"Your ES20mm 100° is at the clearing agency awaiting final release."

[Pondus]

I own two telescopes: an 8" dob F6 and  SW heritage 130p 650Fl.
After years of using only one eyepiece for both of them, the baader zoom + the 2.25 barlow,
I finally ordered a 2" low power eyepiece for the 8" F6 dob. The ES20mm 100°.

 

While I still enjoy the Baader zoom for lunar and planetary observations, it gives me almost a claustrophobic feel at low powers,
~0.8° tfov on my 8" dob at 20mm (24mm hardly ever used, major tunnelvision).

 

After considering the ES30 82°, I finally decided to go for the ES20mm 100° (21mm Ethos cost more than I`m willing to pay).
The desire for a 100° eyepiece, better contrast, albeit with a narrover tfov than ES30 82°, was the decisive factor.
With the 8"dob F6 this will give me:   tfov 1.67°, 60x power, exit pupil 3.3.
I am aware that this tfov wont frame every object up there, but it will be a revelation compared to what I got today.

 

My expectations are, to be honest, sky high. I will try to lower them a bit before first light...
As the (slightly altered) thread title says, the package is at the clearing agency awaiting final release (imported eyepiece).
Clearing agency meaning customs in Oslo. They are probably afraid its a large bottle of whiskey.

 

Now the hunt for a lowpower widefield 1,25" eyepiece for the lovely heritage f5 begins.
So far the ES24 68° is the favorite giving me 2.5° tfov, but the 16mm Nirvana 82° (2° tfov) is also a good candidate, nicely priced at FLO.
Any suggestions for a low power 1,25" eyepiece giving me at least 2° tfov, for the heritage (650fl-F5) are welcome.

 

Thanks for reading.

 

Rune

[John]

I don't think you will be dissapointed with the ES 20mm / 100 Rune. I had one for a while and was really impressed with it. I did move to a 21mm Ethos but there is very little to choose between them unless you have a massive and fast dobsonian.

 

 

[pipnina]

The 30mm ES 100 (besides having a monstrous price tag) has a note next to it saying ' 3" '. Does this mean you need a 3" focuser to use it?

Sorry to derail the topic slightly. 

My 24mm ES 82 is a nice eyepiece, for sure. It suffers some CA and doesn't like being used at small exit pupils but I'm using it in an f4.7 so there isn't much worry about that! (I did put the dust cap on with the mini-cap off when looking at Jupiter through it and it almost made things worse haha. I traded poor thermals for a very stable though fuzzy and extremely dim image of Jupiter & the moons)  It also seems to lose some sharpness at the edge, but perhaps this is just coma from the dob?

Can't wait to find out what your 100 degree does for you, though!

 

    ~pip

[Pondus]

7 minutes ago, pipnina said:

The 30mm ES 100 (besides having a monstrous price tag) has a note next to it saying ' 3" '. Does this mean you need a 3" focuser to use it

 

    ~pip

The answer to that is Yes.

I briefly considered the ES25mm 100 degree, but With lukewarm reviews and a hefty price tag I really didnt want to take a chance on that one.

I`ve read previous threads here at SGL that 21mm is pretty much the limit for producing high quality with a 2" 100 degree eyepiece.

 

Rune

[DirkSteele]

7 hours ago, Pondus said:

 

I`ve read previous threads here at SGL that 21mm is pretty much the limit for producing high quality with a 2" 100 degree eyepiece.

Rune

Apparently Al Nagler of TeleVue has said something along those lines.  Even if that is true, ES should be applauded for trying to push things beyond what is arguably a  reverse engineering of another firms design when it comes to EP design.  Even if it has some short comings I would love to try the 3" 30mm in my 180mm triplet.

[jkwhinfrey]

I have a 130P too Rune. It was my first scope and is still in use, last night in fact

I also have a the 16mm Nirvana which is very good in this scope. It's light, comfortable and performs well across the field of view. To see the whole field is tight, but much less so than the ES82s. I'm assuming that tight ER isn't a big problem for you.

I have owned the Maxvision 68 deg 24mm which is very similar to the ES68 optically I understand. I sold it because I have a 24mm Panoptic that I much prefer ergonomically. I do have an ES68 16mm which is much nicer in this respect, and optically wonderful, so I'd expect the ES68 24mm to be comfortable and not far behind he Panoptic.

Personally I suspect that the ES68 would be my choice for low power, wide field, but if you've got the UWA bug...

James

[Pondus]

 

2 hours ago, jkwhinfrey said:

I have a 130P too Rune. It was my first scope and is still in use, last night in fact

I also have a the 16mm Nirvana which is very good in this scope. It's light, comfortable and performs well across the field of view. To see the whole field is tight, but much less so than the ES82s. I'm assuming that tight ER isn't a big problem for you.

I have owned the Maxvision 68 deg 24mm which is very similar to the ES68 optically I understand. I sold it because I have a 24mm Panoptic that I much prefer ergonomically. I do have an ES68 16mm which is much nicer in this respect, and optically wonderful, so I'd expect the ES68 24mm to be comfortable and not far behind he Panoptic.

Personally I suspect that the ES68 would be my choice for low power, wide field, but if you've got the UWA bug...

James

Thanks for the reply James.

Tight ER is no problem.

The ES20mm 100 arrived today, well taken care of, certainly a big one.

I`ll use it at first oppurtunity (of course), New eyepiece for the Heritage have to wait abit.

 

Rune

[John]

Hope you have fun with it !

Just watch out for the scope balance - these 1kg eyepieces can cause scopes to "nose dive" quite spectacularly !

 

[niallk]

I tried my newly acquired 20mm ES 100° for the 1st time in my f/4.5 15" dob on the moon last night - with a Paracorr2 at setting A, and tbh I was pretty horrified at the chromatic distortion in the outer ~ say 1/4 of the radius from the centre of the fov when I positioned the moon near the field stop.  Maybe this is too harsh a test - to be expected with the moon in a 100° EP, or perhaps it's the f ratio/use of the paracorr?? I compared with my 24mm Panoptic, and its view was just crisp gorgeosity to the field stop, no matter how I placed the moon in the fov.  It was hazy and light cloud closed it, so didn't get to test it on any DSOs - poor contrast.

[Pondus]

44 minutes ago, John said:

Hope you have fun with it !

Just watch out for the scope balance - these 1kg eyepieces can cause scopes to "nose dive" quite spectacularly !

 

Thank you John .

Might be an opportunity this night already. Clear sky at the moment.

 

Rune