Ethos + power mate?

[Dantooine]

Hi,

can anyone give me their experiences with using 8 & 6mm ethos with a 2x powermate? 
 

do you get the 100 deg  and same eye relief etc? 
 

Im looking into this as it may be a good way of getting some nice high power options with my 102 f7 frac  

It would be good to have the views/experiences of people doing this and would be very appreciated. 
 

Dale. 

[John]

They work superbly together. The effect is simply to create a 100 degree 4mm or 3mm eyepiece. No other impact of havng the Powermate there other than that and the additional weight and length to the stack.

Eye relief does not change either.

Certainly a lot less expensive than the Ethos SX 4.7 and 3.7

[Dantooine]

Sounds like a plan. I have the 4.7 that gives me 151X so the powermate would yield 178 & 238x with the 6&8, that’s about as far as I could push my little baby I would think.

The 6&8 are fairly short anyway so would probably only be as long as the 13 in length, just a tad more heavy.

Two high power mags with nice steps up at half the price of the 3.7. 

Thanks John you are a ⭐️ 

Dale. 

[niallk]

As John says!

[Don Pensack]

My lifetime-best view of Jupiter (looked like an image from Damian Peach or Christopher Go) was with

a 2X PowerMate + Paracorr + 8mm Ethos at 456x.

Simply too much detail to draw.  There was a knotty white swirl inside the GRS, and many small storms and swirls everywhere.

The entire polar region looked like a grey-green honeycomb of swirls, storms, and lines.

That was 18 lenses (!) in the focuser, but no issue with sharpness or contrast.

We are at the mercy of the atmosphere, I'm afraid.  In comparison, the lenses in the focuser almost don't matter.

[Dantooine]

1 hour ago, Don Pensack said:

My lifetime-best view of Jupiter (looked like an image from Damian Peach or Christopher Go) was with

a 2X PowerMate + Paracorr + 8mm Ethos at 456x.

Simply too much detail to draw.  There was a knotty white swirl inside the GRS, and many small storms and swirls everywhere.

The entire polar region looked like a grey-green honeycomb of swirls, storms, and lines.

That was 18 lenses (!) in the focuser, but no issue with sharpness or contrast.

We are at the mercy of the atmosphere, I'm afraid.  In comparison, the lenses in the focuser almost don't matter.

Although at much lower mags for me, I quite agree. I’ve had the same targets on many different nights when I think the conditions look the same but when it comes to looking the views are very different.
It makes me look back and appreciate previous evenings in the hope to hit the jackpot again.

This for me is what makes me do a quick setup when I get the opportunity, just in case I miss out on something I could have seen it than a previous attempt better.
 

I could get a bigger telescope and maybe make things easier but for me it’s the challenge of the 4 inch that drives me on. Also the ability to jump in on conditions that with a bigger setup I may shy away from because of the timescales involved.
Sort of a justified “laziness”. 
😉

 

[Stardaze]

It’s good to know as I might do the same for the higher powers. Which frac have you out of interest?

[Dantooine]

27 minutes ago, Stardaze said:

It’s good to know as I might do the same for the higher powers. Which frac have you out of interest?

Altair 102ed-r

[Dantooine]

On 16/08/2020 at 17:28, John said:

They work superbly together. The effect is simply to create a 100 degree 4mm or 3mm eyepiece. No other impact of havng the Powermate there other than that and the additional weight and length to the stack.

Eye relief does not change either.

Certainly a lot less expensive than the Ethos SX 4.7 and 3.7

Just a quickie,

is there a price justification on performance either the 2” poweremate and the ES 2” focal extender? 

[John]

On 18/08/2020 at 21:39, Dantooine said:

Just a quickie,

is there a price justification on performance either the 2” poweremate and the ES 2” focal extender? 

Sorry for the delayed reply.

I have not used the ES 2" focal extender but I have used the 1.25" inch version and found it's performance very good. I'd hesitate to say that it is 100% as good as a Powermate but it must be 90% of the way there. I would expect the 2" version to be similar.

 

[Don Pensack]

On 18/08/2020 at 13:39, Dantooine said:

Just a quickie,

is there a price justification on performance either the 2” poweremate and the ES 2” focal extender? 

Two main differences:

1) the ES doesn't suppress scattered light to the degree the PowerMate does

2) the ES Focal Extender is not parfocal with the eyepiece when added, so you need to have a bit of extra focus range to accommodate it.  The PowerMate is closer to parfocal with the eyepiece used alone.

[Dantooine]

Thank you for your reply. I can feel my arm being twisted for the additional price. May as well get it right. 

[RickEm]

I use a 2x 2” Powermate with my Ethos 6mm to get 180x in my NP-101.  The result is terrific.

[Dantooine]

Well I ended up getting an Antares 1.6x for my ethos. Deciding factors were it’s smaller in size and weight and gives me a really good spread of magnifications. It’s almost like having 2 sets of eyepieces the way it pans the mags out. It’s rated quite well on here so I thought I would give it a try. 

[Rob_UK_SE]

1 hour ago, Dantooine said:

Well I ended up getting an Antares 1.6x for my ethos. Deciding factors were it’s smaller in size and weight and gives me a really good spread of magnifications. It’s almost like having 2 sets of eyepieces the way it pans the mags out. It’s rated quite well on here so I thought I would give it a try. 

Have you had an opportunity to try out the barlow yet, Dale?

[Dantooine]

22 minutes ago, Rob_UK_SE said:

Have you had an opportunity to try out the barlow yet, Dale?

Nope. Wish I had it yesterday as I had some planets on display. I popped it in the diagonal and it doesn’t stick out a long way even with an 13E. Really can’t wait to see what it’s capable of. 

[RickEm]

On 02/09/2020 at 15:19, Dantooine said:

Well I ended up getting an Antares 1.6x for my ethos. Deciding factors were it’s smaller in size and weight and gives me a really good spread of magnifications. It’s almost like having 2 sets of eyepieces the way it pans the mags out. It’s rated quite well on here so I thought I would give it a try. 

Amusingly, I own both the Antares 1.6x and the Powermate 2x.  Each has its place.

[Dantooine]

3 hours ago, RickEm said:

Amusingly, I own both the Antares 1.6x and the Powermate 2x.  Each has its place.

I will probably end up the same in the long run. There’s always the next purchase eating away at you with the “what if”. How do you get in with the Antares? Will it do me justice?

Edited September 4, 2020 by Dantooine

[RickEm]

It’s quite good; I think you’ll like it.

[Dantooine]

On 02/09/2020 at 20:28, Rob_UK_SE said:

Have you had an opportunity to try out the barlow yet, Dale?

Rob, just had an hour with the Antares. Very pleased with it. It’s like I have just got some new high power eyepieces.

I put the barlow in and stayed with it for the whole session starting with the 13E, that was nice at 88x. 

It was great with the 8 & 6E too giving me 142 & 190x. This was the maximum I could reliably get tonight on planets however I managed good views at 241x on the moon with 4.7 ethos.

I’m happy with 190x as my normal viewing maximum for sure and all in all very happy with the extra magnifications the Antares is giving me for very little expense. Money well spent. 
 

[Dantooine]

On 04/09/2020 at 22:57, RickEm said:

It’s quite good; I think you’ll like it.

Yes I do like it. Gives me so much more. 

[Rob_UK_SE]

7 hours ago, Dantooine said:

Rob, just had an hour with the Antares. Very pleased with it. It’s like I have just got some new high power eyepieces.

I put the barlow in and stayed with it for the whole session starting with the 13E, that was nice at 88x. 

It was great with the 8 & 6E too giving me 142 & 190x. This was the maximum I could reliably get tonight on planets however I managed good views at 241x on the moon with 4.7 ethos.

I’m happy with 190x as my normal viewing maximum for sure and all in all very happy with the extra magnifications the Antares is giving me for very little expense. Money well spent. 
 

Great to hear that all of your eyepieces reached focus with the barlow. It sounds like you have those planetary optimum (magnification) ranges covered. Considering our UK skies, 190x will see more frequent use than 200x and above anyway. I usually settle a little lower (150x) for Jupiter. Your 8E + barlow has that territory covered too.

I haven’t observed through an Ethos SX yet (I’m slightly concerned about what might happen if I do!), but I am very intrigued by Al Nagler’s “Spacewalk experience” they are said to provide. I am sure you had wonderful views last night with your 4.7E as the lunar phase was quite lovely. Did you sweep over to Mars from the moon? I was very tempted to leave the scope setup outside and get up early as they were such a close pair (regrettably, I ended up not doing so).

How did you get on holding your eye position with the Ethos + barlow (thinking back to the “eyepiece cups up or down” thread)? Was the additional eye relief noticeable / comfortable?

Edited September 6, 2020 by Rob_UK_SE

[John]

I'm pleased that you like the Antares barlow and that it obviously reaches focus find with your scopes and eyepieces

The last one that I tried had a slightly different design from the one that you have bought and I think that was the reason for my focus woes. It's good that Antares have re-packaged what is a fine barlow optic so that it can be used in a wider range of scopes.

I might have to think about getting one of the new designs

This is the design that I last used:

The above seemed to use far too much inwards focuser movement. Obviously the new body design that you have has addressed that

 

[Dantooine]

3 hours ago, Rob_UK_SE said:

190x will see more frequent use than 200x and above anyway. I usually settle a little lower (150x) for Jupiter. Your 8E + barlow has that territory covered too.

190X was very good and I’m happy to top out at that magnificent to be honest. I also tried an es5.5 at 207x, this worked well too.
The 4.7e gives 151x so I have a selection of close planetary options there for good nights. To be honest I preferred the 8e + barlow at 142x last night More so than the 4.7 on its own. Almost to the point that makes me think it may become a little redundant believe it or not.
The nicest thing is the ease of picking up targets manually with 100 degrees at these higher magnifications.
i tried the eye cups up and down on the 4.7 and coped well with both. I have eyepiece extenders on the 6 & 8 and this was good for me too.
To be honest the eye relief difference in distance was hardly noticeable which surprised me a lot. It may account for 1mm but I was quite excited and didn’t really consider it at the time, next time I will concentrate on this but last night the views took over my thinking. 

[Dantooine]

2 hours ago, John said:

I'm pleased that you like the Antares barlow and that it obviously reaches focus find with your scopes and eyepieces

The last one that I tried had a slightly different design from the one that you have bought and I think that was the reason for my focus woes. It's good that Antares have re-packaged what is a fine barlow optic so that it can be used in a wider range of scopes.

I might have to think about getting one of the new designs

This is the design that I last used:

The above seemed to use far too much inwards focuser movement. Obviously the new body design that you have has addressed that

 

John

The twist lock on the Antares is flawless and smooth in operation. Nice sharp cut in the milling that’s a good grip. I wondered how this would be only having the sales photograph to look at before buying thinking maybe it would be hard to grip so close to the main body but they have really got the design right. 

In use, you don’t know it’s there. After a few minutes it just became part of the diagonal which was amazing. There’s hardly any weight to it if you are used to using bigger eyepieces (2”). 
This barlow is cheap for what you get and has made me as happy as buying a new expensive eyepiece.

I originally didn’t want to use Barlows as I didn’t want to be putting them in and out of the diagonal all night, but now, wow!

The way I intend to use it is as two separate eyepiece sets:-

set one 

26, 55, 89, 119, 130 & 151 

set two (barlowed)

41, 88, 142, 190, 207 & 241

the 130 & 207 are Es 5.5/100

If I stick to this system or not time will tell but I gives me something good to work with I believe and am no longer even considering a powermate. 

My only debate with myself now is a single filter or not for planetary use.