First Eyepiece Purchase

[Buzzard75]

I finally got my new scope out on Sunday! It's been rainy and/or overcast every day for over a week since I got it. Figures, right? For those that didn't read my welcome post, I bought an Orion XX12g, which is a 12" truss type Dobsonian, with a GoTo system. The focal length is roughly 1500mm. It came with a 28mm DeepView eyepiece (which is the cheapest one Orion makes) and a 12.5mm Plossl with an illuminated reticle. I was actually fairly impressed with both eyepieces, even though they are fairly inexpensive. Of course, I have very little experience when it comes to what is and what isn't a really nice eyepiece. All I know is that Jupiter looked amazing and I could see details in the bands I had never seen before. Not to mention, I could actually see individual bands that I had never seen before. My one complaint about the 12.5mm eyepiece is the one thing that makes it a useful eyepiece. The illuminated reticle. Even with it turned off, the little black lines still distract your eye and take away from the view. It is certainly nice when aligning the scope and the GoTo system though so I will certainly still use it. I just won't use it for much observation.

So I was looking at getting a new "high power" eye piece to replace it. I knew when I bought the scope, I would eventually get a better quality eyepiece. Over the last week I narrowed it down to the Tele Vue Delos 10mm. It is a reasonable price, with excellent eye relief (my whole family wears glasses), gives me the magnification I'm looking for, has a moderate AFOV, and from all the reviews I've read offers some of the best optics available.

The funny thing is, I think there were some gremlins in my computer tonight while I was looking at the product page. I can't explain it, but somehow the Buy Now button got clicked and all my information got filled out and the order got submitted. I have the confirmation email to prove it! Oh well, guess I'll be getting that first new eyepiece a lot sooner than I had planned.

[John]

You have a great scope - congratulations !

I've owned both the Delos 10mm and the Pentax XW 10mm and they are both superb eyepieces. Quite possibly the best wide angle, long eye relief 10mm focal length eyepieces available today.

If your budget will allow then you will not be dissapointed and the eyepiece will serve well in any scope you put it in !

The only note of caution that I would add is that getting an eyepiece of this quality amongst others that are decent but not in the same class can have a kind of "domino effect" which can be damaging in the wallet !. Very soon you have spent considerably more than your scope has cost, on eypieces 

So it can be a slippery slope

 

 

[Dave In Vermont]

I've never heard of a TeleVue® eyepiece that was considered 'bad' or 'wrong-choice' in a forum. They are the top-drawer choice. The problem, for most, is the cost.

There are many other good-to-excellent eyepieces available. But the TeleVue's are always on the short-list. They do have one, serious problem though: They can turn their owners 'spoiled-rotten.' With an 'only another TV will do' attitude!

I am kidding - a little. But I do hope you'll try as many different types/brands of EP's out there to get a good, well-rounded understanding - if only to serve to suggest to people who can't afford to buy the Rolls-Royce.

Enjoy!

Dave

 

ps - That Orion 12" Dob will knock you clear out of your shoes & socks! Wow!

[alan potts]

I bought the 10mm Delos and 6mm as it happens when they first hit the streets. Both are superb eyepieces.

[andyboy1970]

I have used a friends Televue 31mm Nagler, top notch eyepiece but a bit expensive for me so I bought an Explore scientific 30mm 82 degree eyepiece and have found little difference between them.

Explore Scientific 82 degree eyepieces = near Televue performance at budget prices. 

[Paul73]

Congratulations on the new scope. And, on your choice of eyepiece!

They are ££££ but you get what you pay for in this case.

I seem to have accidentally acquired the 6,8,10,12&17.3mm Deloses.....

Paul

[Daniel-K]

+1 for the delos range. The 17.3 is the star of them all though.the 10mm has gave me the best view of Jupiter I've ever seen too.

[Paul73]

Yes +1 for the 17.7mm.?

That would leave a nice gap to the 10mm....

Paul

[rwilkey]

Hi Buzzard and welcome.  The reticle eyepiece is not meant to be used for observing, it is only for setting up and aligning, so limited use really.  I agree with others, the Delos would be a good addition to your arsenal. 

[Buzzard75]

2 hours ago, andyboy1970 said:

I have used a friends Televue 31mm Nagler, top notch eyepiece but a bit expensive for me so I bought an Explore scientific 30mm 82 degree eyepiece and have found little difference between them.

Explore Scientific 82 degree eyepieces = near Televue performance at budget prices. 

I had my eye on both of those for a lower power eyepiece. Those and the TV Panoptic 35mm. Looking at exit pupils, cost, AFOV's, etc. I think the ES 82 is probably going to be my next purchase. I just hope the gremlins can hold off until my wallet recovers.

 

[Paul73]

1 hour ago, Buzzard75 said:

I had my eye on both of those for a lower power eyepiece. Those and the TV Panoptic 35mm. Looking at exit pupils, cost, AFOV's, etc. I think the ES 82 is probably going to be my next purchase. I just hope the gremlins can hold off until my wallet recovers.

 

 

You would need eyes like an owl to get the best from a 35mm eyepiece in an f5 scope! The exit pupil would be 7mm. Also, the Panoptics are only 68 degrees.

So if you want wide. The 30mm ES 82 deg or 31mm Nagler (also 82 deg), or even the ES 24mm 82 deg would be better. I had both of the ES offerings at f4.7. The 30mm was stretching things a bit, but the 24mm was spot on.

Saying that. My longest eyepiece is now a 24mm Panoptic............ It has the X Factor

Paul

[Louis D]

I also bought the 10mm Delos when it first came out.  It is essentially flawless.  Even without a coma corrector at f/6, I can't detect any coma (or astigmatism or field curvature or chromatic aberration) at the edge in the images.  I've swapped my coma corrector in and out, but there just isn't any either way.  I can't explain it.  You'll love it.

[Buzzard75]

4 hours ago, Paul73 said:

 

You would need eyes like an owl to get the best from a 35mm eyepiece in an f5 scope! The exit pupil would be 7mm. Also, the Panoptics are only 68 degrees.

So if you want wide. The 30mm ES 82 deg or 31mm Nagler (also 82 deg), or even the ES 24mm 82 deg would be better. I had both of the ES offerings at f4.7. The 30mm was stretching things a bit, but the 24mm was spot on.

Saying that. My longest eyepiece is now a 24mm Panoptic............ It has the X Factor

Paul

Exactly why I narrowed it down to the ES 82 30mm. With an f/4.9 scope, I knew I needed an eyepiece that gave a high enough magnification to prevent the exit pupil from getting too large, but I still wanted something with a wide enough field to see the entirety of larger DSO's like the Orion Nebula and Andromeda. The TV Nagler 31mm would have given a similar exit pupil with a similar field, but it's a bit pricey. And the TV Panoptic 35mm would have only given me a 68 degree AFOV and had a somewhat large exit pupil to boot. Even though the magnification would have been lower, the field was more restrictive. There may be others out there that would work for what I want and I'm open to all recommendations.

[John]

37 minutes ago, Buzzard75 said:

Exactly why I narrowed it down to the ES 82 30mm. With an f/4.9 scope, I knew I needed an eyepiece that gave a high enough magnification to prevent the exit pupil from getting too large, but I still wanted something with a wide enough field to see the entirety of larger DSO's like the Orion Nebula and Andromeda. The TV Nagler 31mm would have given a similar exit pupil with a similar field, but it's a bit pricey. And the TV Panoptic 35mm would have only given me a 68 degree AFOV and had a somewhat large exit pupil to boot. Even though the magnification would have been lower, the field was more restrictive. There may be others out there that would work for what I want and I'm open to all recommendations.

A 20mm / 100 degree eyepiece would give a slightly smaller true field but perhaps a more effective exit pupil if your observing site has some light pollution ?

I find I use my 21mm Ethos more often than I do the 31mm nagler for this reason. The ES 20mm / 100 is a great alternative to the Ethos 21

With a 12" F/5 scope no eyepiece can show the whole of the Andromeda Galaxy - it's around 3 degrees across

 

[Buzzard75]

3 hours ago, John said:

With a 12" F/5 scope no eyepiece can show the whole of the Andromeda Galaxy - it's around 3 degrees across

 

Yeah, I know, but I'm going to get as much of it as I can

[John]

11 hours ago, Buzzard75 said:

Yeah, I know, but I'm going to get as much of it as I can

With a 30mm / 80 degree eyepiece you can get a true field of 1.6 degrees so about half of M31. I get the same when I use the 31mm nagler with my 12" F/5.3 dob and it's a good chunk of sky. The east or west portions of the Veil Nebula fit into that quite nicely

[Moonshane]

The best way to get a wider field is another scope with a shorter focal length 

Best of both worlds then

[Buzzard75]

1 hour ago, Moonshane said:

The best way to get a wider field is another scope with a shorter focal length 

Best of both worlds then

You work for the gremlins, don't you?

[Moonshane]

Yes 

Looking at my eyepiece case and my six scopes, I appear to have shares in astronomy companies by default.

[Buzzard75]

Finally got to go out last night. The seeing conditions weren't great and we had a bit of high, wispy cloud cover. I was afraid I'd just have to scrap my plans for going out, which would have been unfortunate because I had invited our neighbors from across the street and their two kids to join us. I started with Jupiter of course, since it's the brightest thing in the sky and comes out the earliest. I put on the stock 28mm that came with the scope and they were impressed. Everyone thought it was neat. I had to explain the lines on Jupiter to my neighbors since there wasn't a lot of definition and such low magnification. Then I put on the TV Delos 10mm. Wow. What a view. At 150x you can really see all the bands. I played around a bit trying to find some other stuff, but there really weren't too many DSO's out that I could see clearly with the clouds we had. All the galaxies and nebulas were just kind of hazy. I was able to show them the Beehive Cluster and a couple double stars. After an hour or so they all left me and my family was heading back in, I decided to look at Jupiter again with the Delos, but this time I put on the 2x Barlow. I worried that I would be pushing it and it would just get blown out and that the atmosphere wouldn't cooperate. I took a quick peek and I yelled at my wife before she got too far and told her she needed to come back. I'd never seen the Great Red Spot before and neither had she, other than in pictures and videos. Jupiter was looming large at 300x and you could see the spot and all the bands, plain as day. Beautiful. Half an hour later I had everything taken down and put away and I got a text from my neighbor thanking me for inviting them over. He said their son was still talking about it. Being able to see this kind of stuff for myself is one thing, but being able to share it with my family and friends makes it all worth the price of admission.

[John]

Great stuff

It's really nice to share the views with others - enhances the enjoyment I feel

[Charic]

My loss is someone else's gain, and to be honest, Tele Vue Delois can be found at reasonable prices here in the uk, as testament to some of the folk in this actual thread, and I think, at least one of my  Delois has been owned by three of us already? 
A Tele Vue will sell and sell, until it connects with the right owner! However for me, as good as they are reported, I found no  image improvement on my f/6 scope, just a wider field of view, but folk with faster scopes like yours, may see the benefit of premium optics. 

[Mr Spock]

Congratulations on your new eyepiece. I'm pleased it's given you some great views. Of course now, you'll be thinking about your next one...