Show me your eyepiece/accessories case, please.

[Moonshane]

Here's my latest iteration. I am pretty much there but might replace the 8mm Delos with a 9mm Delite when released.

and here's my July 2014 case  

and September 2013

The only constants are the 26mm nagler and 6-3mm Nagler zoom (plus collimation tools of course!).

[bomberbaz]

I have to say I think the standard of eyepieces just gets better and better but also the manufacturers do a great job of getting us to recycle our EP cases time and again.

In the 4 years since I started the number of new designs and offerings from the provides has been amazing notably from TV but also there have been new Celestron, Baader and Vixen eyepiece designs that have also set a marker down, although many others have chipped in also especially with the extra and ultra wide eyepieces now seeing great favour amongst some of us.

That said, we all do a great job of talking ourselves into buying the new ones but that to me is all part of the hobby.   

[Paul73]

Time to update. Never the final itteration!!

In : Ethos 21mm and Baader mkIII Zoom (with barlow)

Outgoing : ES 82° 24 & 30mm (got to pay for the Ethos)

To Get : Delos 10mm or 14mm once funds allow and more BCO's and UHC 2" and HBeta 1.25" then I'm done. Honest.

With the arrival of the £££ "Big E", I'm going to have to be ruthless. The 30mm ES gets so little use due to the large exit pupil that it has to go. I have the ED80 that has a massive FOV for the really wide fields. The 24mm ES is lower mag and smaller Fov than the Ethos so sadly has to go. Again, I don't always get great contrast. So I am hoping that the higher mag of the Ethos will enhance the contrast a bit.

I'm ashamed to say that I have never looked through the 28mm (completely forgot that I had it). It is light weight and shold pair up with the Zoom in the ED80 as a great travel setup.

The zoom is also very good for the solar work with the Lunt wedge.

Paul

[Moonshane]

Here's my latest iteration. I am pretty much there but might replace the 8mm Delos with a 9mm Delite when released.

20160121_193724.jpg

and here's my July 2014 case  

july 2014.jpg

and September 2013

Sep 2013.JPG

The only constants are the 26mm nagler and 6-3mm Nagler zoom (plus collimation tools of course!).

The good news is that the cost to change is not a lot given I seem to have developed a reducing number trend.

[DRT]

I have put the latest final piece of the jigsaw in place...

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Ooh, lovely!

[DRT]

Ooh, lovely!

Thanks, Michael - but I now have very few places to go to find the next final piece of the jigsaw

That said, I am seriously considering the 27mm and 35mm Panoptics as I love the 41mm, particularly for white light solar.

[faulksy]

I have put the latest final piece of the jigsaw in place...

IMG_4028.jpg

awsome,awsome set, do you realy feel you need to group them all so closely as the fov will overlap massively. lovely collection though

[DRT]

awsome,awsome set, do you realy feel you need to group them all so closely as the fov will overlap massively. lovely collection though

Hi, I'm Derek, I have Completistitis and I don't want to be cured

The one question I keep telling myself I shouldn't ask is "do I need all of these?". I fully accept that I am well and truely spoiling myself but in return I do have a good range of magnification at the high power end that will allow me to get the best out of whatever crappy sky turns up over the house and at the other end I have a great combination of FOV and magnification to allow me to get good contrast out of at least one of my scopes.

I often run two or three scopes at the same time, so having options at low, middle and high power also helps spread the capability around.

Did I mention I am spoiling myself?

[Mak the Night]

The thing with this thread being basically 'eyepiece pr0n' ... it makes me want to buy more eyepieces lol. Seriously though, I love looking at the eyepiece collections here. Keep 'em coming. If the weather prevents me from looking at actual astronomical stuff in the night sky, at least I can drool over some of the great collections here. 

I so want a 13mm Ethos ... 

Edited January 22, 2016 by Mak the Night

[Paul73]

Derek

I thought that my case was looking good. Then you go and post a picture like that !!!! Bravo.

Just because you have run out of space doesn't mean that you have finished shopping. If you like to have a couple of scopes on the go, might I suggest a zoom. Maybe something from the good people at Leica? Swapping eyepieces in & out on one scope is fine, but I find doing two is a chore....

Alastair has exposed several of us as being very weak willed (mine arrived today as well).

Paul

Edited January 22, 2016 by Paul73

[DRT]

I so want a 13mm Ethos ... 

I see from your signature that you are not averse to spending dosh on good stuff. Sell some of it an get yourself one - you won't regret it

Alastair has exposed several of us as being very weak willed (mine arrived today as well).

Paul

He has indeed, Paul. I bought the 4.7mm a couple of weeks ago and promised myself I would evaluate it for at least two months before deciding whether or not to buy the 3,7mm. Two days later Alistair cruelly posted his tempting offer and my legendary willpower crumbled in an instant. Try as I might I cannot persuade Mrs T that it was Alistair's fault

[Mak the Night]

I see from your signature that you are not averse to spending dosh on good stuff. Sell some of it an get yourself one - you won't regret it

Sell stuff! Shock horror! 

I'm getting a much bigger SCT soon, so I'll certainly consider an Ethos then. I've never regretted buying a TeleVue eyepiece, not even the 8mm Plossl. Although I think I've only used it once. It's there for when I need an 8mm Plossl. 

[DRT]

Sell stuff! Shock horror! 

I'm getting a much bigger SCT soon, so I'll certainly consider an Ethos then. I've never regretted buying a TeleVue eyepiece, not even the 8mm Plossl. Although I think I've only used it once. It's there for when I need an 8mm Plossl. 

Start with the TV 40mm Plossl - no point having it and the 32mm as they show the same FOV. Then move on to two or three of those diagonals - how many do you need? Next is the 15mm TV Plossl and then the 16mm T5 Nagler. You now have enough for an Ethos 13mm and haven't lost much in terms of flexibility of your kit

You know it makes sense

[DRT]

I'm getting a much bigger SCT soon, so I'll certainly consider an Ethos then.

Depending on how big, bear in mind that a 13mm EP will be getting close to the maximum usable power in an SCT if you have any light polution. My CPC1100 (2.8m focal length) performs best at around 17mm and needs good seeing to allow the E13mm to show its best.

Edited January 22, 2016 by DRT

[Mak the Night]

On Friday, January 22, 2016 at 21:18, DRT said:

Sell stuff! Shock horror! 

I'm getting a much bigger SCT soon, so I'll certainly consider an Ethos then. I've never regretted buying a TeleVue eyepiece, not even the 8mm Plossl. Although I think I've only used it once. It's there for when I need an 8mm Plossl. 

Start with the TV 40mm Plossl - no point having it and the 32mm as they show the same FOV. Then move on to two or three of those diagonals - how many do you need? Next is the 15mm TV Plossl and then the 16mm T5 Nagler. You now have enough for an Ethos 13mm and haven't lost much in terms of flexibility of your kit

You know it makes sense

 

Hmmm ... I'm not so sure. A ridiculous amount of logic (we're talking Mr Spock-like logic here lol) went into those eyepiece choices. OK, maybe not the TV 8mm Plossl, that may have been genuine OCD (I so wanted the set). The TV 40mm Plossl gives me a 3.1mm exit pupil on my 4" Mak enabling me to utilise a Baader UHC-S filter. The 40mm Plossl’s FOV is actually only 43° I believe as opposed to the 50° of the TV 32mm Plossl. Both enable me to have decent low power combined with wide exit pupils on my Mak (f/12.7) and the 235mm SCT I plan on getting. As I'm planning on keeping the Mak as well, possibly used with a lighter alt-az mount as a grab'n'go.

All of the diagonals have a particular use, The William Optics is an erecting diagonal with a helical focuser and brass compression ring so no good for a bino with its helical focuser.Celestron EP's with safety undercuts can hang-up in the WO compression ring but TV & WO EP's are fine. The Celestron is a conventional diagonal without a compression ring, the Antares & TS Optics are also Amici prism diagonals neither has compression rings and are used predominantly with my binoviewer. The Antares diagonal has a shorter nosepiece and filters can be more easily threaded and stacked without it poking too far into the Mak and colliding with the mirror. The bino is used mainly for lunar and planetary as I like a correct image view for that.

The 15mm TV Plossls are for the binoviewer and will give me magnifications of (approx) 87x, 139x and 173x with my Mak and 157x, 251x and 313x with the 235mm SCT I am planning to get. All good planetary magnifications for the respective apertures.

The 16mm T5 Nagler, apart from being one of my all time favourites, is light enough to combine with a Powermate for 200x views on my Mak yet will give me a nice 82° FOV, 81x on its own. Around 80x is one of my favourite magnifications for M42. The Nagler will also give 147x, and with a 2x Barlow, 294x on the proposed SCT.

I'll get the Ethos anyway, eventually. *wink*

"Fascinatingly logical, Captain ... " *Leonard Nimoy voice*

[Mak the Night]

On Friday, January 22, 2016 at 21:58, DRT said:

I'm getting a much bigger SCT soon, so I'll certainly consider an Ethos then.

Depending on how big, bear in mind that a 13mm EP will be getting close to the maximum usable power in an SCT if you have any light polution. My CPC1100 (2.8m focal length) performs best at around 17mm and needs good seeing to allow the E13mm to show its best.

It depends on what you are looking at I guess. I live in the greenbelt in a village bordering farmland away from town lights so light pollution isn't bad. A 13mm EP will give me 180x on a 2350mm f/l scope, which is a nice planetary magnification. I regularly get an easy 200x plus with a 4" Mak and could get a good 300x with a 130mm Newtonian, so I'm pretty sure I'll get those with a 9.25" SCT.

Edited January 24, 2016 by Mak the Night
Weird Forum

[jonathan]

13mm you say?  I have the Celestron 8SE and many a time my 10mm is unusable with it, 13mm maybe a better choice although I already have a Baader Zoom, would it be worth me getting a 13mm or similar size?  Should not need to be anything super duper for this scope, or would there be zero difference between a fixed eyepiece and the Baader Zoom?

[Mak the Night]

3 hours ago, jonathan said:

13mm you say?  I have the Celestron 8SE and many a time my 10mm is unusable with it, 13mm maybe a better choice although I already have a Baader Zoom, would it be worth me getting a 13mm or similar size?  Should not need to be anything super duper for this scope, or would there be zero difference between a fixed eyepiece and the Baader Zoom?

When you say unusable what do you mean exactly? A 10mm Plossl can be hard work compared to a 13mm as it is significantly smaller. Those 3mm make a lot of difference IMO. A 10mm Delos on the other hand is a very rewarding experience. When conditions are good I can easily get over 200x with my scopes. I've had good lunar and planetary views in the past with a 10mm Celestron Luminosity combined with a 3x Barlow to give 270x.

[Mak the Night]

Celestron 'Luminos' not Luminosity!

I hate the spell checker on Android! Lol

Below: The 10mm 'Luminosity' combined with a TeleVue 3x Barlow.

The Luminos is a nicely made and engineered eyepiece although it can suffer from visual problems, particularly with the 10mm version. Plus, it has an old style safety undercut which can often hinder a smooth extraction from Barlows like the TV 3x above which features a brass compression ring. Especially problematical if, like me, you have a physical disability. Smooth barrelled eyepieces and those with the newer tapered lower lip undercuts work fine. The combination Luminos/3x Barlow did produce superb results at 270x with some planetary objects, particularly Venus and Saturn. Saturn looked magnificent at that magnification and the 17mm field stop and 82° Nagler-like FOV were very useful for keeping the target in frame. I bought the Luminos predominantly for lunar viewing as I like its 'spacewalk' view. However, it can suffer glaring and whiteout problems sometimes, which at first I thought were due to conditions. After comparing it side by side with a 19mm TeleVue Panoptic I realised the problem was with the Luminos. I don't regret buying it though, even though it has now been replaced with a 10mm Delos.

Edited January 26, 2016 by Mak the Night
Do Android Spellcheckers Dream of Electric Dictionaries?

[alan potts]

The question is Derek, where do you go now, full house. Lovely set of eyepieces which sadly not everyone can afford but for those that can they really lift the pleasure of the hobby, though of course some do not get on with them, fortunately I do.

[Mak the Night]

Bino Case Revision Umpteen Plus One!

 

 

[Mak the Night]

Orion case purged of any eyepieces with old-style safety undercuts. Anti-clockwise starting with a 40mm Plossl are TeleVue 25mm, 20mm, 11mm and 8mm Plossls. Then an 18mm Astro Hutech orthoscopic and a 15mm Celestron Kellner. In the centre are a TeleVue 2.5x Powermate, a 2x Barlow and a 16mm Nagler T5.

 

Edited January 28, 2016 by Mak the Night

[DRT]

18 hours ago, alan potts said:

The question is Derek, where do you go now, full house. Lovely set of eyepieces which sadly not everyone can afford but for those that can they really lift the pleasure of the hobby, though of course some do not get on with them, fortunately I do.

I do get a sense of satisfaction from having a complete set of things and I have now well and truly scratched the Ethos itch. I don't see me selling any of them unless I lose interest in the hobby, so hopefully these really are for life. My completest mind is now being drawn to the lower power end of the scale and the Panoptics are talking to me in my sleep. I never thought I would say this, but my Nager 31mm is starting to look slightly nervous

 

[alan potts]

Personally I would not get rid of the 31mm, it is a really good eyepiece and I have the 35mm Panoptic as well. To me it boils down to the scopes you have, the 31mm goes in the Sumerian, prior to owning this it hardly got used in favour of the Panoptic which still gets used in my other scopes.

I know what you mean about sets though, 4.7mm is calling me again though I can't hear the 3.7mm yet.