6" F/5 NEWTONIAN - Wide Field Eye Piece

[Coco]

Hi

I’ve made a dob mount for my little short tube VX6 and would like to invest in a 2 or 3 good eyepieces for chasing down brighter messier objects with my son. The flatter the field the better.

Budget around £200.

Any recommendations would be welcome? 

 

Cheers
Guy

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

I have heard good things of the MaxVision 24mm 82 deg

FLO has them, but you can get them directly from Bresser in Germany too.

Reputedly same optics as the Meade S5000 24mm UWA. Well within your budget too.

[Davesellars]

20mm ES68 and the 11mm ES82.

[andyb505]

I have the ES MaxVision 24mm and 16mm 68 deg lenses and they are both very good. Very clear visuals and nice and sharp image.

[Chris]

My 2 pence:

25mm Vixen SLV for £79 - bargain for the quality of glass, orthoscopic and good ER.

 https://www.firstlightoptics.com/vixen-eyepieces/vixen-slv-eyepieces.html

Maxvisions in 28 or 34mm (the 40mm is just too big if you ask me, mine was half the size of my head! My 28mm was magic in my old 200p and the 34mm might be a good compromise) Sharp down to f/5 and 68 degrees.

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/explore-scientific-eyepieces/explore-scientific-68-degree-maxvision-eyepieces.html

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

I have the MaxVision 24 68 deg myself and it is a very nice performer. The 82 deg is said to be a good deal better, especially in fast scopes, and it gives a lot more FOV. I have 3 Vixen SLVs (5, 9, and 15mm) for my travel set, and they are certainly great. However, for DSO stuff the FOV is a bit small, once you are used to SWA and UWA EPs

[Coco]

1 hour ago, michael.h.f.wilkinson said:

I have heard good things of the MaxVision 24mm 82 deg

FLO has them, but you can get them directly from Bresser in Germany too.

Reputedly same optics as the Meade S5000 24mm UWA. Well within your budget too.

Thanks... I just bought the MaxVision 24 82 deg - €120  vs £158  UK  is a big saving    

[Coco]

Any recommendations for Planets and doubles? 

[Davesellars]

Since your VX6's mirror is very good I'd suspect a 4mm would be fine giving 191x.  Perhaps the 4mm Vixen SLV although it only has 50 degrees AFOV you need to pay substantially more for wider eyepieces.

[Nyctimene]

Explore Scientific 26 mmf 62° LER. Weighs less than a 24/68, gives you the same field of view; good eye relief and sharpness; no kidney beaning; matches well with my 130/650 Heritage Flextube. And it's considerable less expensive.

Stephan

[Coco]

12 minutes ago, Nyctimene said:

Explore Scientific 26 mmf 62° LER. Weighs less than a 24/68, gives you the same field of view; good eye relief and sharpness; no kidney beaning; matches well with my 130/650 Heritage Flextube. And it's considerable less expensive.

Stephan

Stephan

Thank you for your input, our scopes are similar focal length.. 

Explore Scientific 26 mmf 62° LER  €109

Explore Scientific MaxVision 24mm 82°   €120 

Looked like a real bargain for €11 more  

 

https://www.bresser.de/en/Sale/Display-Items/Explore-Scientific-Maxvision-82-Okular-24mm.html 

 

Whats the most powerful but usefull eyepiece you are using? 

Guy

[Nyctimene]

Guy,

the 24 mmf/82° Maxvision - an excellent eyepiece; I bought one this summer, and it gives great views  with my 8" f/4 Hofheim Traveldob - needs a 2" (50,8 mm) focuser. The VX 6, as far as I can see, comes with 11/4"focuser, so it won't match.

The 24 mmf/68° I had in mind is the praised Explore Scientific, which was sold by Teleskop Express here in Germany for 148 € this summer, whereas I paid just 98 € for the 26/62°.

1 hour ago, Coco said:

Whats the most powerful but usefull eyepiece you are using? 

I'm not quite sure, what you mean with "powerful but usefull" - magnification, field of view, handling or what else?

One of my most used eyepieces is the 8-24 Baader Hyperion Zoom Mk III, combined with a 2x Zeiss Abbe Barlow.

Stephan

 

[Coco]

22 minutes ago, Nyctimene said:

Guy,

the 24 mmf/82° Maxvision - an excellent eyepiece; I bought one this summer, and it gives great views  with my 8" f/4 Hofheim Traveldob - needs a 2" (50,8 mm) focuser. The VX 6, as far as I can see, comes with 11/4"focuser, so it won't match.

The 24 mmf/68° I had in mind is the praised Explore Scientific, which was sold by Teleskop Express here in Germany for 148 € this summer, whereas I paid just 98 € for the 26/62°.

I'm not quite sure, what you mean with "powerful but usefull" - magnification, field of view, handling or what else?

One of my most used eyepieces is the 8-24 Baader Hyperion Zoom Mk III, combined with a 2x Zeiss Abbe Barlow.

Stephan

 

Hi , my scope is the UK Orion Optics VX6  with 10pv mirror upgrade 

http://www.orionoptics.co.uk/VX/vx6-6l.html

It’s got a nice 2” focused

The zoom might be a good choice I’ll give on a go ?

 

 

 

[Nyctimene]

Guy,

congrats to this beauty; is the mount a DIY result? It matches very well; might be apple plywood as an outer layer, I guess.

In this case, I'd really recommend the Maxvision 24/82°, as long as it is still available. This Meade 5000 clone/precursor will give you great views.

The view of the North America nebula with the help of a 2" UHC (Astronomik, in my case) with the 8" (field of view 2,5° at mag 33x) was the best I ever had. Here's a report:

The SGL thread for the Baader Zoom:

Hope this helps

Stephan

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

The 5mm SLV I have is outstanding on planets. The only better one I know is the Pentax XW 5 mm, which is really only better in terms of FOV. I expect a 4 mm would also be excellent

[JG777]

I have the same scope / spec  Using ES 6.7 82. / 11 82 / 16 68 / 20/68 / 24/68 or I will be if the clouds clear ! 

Will be interested to hear your experiences 

[Coco]

22 minutes ago, JG777 said:

I have the same scope / spec  Using ES 6.7 82. / 11 82 / 16 68 / 20/68 / 24/68 or I will be if the clouds clear ! 

Will be interested to hear your experiences 

Hi John

That's a fine setup you have, I'm going to have to get/make something similar, my dob mount is too small, I brought the patio table in last week for winter, now its to low down  

In a nutshell, lovely scope let down by a few shortcuts, worst part is that it easily flexes under weight, hence I no longer use it for imaging.

[JG777]

Hello Guy,

Yes thanks, very pleased with this setup as the viewing position is really comfortable,very near eye level for higher objects and minimum crouching over. I had a feeling it would be too short a tube on a dob, I guess what you could do in the meantime is order the longer F8 version which might be better in your dob Base ?  I'm visual only so haven't experienced any flex issue. I find the scope maintains collimation very well and cools pretty quick with the fan cutting the time down by about half. The only slight issue with this set up is the scope is slightly unbalanced towards front end to maintain clearance of the legs at bottom end so this deterred me from buying heavier 2 inch EPs, but fortunately this does not trouble the AYO mount at all, it is still superbly smooth. 

My focusser did need a very slight adjustment from new but that was the only niggle. Very impressed when I viewed Jupiter earlier in the year and a few bright DSOs and looking forward to testing it thoroughly one of these nights.

I went with the 68 degree 16 20 and 24  as I think these are better suited for my C9.25. I do have a Mk3 Baader zoom and will test this soon but probably not so great at 24 with the narrow field, should be decent at 8 mm though. 

[Louis D]

22 hours ago, Coco said:

Whats the most powerful but usefull eyepiece you are using?

At f/5, I wouldn't go below 0.7mm * 5 = 3.5mm to maintain a 0.7mm exit pupil.  From personal experience, when I go below 0.7mm, floaters in my eye become an issue for me.  I like my 20 year old 5.2mm Pentax XL for high power.  It breaks up globular clusters nicely.  If you can find one used for $175 or less, snatch it up.  I have a 3.5mm Pentax XW, but it is just too much power and too small of an exit pupil most nights.

I like my Meade 4.5mm and 6.5mm Meade HD-60 eyepieces as well for high power.  As step-up eyepieces, they hold their own quite well.

The Baader Morpheus 4.5mm and 6.5mm are also reportedly quite good.  I have the 14mm and quite like it except for the slight astigmatism in the outer 10% of the field.  The shorter focal lengths reportedly don't suffer from that issue.