Fancy little Nagler EP !

[David Hardie]

Hi all, I just bought a neat little EP from FLO called a TeleVue Nagler Zoom 3-6

When it arrived it's a tiny little thing but I love it already!! Anyone else here got one who can give me their opinion? I think I should find this eyepiece handy!

One of my top items to find to view and photo is the Clavius Crater on the moon.

Cheers. David

[Geoff Barnes]

12 minutes ago, David Hardie said:

Anyone else here got one who can give me their opinion?

I expect our friend John will give you all the information you need when he sees this thread. ?

[Stu]

They are very nice indeed, little gems. I use mine a fair amount with my refractors, they are ideal for high power viewing and being able to tune the magnification to the seeing.

The eye relief is comfortable for me, and 50 degree afov seems plenty for the applications I use mine for, mainly planetary and doubles, plus a bit of lunar.

I think they may be just behind the best orthos for sharpness but there does not seem to be alot in it.

[David Hardie]

This is good. I like little gems! I liked it so much I bought it......

I'm planning to get in to moon exploration as a good starter so this will be handy!

Cheers. David

[Geoff Barnes]

15 minutes ago, Stu said:

They are very nice indeed, little gems. I use mine a fair amount with my refractors

Sorry Stu, I didn't realise you had one too! ?

[Stu]

2 minutes ago, Geoff Barnes said:

Sorry Stu, I didn't realise you had one too! ?

No apology needed Geoff. I'm sure John will give a far more considered view of it than I did!

[alan potts]

A superb eyepiece that I use a good deal, almost as good as fixed focal length eyepiece from the same manufacturer, I have all Delos Radian and Ethos in this focal range and rarely find myself reaching for them, which seem a bit of a waste of well over 1000 quid. The only issue I have with it is the name Nagler, this to me means 82 degree FOV not 52, you won't regret buying it.

Alan 

[RT65CB-SWL]

I have had mine since they were released and it still is as good as the day I purchased it. A big thumbs up to Mr. Nagler & Son. 

[John]

Stu and Alan have said it all really. I don't actually have a 3-6mm Nagler zoom currently but I've owned a couple in the past. I do have the 2-4mm version though and use it a lot with my refractors and even from time to time with my 12 inch dob when I need silly amounts of magnification. I think the 2-4mm is out of production now ?

I've compared the Nagler zooms to good orthoscopic eyepieces in the focal lengths covered and found the performance differences mostly unnoticable to my eye so add that to the convenience of being able to find the optimum magnification at a moments notice, a larger eye lens than orthos and a reasonable 10mm of eye relief and a 50 degree consistent AFoV and you have a winner IMHO . They are nearly, but not quite, par focal across their zoom range.

The odd thing is that, while the 3-6 versions I owned were excellent, I didn't take to them for some reason . I have found the 2-4mm very useful though.

The only downside with them is that the eye lens is almost flush with the eyepiece top and can get dirty from time to time and also an inadvertant breath on a cold eyepiece can fog it. Oh and the cost of course. Mine have all been pre-owned so that has helped.

I find the Nagler zoom a superb eyepiece for binary star splitting - you can progressively rack up the power to get tight splits.

 

 

[Floater]

A cracking piece of kit ... but I don’t often get the chance to use the magnification it produces. 

Definitely a keeper, though.

[iPeace]

2 hours ago, David Hardie said:

Anyone else here got one who can give me their opinion?

The Nagler 3-6 Zoom is the eyepiece I've owned the longest. I also have the 2-4 version. They are such useful things with such great views that they tend to get welded into whichever diagonal. You have been warned.

As I've said before, my 3-6 Zoom is a lucky eyepiece. It's been on hand for those few, scant, unexpected occasions of excruciatingly short periods of perfect conditions and has done so well that I had no qualms releasing my grasp of wishing I had brought more or larger or 'better' kit along to wherever I happened to be.

May yours be as lucky as mine.

[Stu]

3 hours ago, David Hardie said:

One of my top items to find to view and photo is the Clavius Crater on the moon.

At 3mm in the Esprit that would be x350 and the field of view would be as shown. Could be very nice with good seeing.

[DirkSteele]

I own both the 3-6mm and 2-4mm and they are great.  They might give up just a tiny amount of performance (sharpness) to the very best fixed focal length EPs, but the ability to dial up the magnification in seconds during moments of exceptional seeing is incredibly useful, and for me, as international travel EPs they cannot be beaten.

 

[jock1958]

Bought mine a few months ago second hand and has become my most used high powered eyepiece since. 

The reassuring click between the different magnifications makes it a joy to use and you can easily back it off if the seeing is not up to par.

Had some excellent results last night around the Taurus-Littrow area of the moon where Apollo 17 landed.

[John]

You can use them in the focal lengths between the "click" stops as well

 

[jock1958]

2 hours ago, John said:

You can use them in the focal lengths between the "click" stops as well

 

Thanks John didn't know that. Off out soon as it's starting to get dark.

[John]

19 minutes ago, jock1958 said:

Thanks John didn't know that. Off out soon as it's starting to get dark.

Yes - I'm using my 2-4mm with my Tak 100 on the moon right now and very lovely it looks

[rwilkey]

On 11/04/2019 at 08:58, David Hardie said:

Anyone else here got one who can give me their opinion?

Hi David, yes, it's a proper little gem.  The AFoV of 50º does not matter when you are working at high powers.  The zoom is super-smooth and so easy to use, there are so many things you could say about this eyepiece!

[alan potts]

28 minutes ago, rwilkey said:

Hi David, yes, it's a proper little gem.  The AFoV of 50º does not matter when you are working at high powers.  The zoom is super-smooth and so easy to use, there are so many things you could say about this eyepiece!

I stand corrected Robin, I don't know why I thought it was 52 degree FOV, sitting in a case next to a 110 degree 3.7 and 4.7mm made it grow.

Alan