Baader Morpheus 12.5mm and 17.5mm

[a5tarman]

Would a second hand 24mm panoptic be worth it over an ES82deg 24mm?

[Louis D]

1 hour ago, a5tarman said:

Would a second hand 24mm panoptic be worth it over an ES82deg 24mm?

If you like the long eye relief of the Morpheus line, I'd recommend the 24mm APM UFF.  At 30mm, I'd recommend the 30mm APM UFF.  If you are budget constrained, the 22mm Omegon Redline SW (or other brandings) is a slightly lower cost 2" option that also performs very well and has long eye relief.

[Ricochet]

7 hours ago, a5tarman said:

Would a second hand 24mm panoptic be worth it over an ES82deg 24mm?

I started with a 24mm ES68° as my lowest power eyepiece and found it wasn't quite wide enough for a finder eyepiece and so I bought a 28mm 82° Nirvana (at f6 = 4.7mm exit pupil). I think you would find the same issue with the 24mm Panoptic and so the 24mm ES82° would be a better bet. Alternatively, If you want to limit your exit pupil to 4mm instead of 5mm, you should consider the 20mm APM HDC. This would then also "replace" the 17.5mm Morpheus as well as the 24mm ES82°in your eyepiece lineup so it is potentially a cheaper option in the long term. Both the 20mm APM HDC and 24mm ES82° are large and heavy eyepieces so you may have to also add some sort of counterbalance when using them.

[a5tarman]

Thanks to everyone who gave me some input. It helped with my decision making. In the end I settled on the 24mm ES82° rather than getting the 17.5mm Morpheus. I agree that the step in magnification is too small to justify at this point in time.  At this point in time I will have two decent eyepieces. The 24mm ES82° (52x) which I think is a more suitable low power for my Bortle 6/7 skies, and the 12.5mm Morpheus (100x) which can barlow down to 6.25mm (200x) or further depending on conditions.  Maybe a year or so from now I will want to fill in the gaps, but hopefully this will keep me satisfied for a long time.

[Don Pensack]

Obvious answer: Baader Morphus 17.5mm for when you go there. 

 

For a 22mm, find one of these:

Omegon Redline 22mm

Skywatcher SWA 22mm

Telescope Service Expanse ED 22mm

Astromania SWA 70° 22mm

They're all the same optics, though the SkyWatcher is a bit funny looking.

 

It's the best eyepiece in that focal length you will find under £200

Next step up is way over £200.

 

I see you got the ES 24x82.  That was a lot more money, but is a better low power eyepiece for your purposes.

Edited January 7, 2021 by Don Pensack

[Louis D]

21 hours ago, a5tarman said:

In the end I settled on the 24mm ES82° rather than getting the 17.5mm Morpheus.

Be prepared for tight eye relief.  The combination of a small eye lens (23mm) for an 82 degree field coupled with a deep recession will make it tough to use even without eyeglasses.  Ernest in Russia measured the usable eye relief to be between 5 and 10mm while the design ER was 14 to 19mm.  I think the uncertainty is due to CAEP (chromatic aberration of the exit pupil) where the red and blue ends of the spectrum form images at differing eye reliefs.  I've noticed this with my 30mm ES-82.  The exit pupil is a vague smallest circle that is red at one distance, white in the middle, and blue at the other end distance-wise from the eye lens.  This also manifests itself as the ring of fire with an orange-red ring around the periphery of the view.