6mm Eyepieces?

[Mak the Night]

It’s not often that I use a Plossl less than 8mm these days but after using a Celestron 6mm Plossl in my 90mm Mak (for 166.6x) I was inevitably tempted to acquire an orthoscopic of 6mm f/l. Normally something that small and squinty wouldn't appeal to me but it gave good results on my little grab'n'go Mak. Below are three 6mm, 1.25“ eyepieces, two Celestron Plossls and an Astro Hutech orthoscopic in comparison.

The Celestron eyepieces are both from kits, the one on the left (above) is from the Celestron Eyeopener Kit and the one on the right is from the Celestron AstroMaster Kit. Ostensibly they are both Celestron 6mm Plossls but there are subtle differences. The Plossl on the right is noticeably heavier, almost as heavy as the orthoscopic (extreme right), its draw tube is slightly longer and I suspect chromed brass as opposed to the aluminium of the EP to its left (which very probably explains the weight difference).

Furthermore, the writing on the eyepieces is different, with the Eyeopener 6mm having simple silk screened letters (which easily rub off lol), whereas the AstroMaster has writing that appears to be painted or some sort of enamel. Although not immediately apparent from this jpeg, it also seems to me that the baffling is slightly better quality on the AstroMaster. Allthough this could be a trick of the light. In use I think that the AstroMaster 6mm gives a slightly brighter and sharper image. In fact it was this EP that convinced me to get a 6mm orthoscopic for my 90mm Mak and I wouldn't necessarily have to mutate into The Fly or spend time with the Incredible Shrinking Man to actually use it . As I’m pretty certain that the Eyeopener Plossls are generic Guan Sheng Optical like Revelation, Orion and others, it makes me wonder who manufactured the AstroMaster 6mm Plossl. As the AstroMaster Kit also contains the Synta made Celestron 'Universal’ or Sky-Watcher ‘Deluxe’ Barlow I suspect it is also Synta.

Just a few thoughts ....

[John]

The Astro Hutech / Fujiyama orthos are really nice performers, just as good as the Baader Genuine Ortho I think.

I'm less keen on the small eye lenses and tight eye relief than I used to be though so I think I'd opt for something like the Vixen SLV 6mm which proved to have orthoscopic type performance with comfortable eye relief and a nice wide eyelens.

It's been a long time since I owned / used a 6mm plossl.

 

[Mak the Night]

Yes, I was quite impressed with the 6mm AH ortho'. It had been a while since I used that AstroMaster 6mm which would give me 150x on my Explorer, 300x with a Barlow, and I only really used it for lunar viewing. Eventually I bought a 3x Barlow! But in the 90mm Mak it's often useful for high magnification (usually lunar) views if conditions allow. It's the logical step after the 8mm TV Plossl anyway lol.