Show me your mismatched EP collection

[JOC]

I love looking at the neatness all those EP boxes filled with perfectly matched EP ranges - there is def. a touch of OCD about some of beautiful collections on show in the photograph threads.

However, it's amazing how many different ranges of EP's are on sale.  I think my own collection is entirely the opposite end of the OCD spectrum - I wonder whether anyone else has such a mismatched collection?  I guess the advantage of a matched collection is that they are all reasonably parfocal - I think I shall be forever re-focussing, but I should be getting good views nonetheless LOL

So here we have from left to right:

Generic x2 Barlow

Celestron 32mm Omni-plossl

26mm Plossl as supplied with the telescope - actually is not at all bad - need to hang onto it in case I ever sell the scope

15mm Meade super plossl - I kept this as it Barlows really well

14mm Baader Morpheus - you can walk just above the moon with this one

12mm Meade HD-60 - clouds haven't let me play with this yet

10mm Vixen SLV - arrived today!

10mm Plossl as supplied with the telescope - actually is not at all bad either - need to hang onto it in case I ever sell the scope

8mm BST starguider - clouds haven't let me play with this yet

5mm Pentax XW - clouds haven't let me play with this yet

Aren't there a complete range of sizes and forms of EP - from really dinky to hulking great big lumps of glass?  I guess this is because they all contain differnt technology.  I have tried to collect ones which will give me a decent amount of eye relief.  I let the 11mm TV Plossl go as I couldn't cope with the eye relief and was running out of funds.  It will be interesting as I use them to see if I gravitate to certain ones and I am interested to see if some give me a 'brighter' image than others.  

So that's where I am at the moment, has anyone else got a more mismatched collection?  Show me yours please :-D

 

[furrysocks2]

49 minutes ago, JOC said:

I wonder whether anyone else has such a mismatched collection?

You are not alone.

[RayD]

I must admit, I would probably have still made the effort to put them in ascending size order for that picture 

[Paul M]

1 hour ago, JOC said:

  

Oh dear, what a scruffy assemblage.

I'll give you £90 for the lot. Set you up for a fresh start ?

[JOC]

25 minutes ago, RayD said:

I would probably have still made the effort to put them in ascending size order for that picture 

Well they are in descending order!  LOL

[RayD]

5 minutes ago, JOC said:

Well they are in descending order!  LOL

Well that's just obsessive 

[John]

Thats quite a mix but some very nice glass in there.

My main 2 sets are not so mixed these days although I do still find it hard to resist picking up an interesting eyepiece bargain now and then which seemed to have formed a 3rd set on their own

My "oddball" set comprises (L to R):

Vixen NPL 30mm

KK Widescan II (branded Fullerscopes) 20mm

Orbinar (yes, really !) branded zoom 21.5mm - 7.2mm (really rather good for just over £50 !)

HD Ortho (Japanese but non branded) 4mm

Sorry about the rubbish pic - taken in a hurry !

[Ricochet]

3 hours ago, JOC said:

So that's where I am at the moment, has anyone else got a more mismatched collection? 

What is impressive is not only the level of mismatching, but that you have as many eyepieces in that collection that you've never used as I have eyepieces in my case... and that includes a pair for binoviewing . 

[JOC]

4 minutes ago, Ricochet said:

What is impressive is not only the level of mismatching, but that you have as many eyepieces in that collection that you've never used as I have eyepieces in my case... and that includes a pair for binoviewing . 

LOL, it has a lot to do with me picking up several of those over the last month or so whilst the weather has been so wretchedly uncooperative.  There has been little else to do except buy interesting Ep's!

[Ricochet]

5 minutes ago, JOC said:

LOL, it has a lot to do with me picking up several of those over the last month or so whilst the weather has been so wretchedly uncooperative.  There has been little else to do except buy interesting Ep's!

For the sake of your bank balance I hope the weather clears up soon.

[Timebandit]

 

 

 

 

 

I do have a couple of mini sets in the forms of Pentax XW and Televue plossl. And also a complete set up the late but great Badder Genuine Ortho. But these are the odd balls in the sets to which I am still trying to locate in the case ,so to form a nice orderly line to try and get a case that is pleasing to the eye to look at ,as well as to look through?

Eyepieces left to right , starting at the top. NLV, vixen plossl Japan, Fujiyama ,LVW, William Optics UWAN, Meade Research Grade Ortho. All capable eyepieces,  

 

 

 

[JOC]

2 hours ago, John said:

taken in a hurry !

 

2 minutes ago, Timebandit said:

Eyepieces left to right ,

Excellent pictures folks - that's what I had in mind - it's a bit like those tidy rooms - nature abhors order!   LOL

[JOC]

Mind you I must admit I was rather astonished at how many I had, esp. As I sold 5 the other day.  I honestly didn't think I had that many until I got them all from their various locations and set them out next to each other.  I think what I need is something like a bandolier belt to hold them all in between uses.

[Paz]

I had a nice set of SLVs plus a 32mm plossl and I could handle having a different eyepiece  at the low end, but now I've got an 8mm bst to fill a gap in the slv range and the disruption to the continuity of my slv set is starting to make me twitch!

 

[furrysocks2]

The case at the top doesn't really count... that came with the 12" scope I got the other day.

In the bottom row, I'm afraid I do have a pair... :/

Left to right

• crappy 40mm plossl
• SW Aero ED 35mm
• Vixen NPL 30mm
• Andromeda Flat field 19mm
• Lightwave 12.5mm LER
• Vixen NPL 8mm
• TMB II 6mm

The Vixen NPLs were the two EPs I bought to replace stock on my 76mm Aldi/NatGeo newt - I loved them in that! Most satisfying view of the Double Cluster I've ever had was through that 30, scope balance on a park bin at a star party. The 40mm plossl was a cheap ebay mistake, AFOV must be 40 deg or something. And I never really got on with the TMB 6mm in my 8.5" f/7.6 - 272x on Jupiter was a bit much, but actually tonight in the 12", that 6mm took me to a hair over 250x on the moon which was probably just at the limit that seeing would support, but I got it focused and enjoyed the view, if a little tetchy, narrow and fleeting. The Aero 35mm, 19mm and 12.5 Lightwave were all more recent SGL purchases in the last year or so. I like the three of them.

Coming to join them soon is a 16mm 82deg Nirvana.

[JOC]

Paz - Ouch, that BST starguider certainly grates in that case doesn't it.  I sense you need a request to Santa!

furrysocks2 - I think that is an excellent effort - nearly as many as I have!  Well done!

[furrysocks2]

34 minutes ago, JOC said:

furrysocks2 - I think that is an excellent effort - nearly as many as I have!  Well done!

There's more...

• 11mm 80degree, another ebay mistake (although interesting to try it in the 12" before I stamp on it)
• two 25mm supplied-with-2nd-hand-scope EPs.

I think that brings us even in number (excluding my box set), but certainly not in average quality.

 

Edit... no actually, I've got a 3" blue penguin scope with the set of all three helical EPs.

Edited December 1, 2017 by furrysocks2

[happy-kat]

I like the experience of trying different designs as someone new to the hobby so the collection is:

6mm SPL WO

10mm Vixen SLV

16mm Maxvision

30 Vixen NPL

32 GSO Revalation

WO dialectric diagonal (not in photo) and a x1.6 short barlow and supplied 10mm and 25mm

Edited December 1, 2017 by happy-kat

[Paul M]

Now then, I can play too now:

The 5 on the left are my newly acquired eyepieces (thanks JOC!) alongside my other two randoms. I do actually still have the 3 eyepieces that came with Ye Olde Fullerscope last century but they live up in Cumbria at our luxury villa with said same Olde Fullerscope.

Hactually I think it's a lovely family portrait

[JOC]

1 hour ago, furrysocks2 said:

3" blue penguin scope with the set of all three helical EPs

happy-kat - that's a fine effort and at least yours are better spaced size range wise than mine

5 minutes ago, Paul M said:

I think it's a lovely family portrait

Yup, but I think I'd have pushed the plastic cap more squarely onto 28mm to get it upright ;-)  Great effort nonetheless

NB.  Timebandit I think you are possibly winning on physical size range!

[Paul M]

16 minutes ago, JOC said:

 

Yup, but I think I'd have pushed the plastic cap more squarely onto 28mm to get it upright ;-)  Great effort nonetheless

 

Oh darn it!!

Do you know that I spotted that so deleted that image, squared the cap up and took another picture.

However, I composed my post on my laptop having took the pictures with my phone which is set to upload them directly to my OneDrive. So it looks like the bad picture got uploaded before I could delete it and the re-try hadn't yet been uploaded when I composed my post. I attached the wrong one! Oh the shame of it!! 

I Just nearly fell into that huge yawning gap between the 28mm and the 11mm. Gonna have to bring home the 20mm from Cumbria or do some more buying  

Edit: here it is!

Edited December 1, 2017 by Paul M

[25585]

Some

[Piero]

The only mismatched EPs I have are those sold with my first newton 114mm and dobson 8". Apart from these, I tend to sell mismatches..  

[Ricochet]

1 hour ago, Piero said:

The only mismatched EPs I have are those sold with my first newton 114mm and dobson 8". Apart from these, I tend to sell mismatches..  

I think that depends on how you define what matches. I read it that for the purposes of this thread a matched set is defined as one containing only eyepieces from a single manufacturer or even a single eyepiece range. I don't think yours fit into that although they do match in terms of quality and providing a cohesive set of focal lengths. 

[Piero]

27 minutes ago, Ricochet said:

I think that depends on how you define what matches. I read it that for the purposes of this thread a matched set is defined as one containing only eyepieces from a single manufacturer or even a single eyepiece range. I don't think yours fit into that although they do match in terms of quality and providing a cohesive set of focal lengths. 

Oh okay I see what you mean.  Well, then I only have mismatch eyepieces!