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A chance to own the best


John

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11 hours ago, jetstream said:

The only thing is this- I could put the $4000.00 toward a 20"+ mirror that would get me much deeper than the ZAO's, with my BCO. I still want a 10mm ZAO though.

I'd be more likely to put $4000 toward a state of the art Gen3 image intensifier tube.

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The 15" I have is a very good scope for here, but it too is limited by seeing, about 500x on the moon, sharp with an average around 300x. For me aperture gives a fair bit more detail even at lower mags, and more so again in the binos. The desire to get good lunar/planetary out of the next dob might present challenges to co ordinate with DSO viewing ability ie cooldown, thermals.

There is no doubt in my mind that the Zeiss ZAO's are the pinnacle in eyepieces, my own Zeiss zoom offers the lowest scatter of any eyepiece I own and is also "deep", mind you I always check it with the 10mm ortho lol!

yeah, I still want the Zeiss's,.

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Here is what Roland Christen of Astro-Physics said about the ZAO II's when they were first offered for sale:

The opticians at Zeiss Jena have been there for a long time, but the ageing 
facility is slated to be shut down soon. In the future Zeiss optics will not be 
made in Germany, so this set of eyepieces represents the last of the breed 
from these legendary craftsmen. We have been allotted a number of sets and when 
they are gone, that will be it for this design. 

Rolando

This is what Thomas Baader has said about this production run:


"The ABBE II eyepieces are collectors items from the start, made for a small 
group of people. They are not going to influence the sales of any other 
eyepiece makes and they are not intended to be established as commercial items.

There only was produced a small quantity - and there is no hope to make this 
a standard product. One cannot just reorder these ABBE II eyepieces when they 
are gone - because:

1. the opportunity will be gone.
The ABBE II eyepieces were entirely made in Jena - for future runs not even 
the name Zeiss might be available anymore.

There is no point in offering an eyepiece made in Asia under the name of Carl 
Zeiss. The degree of complexity that the ABBE II eyepieces attain cannot be 
made in Asia, so any Asian-made eyepiece would have to have a much simpler 
mechanical design and less stringent optical parameters. .

2. there are enough excellent eyepieces in the market.
The Zeiss ABBE II cannot misleadingly be marketed as being worlds apart from 
everything else. These eyepieces are among the few best - and most careingly 
made in the world. And they certainly are the very best astronomical eyepieces 
that were made in Germany ever. They set an industry standard of their time - 
and times are changing very fast these days - where all the optical industry 
in USA and Europe is experiencing the same fate as - for instance - the textile 
industry.

3. there are not enough customers.
The ABBE II eyepieces are a joy to use for someone who takes pride in the 
name of Carl Zeiss and who takes astronomical observation as an aestetical 
experience in the first place. The ABBE II eyepieces are aiming at representing the 
aestetical standard of today - for people who aspire to experience the the 
very best in planetary observation ever possible. For all others we recommend the 
Genuine Orthos which are almost close in their performance and most people 
will be fine with accepting somewhat less performance at huge savings. 

So there is no point in arranging big productions runs of ABBE II eyepieces - 
or to produce less critical parts of these eyepieces elsewhere, just to 
reduce the price a little further. There would be no chance to ever become 
competitive - in price - against any Asian-made eyepieces.

Best regards

Thomas Baader"

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4 hours ago, TheLookingGlass said:

Or a new telescope. Zambuto 12" comes to mind. :)

I had my best view ever of Jupiter through a 12.5" Zambuto equipped Mag-1 PortaBall about a decade ago, so no arguments from me on them for solar system objects and high contrast objects.  However, if you want to see nebulae, not even a 22 inch scope compares to what can be seen with the latest image intensifier tubes.  I looked through one last summer at M8 on an 8" scope afocally from within the city.  Without it, you couldn't make out anything.  With it (it did have a nebula filter of some sort attached to the front of it), M8 was bright and plain as day like a living photograph.  It didn't look like a video feed at all.  The really cool part is you can use them at 1x up to 3x or slightly more with simple lenses to view giant nebula like Barnard's Loop.  Try that with the 12" Zambuto!

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16 minutes ago, Louis D said:

I had my best view ever of Jupiter through a 12.5" Zambuto equipped Mag-1 PortaBall about a decade ago, so no arguments from me on them for solar system objects and high contrast objects.  However, if you want to see nebulae, not even a 22 inch scope compares to what can be seen with the latest image intensifier tubes.  I looked through one last summer at M8 on an 8" scope afocally from within the city.  Without it, you couldn't make out anything.  With it (it did have a nebula filter of some sort attached to the front of it), M8 was bright and plain as day like a living photograph.  It didn't look like a video feed at all.  The really cool part is you can use them at 1x up to 3x or slightly more with simple lenses to view giant nebula like Barnard's Loop.  Try that with the 12" Zambuto!

I've heard a lot about intensifiers. Would love to try one myself!

 

Cheers!

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2 hours ago, jetstream said:

Not really, but you never know... I just have a hard time paying huge prices for used equipment, new is a different story.

Don't think of them as used equipment, think of them fine collectibles, like classic cars. :laugh2:

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3 hours ago, jetstream said:

Not really, but you never know... I just have a hard time paying huge prices for used equipment, new is a different story.

 

23 minutes ago, Louis D said:

Don't think of them as used equipment, think of them fine collectibles, like classic cars. :laugh2:

 

More like works of art. Probably will never see the likes of ZAO or TMB supermono again. Made by craftsmen to be the best. ☺

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