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New Christmas Eyepiece Reports


Louis D

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It's been a week since Christmas.  How about some reports on new eyepieces received as gifts (or bought for yourself)?

To get things started, I received a 17mm ES-92 and have had a couple of chances to use it in both a coma corrected dob and a flat field short tube refractor.  It's easy to use with eyeglasses, has a very wide field of view that can be seen all at once without straining, is as sharp at the edge as a Delos (which is to say as sharp as at the center), has no discernable field curvature, and seems to have nearly constant angular magnification across the field.  The weight and size do have to be managed, but it is well worth the effort.  I haven't tried it without coma correction or flat field correction or with a barlow yet, so no reports on those aspects yet.

I measured the AFOV to be 92 or 93 degrees as claimed using reverse projection with a flashlight shining into the field lens.  Usable eye relief was measured to be 17mm using the same technique, so just a millimeter less than my measured 18mm for the 10mm Delos.

Overall, I'm so stoked, I hope to get the 12mm and other focal lengths as they become available.

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Hi Louis and Happy New Year..

I didn't get an eyepiece myself, but I have bought a modest Antares 25mm plossl for my brother in law: his wife bought him a new Meade 60mm Altaz "starter outift", ie a 60mm F13 department store type scope with 2 eyepieces, 4mm and 12.5mm (so both giving stupid high mags for this scope) and a 2x Barlow (!!!) - all plastic and all rubbish. Oh, and a 1.25" plastic erecting diagonal. Why did she not speak to me first...?

Anyhow, the OTA should at least work ok with a proper eyepiece so I have bought SGL MoonShane's Antares which will be like a Delos or ES compared to the supplied "tat"!

I hope that this will at least show my brother in law a half decent view of the moon at around x50 or so and prevent him from being turned off our great hobby before he has even got started?.

Dave

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Hi Louis,

I think that this year my nearest and dearest decided that it had become boring always buying me vouchers for Astro stuff, so no new eyepieces for me, however, I have sent a reply on AB&S for one, three days ago as matter of fact, and so far ,no reply, but then, it is Christmas.:icon_santa:

Have a great New Year, and above all clear skies.

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Shortly before Xmas I bought a pre-owned 24mm Panoptic for use with my refractors. It's the 3rd one I've owned over the past decade and a rather lovely little thing :icon_biggrin:

I've not bought an eyepiece since then - rather a "drought" for me :rolleyes2:

 

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The 17mm ES sounds very tempting Louis. I am currently in a downscaled position in terms of kit, having sold all my Televue apart from a 24mm Panoptic. I have acquired a 20mm 100 and a 30mm 82 degree ES, would be interesting to see how the 17 fits in with these two.

Enjoy your Christmas present :) 

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39 minutes ago, Dude_with_the_tube said:

have not bought anything,but i have a few interesting ones sent to me for testing namely a bunch of Lunt 1oo deg and the 65 deg flat fields.100 deg will go against ethos,where ultra flats will be binoviewed.

The Lunt 100's are interesting. I reckon they are the same optically as the Skywatcher Myriads but with a redesigned top with the "Tele Vue" taper and fixed rubber eye cup. Good reports of them from other forums.

I'll be looking forward to hearing what you think of them :icon_biggrin:

There is almost more choice in 100 degree eyepieces than other focal lengths these days.

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3 hours ago, Stu said:

The 17mm ES sounds very tempting Louis. I am currently in a downscaled position in terms of kit, having sold all my Televue apart from a 24mm Panoptic. I have acquired a 20mm 100 and a 30mm 82 degree ES, would be interesting to see how the 17 fits in with these two.

Enjoy your Christmas present :) 

It would probably be too close to the 20mm 100 to be of interest to you unless you have severe astigmatism.  The 12mm version might be a better fit for you, though.

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28 minutes ago, Louis D said:

It would probably be too close to the 20mm 100 to be of interest to you unless you have severe astigmatism.  The 12mm version might be a better fit for you, though.

Yes, I suspect you are right.

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11 hours ago, Louis D said:

It's been a week since Christmas.  How about some reports on new eyepieces received as gifts (or bought for yourself)?

To get things started, I received a 17mm ES-92 and have had a couple of chances to use it in both a coma corrected dob and a flat field short tube refractor.  It's easy to use with eyeglasses, has a very wide field of view that can be seen all at once without straining, is as sharp at the edge as a Delos (which is to say as sharp as at the center), has no discernable field curvature, and seems to have nearly constant angular magnification across the field.  The weight and size do have to be managed, but it is well worth the effort.  I haven't tried it without coma correction or flat field correction or with a barlow yet, so no reports on those aspects yet.

I measured the AFOV to be 92 or 93 degrees as claimed using reverse projection with a flashlight shining into the field lens.  Usable eye relief was measured to be 17mm using the same technique, so just a millimeter less than my measured 18mm for the 10mm Delos.

Overall, I'm so stoked, I hope to get the 12mm and other focal lengths as they become available.

I agree - one of my favourite eyepieces. Looking forward to the 6.5mm which should be out soon I've heard.

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15 hours ago, Louis D said:

It's been a week since Christmas.  How about some reports on new eyepieces received as gifts (or bought for yourself)?

It was not my intention to get any new kit for Christmas, self purchased or gifted, however, a Week of reading, and I'm taken back by several  reports regarding the  Baader Classic Orthoscopic in  comparison with a  Tele Vue Delos, so now I wan't to try one!

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51 minutes ago, Charic said:

It was not my intention to get any new kit for Christmas, self purchased or gifted, however, a Week of reading, and I'm taken back by several  reports regarding the  Baader Classic Orthoscopic in  comparison with a  Tele Vue Delos, so now I wan't to try one!

i dont think you gonna like it.Relatively tight eye relief,non driven scope,only 45 degree FOV against massive eye relief,72 deg FOV.Clarity and crisp image of ortho is truly enjoyable,but can you handle it? :)

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1 hour ago, Charic said:

It was not my intention to get any new kit for Christmas, self purchased or gifted, however, a Week of reading, and I'm taken back by several  reports regarding the  Baader Classic Orthoscopic in  comparison with a  Tele Vue Delos, so now I wan't to try one!

 

20 minutes ago, Dude_with_the_tube said:

i dont think you gonna like it.Relatively tight eye relief,non driven scope,only 45 degree FOV against massive eye relief,72 deg FOV.Clarity and crisp image of ortho is truly enjoyable,but can you handle it? :)

 

Yep. I think you are going to think it is a massive step backwards. You have been spoiled by the fov and eye relief of the Delos. The Ortho are great for clarity, but the delos is no slouch either for optical quality. I think you find the Baader classic Ortho like looking through a straw in comparison. But nothing ventured, nothing gained?

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15 minutes ago, Timebandit said:

But nothing ventured, nothing gained

That's the reason for testing. The 6mm Delos may be wasted on Jupiter whereby the 6mm  BCO which I  have read to be of 52°afov should better frame Jupiter filling the eyepiece view, possibly with more clarity over the BST's which are still my favoured EP. 
Some reports have put the BCO  before the Delos in performance if not just on par with the Delos.

I'm very lucky to own the Delois, but not totally satisfied I need them for this scope, all three Delois nearly went to the classifieds today, until I read another article? 

I had tonight and Monday night to get out and test the Delos from a darker site, but the weather here, is  sleet, rain, with snow expected so its  not desireable to get away on the off-chance there is a break in the clouds.

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30 minutes ago, Timebandit said:

 

 

Yep. I think you are going to think it is a massive step backwards. You have been spoiled by the fov and eye relief of the Delos. The Ortho are great for clarity, but the delos is no slouch either for optical quality. I think you find the Baader classic Ortho like looking through a straw in comparison. But nothing ventured, nothing gained?

I have a 12.5mm Kellner that came with an ST-80 years ago.  Tiny eye lens, tight eye relief, narrow field of view, but surprisingly sharp in the center, though it falls off toward the edge.  It has no resale value since they're only $12 new, so I have held onto it and peek through it once in a while for kicks if there's not much real observing to be done.

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4 minutes ago, Charic said:

but the weather here, is  sleet, rain, with snow expected so its  not desireable to get away on the off-chance there is a break in the clouds.

Ugh.  Glad I'm in Texas. :blob7:  I do hope to make it to Scotlland to visit someday.  Lots of Scots in my ancestry.

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I think the 10mm Baader Classic Ortho went a touch deeper on galaxies than a 10mm Delos or a 10mm Ethos did. These were observers in the US deserts with 20-30 inch dobs.

I liked the Baader Classic orthos that I tried and I still think they are about the best in optical quality terms you can get in a £50 (new) eyepiece. They do however share the ortho characteristics of eye relief of around 80% of the focal length and a 50 degree AFoV, of which around 45 degrees is really sharp.

If you are OK with these characteristics I'm not sure of another eyepiece that you can buy for around £30 used that will beat a Baader CO in terms of optical quality. I've certainly not seen one :icon_biggrin:

 

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11 minutes ago, John said:

......around £30.......

John, I'm hoping to secure the 6mm BCO from the classified's, if its still available and if it works to my satisfaction, there's only two more in the set to collect, discounting the 32mm Plössl, which I don't need!

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8 hours ago, Louis D said:

I wonder if these are the same as the Agena Astro BST Flat Field eyepieces made by Kunming United Optics as their FF series.

The indication so far shows these are not the same EPS, e.g. Markus Lude has clarified it, the specification for the Ultra Flat are 8 lens in 5 groups, weight over 200 gram, while FF are 5 lens design, weighs about 100 gram, and quite raving short review like this

http://www.cloudynights.com/topic/553015-apm-120s-first-impressions-contd/page-2?hl= apm 18mm

 

1 hour ago, John said:

I think the 10mm Baader Classic Ortho went a touch deeper on galaxies than a 10mm Delos or a 10mm Ethos did. These were observers in the US deserts with 20-30 inch dobs.

I liked the Baader Classic orthos that I tried and I still think they are about the best in optical quality terms you can get in a £50 (new) eyepiece. They do however share the ortho characteristics of eye relief of around 80% of the focal length and a 50 degree AFoV, of which around 45 degrees is really sharp.

If you are OK with these characteristics I'm not sure of another eyepiece that you can buy for around £30 used that will beat a Baader CO in terms of optical quality. I've certainly not seen one :icon_biggrin:

 

Dito:thumbsup:, adn I'm yet to read one reputed review to claim that 10mm Delos wins over 10mm BCO on planetary:smiley:

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  • 2 weeks later...

I spent more time outside with my 17mm ES-92 last night in my 8" dob on the moon.  It definitely benefits from a coma corrector not only for CC, but also to flatten the field.  It's very Delos/XW like in that focus snaps into place and remains there across the field to the very edge.  It also has the same thin blue line at the field stop on bright, extended objects like the moon that just about all well corrected wide fields have.  The view is also easy to take in, even on the moon with my constricted pupil.  I could not detect any ghosting as I moved the moon in from behind the field stop and across the field.  It seems to have stray light well controlled.

The 17mm Nagler T4 by comparison was a bit more difficult to nail best focus because it depends so heavily on proper eye placement.  Shift your eye even a tiny bit, and details would go soft.  Trying to see the edge was also problematic in the T4 compared to the ES-92 due to shorter eye relief.  The T4 was sharp at the edge if you could get your eye lined up at the right angle, but it was tiring.  I'm also pretty sure I detected some curvature of field in the T4 that was absent in the ES-92.  It was hard to be sure because it's so hard to get your eye lined up for a sharpest view at the edge and then at the center.

When used with a long 2" barlow (2X Orion Deluxe from Japan), there was no need for a CC (or any way to make one work for that matter).  The view of the moon was intense as it basically filled the 92 degree field.  The view was just about the same at the edge as at the center despite the lack of a CC.  The exit pupil was just a tad harder to tame with the long barlow, but nothing awful.  The T4 also looked good with the long barlow and no CC, but the exit pupil became even more difficult to hold.  It was tiring at times.

When used with a shorty 2" barlow (2X GSO ED), there were some exit pupil issues happening in both that didn't exist with the long barlow.  The edges also showed some chromatic aberrations.  I then plugged in the TV Panoptic Barlow Interface, and the exit pupil issues and CA went away for both.  With all the glass in the effectively telecentric barlow, I liked the view better with the long barlow in the end.  I switched back and forth a few times, and it was close, but the long barlow gave a slightly cleaner view.  When used with my 30mm ES-82 or 40mm Meade 5000 SWA, there's no contest.  The long barlow cuts off (black, not faded like vignetting) the edge while the telecentric combination completely disappears and just magnifies the view cleanly.  The TV PBI doesn't play nice with the long barlow at all.  On the other hand, the GSO shorty barlow has about the same focal length as the TV Big Barlow, so it seems very compatible with the PBI.

I did trying using the CC (a GSO 4 element one) with the telecentric barlow, but the view was worse than either barlow alone no matter which one I put in the focuser first, so I ended those experiments quickly.

I also tried my new-ish 14mm Morpheus, and it performed very similarly to my 10mm Delos and the 17mm ES-92.  It does have a hint of field curvature, though.  I then compared it to my ancient 14mm Pentax XL, and the Pentax was probably still a tad sharper than the Morpheus both at the center and at the edge, but with way more field curvature, even when used with barlows.  That was the main reason I was looking to replace the Pentax, not because of the 65 degree field, but because of the field curvature.

I also tried my 12mm Nagler T4, and it behaves slightly better than the 17mm, but I'll definitely be looking to replace it with the 12mm ES-92.

All in all, I had a good time experimenting.  Temperatures stayed above 60 degrees F all night, so that wasn't an issue like last weekend when we dropped below freezing as soon as the sun went down.

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Well our lass gave me about £150 for my EP's & Kaspersky Total Security 2017.

What i ended up getting was the AV and for the lens's i purchased from FLO, delivery was bob on, the lens's i got are a huge step up from the ones i got with my scope you know the ones the basics, well i got the Celestron Omni Plossl's 12 & 15mm along with a Celestron X2 Barlow with camera attachment and lastly i got a Cheshire Collimator, i think it all came to about £98 pound and i am sure i was down for the Post Office delivery but i think FLO upgraded as i ordered them on the 29/12/2016 but when i got them they came from DHL, so if FLO did upgrade my Postage Thank you very much well impressed with quality and the products, and the moon, Oh my goodness, very impressive views.

Cheers Mark

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I got a Televue 25mm Plossl to go with the one I bought myself from my wife. Also, O'Meara's Hidden treasures book from one daughter and a couple of great quality sketch books from my other daughter. Now, how on Earth did they know just what to get :icon_biggrin:

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