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Low power eyepiece feedback


russ

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I am fast realising that i have no budget for Nagler 22mm or 26mm. Must have been dreaming when i thought that.

So that leads to the inevitable 2" budget widefield eyepieces. I have no experience with any of them really. Always considered low power focal lengths as finder eyepieces and only minimal quality needed. But having a change of heart with the dob. Would love to maximise my use of the scope and that includes low power use as well.

So does anyone have experience with the following eyepieces in a fast (f5 or faster) scope:

26mm Adler/Orion Q70 26mm/SWAN 26mm

Skywatcher Panaview 26mm

TMB Paragon 30mm

Skywatcher Aero ED 30mm

Meade QX 26mm

As you can see there is theme going on here. Looking for a SWA 70degree in the 26mm-30mm range. Ideally i would just like to say blow it and buy the Paragon. But if i can save a heap and buy the Panaview from FLO or save an even bigger heap and buy the Adler without sacrificing too much quality, then i will. The difference between the Adler and Paragon buys the 2" Orion UltraBlock filter that i also want.

I did also think about the 33mm SWAN that Steve is selling reduced. But i realise with my advancing years that my exit pupil is diminishing. And the 33 gives a 7.1mm exit pupil. With my age i can only expect to have a 5.8-6.0mm exit pupil.

Many thanks

Russ

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The Moonfish 30mm 70deg eyepiece is usable at f4.5 if you are on a budget, the 80 deg version is awful in short FR scopes though. I've also got a nice 50mm silver top Plossl that works very well and gives a great wide FOV with no aberations but doesn't always give enough mag to darken the background enough for my tastes or to show faint galaxies etc.

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Gaz, have you ever really paid much attention to the exit pupil? I'm finding if I follow the official line then the cut off for my age is the 26mm/27mm range. I think age 40 = 6mm exit pupil.

Russ

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Not when I'm trying to find objects, I just go for the largest FOV possible. For observing I skip down straight away to a 24mm Hyperion or shorter, I don't do much actual observing with the 30mm open clusters aside.

If the exit pupil is too large you are still seeing the object as bright as you possibly can with your set up/ eyes but you are not taking advantage off all the magnification avaliable to you. You could be viewing the object larger without the loss of any brighness that increasing the mag usually brings.

EDIT: Sorry if thats telling Granny how to suck eggs mate.. :oops:

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Hi Doc, I have a feeling i did checkout the Hyperion 31mm but the price was quite high or at least higher than i could afford. I'll check again though.

Gaz, the Nagler 16mm i have gives a TFOV of 0.89deg. About the same as a 26mm plossl. The Hyperion 24mm gives 1.06deg TFOV. I think what i was hoping for was an eyepiece that would fulfill both roles.....finder eyepiece and normal low power observing eyepiece. Those 26mm SWA eyepieces were pretty close to achieving that providing their off axis performance isn't too poor. But perhaps the 24mm Hyperion would be a safe bet for a reasonable sum.

30mm would probably be too low power and i would never use it fully to get my moneys worth?

Russ

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