Looking for something in the 15 - 20mm range

[Jimtheslim]

8 hours ago, jetstream said:

The 18mmBCO can run with the best of them... the other night an excellent sky made the 17mm Ethos pull right away however (OIII on the Veil). My point is that sky darkness will allow the better eyepieces to excel and strut their stuff. Same goes for seeing and planetary/lunar obs. Under lesser skies many eyepieces will show similar views regardless of brand/model etc.

I like the 18mm ES 82 better than my 16T5 Nagler on everything and the 18mmBCO fits a "niche" in that it is superb for keeping bright stars out of the FOV when trying very faint objects with filters.

You will be hard pressed to find a better EP than the 10mm BCO ... but you might want a 2" widefield 20mm-25mm for filter use? or great views of the Andromeda galaxy etc?

Yes a 2" wide field EP was what I was considering in order to make the most out my scope. I would like to get as much of Andromeda in as possible and I guess I have been a bit suckered in by some of the marketing around wide field of views, being able to 'look around' the eyepiece like a large window on the heavens. 

[jetstream]

I was using my 18mm ES 82 last night on the Veil and the views were excellent, this a very bright high contrast eyepiece, a new patch of nebulosity appeared just past the split in the broom. The ES 82 series in high focal lengths are great as is the 20mm ES 100 and if I were you I would really consider one of these- not the 18mm but the 24mm ES 82 for your scope, or the 20mm 100.

They ES eyepieces don't have the "status" attached to them that Televue does but they work very well and are well built. The only thing with them is ergonomics- they have a bit of a recessed eyelens that bothers some- not me though.

That 20mm 100 ES is rumored to be top notch.... Jim, there is a reason my 18mm ES 82 is still in my fairly large EP collection....

[Jimtheslim]

5 hours ago, jetstream said:

I was using my 18mm ES 82 last night on the Veil and the views were excellent, this a very bright high contrast eyepiece, a new patch of nebulosity appeared just past the split in the broom. The ES 82 series in high focal lengths are great as is the 20mm ES 100 and if I were you I would really consider one of these- not the 18mm but the 24mm ES 82 for your scope, or the 20mm 100.

They ES eyepieces don't have the "status" attached to them that Televue does but they work very well and are well built. The only thing with them is ergonomics- they have a bit of a recessed eyelens that bothers some- not me though.

That 20mm 100 ES is rumored to be top notch.... Jim, there is a reason my 18mm ES 82 is still in my fairly large EP collection....

well the 100 degree range are most certainly out of my price range! I think I am becoming decided on the ES 82 range. I might also try and complete the BCO set as well, it hadn't occurred to me that being able to keep brighter stars out of the eyepiece when viewing certain objects might be less distracting. In fact I might try and complete the BCO series before Christmas and maybe ask Santa Claus with some help obtaining a good wide field eyepiece. After all by that time I don't think any of the planets will be particularly good to observe so will be deep sky all the way.

[Paul73]

Good thinking. I have a BCO 18mm and a 17.3mm Delos so that I can get max contrast views when there is a bright star messing things up in the wider FOV window. I've just completed the BCO set.....

You do not get the Wow view with the narrower fields. To me, they can feel slightly claustrophobic. The wider field gives you context around your target and allows multiple targets in the same Fov whilst maintaining contrast. However, the wider the field, the more distorted the outlying fringes become. Some eyepieces apear to deal with this better than others as the clear up the non mirror driven defects. So we strike a balance. For me, in the mid mag ranges, the 68° to 72° window is perfect. For high mag, 50° to 60° is enough and for the low mag 82° to 100°, but they have to be top quality. These are based on "least cost" to get the quality of view that I need. In the ideal world Ethos and Paracorr all the way !!!! Errrr, and a bigger Dob (obviously).

Paul