Baader Morpheus 76° Wide-field Eyepieces ?

[Paul67]

I've been trying to work this out but seen no definitive answer.

They are 1.25 and 2 inch eyepieces in the same unit, does the 1.25 section screw off to have them in 2 inch mode?

[Ruud]

They fit both 1.25" and 2" focusers without having to screw on or off anything.

[John]

They are 1.25" eyepieces with a 2" section that can be used in a 2" eyepiece holder provided that the 1.25" section (which stays in place) will clear the mirror / prism if a diagonal is being used.

 

 

[Paul67]

Ok, so the duel fit is purely for mechanical purposes to connect to either diagonal and the 2 inch fitting doesn't actually add anything to the view I take it.

[John]

1 minute ago, Paul67 said:

Ok, so the duel fit is purely for mechanical purposes to connect to either diagonal and the 2 inch fitting doesn't actually add anything to the view I take it.

Yes, they remain 1.25" format eyepieces.

[Paul67]

However a 2 inch diagonal would be used fully in longer eyepices?

[John]

9 minutes ago, Paul67 said:

However a 2 inch diagonal would be used fully in longer eyepices?

To get a 70 (or more) degree apparent field in an eyepiece focal length of more than 25mm you need the 2" format barrels and therefore a 2" format diagonal / focuser drawtube.

 

[Paul67]

1 minute ago, John said:

To get a 70 (or more) degree apparent field in an eyepiece focal length of more than 25mm you need the 2" format barrels and therefore a 2" format diagonal / focuser drawtube.

 

Thank you John, I'm planning my upgrade path and working out what size diagonal I will need, looks like a 2 inch it will be.

[Louis D]

2 minutes ago, Paul67 said:

Thank you John, I'm planning my upgrade path and working out what size diagonal I will need, looks like a 2 inch it will be.

A 1.25" field maxes out with a 32mm 50 degree Plossl, a 24mm 68 degree Panoptic, a hard to find 1.25" 18mm 82 degree Meade 5000 UWA, or a 13mm 100 degree Ethos.  All have about a 27mm field stop, the maximum size that will fit within a 1.25" barrel.  There were the 35mm 49 degree super Plossls (Celestron Ultima, Baader Eudiasopic, Parks Gold, etc.) as well that put the slightly larger than 27mm field stop above the barrel and therefore required quite a bit of in focus and had a bit of vignetting, though generally not visible to the human eye.

[Paul67]

Thanks Louis, would I be on the right right path matching an 102mm F11 frac with the baader's and ES 82's/68's in the longer focal lengths?

[John]

9 minutes ago, Paul67 said:

... would I be on the right right path matching an 102mm F11 frac with the baader's and ES 82's/68's in the longer focal lengths?

Yes, those eyepieces would work very well in the scope. The longer focal length 68's and (especially) 82's are heavy beasts though so you might need to adjust your scopes balance. This is the Nagler 31 in my Vixen ED102ss F/6.5:

 

[Paul67]

2 minutes ago, John said:

Yes, those eyepieces would work very well in the scope. The longer focal length 68's and (especially) 82's are heavy beasts though so you might need to adjust your scopes balance. This is the Nagler 31 in my Vixen ED102ss F/6.5:

 

Wow, they are beast's, you don't really get a feel for the size from manufacturer pics.

[F15Rules]

1 hour ago, Paul67 said:

Wow, they are beast's, you don't really get a feel for the size from manufacturer pics.

The Baader Morpheus are really quite light, around 350gms or so. Optically IMO they are a match for any of the very high priced brands

Dave

[John]

2 minutes ago, F15Rules said:

The Baader Morpheus are really quite light, around 350gms or so. Optically IMO they are a match for any of the very high priced brands

Dave

If there was a Morpheus 35mm (which is about as long as the 2" format would allow with the 76 degree AFoV) I reckon it would be quite a beast as well

[F15Rules]

2 hours ago, John said:

If there was a Morpheus 35mm (which is about as long as the 2" format would allow with the 76 degree AFoV) I reckon it would be quite a beast as well

Good point John. The Morpheus only go to 17.5mm and it took them over 3 years longer to launch the 17.5mm than the 14mm..

So they clearly pushed the design to the limit!

At a bit longer focal length and not very heavy (but 1.25" only) are the ES24m 68 and Vixen LVW 22mm ( the latter now sadly discontinued). Both excellent performers, the LVW a stunner (which I have still).

The ES34mm is a 2" format and quite a grenade though..

Dave

[Louis D]

1 hour ago, F15Rules said:

Good point John. The Morpheus only go to 17.5mm and it took them over 3 years longer to launch the 17.5mm than the 14mm..

So they clearly pushed the design to the limit!

Within the constraints they set for themselves to maintain a body narrow enough to be used in binoviewers and to remain in a 1.25" barrel.  If either restraint had been relaxed, I'm sure they could have come to market with it much more quickly.

6 hours ago, Paul67 said:

Thanks Louis, would I be on the right right path matching an 102mm F11 frac with the baader's and ES 82's/68's in the longer focal lengths?

At f/11, you scope is not as harsh on eyepieces as let's say an f/4.5 Dob, so somewhat lesser eyepieces would work okay.  However, the very good eyepieces like the Morpheus become great eyepieces at f/11.

If size and weight are a concern for you, I'd recommend the new APM 30mm Ultra Flat Field.  I measure it to have a 73 degree field with very little distortion, yielding a true field of view close to that of the 35mm Panoptic with less field curvature.  It is also considerably lighter and narrower.

[Louis D]

15 hours ago, John said:

If there was a Morpheus 35mm (which is about as long as the 2" format would allow with the 76 degree AFoV) I reckon it would be quite a beast as well

The APM 30mm UFF comes closest to a 35mm Morpheus that I've seen.  It has a 73 degree field and is binocular telescope friendly with an extremely well corrected field.

[rockystar]

Be aware, that when used in 2" format the EP is moved closer in, so you may need an extension tube (or a longer one) to move it back out and allow it to come to focus. 

I have taken to having a 2" extension tube permanently attached.

[Louis D]

17 hours ago, rockystar said:

Be aware, that when used in 2" format the EP is moved closer in, so you may need an extension tube (or a longer one) to move it back out and allow it to come to focus. 

I have taken to having a 2" extension tube permanently attached.

Which becomes a huge issue for me because I have my GSO coma corrector set to a fixed spacing for eyepieces that focus near the shoulder.  The correction is way off for the Morpheus in 2" mode, so I use the Morpheii with a 1.25" to 2" adapter in the CC.  The 12mm Nagler T4 also focuses way out as well even in 1.25" mode, so I put a 2" extension on the 2" skirt and added 20mm of 50mm ID rubber O-rings to parfocalize it.  This also speeds up eyepiece changes because I only have to tweak the focus a fraction of a turn.

[Pig]

Paul I have recently purchased the 17mm Morpheus and I have to say it is a very nice eyepiece indeed, it delivers pinpoint stars with great colour contrast. It did take me a little time to get used to it but in the end it has turned out to be a very good addition. Mine came with the screw on rubber eyecap so none of the concerns that the initial eyepieces suffered from ?