Lunt 20mm HDC

[jetstream]

Well after hearing about this eyepiece I wanted to see if it offers Ethos contrast with a OIII/UHC. ES is good but behind the TV in this respect so we'll see... I wonder if the 21E is in jeopardy?

[John]

I'll be interested to hear your views Gerry.

My info is that optically the Lunts are the same as the Skywatcher Myriads and their clones. The 20mm Myriad was a very nice hyper wide eyepiece when I compared it with my Ethos 21.

If I'd wanted to save lots of £'s in return for some very small compromises in performance (very small) then my Ethos 21 might have been in danger.

The Lunts have the soft foldable eye cup which I prefer over the hard twist up / down style of the Myriad.

 

[jetstream]

I read your excellent report the other day John and I'm intrigued by a few user reports that these eyepieces go a hair "deeper" than ES 82's. My main interest is with the filters- and for some unknown reason different EP's work better with filters (to me). The little f3.8 200mm is a good but harsh test platform for many EP qualities, but I'll be able to tell immediately if the Lunt equals the Ethos on some nebs, the Pelican is a good test. The Ethos pops the head into view superbly, like a grey photograph really. The Lunt is lighter than the 21E as well which will be nice for my short little dob.

[John]

All the 100 degree eyepieces I've used seem to offer slight improvements in performance terms (not just the FoV) over the 82 degree eyepieces from the same brand.

When a 100 degree range comes along that is consistently better than the Ethos then I'll think about changing. Meanwhile .......

 

Edited June 22, 2017 by John

[Mark at Beaufort]

Gerry I will be interested in your review. I can tell you that I did own a 21mm Ethos which I sold - mad decision really. I missed the wide field so I bought a 20mm Myraid which I really rate. In fact I have since bought the 9mm Myriad. Like you I enjoy DSOs and using an O-III on my 12" Revelation Dob and Orion VX8 Newt I cannot complain the views that I get. Certainly for the money the 20mm Myraid is an excellent buy. It will be interesting how close the Lunt is in comparison to the 21E.

[jetstream]

Uh oh... maybe the Lunt will go!

[jetstream]

1 minute ago, Mark at Beaufort said:

Gerry I will be interested in your review. I can tell you that I did own a 21mm Ethos which I sold - mad decision really. I missed the wide field so I bought a 20mm Myraid which I really rate. In fact I have since bought the 9mm Myriad. Like you I enjoy DSOs and using an O-III on my 12" Revelation Dob and Orion VX8 Newt I cannot complain the views that I get. Certainly for the money the 20mm Myraid is an excellent buy. It will be interesting how close the Lunt is in comparison to the 21E.

Glad to hear this Mark, there are a number of people who really like these eyepieces and when I saw Vogel using them in his DSO pursuits I knew there must be something to them. The 30ES 82 is VG, but behind the 21E, the 18 ES 82 vs the 17E is the same result. There are few eyepieces that match Ethos performance with filters but the Lunt might be one of them.

[Mark at Beaufort]

Gerry I notice that Lunt now offer a 3.5mm, 5mm, 9mm and the 20mm which is the same range as the Myraid. Having been pleased with the 9mm and 20mm I have been thinking of changing my 4.7mm ES82 for the Myraid 5mm. If the Lunt gets reviews on the same lines as the Ethos range I will have to consider the Lunt 5mm as a possible alternative.

[John]

45 minutes ago, Mark at Beaufort said:

Gerry I notice that Lunt now offer a 3.5mm, 5mm, 9mm and the 20mm which is the same range as the Myraid. Having been pleased with the 9mm and 20mm I have been thinking of changing my 4.7mm ES82 for the Myraid 5mm. If the Lunt gets reviews on the same lines as the Ethos range I will have to consider the Lunt 5mm as a possible alternative.

Have you ever used a Pentax XW 5mm Mark ?

After a year of comparing them, I eventually reached the conclusion that the Pentax XW 5mm and 3.5mm were just a wee bit better performers than my Ethos SX 4.7 and 3.7. 

Not 100 degree eyepieces of course but so, so sharp

 

[Mark at Beaufort]

1 minute ago, John said:

Have you ever used a Pentax XW 5mm Mark ?

Not sure John. I think I may have tried some of RikM Pentax EPs although I cannot remember what size or scope I was using. Food for thought.

[Piero]

I bought the Lunt HDC 20mm because it received very positive comments AND I consider the current cost of the Ethos 21mm outrageous..

As far as I know the new HDC version is nitrogen filled and the eye cup can be removed.

The eyepiece seems better than the ES 30mm that I have. In my F6 Dobson the field is clean until the edge. I could spot a bit of coma in the last 10% but that is due to the Newton. Using the NPB on nebulae I preferred the Lunt to the ES 30. Essentially the views seemed a bit cleaner and the contrast seemed a bit higher. 

The eyepiece is very comfortable and light. Its weight around 650g. Maybe it is my face, but I could see the whole field of view quite easily without spectacles, which I don't use for observing anyway.

As I never looked through an Ethos 21mm and my Dobson is not too demanding with eyepieces, my comment is a bit limited.

I really look forward to reading about how it compares against the ethos in fast dobsons. 

Even if it doesn't work well, it is still a valid alternative for medium slow telescopes, currently at a bit less than 1/3 the price of an ethos. That's a bargain to me..

[jetstream]

I'm hoping the Lunt will allow me to wade through the nebula around Sadr like the 21E does...

 

edit: oops forgot this

Edited June 22, 2017 by jetstream

[Mark at Beaufort]

15 minutes ago, Piero said:

I bought the Lunt HDC 20mm because it received very positive comments

Piero did you buy your Lunt from APM-Telescope direct or a UK based supplier?

[Piero]

47 minutes ago, Mark at Beaufort said:

Piero did you buy your Lunt from APM-Telescope direct or a UK based supplier?

Hi Mark, I bought it from APM-Telescope for £248 inc shipping and currency exchange. Very good service. I am not aware of any supplier in the UK.

Edited June 22, 2017 by Piero

[Piero]

A bit of information: 

Optical design for the Lunt 20mm HDC (as provided by apm-telescopes.de): HDC20mm.pdf 

Here is a size comparison between the Lunt 20mm HDC vs ES 30mm 82: 

Weight comparisons: 

- Lunt 20mm HDC: 677.6g  (source apm-telescopes.de)

- Ethos 21mm: 1020.6g (source televue.com)

- ES 30mm 82: 1032g (source explorescientific.co.uk)

- Docter 12.5mm UWA: 525g (source agenaastro.com)

- Zeiss zoom 25.1mm-6.7mm: 490.0 g (source bhphotovideo.com)

 

And here a pic showing how it fits on my 8" dob: 

 

Edited June 22, 2017 by Piero

[John]

It matches the colour scheme better than an Ethos would

[Louis D]

21 hours ago, John said:

When a 100 degree range comes along that is consistently better than the Ethos then I'll think about changing.

Have you tried the two Nikon HW offerings?  Tamiji Homma has compared the 17mm offerings at least and found the Nikon slightly better than the Ethos.  That, and their EIC unit effectively doubles the usefulness of each eyepiece.

[John]

2 minutes ago, Louis D said:

Have you tried the two Nikon HW offerings?  Tamiji Homma has compared the 17mm offerings at least and found the Nikon slightly better than the Ethos.  That, and their EIC unit effectively doubles the usefulness of each eyepiece.

Not yet Louis

[Paul73]

These Lunt 100° only came to my attention today whilst reading this month's Astronomy Now magazine. A nicely written piece, but testing them on only one scope, and f10 at that !!

Has anyone tried one in something about f5?

I guess that the ES 20mm 100° would be the direct competitor. Which while performing very well for the money, can't live with the E21.

Paul 

 

[Piero]

1 hour ago, Paul73 said:

These Lunt 100° only came to my attention today whilst reading this month's Astronomy Now magazine. A nicely written piece, but testing them on only one scope, and f10 at that !!

Has anyone tried one in something about f5?

I guess that the ES 20mm 100° would be the direct competitor. Which while performing very well for the money, can't live with the E21.

Paul 

Hi Paul, 

Optically, it might likely be equivalent to the Myriads line. If so, John tested with his F5.3 dob : 

On CN, there are comments by users using F5 here and there. As far as I know, Gerry is the first one to use it in a very fast telescope (f 3.8). 

[Paul73]

Thanks

I'll try and remember my CN login details. Wouldn't mind reading a direct Myriad / Lunt comparison. I've tried a couple of "optically the same" eyepieces and found them to be subtly different. Could be coatings? Could just be natural variations in the production progress (something that TV quality control seeems to tackle well)?

For the moment, I'll probably stick with the ultra sharp 24mm Panoptic as my goto wide field. But, as I am missing my old Ethos 21mm, and hell will be getting a bit chilly by the time I will have the funds to replace it; I'll be watching with interest.

Paul

[jetstream]

The Lunt is now in Thunder Bay so its should be here soon and I'll try to watch for the edge abb's etc when I use it but for me the needed characteristic is contrast, with and without filters. I'll be able to tell immediately how good it is in this regard.

[SpaceWalker]

There are indeed some useful threads on CN discussing 100*AFOV eyepieces including the Lunt. For those who are interested I'd suggest to check out the thread *Lunt XWA 9mm* on CN, especially posts ##9 and 11 by vkhastro1.

https://www.cloudynights.com/topic/563666-lunt-xwa-9mm/

Edited July 3, 2017 by SpaceWalker

[John]

Here is a link to my review of the Myriad 100 degree eyepieces for anyone interested:

Plus something I did comparing the William Optics XWA 9mm and the Myriad 9mm:

 

[jetstream]

7 hours ago, John said:

Here is a link to my review of the Myriad 100 degree eyepieces for anyone interested:

Those are great reviews John.

I've had a couple of nights with the 20mm Lunt HDC and this eyepiece so far is VG. In the 15" f4.8 I notice no astigmatism at all and will try it at f3.8 once that scope is up and running. The Lunt is very sharp on the moon @ 91x, and it does exhibit a bit of off axis "gold fringing" to my eyes, not to be confused with the blue ring of fire at the field stop. The 21E also exhibits off axis fringing, thinner than the Lunt with green on one side of the moon and purple on the other. The 21E has a similar blue ring of fire.

With the SQM-L between 19.8 and 20.5 and the moon subsiding I caught the Veil and more importantly a bit of Pickerings Wisp with the 20mm Lunt/Lumicon OIII. This is a good sign IMHO. I detect a small amount of FC in both the 21E and Lunt 20mm HDC, but could be scope related.

So far I really like this eyepiece.