TeleVue - a VERY brief first light

[niallk]

13T6 Nagler 

16mm is your most used: the Nagler has 82deg afov - if the 16mm has 13/16×82° = 66° afov or less, the 13T6 is a win, plus darker background sky.

The 13T6 was my first TV, and I saw strong green colour in M42 for the first time with it (and every time I use it; admittedly I was using cheap TS plossls beforehand).

But be warned about the slippery expensive slope... seriously.   Don't look through an Ethos at a star party 😂

[parallaxerr]

Last night I had the opportunity, albeit very brief, to try out the my new TeleVue eyepieces, well one of them anyway.

Cloud was broken but fast moving, so over the space of about 30 minutes, I managed to make a reasonable comparison between the Nagler 16T5 and the Baader zoom at the 16mm setting, mostly cruising around Cygnus with the intention of viewing the Veil again, after recently seeing it for the first time.

It was immediately obvious what all the fuss is about with respect to edge of field correction. In my F7 refractor, allowing 52cyg to drift across the Fov, I could see no SA whatsoever in the Nagler with stars remaining in tight focus right to the edge. In contrast the Baader zoom falls off a fair bit, despite having a smaller FoV at the same focal length.

I have been quite content with the zoom for some time, but further abberations were highlighted after viewing with the Nagler. Mainly that the zoom presents a somewhat "grainy" image and that there is distinct EOFB. The zoom however is more comfortable when trying to take in the whole FoV with the Nagler demanding much closer eye placement resulting in the brushing of eye lashes.

I had previously planned on picking up a 24mm Panoptic specifically for viewing the Veil nebula. I found the Veil visible in my 32mm plossl, but there was not quite enough contrast, even when filtered. I tried the 24mm setting of the zoom on the Veil with UHC/OIII filters and the slightly darker background sky did indeed allow me to see more detail, especially in the Western element. Interestingly the 16T5 presented a very close image suggesting noticeably superior transmission to the zoom! 

Then the thick cloud rolled in and proceedings came to an end. A very positive first impression though!

[Louis D]

@parallaxerrThat's a mighty slippery slope you're heading down.  You better watch your wallet carefully.  I've got thousands of dollars tied up in eyepieces, and I'm no where close to done. 😁

[bomberbaz]

Not been coming on here much, real life and all that. Saw this dating back to beginning of year and thought I would throw in my own views on the Nikon Nav's.

Had both the 17 and 12.5mm Nikon's for about 3 or 4 years now, memory and age thing, sorry can't remembere exactly. 

Anyway, I would not swap them for anything currently on the market or indeed, at all.  I use a F4.7 dob and a cheapish revelation coma corrector is attached when using the 17mm both with and without EiC fitted, the views are perfect. 

I also use a dioptrix on the 17mm only due to astigmatism, this fits good and tidies up my astigmatism. On the 12.5mm the exit pupil is well under 3mm and so astigmatism does not really cause a problem nor does it need a CC. 

With the EiC's and a 2x TV powermate plus the aforementioned extras I effectively have 8 ultrawide gorgeous pieces of glass giving superb views that covers most viewing needs. 

I do also have a a 26mm Nagler for lower power viewing needing a little more FOV but to be honest, the 17mm Nikon has become my workhorse and is generally the first eyepiece I reach for. 

[Paz]

On 29/08/2019 at 13:20, John said:

If you have OCD getting involved with Tele Vue can be a very expensive past time though

I think I have this problem. I have almost a full set of Delos except for the 14mm which I didn't think I needed. But when a 14mm came up for sale recently I very nearly went for it just to avoid having a gap in a set. The thing that made me pause was that the end cap has changed design and I don't want an odd one out in my set. That's quite bad I know.

[John]

47 minutes ago, Paz said:

I think I have this problem. I have almost a full set of Delos except for the 14mm which I didn't think I needed. But when a 14mm came up for sale recently I very nearly went for it just to avoid having a gap in a set. The thing that made me pause was that the end cap has changed design and I don't want an odd one out in my set. That's quite bad I know.

I've been there with the TV Naglers and the Plossls owning full sets of those for a while. But I also don't like to see an expensive piece of kit not getting used so that overcame the desire to hold on to full sets.

Incidently the 17.3 and 14mm Delos are not par-focal with the others in that range. For me thats good because it means that they fit nicely with my Pentax XW's and are close to par focal with them but I know that it does slightly annoy those who have full sets of Delos.

I said to my other half just a while back that I didn't think that I was OCD with my eyepieces these days. She gave me a funny look and said "Really ???"