Explore Scientific 70° series anyone?

[thalatta]

Hello, just wondering if anyone has tested the Explore Scientific 70° series recently (the only reviews I saw were 10 years old and sparse).  I wonder if anyone would think thatn Explore Scientific 70° 30mm would be a nice competitor for an Explore Scientific 68° 24mm (the one that everyone raves about)?  Thanks

Shane

[John]

The ES 70's are not as well corrected as the 68's.

If your scope is F/8 or slower they work fine. In faster scopes the 68's are much better.

 

[thalatta]

My scope is an Orion XT6, so f/_ with 150 aperture and 1200 length.  So I suppose it would work well then on that?  I was tossing up between the ES70 30mm and waiting another two months for an ES68 24mm, or a cheaper Plossl 32mm. For the low power of course.

[John]

The ES 70 would be OK in that scope but not outstanding in any way. It is quite an old design - a 5 element modified Erfle. The 68 degree ES range is a more modern and sophisticated design which works well even in quite fast scopes - I used on in my F/5.3 12 inch dobsonian and it was pretty much sharp to the edge of the field.

I believe that the Bresser 70 degree eyepieces are the same as the ES 70's and the old Meade QX range are also the same.