Say hello to my little friend...

[A McEwan]

Tonight I was viewing Mars with my Swift 831. 77mm aperture, focal length of 1000mm, f13.

Seeing was excellent and I was able to "climb" through all my Orthoscopics and as each shorter focal length eyepiece popped into the diagonal, the views just got better and better. 18mm, 12.5mm, 9mm, 7mm, 6mm, 3.9mm.... 3.9mm?!?

Let me introduce you to my Siebert Starsplitter 3.9mm Modified Orthoscopic. 10mm eye relief, 60(-ish_ degree apparent field of view. I don;t use it very often, and when I do use it it'll be on a planet or a double star, but every time I use it I think I should tell the world about how great it is (and every time I forget).

So, here's the link: https://www.siebertoptics.com/SiebertOptics-Ortho page).html 

I bought mine many years ago when it was about $80. They're now $129 and would be worth every penny (/cent) for sharp comfortable high-power planetary views. My scope showed a little false colour tonight, and adding the SS 3.9 to the optical train did nothing to make it any worse, but the detail visible stayed very sharp and clear.

A "Hidden Gem"? "Sleeper eyepiece"? Definitely!   A bit rough & ready looking? "Agricultural" aesthetic? Sure, but don't judge an eyepiece by its exterior, I guess!  

Anybody else here enjoying their Siebert Starsplitter? I can't imagine I'm the only one?   

 

[markse68]

Interesting looking eyepiece! It’s very long for an ortho of that focal length- is it an abbe type optical layout or more like a super plossl? (plossls can also be and were actually patented as orthoscopic i think) Is that a brass barrel or just your white balance? 

Mark

[John]

I have read a bit about these eyepieces from Siebert. You don't see many on this side of the pond though.

 

 

 

[A McEwan]

9 hours ago, markse68 said:

Interesting looking eyepiece! It’s very long for an ortho of that focal length- is it an abbe type optical layout or more like a super plossl? (plossls can also be and were actually patented as orthoscopic i think) Is that a brass barrel or just your white balance? 

Mark

This is the blurb from the eyepiece page:  "This is an Enhanced Orthoscopic design that blends the best of the Abbe Ortho design with additional advanced features like ER and Large FOV." 

It seems to be a 5 element design, but I haven't disassembled it to find out the layout. The barrel is aluminium on mine, but the lighting made it look a bit brassy. You can have it in a brass barrel for an extra $50! 

 

 

[johninderby]

I wonder if their Planesphere Series live up to their hype? 🤔

https://www.siebertoptics.com/Planesphere.html

Astronomers have known for years that the best views of planets and close doubles are to be had with clear skies, a good 'scope and the proper eyepieces for the job.
For most that has meant Orthoscopics and Monocentrics. The idea is to ensure the best contrast and least scatter so critical for planetary viewing. To make this possible you must use good glass, high polish, and the fewest air/glass surfaces possible. As good as Orthos and Monocentrics are, however and they may have certain advantages,  they still have 3 or more elements within them. The Logical solution...... a spherical singlet lens. No multiple elements to reduce sharpness and contrast. On axis, these special lenses produce the sharpest images of planetary detail available anywhere....Period. 

Edited November 8, 2020 by johninderby

[A McEwan]

2 minutes ago, johninderby said:

I wonder if their Planesphere Series live up to their hype? 🤔

https://www.siebertoptics.com/Planesphere.html

Astronomers have known for years that the best views of planets and close doubles are to be had with clear skies, a good 'scope and the proper eyepieces for the job.
For most that has meant Orthoscopics and Monocentrics. The idea is to ensure the best contrast and least scatter so critical for planetary viewing. To make this possible you must use good glass, high polish, and the fewest air/glass surfaces possible. As good as Orthos and Monocentrics are, however and they may have certain advantages,  they still have 3 or more elements within them. The Logical solution...... a spherical singlet lens. No multiple elements to reduce sharpness and contrast. On axis, these special lenses produce the sharpest images of planetary detail available anywhere....Period. 

Look interesting, don't they!

[johninderby]

Little review here. It has good and bad points. 🤔

https://www.cloudynights.com/topic/636710-seibert-planisphere-eyepiece/

Edited November 8, 2020 by johninderby

[John]

These so called "ball" eyepieces have been discussed quite often on the Cloudynights forum. I seem to recall at least one member has made their own version as mentioned in that thread.

I do have an old Antares HD ortho 6mm which is missing it's lenses. If I can find a suitable glass ball I guess I could have a try

 

 

Edited November 8, 2020 by John

[markse68]

17 hours ago, John said:

These so called "ball" eyepieces have been discussed quite often on the Cloudynights forum. I seem to recall at least one member has made their own version as mentioned in that thread.

I do have an old Antares HD ortho 6mm which is missing it's lenses. If I can find a suitable glass ball I guess I could have a try

 

 

You can buy the balls from Edmund Scientific I think John. Would be interesting to read your review 😉

Mark

[markse68]

On the subject of weird eps- this from my ~1965 Fullerscope catalogue i just received- ah those were the days 😊 When was the last time you heard of a Tolles ep or saw one for sale? Does sound a bit hair shirt though

Mark

[Highburymark]

On 08/11/2020 at 10:19, John said:

These so called "ball" eyepieces have been discussed quite often on the Cloudynights forum. I seem to recall at least one member has made their own version as mentioned in that thread.

I do have an old Antares HD ortho 6mm which is missing it's lenses. If I can find a suitable glass ball I guess I could have a try

 

 

Supposed to be unbeatable on axis - but seeing as they have an afov of less than half an Abbé ortho there are compromises.....

[John]

10 hours ago, Highburymark said:

Supposed to be unbeatable on axis - but seeing as they have an afov of less than half an Abbé ortho there are compromises.....

Not going to be a lot of fun with my undriven / alt- az mounted scopes

The TMB Supermono 5mm was darned hard work ........

I'm all for a bit of observing comfort these days

[johninderby]

The lack of eye releif was a killer for me when I had the 4mm & 5mm Supermonos. Just made observing very uncomfortable. 🙁

[Peter Drew]

Nothing new here!  W Herschel used to make spherical eyepieces for high powers by dropping molten glass into water.  Over 60 years ago I made some singlet short focus eyepieces from the small lenses on the front of torch bulbs that were available at the time.     🙂

[Louis D]

On 08/11/2020 at 04:19, John said:

If I can find a suitable glass ball I guess I could have a try

On your side of the pond, you could try Zeiss spheres.

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

On 08/11/2020 at 10:59, johninderby said:

Little review here. It has good and bad points. 🤔

https://www.cloudynights.com/topic/636710-seibert-planisphere-eyepiece/

Interesting reading. What I really don't get is how many people rave about reducing the number of elements in an EP for better transmission, and then insert the resulting EP in a Barlow (or even tele-centric lens like a PowerMate) adding at least 2 elements. Yes, fewer elements reduces scatter, but also increases other aberrations and at very short focal lengths really require you to glue your eye to the lens. The very fact that the addition of the Barlow increases image quality as reported in the CN thread shows the aberration issue is real, especially for a 3x Barlow. This reduces the already moderate light cone of F/7 to F/14 or even F/21, which will of course reduce all other aberrations of the glass ball. I will stick to my XWs and Delos EPs

Back to the Siebert Optics (Super) Star Splitters: never heard of these. I wonder if the design is somehow related to Masuyamas, given the 5 element design. For myself, I am more tempted by their series of tele-centric Barlows, which come in lower magnifications than others (which all start at 2x), which could come in handy for planetary imaging

[George Tatsis]

Had five of them in the past and they were all great. They can easily put to shame the vast majority of the so called top tier planetary eyepieces. Since it's a five element eyepiece design with the two barlow/ smyth elements found at the bottom of the barrel,  I assume that the remaining elements are of the three element Konig design ,not Abbe ! I'm not an expert , but it makes more sense to me I guess.

https://www.handprint.com/ASTRO/ae5.html#konig

 

George