Low cost eyepieces, Revelation superview 15mm

[nightfisher]

I have decided it might be nice to do a short review of low cost eyepieces, so i chose a suitable candidate from my collection to start things of with.

Not all of us can afford or are prepared to pay telescope money for a single eyepiece, so a budget line up that can offer good views in the right scope will always have a place 

So here we have the Revelation Superview 15mm, as you can see in the first picture (beside an Antares 9mm ortho for a bit of scale, this eyepiece is a bit larger than a standard plossl, a bit "fatter"

It is well made from black anodized Aluminum main body with a knurled rubber waist affording good grip on a cold night, with a polished Aluminium 1.25 barrel featuring a safety undercut and has the industry standerd filter thread. The company logo and other lettering is in white and well applied, giving an air of good quality over other units in this price range.

At the business end there is a non folding rubber eyecup ( i like this over a standard plossl folding cup) and the main viewing ocular is a generous 21mm diameter, the unit weighs 104 grams without the end caps.

The field of view is 68 degree, and internally it is made up of 4 elements in 3 groups, and has edge blackened elements to help improve contrast and should prevent light scatter and/or internal reflections ,

of course the lens elements are fully multi coated, but do not have much of a colour to them, maybe a hint of green. The eye relief is comfortable 13mm.

Under the night sky:

This was added to my collection for primarily Luna viewing, and i am very happy with the results so far, it has a rather "cool" tone, almost a hint of blue that i find rather pleasing compared to some other plossl designs that tend to have a warmer tone in view. The eyepiece gives a good account of itself on star fields like milky way and open clusters, but for me it excels at Luna viewing. 

I use this eyepiece with longer focal length telescopes F7.5 and above, and TBH i have not tried it in shorter F/L scopes, i have heard it lets itself down a little in faster scopes, maybe losing sharpness in the outer 20% of the field, but with my scopes this is not a problem and i have not seen any defects in my views with this.

The Superview is also available in 20mm F/L and they have a retail price of around £28 at time of writing this.

I am posting this at the risk of being criticized and corrected, but hey, i have thick skin 

[Racey]

24 minutes ago, nightfisher said:

I am posting this at the risk of being criticized and corrected, but hey, i have thick skin 

Good for you Sir. Don't let 'em grind you down... 

[Moonshane]

These have always intrigued me as I know you like yours. I should have a try one day. I have found often that even the most 'rubbish' eyepieces (like those supplied with scopes) are actually not that bad and certainly there are few if any things that they cannot show that would be there in more exotic offerings. I suppose it often depends if the object is to see something or to optimise the corrected field. I think it was Nick (Spaceboy) that suggested people often (against Mr Lee's advice) 'concentrate on the finger' and 'miss all that heavenly glory'.

“Its like a finger pointing away to the moon. Dont concentrate on the finger or you will miss all that heavenly glory.”

[YKSE]

Nice write-up

The 15mm superview seems to have different design than others superviews, I've read some favorable reviews about this one.

As you mentioned seeing colors in luna limb in other thread, may I stick my head out to guess it's in this eyepiece? And no color at all in a regular ortho? This is not meant to critize this eyepiece, 99% wider AFOV eyepieces (plossls included) would show more or less colors in luna limb, that's based on what I've seen/read from reviews.

[nightfisher]

4 minutes ago, YKSE said:

Nice write-up

The 15mm superview seems to have different design than others superviews, I've read some favorable reviews about this one.

As you mentioned seeing colors in luna limb in other thread, may I stick my head out to guess it's in this eyepiece? And no color at all in a regular ortho? This is not meant to critize this eyepiece, 99% wider AFOV eyepieces (plossls included) would show more or less colors in luna limb, that's based on what I've seen/read from reviews.

YKSE, the colour mentioned in another post was due to Luna on low horizon, in the smog and rubbish atmosphere, the colour referred to here is a "cast", just a colour tone, being in the cooler spectrum, so when viewing say a half illuminated Luna disk, the cool tone is present across the entire surface rather than being at the limb. As you can see i am attempting to redeem myself 

[nightfisher]

15 minutes ago, Moonshane said:

These have always intrigued me as I know you like yours. I should have a try one day. I have found often that even the most 'rubbish' eyepieces (like those supplied with scopes) are actually not that bad and certainly there are few if any things that they cannot show that would be there in more exotic offerings. I suppose it often depends if the object is to see something or to optimise the corrected field. I think it was Nick (Spaceboy) that suggested people often (against Mr Lee's advice) 'concentrate on the finger' and 'miss all that heavenly glory'.

“Its like a finger pointing away to the moon. Dont concentrate on the finger or you will miss all that heavenly glory.”

Shane, i wonder how they would work in binoviewers?

As for the freebie ep`s i plan to review the skywatcher silvertop plossl`s next, but i will see how this review goes first

[John]

Another interesting review Jules - thanks for posting it

Call it as you see it - thats all I do when I do my reviews and reports

 

[Mark at Beaufort]

Jules I think Revelation kit generally is very good and I have the 30mm SuperView which I use mainly as a finderscope which although not totally sharp across the whole FOV is not that bad. I am thinking of buying binoviewers again and the Revelation 25mm Plossl is high on the list.

[YKSE]

4 hours ago, nightfisher said:

YKSE, the colour mentioned in another post was due to Luna on low horizon, in the smog and rubbish atmosphere, the colour referred to here is a "cast", just a colour tone, being in the cooler spectrum, so when viewing say a half illuminated Luna disk, the cool tone is present across the entire surface rather than being at the limb. As you can see i am attempting to redeem myself 

Thanks for the clarifications

FWIW, I'm quite positive that you will see colours in luna limb(thin thread of blue or yellow or green) when it's close to edge, even if the Moon is much higher, even if you use a mirror-only scope, i.e. EPs will wide AFOV will most likely show it. no matter how expensive that EP is, but an ortho, it's color free there

[iPeace]

Nice one Jules. Well covered with nice tidy pics. Great value.

[niallk]

Nice review 

I wonder if it is similar/same as one I used for the first 1.5yrs with my dob - a GSO 15mm superview that came as part of a set of (otherwise) plossls from TS:

http://www.teleskop-express.de/shop/product_info.php/info/p4839_GSO-SuperView-15mm---1-25--WA-eyepiece---70--FoV.html

This EP was my favourite and the stand out from the set by far -  I happily used it, plus the stock 25mm, and a 2x Barlow for the majority of my observing in my 250px for ages

[Moonshane]

Just remembered I did something related a bit back

 

[Stu]

Welcome back out of retirement Jules.

A good straightforward review, nothing wrong with that.

[Piero]

Never tried that eyepiece. It's good that you took your time to review it. We tend to get lost with very expensive pieces of equipment, without realising that good affordable eyepieces are available. Those are what most people starting this hobby are looking for.

[nightfisher]

Thanks for all the positive comments chaps, i enjoyed writing this up, its an EP that i bought with fairly high hopes, but maybe low expectations, but i enjoy using it and it gives good results in the longer F/L scopes 

[catburglar]

I had the Astro Tech branded version of this eyepiece. pretty sharp and contrasty on axis, reasonable edge of field performance in slower  scopes, and really comfortable and easy to look through.....quite a lot to like about it. My only negative observation was that the fov was nearer 60 degrees in my estimate.

 

i've subsequently changed to a 16mm Nirvana for a slightly wider fov in my f15 mak and sharper edge of field in my f4.2 astroscan.

[Highburymark]

Nice review of a very decent eyepiece. Although I was happy with my set of Meade plossls for over a decade after I bought my first telescope, I think now I'd like to cherry pick the best affordable EPs from different ranges - and maybe the 15mm would be the Revelation. 

[mikeDnight]

I'm glad you've chosen to review a cheaper end eyepiece Jules. Over the last couple of years I've been very interested in how well some of these low cost eyepieces perform compared to the expensive heavyweights. After trying several plossls and various incarnations of wide field eyepieces other than Televue, I have to say I'm more than impressed by just how clean, sharp and transparent the simpler designs are compared to the complex, multi element and expensive designs. Just a few nights ago i was taking a relaxing view of a few star fields using my 20mm XW, which is a superb eyepiece by any standard. I decided to see how similar or how different the view would be through a 20mm silver top plossl that ive just inherited. The plossl gave an exquisite view, virtually as sharp as the XW though with a marginally narrower true field. Interestingly, the plossl revealed the fainter field stars more easily. In other words, the field stars were brighter in th plossl than in the XW. I also inherited a 32mm Revelation plossl that also delivers a lovely textbook perfect view. 

I'm intrigued to find out your opinion on the silver tops!

Mike 

[Alfian]

Thanks for the review Jules, it's refreshing to see an experienced user's review of an eyepiece that is within the modest budgets that many people are restricted to, yet represents a step up from scope supplied EP.

[Charic]

Nice review. I've not yet had the pleasure of trying the SuperView EP's  yet, but as you can see from my signature, I will  recommend their Plössl's.

[Charic]

5 hours ago, Alfian said:

..........it's refreshing to see an experienced user's review of an eyepiece that is within the modest budgets that many people are restricted to, yet represents a step up from scope supplied EP.

Talking about budgets, I bought my Revelations from Astroboot, and to be honest I think the price of their Plössl eyepieces [GSO] will put some folk off, because their available so cheap, and if its cheap, its bad and will fail from the outset?
I personally rated the Revelation (Plössl) eyepieces better than TeleVue Plössl's I once owned,  yet on paper, historically, categorically, testament and hearsay, how can that be, when  TeleVue are the better quality eyepiece, or so I felt, from listening and learning. I'm even investing again with TeleVue, to better asses the TV's because you can't all be wrong, starting with the longer focal lengths this time, but will only keep what I feel comfortable with. 

[nightfisher]

I did some Luna viewing last night using "Clint" and the 15mm superview, the Revelation fully framed the Luna disc and showed Zero false colour at any point, detail was pin sharp, the view was better than with my Vixen Lathanum 18mm

[spaceboy]

A nice review Jules and a refreshing change to see a more budget ep discussed in more detail. As you know I had the 26 & 42mm superviews. For the money I couldn't really fault them unless I looked for faults.

That's not saying they would compete with premium eyepieces in anyway but that they fair well compared to similarly priced alternatives. Not that there are many of alternatives given the 65°- 68° fov offered by the superviews.

I felt the 42mm was better than the 26mm but I think the eyecup design on the 26mm let it down a little plus obviously your tighter on clusters with the increased magnification of the 26 mm over 42mm so edge performance is brought more in to question with faster scopes.

I have had my fair share of eyepieces from budget to premium over the past years and I see benefits and short comings in all. What they all do though is show you the night sky and if you pay more attention to the celestial object rather than picking faults with kit then I don't see why anyone cant enjoy using budget eyepieces. That's not to say you can't or shouldn't have premium kit if your interest or funds permit as collectively they do amount to a better overall experience. I also feel if you have already progressed to a premium scope, you really need to have better corrected eyepieces and accessories to get the very best from the scope otherwise you leave a potential weak link in the optical train.

I think it is good that if you use reputable retailers that astronomy is open to people on all budgets. Its just a shame that there is also some truly awful kit out there on auction sites that can put people off the idea of astronomy for life.

[Highburymark]

12 hours ago, Charic said:

Talking about budgets, I bought my Revelations from Astroboot, and to be honest I think the price of their Plössl eyepieces [GSO] will put some folk off, because their available so cheap, and if its cheap, its bad and will fail from the outset?
I personally rated the Revelation (Plössl) eyepieces better than TeleVue Plössl's I once owned,  yet on paper, historically, categorically, testament and hearsay, how can that be, when  TeleVue are the better quality eyepiece, or so I felt, from listening and learning. I'm even investing again with TeleVue, to better asses the TV's because you can't all be wrong, starting with the longer focal lengths this time, but will only keep what I feel comfortable with. 

Good points Charic - I find the difference between Televue plossls and other brands is most obvious when observing the sun in ha - where the TVs really shine. At night it's much more subtle, and difficult to justify the 3x price tag of the televues.

[John]

Quality starts to show the more you push the performance of scope / conditions / observer / eyepiece. As you get more experienced in the hobby you start to try for more challenging targets eg: tighter doubles, fainter galaxies, dimmer planetary moons, finer lunar and planetary detail, etc, etc. It's when you are chasing such stuff that the optical quality of your kit, from my experience, starts to make itself felt.