ES 68/34

[DeathWarpedUp]

With the lockdown and recent clear skies, and my house move finally sorted with a garden finally worthy  of even bothering to get my scope out. Im getting back into seeing whats out there.

I have a cpc 800 SCT and an old set of eyepeices, Ive also recently got the Hypersion zoom Mk 4. And Im looking for a decent widefield EP. Im contemplating the ES 86/34 as this seems the sweet spot for my scope (would a 68/40 be better, or an 82 Degree?), Ideally I want a 2" wide view.  Can anyone give their thoughts, alternatives and recommendations. Its obviously 8" F10. So I think ive done my homework, but i'm happy to be told otherwise. . Ideally any ideas for a money no object, then something around my price range (or cheaper but will still do the job) or slightly better ect. I'm sure you know the drill £200ish.

 

Thanks

Edited June 3, 2020 by DeathWarpedUp

[Louis D]

There's the TV Panoptic 41mm, TV Nagler T5 31mm, and TV Ethos 21mm for widest viewing at various magnifications, money no object.

There's the ES-68 40mm, ES-82 30mm, and ES-100 20mm for somewhat less money and somewhat less well corrected views.

There's the Maxvision 40mm and Meade 5000 40mm SWAs if you can find them used.  There's also the Meade 5000 UWA 30mm and Celestron Axiom LX 31mm at 82 degrees if you can find them used.  The APM XWA HDC 100 degree 20mm is also well reviewed.

At f/10, many of the sub-$100 70 to 80 degree 30mm to 40mm SWA eyepieces out there would probably work just fine.

For cheap, pick up a 50mm to 56mm Plossl for widest field viewing, but not widest apparent field of view (AFOV).

[DeathWarpedUp]

Thank you. This question may sound a bit dumb, as I may be way off the mark in my understanding regarding FoV. In the 68  34 vs 40. Is there much in the 40 that I couldnt see in the 34, I know the veil nebula is a monster ect so not even a 40  might get it all in. but as the ES stuff is generally wider viewing than some other Ep's of similar mag would a 34 be enough to cover most deep space stuff. Is the 40 in most scenarious simply able to see the star/space ect around the objectand the 34 is wide enough to see the whole of most objects, any experience with them anyone?

[John]

I've found the Aero ED 40mm 68 degree pretty good in my scopes that range from F/9.2 to F/6.5. I use Ethos 21 and Nagler 31 in my F/5.3 12 inch dob.

The Aero ED and clones are pretty light as well, for 2 inch wide fields.

In your scope a 40mm 68 shows you a true field of 1.36 degrees and the 34mm 68 1.16 degrees. The Veil, in it's entirety needs around 3.5 degrees but you might squeeze the E or W segment into the 40mm / 68 true field, just !

 

 

[DeathWarpedUp]

3 minutes ago, John said:

I've found the Aero ED 40mm 68 degree pretty good in my scopes that range from F/9.2 to F/6.5. I use Ethos 21 and Nagler 31 in my F/5.3 12 inch dob.

The Aero ED and clones are pretty light as well, for 2 inch wide fields.

In your scope a 40mm 68 shows you a true field of 1.36 degrees and the 34mm 68 1.16 degrees. The Veil, in it's entirety needs around 3.5 degrees but you might squeeze the E or W segment into the 40mm / 68 true field, just !

 

 

Thanks, the plan ultimately is to keep my EP collection pretty minimal and so im just looking for something that will give me a wide view sweet spot between fov and quality image. to compliement my Hyperion zoom Mk4 which as you know, narrows a bit at 24. As I said in my first post I was recomended a 68/34 for my scope, I just wonder how it compares with a 68/40  and similar ep's. Its so hard to know when you cant try this stuff out in a real setting.

[John]

12 minutes ago, DeathWarpedUp said:

...As I said in my first post I was recomended a 68/34 for my scope, I just wonder how it compares with a 68/40  and similar ep's. Its so hard to know when you cant try this stuff out in a real setting....

It is hard I agree. At F/10 though, your scope does not pose much of a challenge optically to eyepieces so you don't need to spend big bucks to get good performance.

My expectation would be that a 40 / 68 would perform pretty much the same as the 34 / 68 in your scope but the 40mm would show about 18% larger true field of view at a slightly lower magnification.

Edit: There is a 35mm Aero ED 68 as well by the way.

 

 

[DeathWarpedUp]

2 minutes ago, John said:

It is hard I agree. At F/10 though, your scope does not pose much of a challenge optically to eyepieces so you don't need to spend big bucks to get good performance.

My expectation would be that a 40 / 68 would perform pretty much the same as the 34 / 68 in your scope but the 40mm would show about 18% larger true field of view at a slightly lower magnification.

 

 

Thanks John, So in regards to the lower magnification, this should help (in theory) to improve the viewing of some nebula/DSO? Obviously as long as I stay within the realm of the f10 magnification capabilities. Even if only marginal for things like M81, the 40 would be better for teasing out detail, even if only minor?

[John]

Actually I find using more magnification helps to tease out more detail on DSO's. For some targets you need the max true field just to fit the thing in but for smaller ones I'm usually using 75x - 150x or more.

 

[DeathWarpedUp]

23 minutes ago, John said:

Actually I find using more magnification helps to tease out more detail on DSO's. For some targets you need the max true field just to fit the thing in but for smaller ones I'm usually using 75x - 150x or more.

 

Haha, thats just making my life harder Ok, so given the choice in my shoes with my scope what would you go for regarding getting the best out of dso's and nebula of all sizes and shapes for anything up to £200ish in a widefield taking into consideration, quality, ease of use ect 2" only.

 

Gun to your head time (No pressure) Anyone else want to play

Edited June 3, 2020 by DeathWarpedUp

[John]

I think your Baader zoom is the best tool for most of that complimented by a fixed focal length 2 inch. Any of the ones suggested would be good.

I would also want decent quality UHC and O-III filters for the nebulae so another £200 needed there

[Don Pensack]

I found the 34mm 68° Explore Scientific had the least light scatter control of the entire series, with a veiling glare across the field

when any bright star was outside the field.  The 40mm is better in that regard, though I would rather get a used TeleVue Panoptic 41mm than a new ES 40mm x 68°

Another possible lowest power eyepiece, and with a larger exit pupil for an overall brighter image, would be a 55-56mm Plössl.

John and I agree, though, that generally, most DSOs look better with a little MORE magnification, not LESS.

So it's not at all unusual to use a 35mm eyepiece as a low power in an SCT, especially when a 40-41mm (or longer) may reveal vignetting in the instrument.

So, some good possibilities for lowest power:

Baader: 31mm Hyperion Aspheric.  Not good at short f/ratios, it does OK at f/10

Explore Scientific: 30mm 82°

TeleVue: 35mm Panoptic, 31mm Nagler

Pentax: 30mm XW

APM: 30mm Ultra Flat field (also available from Altair)

These all keep the exit pupil at at least 3mm.

Edited June 3, 2020 by Don Pensack

[DeathWarpedUp]

Thank you both.

Still looking, however based on both your comments regarding a little more is better than a little less im still researching and starting to think about the Altair 30 as an option, some nice write ups and the cost is a smidge nicer

[Adrian]

With an f10 SCT you don't necessarily need to fork out for the premium glass. I used to have a Panaview 38mm as my wide/finder. I loved the comfortable "facecup" and easy viewing, and in an f10 10" SCT the views were pretty good. 

I upgraded to an Axiom LX 31mm, which was immense and beautiful, but I never quite gelled with in the same way. 

I currently have a Max vision 34/68, which is also good (but I still miss the big front lens of the Panaview), and a cheap 42/68ish, which doesn't get used for long - it really doesn't make the view that much wider. 

[Louis D]

4 hours ago, DeathWarpedUp said:

Thank you both.

Still looking, however based on both your comments regarding a little more is better than a little less im still researching and starting to think about the Altair 30 as an option, some nice write ups and the cost is a smidge nicer

The Altair 30mm Ultraflat, of which I have the APM UFF version, is exceptionally sharp in my f/12 127 Mak.