2 eyepieces plus barlow = all I need ?

[John]

Strange title for a thread from an occularholic like me, eh ?

Just kicking around an idea of slimming my eyepieces right, right down to:

- Lunt HDC 20mm / 100 degree 2"

- Leica ASPH 17.9mm - 8.9mm used with 2" adapter

- Baader VIP barlow - used with above zoom to get FL's down to 3.5mm or even 3mm

My scopes range from a 12" F/5.3 (focal length 1590mm) dob to a 102mm F/6.5 (focal length 663mm) ED refractor plus a few fracs in between.

Madness ????

Sanity ????

Any and all views welcome of course !

 

[Paul73]

Yes. Madness.

What happens when you need two scopes on the go?

I believe that @Stu tried minimalist observing with a similar combination. It didn't last long......

Paul

PS. Could you delay dumping the rest of your collection onto the classifieds until I've had a chance to save up?

[Richard Hather]

I did have only 2 eps my Es 24mm 68d and the Pentax 24mm-8mm SMC and I was happy with them.

That is until I started wanting widedield views and got a need for the 100d views.

I was content with 2 for a long time  though but I am looking at expanding my Es 20mm and ethos 13mm to include a ES 9-5.5 and a ES 30mm 82d.

Which would give me a total of 5 eps when I'm done... maybe I'm not the best person to comment ?

[Paul73]

5? Very restrained!!!

 

[Richard Hather]

I am curious what eps do you have at the moment john?

The thing is you have a wide range of scopes and if I'm honest I think you will miss the diverse options your collection of eps offers.

[estwing]

done it for 3 yrs now..21 ethos, 8 ethos + powermate...

[Richard Hather]

Just now, Paul73 said:

5? Very restrained!!!

 

I can't need anymore then that at least I hope I don't ???

or do I... ?

[estwing]

thing is....bigger the scope less ep's you will use.....

[paul mc c]

this will be interesting.....

[estwing]

Mapstar uses a 13ethos all night long!

[Richard Hather]

5 minutes ago, estwing said:

thing is....bigger the scope less ep's you will use.....

I thought with any scope you need a good range of magnification whether it's through a zoom or dedicated eps?

I suppose it comes down to what you want to look at planets higher mag open clusters lower mag the globs Nebula and galaxy's medium power.

[estwing]

the old DSO low power isn't in my book, in fact throw power at them!

[swamp thing]

Well you know me John, I think you know what I'm going to say........

Two eyepieces and a powermate are plenty.  

However; I don't observe planets and all my scopes are f/4.5 or faster. 

[John]

22 minutes ago, Richard Hather said:

I am curious what eps do you have at the moment john?

 

Ok, here goes:

31mm Nagler, 21mm Ethos, 13mm Ethos, 8mm Ethos, 6mm Ethos, 24mm Panoptic, 17.3mm Delos, 10mm Pentax XW, 7mm Pentax XW, 5mm Pentax XW, 3.5mm Pentax XW, 2-4mm Nagler Zoom

4mm Hutech Ortho, 6mm Baader Classic ortho, 10mm Baader Classic ortho, 18mm Baader Classic ortho, Baader Q-Turret 2.25x barlow, Vixen NPL 30mm

Leica ASPH zoom 17.8mm - 8.9mm, Baader VIP barlow in the pipeline

 

[estwing]

2 minutes ago, John said:

21mm Ethos, 13mm Ethos, 8mm Ethos, 6mm Ethos

two too many just there!!!

[YKSE]

I'd think you'll need keep the Handgranade 31Nagler too, just to go with your Vixen for the Veil.

[Stu]

I suspect you won't be able to bring yourself to reduce quite that much John, but for planetary observing I certainly found the Leica could replace a range of shorter focal length eyepieces.

At its peak, I had a nice case of 1.25" eyepieces for high power and a 2" case for low power. I then replaced the whole of the 1.25" case with the Leica/VIP combination and really don't think I missed them.

In an ideal world I think I would still keep a 31mm Nagler, then perhaps 21e or the Lunt 20mm if preferred and perhaps a 13mm Ethos or even a 12.5mm Docter , the Leica can cover the rest.

So in the images, the first two cases slimmed down to the third one...

[Pondus]

I know you guys have discussed this, but I cannot find it atm,

Whats the fov range for the Leica?

Edit :  Apm states 60-80 ?

Rune

[Stu]

Just now, Pondus said:

I know you guys have discussed this, but I cannot find it atm,

Whats the fov range for the Leica?

 

Rune

It is nominally 60 to 80 degrees but I think actually something like 58 to 80+ say, can't recall exactly.

[Stu]

Just remembered, one word of warning John, check the Double star performance vs fixed eyepieces. I think it was Gerry that found it wasn't necessarily as good. For planetary I found the Leica better though.

[MarsG76]

Pure sanity.... who love toy toys? The one who dies with the most astro toys.. wins.

 

[MarsG76]

21 minutes ago, Stu said:

I suspect you won't be able to bring yourself to reduce quite that much John, but for planetary observing I certainly found the Leica could replace a range of shorter focal length eyepieces.

At its peak, I had a nice case of 1.25" eyepieces for high power and a 2" case for low power. I then replaced the whole of the 1.25" case with the Leica/VIP combination and really don't think I missed them.

In an ideal world I think I would still keep a 31mm Nagler, then perhaps 21e or the Lunt 20mm if preferred and perhaps a 13mm Ethos or even a 12.5mm Docter , the Leica can cover the rest.

So in the images, the first two cases slimmed down to the third one...

Now thats a collection.

 

[John]

28 minutes ago, Stu said:

It is nominally 60 to 80 degrees but I think actually something like 58 to 80+ say, can't recall exactly.

I've seen figures of 58 degrees at 17.8mm widening to 75 degrees at 8.9mm. Comparing the AFoV of mine with some of my other EP's seems to confirm this.

My brief 1st light with the zoom included Epsilon Lyrae which was split clearly at 101x down to around 80x using the ED120 but I intend to give the eyepiece some much sterner stuff to split in due course, of course

[Piero]

That's a radical move John! I think you need to evaluate if a minimal setup is really what you want or it is just temporary. 

I like minimal (but still capable) equipment, but this is also because I am probably a minimal person.. I just don't like to own things that I don't use. This doesn't work for everyone though, so I believe it is tricky to give advises on this! 

Reading Leica's owners' comments, it seems to me that many of them sold all their XWs and / or delos eyepieces. I kind of did the same when I faced the question of buying my third delos (a 6mm) or not. I decided not to, and I'm glad for this. There are people who really like 100deg eps. Those seem not to be attracted by zooms eps because of the lack of fov. 

 

My point of view. 

I don't care about EP brands, I'm not too fussy off axis (but I am on axis), I like wide field eps, but can live without 100deg for sure. My ideal range of telescope F-ratio is f7-f5. The Docter is a super eyepiece and I intend to use it. To me, it is not well optimised below f5. True, a coma corrector increases the f-ratio, but I simply don't want to use a coma corrector because I feel it can compromise the views of eyepieces like the Docter.. In the end I opted for two sets: a light 1.25" set and medium/heavy 2" set. After my recent purchases, I think I will sell my SLVs and powermate 2.5x. For the 2" set, ideally I would like a lighter (and with potentially higher transmission) low power eyepiece than the ES30 82. Lot's of thoughts about the Pan35 or ES34. Because of concerns about the exit pupil in a f5 dobson, I think I will keep the ES30 82 for now..

Zooms? zooms are nice tools!  

[Richard Hather]

My advice you John would be to trial using the 2 eps you mentioned and a Barlow and see how you feel, before you make any decisions about downsizing your collection nothing worse then regretting a sale.