Explore Scientific 82 degree, 18 and 11 mm

[DHEB]

Summer at these latitudes (60N) means we do not have any useful darkness until August. There is no reason to grieve, as this gives us in the North plenty of opportunities for reading, planning and preparing (and also sleeping). In thinking and preparing, I decided not to prioritize my explorations of astrophotography during the next observing season (August till May) because that will possibly mean having to engage in upgrades beyond my means. Instead I decided to prioritize another interest of mine and dedicate my scant observing time to delve further into visual variable star observing. This provided the necessary framework to put some other decision into place: the replacement of my collection of cheapo plössl eyepieces with a couple of much better ones. As my astrobudget is fairly limited I could not aspire to get green letters on black velvet for now, even with my philosophy of prioritizing quality before quantity. What I was looking for was low and moderate magnifications with relatively wide fields for my fast Skywatcher 200 mm f/5. After a lot of reading articles and reviews around the internet, eyepiece simulation in Stellarium (very recommendable tool!), price comparison, and building upon my experiences with my cheapo 32 mm Plössl (giving 31X at 1.6 degree FOV, my most used eyepiece!), I settled for the Explorer Scientific 82 degree line.

I settled for a first purchase of the 18 mm and the 11 mm eyepieces (others will follow if things go well with these two). These will give 56X and 1.45 deg FOV, and 91X and 0.9 deg FOV, respectively in my Skywatcher 200 mm f/5. These magnifications and FOV give ample opportunities for finding suitable comparison stars in fields of different star density. I estimate that a good deal of DSOs will be seen fairly OK in the 18 mm too. In combination with the Baader MKIII coma corrector I also estimated that abaxial aberrations at edges shouldn't be too big a problem. I also have a good 2.5X TeleVue Barlow (bought from a member of this forum), with which I can push the 11 mm to 227X for the odd planetary observation, when seeing allows. I considered the 24 mm seriously, but decided against it because that would give me 40X at 2 degrees FOV, which I considered too wide for work in crowded Milky Way regions. I also thought about the 14 mm and 8.8 mm as good options, but decided for the 11 mm at this stage.

I bought the eyepieces from astroshop.eu for about 300 EUR both. These arrived today, in perfect condition and perfectly packaged (including a bag of candies!). See below . All in all I am very happy and think I did a good purchase. Now looking forward to first star light in late July with the first pseudo-darkness!

Cheers!

 

[PHIL53]

I have exactly these two eyepieces and I think they do a wonderful job...too bad you should wait until August, but still have would advise to have a look at Jupiter after sunset !

[DHEB]

8 minutes ago, PHIL53 said:

I have exactly these two eyepieces and I think they do a wonderful job...too bad you should wait until August, but still have would advise to have a look at Jupiter after sunset !

Thanks for your comment. You are right, there is always something around to look at. In a sense this is a good thing with variable star observing, that one does not need a completely dark sky to start with.

Cheers

[Bart]

Don't feel too bad about now having green lettering. I had the ES 11mm and the 11mm Nagler T6 simultaneously, and try as I might, I could make no difference between them

[DHEB]

19 minutes ago, Bart said:

Don't feel too bad about now having green lettering. I had the ES 11mm and the 11mm Nagler T6 simultaneously, and try as I might, I could make no difference between them

Thanks for your comment. This is exactly what I understood reading a lot of reviews and articles: TV are *top* quality eyepieces, best of what exists today in the world. Not the shadow of doubt about this. They have a high price according to their quality, and with reason. On the other hand, I understood that I can live happily with the more affordable but still quality ES eyepieces. Therefore my decision.

[rwilkey]

Cinco, you have made exactly the same choices as I made to start with, and now I have the whole series, marvellous ep's and superb sharp views.

[DHEB]

3 hours ago, rwilkey said:

Cinco, you have made exactly the same choices as I made to start with, and now I have the whole series, marvellous ep's and superb sharp views.

Thanks for your words, Robin. I then know that I will probably end up with the whole collection ;-) !

Best wishes,

CS (Hernán)

[rwilkey]

Hi Hernán, my next purchase was the 14mm, a lovely ep for star clusters and other widefield work.  My last two purchases were the 30mm and the 24mm.  The 30mm because I already had the PanaView 32mm and the 24mm because I found it quite acceptable to drop from 30mm to 18mm, and felt I would not use the 24mm.  To be honest I have not used it yet and partly bought it because it was the only one in the series I did not own, however, I saw it cheaper second-hand by a seller on this forum and jumped at the chance to buy it.  My only critcism of the series is the slightly shorter eye-relief, you have to get in a bit close and personal to get the full view.  By the way, if you like a huge swath of sky and starfields, the 30mm is your man, now much better than my PanaView which suffered a bit of astimatism towards the edge in my f/5, however the PanaView is also stunning on-axis.

Good luck and best wishes

[DHEB]

Thanks for your sharing your experience, Robin. I do love wide fields, and I see I am in the risk zone for buying more eypieces of this series, but that won't happen until next year ;-)

Best wishes,

Hernán

[bingevader]

I have the 18mm and think it is splendid.