Quality on a budget

[John]

This post has been sparked off by a short PM exchange I've just had with Russ regarding eyepieces that are good but cost relatively little on the used market.

It seems to me that some of the ranges that were "top dogs" a few years ago now seem to go for very low prices and are worth looking out for if you are trying to build a good quality collection on a budget.

My candidates in this class would be:

- Celestron Ultimas (and clones)

- Meade 3000 series plossls

Would anyone like to add some more suggestions ?.

John

[GazOC]

Circle T and Meade "research grade" orthos.

[Ben Ritchie]

Depends on quite how you interpret 'budget', they're not exactly cheap but the Meade series 4000 ultrawides seem to have gone right out of fashion, and the 6.7mm, 8.8mm and 14mm are all cracking 82-degree AFOV eyepieces and are sometimes well under half Nagler prices. Friend of mine just picked up an 8.8mm UWA for sixty quid used...

[blinky]

My fav EP is an UW 15mm Series 4000. Lovley EP, really crisp sharp view. In fact I own a few series 4000 EP's and rate them all very highly!

[Astro_Baby]

How about the Sky-Watcher Panaview Super Wides - they are new but cheapish. Mine gives good views and other people with one have few complaints for sure.

[beamer3.6m]

I like the Celestron Omni's but not sure if these qualify as great EP's.

[Andrew*]

Orion Sirius ploessls seem to go for absolute peanuts second hand. Always under £20. I know they're "merely" ploessls, but they are superb at that price.

For budget quality, though, the winners have got to be orthos of almost any make, when they go for around £20. Work extremely well on any scope if you don't mind the small field and ER.

Of course for the wider field and more ER, the ubiquitous Hyperions are very well priced for what they offer.

Andrew

[Ben Ritchie]

On a wider note, the old William Optics 'enhanced' diagonals are a bargain, i've seen the 2" 'enhanced reflectivity' at under £40 secondhand and it's a well made, really nice diagonal, i'd snap one up if I saw another and wish i'd never sold the one I used to own. Out of fashion since everything went 'dielectric', but you can't see the difference between 97% and 99% anyway and the 'can clean dielectric more' is a bit of a red herring, how often do you clean a diagonal anyway?

And as for the humble Skywatcher 80ED, £150 for an 80mm apochromat that's great for visual and imaging too. Ok, a bit bigger and less polished than the newer Long Perng 80mm refractors, but still an absolute steal at the price. The ZS66s are cracking value too, again out of fashion since the 70/72 arrived but i'm far from convinced that the extra aperture is worth the extra price.

[FLO]

A vote from me too for the Japanese Circle-T orthoscopics. Also the Meade Series 4000 13.8mm SWA and the Series 4000 15, 26 and 32mm Super Plossls. Tal eyepieces are also well worth a look, even their Kellners.

[John]

Others that I've now remembered are:

- The 9mm of the Skywatcher UWA 66 deg FoV range is supposed to be pretty good.

- The Japanese Vixen / Celestron "silvertops".

- The Taiwanese Celestron plossls - black with orange writing on - no rubber lens cups.

I think by by "budget" I mean EP's that seem too cheap to be any good (£25 or less ??) but are in fact really nice.

I agree that the Japanese "volcano" top orthos are firmly in this category - you get world class performance with those for peanuts . I'm a little suprised that dealers don't carry them in their current ranges - that last I saw was Telescope House a couple of years back. Are they not made any more or is it potential lack of market appeal that stops that ?.

John

John

[FLO]

... Are they not made any more or is it potential lack of market appeal that stops that ?

They are out of fashion John, thats all. I think University Optics in the states still offer them and Baader offer more up-to-date premium versions.

[russ]

My budget faves are:

Celestron Ultima/Orion Ultrascopic/Antares Elite/Parks Gold - these for me are the best £20 eyepieces on the planet bar none.

Meade 4000 (Japan only) 26mm and 15mm - really nice eyepieces and a bargain at £20

Orion Sirius Plossl - 25mm and 10mm - these came with my XT10 and i kept them for years. Like the 4000 above they are a nice eyepiece for little money

Ortho (any brand) - 9mm, 12.5mm and 18mm - Mine were all Volcano top Celestron and were brilliant. Owned them for 14 years and should never have sold them.

All these eyepieces are so out of favour that you almost have to pay people to take them. Yet they will happily spend £50 on a brand new, completely hopeless Chinese made 4000. I have to say that Meade 4000 Anniversary set that came with the LX90 was possibly the worst gathering of eyepieces i've ever used. I remarked to Rob that even my Seben 10mm & 25mm plastic eyepieces i keep for the kids outperformed the Chinese 4000. Yuk! Gets my award for worst eyepiece.

[russ]

The 9mm of the Skywatcher UWA 66 deg FoV range is supposed to be pretty good.

- The Japanese Vixen / Celestron "silvertops".

- The Taiwanese Celestron plossls - black with orange writing on - no rubber lens cups.

Yes that's three good ones John. I had the complete set of Skywatcher wides. They were excellent for hooking the digicam upto using the DigiT adapter. And a nice chunk of glass.

[Brass n glass]

Best value although not best performance: Circle T Kelners still on sale at £16 and £20 new - Hugh

[GazOC]

Those 32mm Celestrons that go on Ebay for £15 are real bargain.

[Doc]

I love my 25mm TAL.

Cheap but gives great views.

[John]

I love my 25mm TAL.

Cheap but gives great views.

The TAL 25mm plossl that came with my TAL100R refractor was a superb eyepiece - it's FoV seemed wider than the standard 50 degrees as I recall. I think there's one for sale right now in our "for sale" section.

John

[SteelRat]

The Talgroup folk call that one a Konig. Beautiful EP - in the right scope.

[TheThing]

40mm Tal Super Plossl. Chunky, built like a tank and gives superb views.

[Doc]

The Talgroup folk call that one a Konig. Beautiful EP - in the right scope.

In my 16" gives pin sharp stars. Colour in the stars is awesome with it as well.

In originally came with my TAL100r

[John]

The Talgroup folk call that one a Konig. Beautiful EP - in the right scope.

In my 16" gives pin sharp stars. Colour in the stars is awesome with it as well.

In originally came with my TAL100r

This looks a good deal then

http://stargazerslounge.com/index.php/topic,30971.0.html

John

[Doc]

Slightly different to my one.

Mine has more of a diamond shape knurled grip and the writing is under the knurling not above.

[A McEwan]

The 20mm Superwide that came out a few years ago with a 65 degree field was and is a solid performer. I compared one with a 19mm Panoptic, and although there was a difference there, it wasn't much of one. Big diff in price though! I think the Superwide was about £60 or so - produced by GSO, and I got mine from the States via an ebay seller. Utter bargain!

I also think the Vixen LVW range are a steal, especially since the prices were slashed a few months ago. My 22mm is a solid keeper and yields a perfectly flat field. I paid £200 new for mine and think it was worth every penny. And now you can get them new for £141!

I agree the Skywatcher range of APO's - esp the ED80 - set a new standard in superb optics at a low price point, and introduced the apo refractor experience to a whole new range of people who probably had never (or would never) experience it because of the high entry fee.

Ant

[GazOC]

For scopes I think a secondhand ED100 for ~£350 takes some beating and also those 127mm Maks can be picked up for less than £200. Both great scopes IMHO.

[SteelRat]

I won't get many takers with this but... Tal1