Most excellent ? old eyepieces.

[cotterless45]

Over the years I've amassed some very useful eyepieces. Mainly for long achro use, it's not mega collecting, but finding eps that suit the eye and the views. In particular sub 8.8mm being lovely off planetary and binary observing.

The 5.5mm Meade gives wide angle views and is useful for showing what else in in the fov with tight binaries and the brightest of planetary nebulae.
The 6mm circle T ! just a classic giving crisp clear views.
The 7.5mm Celestron Ultima gives better eye relief and better views, just tack sharp.
The 8mm flat field gives superb flat views in Newts .
Back to tight eye relief for the 9 mm circle V.
The 8.8mm Meade is a very lovely 1.25" which goes into a 2" focuser. It's very relaxing to tease out Galaxy details.
The 12.4mm Meade 4000 is a Japanese classic, it's so bright , it'll pick up low magnitude stuff no bother.
The old school 10mm Vixen never fails, especially when in a Triplet old school Cixen x2 Barlow.
For wide views , especially at f5 , I am very pleased to have picked up s bargain Panoptic 24mm. Forget coma, this is ace across the field. The field stop is where your eye is supremely comfortable.

I like the old Japanese gear, quality control is premium and so long as you don't clean them until absolutely required , they'll see us all out. It's been a long time searching and paying the right money, some of these have been thrown in with scopes, but it's quite enjoyable to use eps that are put together with a little care,
Old Nick.

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Nice collection there. Some old EPs really give great views. The Vixen-built Celestron "silver-top" 26mm Plossl I got with my C8 21 years ago was absolutely superb. Eye relief was just right, and the EP was tack sharp and had high transmission. I do not regret letting it go, however, to help fund a Nagler 22T4. A colleague replaced his MA 25mm with that 26mm, so it is getting used, rather than gathering dust. My kids have a 20mm Plossl which seems to be of the same quality. Not expensive at all, but excellent image quality

[Timebandit]

Hello and here are some of my old timers

Meade research grade in 4mm, tight eye relief, but tight sharp views also.

Televues plossl 10.5 mm very acceptable eye relief IMO and overly acceptable views, very nice

Vixen 7.5 mm old timer but with still great Japan Optics 

Baader Genuine Orthos, 18mm , 6mm and 7mm just great sharp clear quality Orthos and a pity they stopped the production of these. I am in the process of trying to obtain a full set. Wish me luck, just great. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Old timers but still very sharp and quality eyepieces☺

[F15Rules]

Lovely post Nick, thanks for sharing!

That's a really nice collection of Japanese glass you have there. I've owned a few of these, and I remember back in the late 80s and early 90s some of these cost a pretty packet new.

The Japanese were meticulous about quality and it was very rare in my experience to get a poor example.

I particularly liked Vixen/Celestron plossl with orange lettering, the Ultimas such as your 7.5mm (one went two days ago on eBay for £30 plus shipping!), and I also loved the Meade 3000 series MIJ range, which I compared to TV plossl several times and they were a very underrated eyepiece, I feel.

I used my old EPs in long focus achromatic refractors from F10 to F16 and they performed superbly.

The only real advantage on more modern EPs, I think, is the wider field of view for some types of observing, but of course, for Lunar, planets and doubles, that's not an issue.

And it can be great fun hunting down classic older eyepieces which can often be found for silly prices compared to their new costs!

Dave

[YKSE]

Nice oldies, Nick. Nothing beats well-used EPs by experienced eyes under sky

[John]

Nice to see these eyepieces again and that they are being used by appreciative owners

I think I've probably owned most of the ones pictured above at one time or another. I used to have a "thing" about Japanese glass and wanted nothing else for quite while.

The only area that I feel more recent designs score is on light transmission where the latest glass and coatings can deliver some slight advantages when compared "back to back" with an equivalent older design. On sharpness the older glass really still delivers excellently