Planetary eyepiece

[Maged]

Hi, I just got a 10" F5.6 reflector and wanted to treat myself with a nice 6mm planetary eyepiece. Nice meaning mid-range to high end quality. 

Any recommendations?

Thanks

 

[avtaram]

6mm Delos probably the best there is.

I use mine in my 12" F5 Dob, the views are absolutly breath taking.

 

Avtar

[vlaiv]

Baader Classic Ortho 6mm

This is more of a suggestion than recommendation - I don't own one, but it is on my shopping list as a next purchase.

[bingevader]

William Optics SPL 6mm, 'tis good.

[John]

Some great suggestions already made. Depending on the budget and whether you wear glasses when observing my suggestions would be:

- Baader Genuine Ortho / Astro Hutech Ortho / Fujiyama Ortho - same (excellent) performance for around £50 apiece used or around £70 new. Tight eye relief though.

- Vixen SLV 6mm - I found it matched the performance of the Baader Genuine Ortho 6mm. These cost between £70 and £80 new and have nice long eye relief for glasses wearers.

 

[Piero]

Wow, a 10" F5.6? I would be curious to see a photo of it!  

I have a 5mm Vixen SLV and to me it is a great eyepiece! Said this, it is only a 50 deg afov, and unless you telescope has an automatic tracking, I would feel that nudging your 1400mm long telescope will be quite demanding using a 6mm with 50 deg afov. So, as mentioned above, I would also go for a second hand delos 6mm, which is 72 deg afov, and possibly a tiny hint better than the Vixen SLV. 

[laudropb]

The SLV is a really nice eye piece.

[Dave In Vermont]

I'd also suggest an Orthoscopic 6mm - any of the already mentioned brand-names are fine in my book. But this also very much depends on not needing to wear glasses at the eyepiece. You will need to get right up on the lens. Orthoscopic eyepieces have been with us for many decades, and their superb performance on planets is truly the stuff of legends. But if you need glasses on while you're observing, I'll defer to other recommendations.

Orthoscopics will be around a long time, I'm sure.

Dave

[Joe12345]

12 hours ago, John said:

 

 

12 hours ago, John said:

These cost between £70 and £80 new and have

 

Where? I thought they were £99 everywhere?

I'm a big fan of the slvs; their eye relief is great and they have almost perfect edges. I find that so long as you don't own any wider eyepieces, the fov is fine.

[Maged]

13 hours ago, bingevader said:

William Optics SPL 6mm, 'tis good.

I thought about this eyepiece, it attracted my attention and the price was not that expensive compared to other brands, which made me think twice that there should be something behind this price difference, so you used this and you like it right?

[bomberbaz]

14 hours ago, bingevader said:

William Optics SPL 6mm, 'tis good.

depend how much you ant to spend but these hard hard to beat for the price and have vry good eye relief, I really like mine.

[bingevader]

9 hours ago, Maged said:

I thought about this eyepiece, it attracted my attention and the price was not that expensive compared to other brands, which made me think twice that there should be something behind this price difference, so you used this and you like it right?

Yep, in my 8" f5.9 dob, it's a cracker and very comfortable to use. A notch up from the plossls in terms of comfort, although still only 55°, so be prepared to nudge. The Delos is 72°, but significantly more expensive!

[Mr Spock]

If you're not set on 6mm, a 7mm T6 Nagler would be perfect. 82° and sharp. The wider field means less nudging

[bomberbaz]

another thought is Explore Scientific do a 6.7mm / 82 degree eyepiece for a shade over a 100, I have one, only used it once but initial findings are very nice in an F4.7 dob

[Damo636]

 Another to consider is the Baader Morpheus 6.5mm. I currently have it placed between a Delos 8mm and a 5mm Pentax XW. As far as I can see it appears to perform at a very similar level to the more expensive Televue and Pentax offerings. 

[mikeDnight]

TMB planetaries are excellent eyepieces at a fraction of the cost of anything from Televue or Pentax. They have a 60° apparent field and were designed for use in apo refractors. They give clean, sharp planetary views and have good eye relief. Ideal fore a push/pull scope such as a DOB. The range from 9 to 2.5mm.

Ortho's are some of the very best planetary eyepieces but their narrow field makes them awkward to use in a DOB. You could however buy a longer focal length and use a barlow.

Mike

[Charic]

On 29/02/2016 at 15:09, Maged said:

Hi, I just got a 10" F5.6 reflector and wanted to treat myself with a nice 6mm planetary eyepiece. Nice meaning mid-range to high end quality. 

Any recommendations?

Thanks

 

I have several 6mm category eyepieces, and my eyes literally see the same  image quality  from the same site, under the same conditions, swapping out from one 6mm to the next,  giving me 200X power, (except the Meade 6.4)  with only the field of view differing between the eyepieces. Maybe my  local conditions are just not that  great in order to see any real difference  between each EP  from my observatory, or  that my eyes themselves  just  cannot see any difference to the images apart from afov!  Maybe I should go out more and further test these EP's, although the weather and local conditions are still poor and my observing count for this Year is abysmal?

There's a big  difference in prices between my EP's from the cheapest Revelation £9 to the dearest Delos, but at the end of the day, Its down to the individual (eyes)  as to what suits you, and suits you best on the night.

I did try a TMB Planetary, but found the field of view too tight at 58°? I prefer the 60°  afforded by my Starguiders, I like this field,. The Delos has 72° afov but I  have not had enough exposure time to really assert myself that their any better than what I'm already  used too with the Starguiders?  More time is  required from a darker site, then what proves best for me under those conditions, should suffice for my local conditions, or should they? Plus with Spring/Summer not to far away and living this far North, I might not see the scope for several months whilst it hibernates away till the Autumn again! 

 

[Maged]

First of all many thanks about the informative replies from all of you

I came across these William Optics eyepieces and was amazed by the price which is relatively acceptable compared to what you get. 72 deg. AFOV 

 

Any thoughts about these?

 

[John]

4 hours ago, Maged said:

First of all many thanks about the informative replies from all of you

I came across these William Optics eyepieces and was amazed by the price which is relatively acceptable compared to what you get. 72 deg. AFOV 

 

Any thoughts about these?

 

Do you mean the William Optics SWAN eyepieces ?

They are good in slow scopes but show a fair amount of astimatism in faster scopes such as your F/5.6

 

[spaceboy]

Ortho for planetary all day long in my opinion. If you wear glasses or have to nudge your scope then they won't be as desirable as the eye relief is tight and the fov only 40°. The next best thing I have found is the Baader classic ortho which have slightly better eye relief and a fov of 50°. Again still a struggle for those wearing spectacles but easier for nudge along scopes. Finally there are the BST starguiders which I find do a pretty good job and are hard to beat for the money new. They have plenty of eye relief, wind up eye cups so you don't have to hover over the lens and a pleasing 60° fov so you can watch the planet drift through the fov with out having to nudge a scope every 2 seconds.

[Maged]

1 hour ago, John said:

Do you mean the William Optics SWAN eyepieces ?

They are good in slow scopes but show a fair amount of astimatism in faster scopes such as your F/5.6

 

Many thanks for letting me know

[Maged]

What other options do I have that can fit faster scope without distorting the view?

 

[John]

If you are OK with a "standard" field of view there are lots of reasonably priced options available. The Baader Classic Orthos for example are really good performers for a fraction under £50 each.

If you want wide field and well corrected in a faster scope then the price climbs.

 

[Maged]

17 hours ago, John said:

If you are OK with a "standard" field of view there are lots of reasonably priced options available. The Baader Classic Orthos for example are really good performers for a fraction under £50 each.

If you want wide field and well corrected in a faster scope then the price climbs.

 

I believe wide field is better since I had to nudge the telescope during observation. I'm thinking Delos 6 mm to be ready for Mars opposition  It will provide 250X which I think will be enough, considering I have tried to observe Mars whenever possible but all I got was a tiny red dot !

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Given my experiences with the Delos 8 and 14mm EPs I have, I would say the Delos 6 would be one of the best choices you could make.