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Show me your eyepiece/accessories case, please.


Leegsi

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I like the Bolt cases in the softish bag Nicos. Easier to carry and safe as houses!

My eyepiece cases are shrinking..... but my scope cases are growing!!

Having forsaken the realms of 100° and sent my BCO's to pastures new. I can fit all of my eyepieces into one medium flight case.

For now....

Obviously, there is another case for solar gear; another for filters, telrad, Paracorr etc. And, a couple of boxes of odds and ends; heaps of books; a pile of old tripods and hooky mounts and a large pile of empty beer bottles! That about covers 3 years of astro shopping..... And to think of the grief that I give Mrs 73 over half a dozen pairs of shoes!

One more eyepiece to buy and I'll update my case picture.

Paul

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32 minutes ago, balzer said:

What your opinion on Paragons EPs compared to aero ed

I believe the TMB Paragon, the Astro Tech Titan II and a few others share the same optics. The one I've personally used was the Aero ED.

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12 hours ago, balzer said:

It's average and cheaper than televue Ep's . I wear glasses as well. 

Any other good suggestions for a low power Ep around that range with good eye relief that will fit my last empty space in my case

Having tried plenty of 40mm-ish widest (or near widest) field 2" eyepieces over the years, I recommend you skip the mid-range eyepieces being recommended and go for the Explore Scientific MaxVision 68° Eyepiece 40mm (2") while they are still available.  You'll get near TV 41mm Panoptic performance for a fraction of the price.  If you decloak it, you'll bring the weight and girth down to the same level as the Panoptic.  I can attest that once you decloak it, you'll have about 29mm of usable eye relief.  It's basically sharp to the edge at f/6.  I also have no problems holding the view with eyeglasses.

Edited by Louis D
typo
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6 hours ago, Louis D said:

Having tried plenty of 40mm-ish widest (or near widest) field 2" eyepieces over the years, I recommend you skip the mid-range eyepieces being recommended and go for the Explore Scientific MaxVision 68° Eyepiece 40mm (2") while they are still available.  You'll get near TV 41mm Panoptic performance for a fraction of the price.  If you decloak it, you'll bring the weight and girth down to the same level as the Panoptic.  I can attest that once you decloak it, you'll have about 29mm of usable eye relief.  It's basically sharp to the edge at f/6.  I also have no problems holding the view with eyeglasses.

If you decloak one of those you get a flat topped eyepiece as per the picture below ?

OK it looses weight and girth but you also loose the eyecup feature. When I've used flat topped long focal length eyepieces without an eye cup (eg: Ultima 35mm, old style "smoothie" Meade plossls, Orion Optiluxe etc) Ive found that the lack of an eye cup introduces a few extra challenges:

- eye positioning is a matter of "hovering" away from the top of the eyepiece with nothing to rest your eye against. This can prove less relaxing I feel.

- the gap between your eye socket and the eyepiece top (around 20-25mm I guess with the above eyepiece) admits any straylight around which gets onto the eyelens top surface which introduces reflections and can reduce contrast in faint objects.

- the top surface of the Meade eyepiece, adjacent to the eye lens, is highly reflective which again introduces the possibility of reflections and light scatter.

It's a personal thing I guess but the above factors are worth considering if you are considering decloaking an eyepiece or even purchasing one of the older "smoothie" designs that does not have an eyecup.

 

 

decloakep.jpg

Edited by John
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2 hours ago, John said:

If you decloak one of those you get a flat topped eyepiece as per the picture below ?

OK it looses weight and girth but you also loose the eyecup feature. When I've used flat topped long focal length eyepieces without an eye cup (eg: Ultima 35mm, old style "smoothie" Meade plossls, Orion Optiluxe etc) Ive found that the lack of an eye cup introduces a few extra challenges:

- eye positioning is a matter of "hovering" away from the top of the eyepiece with nothing to rest your eye against. This can prove less relaxing I feel.

- the gap between your eye socket and the eyepiece top (around 20-25mm I guess with the above eyepiece) admits any straylight around which gets onto the eyelens top surface which introduces reflections and can reduce contrast in faint objects.

- the top surface of the Meade eyepiece, adjacent to the eye lens, is highly reflective which again introduces the possibility of reflections and light scatter.

It's a personal thing I guess but the above factors are worth considering if you are considering decloaking an eyepiece or even purchasing one of the older "smoothie" designs that does not have an eyecup.

 

 

decloakep.jpg

As I've said in a previous post somewhere on SGL, I can't observe standing because I hover above my eyepieces.  I never use eyecups because they smudge my eyeglasses.  When sitting, I don't find it to be an issue at all.  My backyard is dark enough that I don't have issues with stray light.  If my wife flips on a light in a backroom of the house while I'm outside observing, then yes, it can be a problem.  I just cup my hand around the edge of my eyeglasses and that usually takes care of it until I can get her to turn the light off again.  I haven't ever noticed reflections from the outer casing or the eye lens, just my eyeglasses.

The one thing that is annoying about that large flat top is that you have to tilt your head to the side to get your nose out of the way to get your eye in close enough to see into the eye lens.  It's even worse with the original mushroom top ES-82/Meade UWA.

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1 hour ago, Louis D said:

As I've said in a previous post somewhere on SGL, I can't observe standing because I hover above my eyepieces.  I never use eyecups because they smudge my eyeglasses.  When sitting, I don't find it to be an issue at all.  My backyard is dark enough that I don't have issues with stray light.  If my wife flips on a light in a backroom of the house while I'm outside observing, then yes, it can be a problem.  I just cup my hand around the edge of my eyeglasses and that usually takes care of it until I can get her to turn the light off again.  I haven't ever noticed reflections from the outer casing or the eye lens, just my eyeglasses.

The one thing that is annoying about that large flat top is that you have to tilt your head to the side to get your nose out of the way to get your eye in close enough to see into the eye lens.  It's even worse with the original mushroom top ES-82/Meade UWA.

Now you have opened a can of worms for me to think about. LOL

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Not yet be-cased, but here is my new lightweight EP team, bought for use with Tak FC-100 on light alt az mount and camera tripod after selling off lots of other kit. Thanks to Steve (bomberbaz) for the Delite and Derek for the lovely little Panoptic 15. 

Very predictably green and black - I know. I did start out with plans to look at ES/SW/WO options, but they just didn't offer the right focal lengths, fov and light weights I was looking for. Despite their age, the Nagler T6s still provide a unique combination of wide field and compactness. Can't wait to try them all out.

 

image.jpeg

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Nice set Mark :icon_biggrin:

I've also built a 1.25" lightweight set to use with my fracs. Trouble is that I'm finding that they are convenient in the 12" dob as well so my Ethos set is not getting as much light as it used to :rolleyes2:

 

 

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1 hour ago, John said:

Nice set Mark :icon_biggrin:

I've also built a 1.25" lightweight set to use with my fracs. Trouble is that I'm finding that they are convenient in the 12" dob as well so my Ethos set is not getting as much light as it used to :rolleyes2:

 

 

Precisely the problem John - but a nice problem to have. I also have Delos 6, 10 and 17.3, Ethos 13 and a Leica zoom (8.9mm-17.8mm) - so lots of doubling up. I don't like rebalancing the scope in the middle of a session, so can justify having separate light and medium heavy sets. The Delos now look like the most vulnerable EPs in the case, except the 10 and 17.3 are perhaps the finest eyepieces I've ever looked through - so crisp and colour free in the FC-100.

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2 minutes ago, Highburymark said:

Precisely the problem John - but a nice problem to have. I also have Delos 6, 10 and 17.3, Ethos 13 and a Leica zoom (8.9mm-17.8mm) - so lots of doubling up. I don't like rebalancing the scope in the middle of a session, so can justify having separate light and medium heavy sets. The Delos now look like the most vulnerable EPs in the case, except the 10 and 17.3 are perhaps the finest eyepieces I've ever looked through - so crisp and colour free in the FC-100.

The Delos 17.3 is excellent. It's the heaviest of my lightweight set though. I recently picked up a Nagler 13mm T6 which shows nearly as much sky in a much smaller package. The Delos is really easy and relaxing to use though so I'm happy to give it case room.

As you say though, these are nice "problems" to have to think through :icon_biggrin:

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9 minutes ago, John said:

The Delos 17.3 is excellent. It's the heaviest of my lightweight set though. I recently picked up a Nagler 13mm T6 which shows nearly as much sky in a much smaller package. The Delos is really easy and relaxing to use though so I'm happy to give it case room.

As you say though, these are nice "problems" to have to think through :icon_biggrin:

Hi John,

funny you should proclaim your liking for the Nagler 13mm, it just seems to be my most used EP in the Dob, other than the finder 26mm Nag

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9 minutes ago, John said:

The Delos 17.3 is excellent. It's the heaviest of my lightweight set though. I recently picked up a Nagler 13mm T6 which shows nearly as much sky in a much smaller package. The Delos is really easy and relaxing to use though so I'm happy to give it case room.

As you say though, these are nice "problems" to have to think through :icon_biggrin:

Hmmm - I might start thinking like that and reclassify the Delos as a slightly porky lightweight - in which case no need to contemplate offloading it ?

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4 hours ago, John said:

Nice set Mark :icon_biggrin:

I've also built a 1.25" lightweight set

My lightweight set now consists of a Panoptic 24mm with a 2.5x Powermate. I am hoping to add a 5x Powermate at some point to give me approximately 24mm, 10mm and 5mm with one eyepiece. I think @Stu would call it "minimalist observing" :grin:

I also have a 32mm TV Plossl, which would add 32mm, 13mm and 6.4mm to the range.

All of that gives me a range of 39x to 250x mag in my C5, which is not too bad as a lightweight grab-n-go option :smile:

 

 

Edited by DRT
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7 minutes ago, John said:

My original lightweight set involved a Powermate 2.5x. Very good it was as well. I'm hopeless at minimalist sets though. It's an affliction you see - Occularholism :rolleyes2:

 

I know her well :rolleyes2:

 

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3 hours ago, DRT said:

My lightweight set now consists of a Panoptic 24mm with a 2.5x Powermate. I am hoping to add a 5x Powermate at some point to give me approximately 24mm, 10mm and 5mm with one eyepiece. I think @Stu would call it "minimalist observing" :grin:

I also have a 32mm TV Plossl, which would add 32mm, 13mm and 6.4mm to the range.

All of that gives me a range of 39x to 250x mag in my C5, which is not too bad as a lightweight grab-n-go option :smile:

 

A 5x power mate on abs at the moment http://www.astrobuysell.com/uk/propview.php?view=122955 ?

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Morning all, I decided at the beginning of my astro observing obsession to put together a field kit type case, in other words what I would be using instead of what I would collect as a set.

But as with any obsession comes the collecting of some things you don't need but like to look at.

Here's the contents list because I'm not into imaging the display is more of an dismantled complexity. 

Top left, Agena illuminated reticle 20mm 70 degree, 6.3 reducer/flattener, ES 2X focal extender, Meade Super Plossl 32mm, old Tele Vue 8 to 24 zoom (my first real eyepiece 20 yrs. ago), Celestron 18mm X-Cel (that I got for public nights) 

Next row, ES 82 degree 8.8mm, 11mm, & 14mm then the surprise piece is the ES 68 degree 16mm (I call it the "surprise piece" because after I got home and opened the box I had no idea how small it was, long story but I was getting the 20 mm 68 degree and thought it would compliment the 68 degree set, never looked at it in the store, oh well, just like collecting old trains, you buy a set then open the boxes.)

Bottom row, ES 68 degree 20mm, 24mm & Badder 8 to 24 zoom ( cause its got to be better than a twenty year old zoom, right?)

The diagonal is an Orion dielectric mirror, 

The filters you see in the boxes are mostly Nebula filters, and like any filter used different manufactures have slightly different light bandwave specs so you end up with some that work better than others for certain DSO's.

I put all my filters in these type boxes because it's extremely easy to open them and then screw the eyepiece a thread or two on with out even having to handle the filter instead of the original mouse trap containers they are shipped and sold in. I developed this technique when I was observing years ago atop a very tall chair and getting in and out of the chair to get another filter was a hassle.  

The case is an old pistol case from my first eyepiece and astro accessory kit, the center section that holds the eyepieces is a pre-cut insert from an Orion eyepiece kit, the side areas are fit with un-used pluck foam pieces left over from my OTA case, a Pelican 1630. 

You'll see the Orion box in the pelican case, that now holds the 9x50 IR finder scope

Around the bottom leg of the tripod is stored the dew shield and the soft case holds handset & GPS, yup and that's where I hang the power tank with the red lamp on when I'm putting stuff away.

I found that the strap that came with the power tank was very difficult to clasp to the end ports where it's supposed to connect, at the cap end is where it's directly clasp and the other end I put a key ring on there and clasp to that, much easier to release to thread it thru the tripod tray where it hangs when driving the scope.

After getting set up the case acts as my table for setting my eyepiece case when selecting stuff and inside the case it's hid during public nights.

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Edited by SloMoe
added pics & text
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Thank you, 

The filters are DGM Optics, Lumicon, Thousand Oaks, Meade, & Orion.

I began putting it together shortly after buying the scope and reading this thread, all 124 pages,,,,,,,,, 

In a way this thread was the inspiration,

Again, thank you. 

Edited by SloMoe
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