Is my eyepiece set complete?

[Dantooine]

Over the course of this year I’ve bought way too many eyepieces. I’ve mainly done this to try them out as it’s my only way of seeing which ones I like. The thrill of the chase maybe.. I use a 102ed f7 refractor and would like peoples thoughts on my minimalist set of ep’s.. is my set complete and will they cover most of what’s visible in my manual set up?

Dale. 

[Alan White]

Dale

That looks quite complete for the scope you list, nice glass.
I won't mention undercuts...ooops I just did🤣

A serious question, how do you get on with balance, that is all chunky glass? 

Oh and well done for not suggesting, this is my eyepiece set done...... it never washes in the end.

Edited July 29, 2020 by Alan White

[Ruud]

Hi Dale, your collection is not exactly complete, but you made a good start.

[John]

It's a really great set but ......

I would go for a 21mm Ethos instead of the 27mm Panoptic and I would want something shorter for good seeing conditions so why not the 3.7 Ethos as well.

Might as well make it all Ethos

(well you did ask !)

 

[Dantooine]

32 minutes ago, Alan White said:

Dale

That looks quite complete for the scope you list, nice glass.
I won't mention undercuts...ooops I just did🤣

A serious question, how do you get on with balance, that is all chunky glass? 

Oh and well done for not suggesting, this is my eyepiece set done...... it never washes in the end.

Alan, 

The under cuts really don’t bother me. They seem ok on a 2” click lock. I’m not sure the type of focuser they catch with but mine seems fine. 
 

As for your question about “chunky glass”, basically I’ve completely gone over to 2” as I feel they are more secure. The weight balance was another reason for my choices believe or not. 
 

all the above are fairly closely weighted, the 6E & 8E are 15.5oz, the pan 27 is 16.4oz and the 13E & 4.7E are both 20.8oz. They are all within approximately 5oz so for me it works quite well. 
 

Dale. 

[vlaiv]

I second addition of something in 17-21mm FL - you want around 2.5 - 3 mm exit pupil for deep sky ...

[Dantooine]

9 minutes ago, John said:

It's a really great set but ......

I would go for a 21mm Ethos instead of the 27mm Panoptic and I would want something shorter for good seeing conditions so why not the 3.7 Ethos as well.

Might as well make it all Ethos

(well you did ask !)

 

I did consider the 21 ethos however, the panoptic is about £500 less, but the main reason was the 21 ethos is around 20oz more weight than the 6 & 8. This would have gone against my ideas about weight range. 
 

I am very pleased with the panoptic 27 and gives me a good bright field. The 13 is definitely the favourite and I have a Delos 3.5 if mars shows its face. 
 

Dale. 

[Dantooine]

1 minute ago, vlaiv said:

I second addition of something in 17-21mm FL - you want around 2.5 - 3 mm exit pupil for deep sky ...

Hoping my panoptic 27 will do that for me. It gives me a 3.85mm exit but less field. 

[John]

My favourite sight with my 102mm F/6.5 ED refractor is the whole of the Veil Nebula. You need around 3.5 degrees of true field to fit that in. 

 

[Dantooine]

53 minutes ago, John said:

My favourite sight with my 102mm F/6.5 ED refractor is the whole of the Veil Nebula. You need around 3.5 degrees of true field to fit that in. 

 

That’ll be your Nagler 31 🤔

[Dantooine]

2 hours ago, Ruud said:

Hi Dale, your collection is not exactly complete, but you made a good start.

So what in your opinion is missing?

[Louis D]

3 hours ago, Dantooine said:

I did consider the 21 ethos however, the panoptic is about £500 less, but the main reason was the 21 ethos is around 20oz more weight than the 6 & 8. This would have gone against my ideas about weight range. 

The 20mm APM XWA is a bit less porky at 23.9 oz. versus 36 oz. for the 21mm Ethos.  It's also considerably cheaper and within 90% of the performance of the Ethos.  Probably stray light control is the biggest difference.  TV really pays attention to the details.

[garryblueboy]

10 hours ago, Louis D said:

The 20mm APM XWA is a bit less porky at 23.9 oz. versus 36 oz. for the 21mm Ethos.  It's also considerably cheaper and within 90% of the performance of the Ethos.  Probably stray light control is the biggest difference.  TV really pays attention to the details.

I have the Myriad version and it’s a close runner to the 21 Ethos at £500 less I must admit I like the Panoptics range they offer nice crisp clean views I tend to use them more than 100° ones I have and even the Delos I have 

[John]

13 hours ago, Dantooine said:

That’ll be your Nagler 31 🤔

Yes.

As @garryblueboy says above though, the Panoptics are fine eyepieces. You do need to draw a line somewhere especially as this is supposed to be a "minimalist" set.

Otherwise we would all have full sets of Ethos, a Docter 12.5mm, A couple of Nikon NAV HW's, a set of Delos, a set of Zeiss ZAO II's and a Leica ASPH zoom and VIP barlow so we have every situation covered to the highest possible standard

Actually I think one or two members might have already reached that point ........    

My "minimalist set" is a zoom, a barlow and a 25mm 58 degree fixed focal length. Total cost around £100 I suspect

[mikeDnight]

14 hours ago, Dantooine said:

So what in your opinion is missing?

[Dantooine]

Very sweet high power. How often do you get to use the 1.6mm? Must be something special when you get the right night. 

[mikeDnight]

When observing double stars the 1.6mm, which gives 500X on my 100mm F8 is really very nice, and can be used surprisingly often. It needs to be an excellent night for it to be used effectively on the Moon. Venus is something else when a thin crescent at 500X. The only other planet's that I think might benefit from it would be Mars when its below 5 arc seconds and Mercury. I did use it once with a 2X barlow giving 1000X while studying a close double. The view was very good but the limit of comfortable viewing, and the mount needs to be able to track. But the others in the range get much more use.

[Dantooine]

Sounds very interesting. What do you think would be my limits on say mars with a 102ed-r f7 with that type of eyepiece?

[John]

I think Mikes scope has something to do with it

[Dantooine]

1 hour ago, John said:

I think Mikes scope has something to do with it

Good.. I don’t need anyone temptations, it’s quite a challenge to keep a minimalist setup. 

[Mr niall]

In what universe is upwards of £2500 worth of eyepieces minimalist 🤣

I've got three plossls, and really debated if I needed the third!

[Dantooine]

😎minimalist in number of eyepieces. My line of thinking is, I won’t be tempted to ad to it as they would go well in pretty much any future telescope. Been a tough ol’ year with no time off and to be honest there are people that spend that on alcohol. But yes it a fair amount but I’ve given my wife the amount on each one I’ve bought so my I don’t feel guilty 👍

[Mr niall]

7 minutes ago, Dantooine said:

😎minimalist in number of eyepieces. My line of thinking is, I won’t be tempted to ad to it as they would go well in pretty much any future telescope. Been a tough ol’ year with no time off and to be honest there are people that spend that on alcohol. But yes it a fair amount but I’ve given my wife the amount on each one I’ve bought so my I don’t feel guilty 👍

Ha ha apologies I was just being flippant no offense meant, I do not doubt they are worth every penny and are quality items. And yes I totally agree "eyepiece creep" ends up costing more in the long run than buying well at the start so I cant fault you. I just wouldn't call it minimalist 😉

But I'm with @John, you are staring straight down the barrel of a "wouldnt it be nice if I had all the Ethos" type conundrum in the near future!  I hate to say it but I also feel the 3.7 would complement your existing collection nicely.

Edited July 30, 2020 by Mr niall

[Dantooine]

😭none taken

i have a Delos 3.5 under the bed so will give the 3.7 a miss. The nice thing about my “minimalist” set is they are quite close in weight. I’ve tried to build a good set for my small telescope so I can grab quick sessions when I get the chance. More observing.. less setting up. 

[Paul73]

Looks like a complete set to me!

As good as money in the bank. If it all goes wrong you can always sell up and slum it with a set of Delos.... 

Don’t blame you for baulking at the 21E. A very fine eyepiece, but the there are limits.

Paul