Need a bit of help choosing an eyepiece ...

[vlaiv]

Due to situation I'm somewhat constrained in astro spending lately. B-day is coming up soon, so that is perfect excuse to get some new astro gear

I'm struggling to make a choice between two contenders, and I'll give my "pros" and "cons" so far, but would like help of collective wisdom

I want EP around 5mm. Don't need to be very wide field, I'm perfectly happy with about 60 degrees of AFOV. Does not need to be really long eye relief - 12-13mm and upwards is fine. Would like it to be sharp - as sharp as can be for my intended budget, and over much of the field. It's going to be high power eyepiece, so attention to light scatter / ghosting / easy eye positioning and all those nice things is a bonus.

Intended scopes will be 8" F/6 dob and F/10 4" achromat. I prefer EP only vs EP + barlow.

My contenders are ES 5.5mm 62deg and 5mm TS HR planetary at the moment - so this gives you idea of what sort of budget is allocated for this - sub $100.

My main concern with ES offering is that it is probably best in that line and there are no other FLs that would be interesting to me in this line - next is 9mm and that is FL that I would not consider. In fact in the long run I would be interested in range between 3mm and 7mm for high power viewing.

This is why TS HR line is interesting - it sort of ticks the right boxes. It is 58 degrees, good ER, scopes are not very demanding in terms of edge performance, it has my range of interest covered with focal lengths (3.2, 4, 5, 6, 7) ... but there is a problem - past experience. Although TS HR line is said to be the best of TMB planetary like EPs I do own one such EP, I believe by SkyWatcher and it is not performing to my liking. It's got a bit of ghosting, there is quite a bit of scatter and sharpness is lower than I would like.

I guess I'm spoiled by ES 11mm 82 in terms of sharpness - that is level of sharpness I would like in high power EP.

Another option that I might consider, but that one is based on trying something novel rather than going for known things -  TS HR zoom 7.2 - 21.5mm that I would pair with GSO x2 barlow nose piece (at approx x1.5) to give me something like 4.8mm-15mm. Problem of course is narrower field of view. Both scopes are ALT-AZ without tracking.

What is your take on all of that?

 

[Louis D]

There's the 5mm Vixen SLV which would have a narrower than 60 degree field of view, but plenty of sharpness and eye relief.  It's a bit expensive for your budget, but maybe one might turn up used?  There's also the older LV and NLV to watch out for as well in the classifieds.

[Piero]

I would also consider the SLV as Louis suggested. Great eyepiece!

[paul mc c]

I owned a 7mm TS HR eyepiece which give me probably the best views i ever had of Saturn,easily as good as my BGO,dont know why i did not replace it.....actually lost the eyepiece.

[vlaiv]

1 hour ago, Louis D said:

There's the 5mm Vixen SLV which would have a narrower than 60 degree field of view, but plenty of sharpness and eye relief.  It's a bit expensive for your budget, but maybe one might turn up used?  There's also the older LV and NLV to watch out for as well in the classifieds.

I did consider SLVs but at that price - it's close to ES 82 line, and you see where that leads ...

Unfortunately, second hand EP market here where I am is almost non existent and getting them from abroad puts additional strain on both seller - shipping internationally and also on me as I might have problems with customs (no original invoice so they are free to "judge" value of item themselves which involves quick lookup online and I would probably end up paying import fees calculated based on price of new item).

I've also read that they are closer to 45 degrees AFOV then 50 - and that would be a bit too narrow for me as both scopes are manually tracked, probably not an issue if one is using motorized mount.

5 minutes ago, paul mc c said:

I owned a 7mm TS HR eyepiece which give me probably the best views i ever had of Saturn,easily as good as my BGO,dont know why i did not replace it.....actually lost the eyepiece.

This is quite reassuring, what scope did you use it with?

[paul mc c]

8" sct and a 12" f5.3 dob,really good value.

 

[Louis D]

There's also the 4.5mm Meade HD-60 and 5mm Starguider BST (Paradigm) if budget is an issue, at least in the US.  I have both and they are very close to my 5.2mm Pentax XL in sharpness.  The Starguider has some overall field of view brightening which wouldn't be a huge issue for planetary viewing.  It's also a bit finicky to find best focus.

I really like the 6.5mm Meade HD-60.  It is just about the same view-wise as my 7mm Pentax XW.  There's very little to choose between them other than field stop sharpness.

Here's the FOV images I took of both lines:

[vlaiv]

35 minutes ago, Louis D said:

There's also the 4.5mm Meade HD-60 and 5mm Starguider BST (Paradigm) if budget is an issue, at least in the US.

While BSTs are an option in my budget range, Meade offering here costs as much as Vixen SLV so over budget. Since ER is not such an issue for me, I would rather choose ES62 5.5mm over Meade. Going by what I've read, they should at least be equal in performance or ES62 might be even ahead, and in my case getting ES62 would be about $50 cheaper then Meade!

 

[Ricochet]

I think it is suspected that the Celestron Xcel LX is the same as the Meade HD 60 of those are any cheaper. I'm not really sure why I sold my 7mm, someone got a bargain there. 

[vlaiv]

7 minutes ago, Ricochet said:

I think it is suspected that the Celestron Xcel LX is the same as the Meade HD 60 of those are any cheaper. I'm not really sure why I sold my 7mm, someone got a bargain there. 

That is a good point - XCels have very good price at FLO and one of those would cost me about the same as TS HR eyepiece. They have two focal lengths in my range of interest.

I did read sometimes that they had QC issues - like dirt inside, but I guess that is now sorted out. On the other hand I do wonder about sharpness compared to those I listed as potential purchase.

[Ricochet]

40 minutes ago, vlaiv said:

That is a good point - XCels have very good price at FLO and one of those would cost me about the same as TS HR eyepiece. They have two focal lengths in my range of interest.

I did read sometimes that they had QC issues - like dirt inside, but I guess that is now sorted out. On the other hand I do wonder about sharpness compared to those I listed as potential purchase.

Yes, I read about issues with specks of paint falling on internal lenses. All I can say is that the one 7mm I owned had no such issues and as an eyepiece I preferred it to the 8mm BST Starguider. The "Planetary" eyepieces are also BSTs and I see no reason why they would have better coatings than the generally more expensive Starguider line, which also shows the ghosting issues you remember from your previous "Skywatcher" branded Planetary so I suspect that still stands with the TS ones. I don't remember ghosting in the Xcel LX but it might also be there as my eye was less critical when I owned it.

[jetstream]

21 hours ago, vlaiv said:

I want EP around 5mm

These Long Perng 55 deg eyepieces are under rated IMO, they are sold as Williams Optics SPL, Orion Edge On, Zhumell planetary, Stellarvue planetary etc. The Orion Edge on is $99 USD and easily available. These are sharp low scatter eyepieces.

[Louis D]

Found a European supplier of those 55 degree eyepieces under the Omegon brand.  I've never looked through one, so I can't comment on their relative merits.

[jetstream]

3 hours ago, Louis D said:

Found a European supplier of those 55 degree eyepieces under the Omegon brand.  I've never looked through one, so I can't comment on their relative merits.

Nice eyerelief, and perform better than their price point.