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20-25mm Televue Panoptic perhaps?


Mike_S

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Hi, I am a beginner really. I have a 10 inch dobsonian F4.7 with various eyepieces but I’m looking to improve my wide field view to find DSO’s.

I have a Pentax XW5mm for planets which I like (it’s very comfortable to use). I could get one in 20mm but thinking of trying the Televue Panoptic 24mm?

also Explore Scientfic do 24mm 68 and 82 degrees? 

 

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Not much to choose between the Panoptic 24mm and the Explore Scientific 24mm to be honest with you.

At F/4.7 the Panoptic might be better corrected at the field edges. Close call though.

What is getting in the way of you finding DSO's ? - a good star chart and a red dot / illluminated reticule finder might be a better investment than an expensive widefield eyepiece.

 

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I have a telrad but really I’m just learning the sky and have a lot to learn still. I have a book as well. I have star charts too. I have 10x50 binos as well for finding stuff. I mostly use the standard 20mm that was supplied which is okay but as I use it quite a bit I thought it would be nice to upgrade it. Thanks. 

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3 hours ago, MSammon said:

What would you recommend for a 2 inch eyepiece? Say up to £300. 

 

 If you have £300 to spend, that would buy a very nice 2” low power eyepiece.  If it were myself, I’d get a 24 to 28mm wide field from Explore Scientific or TeleVue for top performance.  The TV 24mm Panoptic is lovely, or the 27mm has longer eye relief if you wear glasses to observe.  If you go for an even lower power, that would give wider field of view, but you may not like the bright sky background especially if you observe from town.

All the best in your choice, Ed.

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Go for the ES 82° 24mm. I’ve owned both.

The Panoptic is light weight gem. But the 82° is wide! There is a lot of difference between 68° and 82° at the eyepiece at the longer end. The ES performs very well in this scope. 

Paul

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The ES 82 degrees 24mm looks a bargain. Although being 2 inch it means me unscrewing the reducer in my scope. Is it better having a proper 2 inch eyepiece rather than one with fittings for 1.25” as well?

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Your scope should come with a 2” extension tube. You can use any number of adapters that go into the 2” tube to make changing from 2” to 1.25” a doddle. The Baader click lock is the gourmet solution, Revelation make a nice self centring effort.

Paul

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Thanks. I think I’m settling on the ES 82 degrees 24mm. 17.5mm eye relief. Last eyepieces I bought were for planets Pentax XW (20mm eye relief) and Myriad MWA (15mm eye relief) but I think it was the eye relief why I preferred the Pentax. I don’t wear glasses but my eyelashes seem to get in the way with the Myriad, I’ve been told they’re long before lol. 

Or just get a Pentax XW in 20mm as they’re so good but would like to try a 2 inch. 

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1 hour ago, MSammon said:

The ES 82 degrees 24mm looks a bargain. Although being 2 inch it means me unscrewing the reducer in my scope. Is it better having a proper 2 inch eyepiece rather than one with fittings for 1.25” as well?

Out of interest, what are you using the reducer for ?

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Sorry i May have used the wrong word but I mean all my other eyepieces are 1.25”. Just been reading your post on 100 degree eyepieces. For some reason the Myriad isn’t comfortable for me. I might try a 13mm APM Lunt if they are more comfortable. Just want something good for dso’s. If I go for a wider field of view then I could have a shorter focul length eye piece I suppose. Hmm will decide sometime today!

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18 minutes ago, MSammon said:

Sorry i May have used the wrong word but I mean all my other eyepieces are 1.25”. Just been reading your post on 100 degree eyepieces. For some reason the Myriad isn’t comfortable for me. I might try a 13mm APM Lunt if they are more comfortable. Just want something good for dso’s. If I go for a wider field of view then I could have a shorter focul length eye piece I suppose. Hmm will decide sometime today!

The Lunt / APM 100's have a more tapered top section and a softer eye cup, rather like the Ethos range, and ergonmically they might prove more comfortable than the flat and rather inflexible Myriad eyecup design. It's a personal thing really as to which you prefer.

 

 

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What is the eye relief like on the APM Lunts? My problem with the Myriad is the cup is too wide and fits around too much of my face so my eyelashes touch the glass. Not sure if that’s eye relief or just the design but it doesn’t happen with the pentax XW?

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I’ve not read of eye relief issues with the Lunts. With longer 100° Eyepieces you almost need to climb into them tho see the whole field. This does give a wonderfully immersive view. The 20mm would be give a similar in fov than the 24mm 82°. But with slightly higher mag and possibly slightly higher contrast. However, the outer sections of the 100° will show more comma. This is a mirror related distortion that gets worse as the mirrors get faster or the fov gets wider (stars towards the edge look a bit like sea gulls). Some are fine with it. Others, less so. You can get expensive comma correctors, but that is another thread. Personally I am happy with 100° 20mm at f4.7, but can’t handle it at f4.

Yhe choice is yours.

I have used both the ES 24mm 82°, the Ethos 21mm quite happily. I haven’t tried the APM Lunt 100° range.

re. The 30mm 82° mentioned above. The fov is massive, but your scope will start to show some field curvature which largely disappears in faster scopes. Also, the exit pupil is a wacking 6.4mm which is a bit too large for me (starting to loose contrast).

Hope that this helps.

Paul

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The eye relief of the Pentax XW's is 20mm. The 100 degree eyepieces are generally around 15mm. What matters though is the ergonomics of the top section of the eyepiece, how flexible the eye cup is or how much it can be retracted or extended and also how much the eye lens of the eyepiece is recessed and it's profile (most are concave in this type of eyepiece). All these things affect how much usable eye relief you actually get.

If you wear glasses when observing, generally the 100 degree eyepieces and many 82 degree ones don't offer enough eye relief.

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Thanks, I don’t wear glasses. Can see from this that the ES 82 degrees 24mm is about the same field of view as a Myriad/APM 20mm. 

Much difference in quality with the F4.7 dob? What do you think you would go for? 

 

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Personally, I like 100 degree eyepieces. The ones I've owned and used (Ethos, ES and Myriad) have seemed to me to be "flagship" products for the manufacturers and even better optical performers than 82 degree eyepieces from the same manufacturer, eg: I used to use Naglers but I found Ethos offered better performance as well as the expansive field of view.

But there are downsides to 100 degree eyepieces to be fair:

- Not everybody likes such a wide field of view.

- They are heavy things.

- They are expensive.

Thats just my take on this. There are LOTS of other opinions out there :icon_biggrin:

 

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Re. The expense

Lots of people go for 100° For their low mag eyepiece(s) and 70° ish for their higher mags. So, just 1 or 2 really expensive eyepiece and the rest just expensive ?.

My ideal collection on that basis would be:

21mm Ethos and the entire Delos range!

Real life is financially less kind these days....

The ES 24mm 82° or Lunt APM 20mm and the Pentax XW range would be pretty damn close.

Have fun with choosing. You won’t be disappointed with any of the options being discussed.

Paul

 

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Since no one has mentioned it, the 30mm APM UFF is quite nice.  It is extremely well corrected to the edge with a flat field and 17mm of usable eye relief and 27mm of design eye relief.  It has a 36.5mm field stop.

The 30mm ES-82 has much less usable eye relief due to its recessed eye lens.  If you don't wear eyeglasses, this might not be an issue because it would still be enough to keep your eyelashes from touching the eye lens.  It has a 42.5mm field stop.

The 24mm ES-82 has a 34mm field stop and a few millimeters less eye relief than the 30mm.  According to Ernest's bench tests of the 24mm ES-82, though; it is only about half as well corrected as the 30mm ES-82.  The 30mm ES-82 is fairly well corrected and flat of field to the edge (chromatic aberrations being the dominant problem) and fairly sharp in the center in my personal experience, but it is not as sharp in either place as the 30mm APM UFF.

It really depends on how picky you are about edge to edge field sharpness, desired apparent field of view, and desired true field of view.

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Just ordered an MWA 100 degree 20mm for £195 including shipping. It was very close between that and the ES82 degrees 24mm but this was cheaper. That should keep me busy for a few months as only got into this hobby last year. At some point will need mid range eye pieces between my 5 and 20’s but will have to keep viewing to see what i need. The 5mm sorted me out for planets. This hopefully for beginner DSO’s. Thanks all.

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12 hours ago, MSammon said:

Just ordered an MWA 100 degree 20mm for £195 including shipping. It was very close between that and the ES82 degrees 24mm but this was cheaper. That should keep me busy for a few months as only got into this hobby last year. At some point will need mid range eye pieces between my 5 and 20’s but will have to keep viewing to see what i need. The 5mm sorted me out for planets. This hopefully for beginner DSO’s. Thanks all.

I'm looking forward to hearing about how you get on with that eyepiece.  Make sure to report back here on it since there aren't a lot of posts about it.

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13 hours ago, MSammon said:

Just ordered an MWA 100 degree 20mm for £195 including shipping. It was very close between that and the ES82 degrees 24mm but this was cheaper. That should keep me busy for a few months as only got into this hobby last year. At some point will need mid range eye pieces between my 5 and 20’s but will have to keep viewing to see what i need. The 5mm sorted me out for planets. This hopefully for beginner DSO’s. Thanks all.

Is that the OVL Myriad MWA 100 20mm ?

 

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