are just 1.25"?  (I'm considering 5 and 10mm models, as I'm OK at the lower mag end of the spectrum.)

Doug.