Show us your vintage eyepieces..

[F15Rules]

A quiet few hours here, so I thought it would be interesting to see if there's an appetite to share with others some pics of your vintage (shall we say pre-2000) eyepieces?

I'm sure many of us have older eyepieces that we have kept, or even sought out, despite the plethora of wonderful more modern eyepieces available to us nowadays?

To get us started, here is my little gathering of older EPs..

A selection of 6 Carton Japan eyepieces, 3 in 0.965" barrels and 3 in 1.25" format. All have smooth barrels, which I much prefer. I know the 0.965" ones date from the mid 1980s, and I strongly suspect the 1.25" trio also date from the late '80s to early 90s.

From left to right at the back..

10.5mm Gen 65 degrees - a wonderful compact eyepiece which supplanted my lovely Pentax XL 10.5mm only because of its compactness. Identical views to the Pentax, but less eye relief, c 11-12mm Vs 20mm in the Pentax.

7-21mm Gen zoom. Exact fov not shown, but I'd say c40 degrees at 21mm up to c 60 Deg at 7mm. It also barlows well with my Hyperion zoom 2.25x barlow.

I've never seen another one of these. I think originally designed for spotting scopes, but an excellent little performer on the night sky..similar views to a Baader zoom.

28mm 55 degree field. A lovely, sharp low power eyepiece with excellent contrast.

Front row, left to right..

9mm, 12.5mm and 20mm HM eyepieces in 0.965" barrels.

This trio came to me recently with my Carton 60mm refractor..although 0.965" eyepieces are often looked down upon, there is no real reason why such a design can't deliver great views..some major brands like Pentax, Takahashi and Zeiss made 0.965" EPs that command high prices even today.

These HM (Huygens Mittenzwny) designed units deliver nice, sharp and contrasty views..they just have a smaller field of view, at an estimated 40 degrees or so, with smaller eyelenses and shorter eye relief. The build on them is excellent, with heavy chromed brass barrels.

Finally, I recently acquired an older Nagler Type 2 12mm which I believe dates to the late 1990s..well used, but still a fantastic eyepiece with 82 Deg fov. I got a lovely view of the recent conjunction with this. Shown next to a Morpheus 17.5mm for scale - but it's a good deal heavier than the Morpheus!

Thanks for reading, and I'm really looking forward to seeing a variety of interesting older EPs being shown to us all..😊.

Dave

Edited December 24, 2020 by F15Rules

[Mr Spock]

A couple of 0.965" Kellners from the '70s. I have a similar 4mm Ortho somewhere in the house along with a 40mm AH.

[markse68]

I’ve collected a few vintage eps now but these are the ones that are in regular use- the XL40 is my finder ep, the mismatched czj orthos are lovely and get used all the time. The 4.8 nagler doesn’t get used so much now I have an XW5 but is still a v nice ep, and not an ep but my Tal 2x barlow gets used quite a lot too.

Mark

[Saganite]

A lovely Carton collection growing there Dave !

Vintage eyepieces form the mainstay of my viewing pleasure as you can see. The four singletons do get used but await  partners to develop their true potential....

The 35mm Baaders are only 2 years old, but the prescription is definiteley vintage, being  Pseudo Masuyma .

And I almost forgot the big daddy of them all, the Meade 56mm 'smoothie', 2" eyepiece with the huge 45mm eye lens.

A Merry Christmas to all..

Edited December 24, 2020 by Saganite

[Seelive]

My Clave Plossl collection from the early 80's:

[Saganite]

3 minutes ago, Seelive said:

My Clave Plossl collection from the early 80's:

Wow !

Very nice.

[HollyHound]

A rather more modest (and only recently acquired) little collection...

26mm (Halloween)

18mm Ultima

12.5mm Ultima 

Admittedly I don't know when these were made (not sure they even class as "vintage"), but they're now part of a "grab and go" set, give lovely sharp views and complement my newer eyepieces 😃

Edited December 24, 2020 by HollyHound

[Saganite]

All

9 minutes ago, HollyHound said:

A rather more modest (and only recently acquired) little collection...

26mm (Halloween)

18mm Ultima

12.5mm Ultima 

Admittedly I don't know when these were made (not sure they even class as "vintage"), but they're now part of a "grab and go" set, give lovely sharp views and complement my newer eyepieces 😃

1980's I think.

[Highburymark]

Great thread Dave. Mine are two Ultima 30mm and two Zeiss OPMI 25mm (1970s or early ‘80s) for binoviewing

[Louis D]

Probably my oldest eyepiece is my 14mm Meade 4000 UWA smoothie (mid to late 1980s, I believe), shown here with my also vintage 14mm Pentax XL that I've owned since new in 1998:

[John]

This is the only pre-2000 eyepiece that I own now. It just squeezes into the criteria having been launched in 1999. My particular example is probably around 15 years old perhaps ?

 

Edited December 24, 2020 by John

[Ags]

When were Speer WALER eyepieces introduced? My only ocular that could possibly qualify for this thread is an SW 10.

[DaveL59]

Wow I seem to have collected a fair few in the short time I've been dabbling in this hobby. The vintage 0.965-inch set

The older TAL 32mm fit from the TAL-M and TAL-1

and then there's the TAL 1.25-inch ones along with a couple old ortho and of course the brass plossl from 1950's (0.965 inch) that came with the vintage scope I bought a few months ago

 

[Doc]

My Clave collection.

 

 

 

 

 

Edited December 24, 2020 by Doc

[Doc]

2 hours ago, Seelive said:

My Clave Plossl collection from the early 80's:

Nice can't beat Clave.

[Seelive]

26 minutes ago, Doc said:

My Clave collection.

 

 

 

 

 

Just out of interest, where did you purchase yours? When I bought mine they seemed to be as rare as rocking horse s**t, I finally got them through Beacon Hill Telescopes in Cleethorpes.

And are they sat on a copy of Tirion's Sky Atlas 2000? Looks like my 1982 edition 

Edited December 24, 2020 by Seelive

[Doc]

18 minutes ago, Seelive said:

Just out of interest, where did you purchase yours? When I bought mine they seemed to be as rare as rocking horse s**t, I finally got them through Beacon Hill Telescopes in Cleethorpes.

And are they sat on a copy of Tirion's Sky Atlas 2000? Looks like my 1982 edition 

I've collected these over a few years. Mine are from various private buyers a few from France and one from Italy.

They are rare and very hard to find.

You can see the 8mm, 10mm and 12mm are side marked so they are 1 of 150 made with side markings.

I still have the 3mm, 5mm, 35mm, 45mm, 65mm, and 75mm to find then I've completed the whole set.

I'll 80 years old before I finish it at this rate.

And yes it's the Sky Atlas 2000 but not sure of the date.

 

 

 

Edited December 24, 2020 by Doc

[Highburymark]

1 hour ago, Doc said:

My Clave collection.

 

 

 

 

 

Wow - very nice. Almost as good to look at as to look through. 

[Marvin Jenkins]

3 hours ago, DaveL59 said:

Wow I seem to have collected a fair few in the short time I've been dabbling in this hobby. The vintage 0.965-inch set

The older TAL 32mm fit from the TAL-M and TAL-1

and then there's the TAL 1.25-inch ones along with a couple old ortho and of course the brass plossl from 1950's (0.965 inch) that came with the vintage scope I bought a few months ago

 

In the final photo, what is that strange alien eye piece top left? Very strange I may add!

In all serious, do any of you use these older EP’s and if you do, how do they compare to your modern purchases, if you have any.

We all assume that newer is better but in some areas of life this is not always so. Just a question, to get a grip on how much we have improved or not. I take it that TV Nagler are the best. (generally right now) 

Has this always been the case, or are there times when different EP’s were the choice with scopes of the day? I understand that sometime ago scopes for amateurs were not what they are now (no reference to quality) but the choice now is amazing.

Marvin

[Roy Challen]

Lovely sets folks! TBH , I very much prefer the aesthetics and very possibly the views from these older EPs. Here's a set I really, really shouldn't have sold. At least I still have the Huygens.

I did have half a set of the Celestron Ultimas too, another regretful sale.

Edited December 24, 2020 by Roy Challen

[DaveL59]

11 minutes ago, Marvin Jenkins said:

In the final photo, what is that strange alien eye piece top left? Very strange I may add!

In all serious, do any of you use these older EP’s and if you do, how do they compare to your modern purchases, if you have any.

We all assume that newer is better but in some areas of life this is not always so. Just a question, to get a grip on how much we have improved or not. I take it that TV Nagler are the best. (generally right now) 

Has this always been the case, or are there times when different EP’s were the choice with scopes of the day? I understand that sometime ago scopes for amateurs were not what they are now (no reference to quality) but the choice now is amazing.

Marvin

ahh the kidney-bean shaped one? Tis a moose (wireless) and the one above and to the right of the eyepieces is a vintage Zeiss Sonnar 180mm f2.8 or rather the hood only in view.

The newest eyepieces I own are Vixen NPL 20 & 10mm and the Svbony 8-24 and 7-21mm zooms. I don't count the kit ones that SW and Celestron supply 😉 I more generally would use the TAL plossls, the zoom and Vixens on the main scopes, but for the TAL-M I use the originals as the 1.25's don't come to focus unless barlowed and tbh they do give good views up to x139. The 0.965's are used in the vintage frac and are good, tho I do sometimes pop the 1.25 adaptor in and use the more modern ones too. That said, the old ortho's give nice sharp views so on the right night I'll use them for planetary as well.

Edited December 24, 2020 by DaveL59

[Marvin Jenkins]

That’s nice. I have very little experience and would love compare old kit to new just to see if we have really improved like the advertisements say.

Marv

[DaveL59]

ahh Roy, I did look at trying to accumulate some of the Zeiss ones, but I'd so go bankrupt in a flash looking at the prices they go for 😮 

Seems the better route would be to buy a telementor with some of them already included, not that those are a budget buy either.

[Roy Challen]

1 hour ago, Marvin Jenkins said:

 

We all assume that newer is better but in some areas of life this is not always so. Just a question, to get a grip on how much we have improved or not. I take it that TV Nagler are the best. (generally right now) 

Has this always been the case, or are there times when different EP’s were the choice with scopes of the day? I understand that sometime ago scopes for amateurs were not what they are now (no reference to quality) but the choice now is amazing.

Marvin

I guess for many people, this is true. However, many of the eyepieces in this thread were premium in their day, and are seriously collectable now. The only drawback may be their relatively narrow fields of view, and poor eye relief compared to modern eyepieces. In all other (or most) respects, they are as good, if not better than most moderns. IMO , of course 😉.

Someone with a set of ZAOs will probably be along soon.

Edited December 24, 2020 by Roy Challen

[DaveL59]

I guess there's also differing needs according to the scope used. A lot of the older scopes were "slow" but the short fast scopes these days put different demands on the eyepieces so there's a lot of options now out there.

For many of my older ones I've had them apart for cleaning the glass surfaces and where not already, blacked the lens edges which has made a slight improvement on the views. The teeny tiny lenses in some of those sure were a pain to work with tho!