Baader Morpheus range - General chat

[Barry-W-Fenner]

On 04/09/2021 at 09:00, ian2 said:

I’ve been out once (20th Aug) with my 12.5mm Morpheus since I got it. Scope is a 300p dob. 

I have 32mm omni and 16,7,4mm OVL nirvanas for comparison. 

Eye relief is better than the nirvanas, field seems flat with pinpoint stars across the field of view

The moon was close to full which limited my choice of objects. Contrast seems very good, Jupiter was crisp and i was able to see the transit of Ganymede’s shadow at 120x.

I don’t feel like replacing all my nirvanas with morphi but the 9mm would fit in between 12.5mm and 7mm… ☺️

 

 

Good to hear your thoughts on the 12.5. You are also viewing with it through the same scope as me. Always nice to get another option of the morph/300p combo.

I don't know how the 9mm will sit between your other eps, however it does give a very clear view at x167 mag in the 300p it's my go to ep.

[Barry-W-Fenner]

On 04/09/2021 at 11:36, Dantooine said:

I’ve actually taken quite a shine to the 6.5mm giving me around 110x. Seems a sweet spot in my f7 frac. I like the 9 & 14 in my 8” f5 as well. 

Will you be adding the wonderful 17.5 to the collection?

[Barry-W-Fenner]

Afternoon all,

Some stunning clear Blue skies here at the moment, Looing forwrd to setting up the 300p later for some moonless views.

I am going to experiment tonight by taking of the extension rings on my 9 & 17.5 morphs and attepming some viewing with my glasses on. I have very weak/low power "consentration" glasses as I have been diagnosed  long sighted. Looking up at the night sky with my glasses on last night stars were a ver nice sharp point of light, I never realised how fussy they were to my eye until I put the glasses on. I am looking forward to seeing if this sharpness is replicated through the ep!

Cheers

[ian2]

On 05/09/2021 at 21:07, Barry-W-Fenner said:

Good to hear your thoughts on the 12.5. You are also viewing with it through the same scope as me. Always nice to get another option of the morph/300p combo.

I don't know how the 9mm will sit between your other eps, however it does give a very clear view at x167 mag in the 300p it's my go to ep.

12.5, then 7mm and 4mm Nirvanas. Somewhere on SGL i read that spacing should be worked out by dividing by 1.414 or thereabouts. I get 8.8mm but 9mm is close enough 😆 

I bought a ES 24mm 68 deg and an OVL panaview 32mm to provide more options in the longer focal lengths which i tested out last night with no moon.

[Don Pensack]

On 07/09/2021 at 07:07, Barry-W-Fenner said:

Afternoon all,

Some stunning clear Blue skies here at the moment, Looing forward to setting up the 300p later for some moonless views.

I am going to experiment tonight by taking of the extension rings on my 9 & 17.5 morphs and attempting some viewing with my glasses on. I have very weak/low power "concentration" glasses as I have been diagnosed  long sighted. Looking up at the night sky with my glasses on last night stars were a very nice sharp point of light, I never realised how fussy they were to my eye until I put the glasses on. I am looking forward to seeing if this sharpness is replicated through the ep!

Cheers

It will be.  And, thusly, you start down the road to finding eyepieces compatible with glasses.

As the focal lengths get shorter, you will need glasses less and less until, with some particular focal length and shorter, you will no longer need to use glasses.

For me, that is 9mm (1.57mm exit pupil), but you will likely be at a longer focal length if you see only a minor improvement in the stars with the naked eye.

For me, naked eye stars look like stick men with long hair, without glasses, and tiny points, with glasses.

Your astigmatism is minor if you only see a small bit of improvement with distance vision glasses.

 

[Dantooine]

On 05/09/2021 at 21:08, Barry-W-Fenner said:

Will you be adding the wonderful 17.5 to the collection?

I may 😉

[Barry-W-Fenner]

23 minutes ago, Dantooine said:

I may 😉

It really is a stand out performer in the range.  Don't tell the other morphs I said that 👍

[Barry-W-Fenner]

Ok,  so it's taken a whole but the extension ring has arrived from Chinabay. Inserted the ring between the CC and holder. It certainly looks the part. I have put a morph in  the ep holder and the spacer has made a big difference to how close the ep is to the CC.

I will add my 2" click lock to this set up and this will hopefully be my new optical train. I will be using the morphs in "2" mode" going forward.  Almost dark now, and clear to so hope to try it out!

Baz

Edited September 22, 2021 by Barry-W-Fenner

[Louis D]

Considering that the reference plane is the shoulder between the 1.25" and 2" barrels, and the depth of the 2" barrel is 21mm, you'll need an additional 21mm of separation in 2" mode to get back to the optimal working distance of 75mm even with the spacer ring you already have.  Alternatively, put a 2" to 1.25" adapter in the CC and use the Morpheus in 1.25" mode.  Then, you might be a bit farther away than 75mm, but not by as much as being 21mm too close as in 2" mode.

Edited September 22, 2021 by Louis D

[Don Pensack]

What Louis said and:

The 17.5mm needs to be 2.5mm farther in, closer to the CC lens, to become parfocal with all the other focal lengths.

All the Morpheus eyepieces have their focal planes at the 1.25" to 2" transition shoulder.

Except the 17.5mm, which is 2.5mm higher, in the 2" section, so it needs to be 2.5mm lower to become parfocal with the others.

[Louis D]

2 hours ago, Don Pensack said:

What Louis said and:

The 17.5mm needs to be 2.5mm farther in, closer to the CC lens, to become parfocal with all the other focal lengths.

All the Morpheus eyepieces have their focal planes at the 1.25" to 2" transition shoulder.

Except the 17.5mm, which is 2.5mm higher, in the 2" section, so it needs to be 2.5mm lower to become parfocal with the others.

If you're within 5mm either way of the best correction distance with the GSO, it's hard to perceive any improvement by tweaking the distance, so I wouldn't sweat the last 2.5mm for the 17.5mm Morph.  However, being 21mm off is quite noticeable as with my 12mm NT4 that I had to parfocalize to get decent correction.  It's the only eyepiece in my collection that is that far off from focusing within ~5mm of its shoulder.  That's why I felt I had to point this out to @Barry-W-Fenner, so he wouldn't be disappointed under the stars by the poor correction in that configuration.

[TheLookingGlass]

On 06/08/2021 at 16:41, Deadlake said:

For an F6 as well as well as an F7.7. Presume Morpheus 9 mm will work well.

I have the 9mm Baader morpheus. Works great at F/5, no coma corrector.

[IB20]

Just stumbled upon this if anyone wants a 17.5mm! https://www.tringastro.co.uk/baader-morpheus-76-widefield--175mm-eyepiece---ex-display-18360-p.asp

Edited October 8, 2021 by IB20

[badhex]

After what seems like an age (I've been on holiday + weather here also poor) I've finally had chance to try out my 4.5mm with the ZS73. 

I do have a BST in 5mm FL for lightweight travel use, but for use at home where weight is not an issue, I wanted a high-quality, short FL EP for giving me the best possible high-power/planetary views with the ZS73, and I'm happy to say that the Morpheus has nailed it!

I found that the most comfortable configuration was with both extension ring on and eyecup folded up, same as the 17.5mm. Actually, I suspect the perfect combo would be with an extension ring that was about half of the optical length, say 4mm, but I can nestle my eye closer into the cup and get the same effect. I had been concerned about the small 0.76mm exit pupil being a problem and causing blackouts, which I'd experienced in a brief daytime viewing session, but happy to say I had no problems under the night skies once I'd played around with the extension ring etc.

I started out with Saturn, which was at a reasonable elevation but unfortunately was suffering a little from shimmer, I think due to a nearby chimney or rooftop. In fleeting moments, the view was very crisp, with a surprising level of detail visible and nice clean shadows cast on the surface by the rings.

Jupiter was higher up and further east, so it seemed to avoid whatever was causing the swimming effect. At magnitude -2.7 Jupiter was insanely bright even in my light-polluted Bortle 7 skies and I noticed just a little colour haloing on the edges of the disc. This seemed to calm down after a while, so either my eyes adjusted or the scope/EPs were still not sufficiently cooled. That said, Jupiter looked magnificent - crisp, colourful and somehow huge in the eyepiece even at only 96x

I also tried using an ND4 filter to tone down the brightness. It did certainly make it a bit easier to pick out detail in the banding, but I'm never sure if I like the dimmer image!

Jupiter was the target I used to compare the BST with the Morpheus. I'm surprised at how well the BST stands up, especially given the price tag, but in the end the views through the Morpheus were still better. I wouldn't say that it was a hands-down, streets ahead difference, but the combination of eyelens size, build quality, FOV and crispness/contrast of the image means the Morpheus edges out the BST - in all categories except price! Definitely worth the extra money though if you want to fine tune that last 10-20% of the experience.

As Uranus is up and about I thought I'd go for a more challenging target for this combo or scope/EP. What suprises me is that even at 96x and being not super familiar with Uranus and surrounding sky, I was readily able to distinguish the small, pale green/beige from other stars! Of course no detail can be distinguished beyond that with this small scope but it was gratifying nonetheless.

Finally, I spent some time with totally different type of target - M57. I have struggled to pick up M57 from my skies before and written about it on SGL - but tonight was no problem at all. Of course it requires averted vision, but it was strikingly obvious as soon as it entered the FOV, much more so than with the BST on other occasions. I actually thought, at first, that I had somehow defocused and was looking at a star, until I realised that I was looking at the ring!

All in all a good first night out with the new Morpheus in my collection!

 

 

[Barry-W-Fenner]

 

Anyone in the market for the stunning 17.5?

[badhex]

8 minutes ago, Barry-W-Fenner said:

 

Anyone in the market for the stunning 17.5?

If I didn't have one already I'd be straight on that! 

[Barry-W-Fenner]

2 hours ago, badhex said:

If I didn't have one already I'd be straight on that! 

Almost tempting for a nice bino setup!

[MetroiD]

3 hours ago, badhex said:

If I didn't have one already I'd be straight on that! 

Ditto.

I had to wait for quite a while after I'd acquired my first two Morph's in order to finally enjoy first light in my scope (300p Flex). Once I'd done that though... whoa! Even though atmospheric conditions were significantly less than perfect, I was taken back at how crisp the Morphei were. The 12.5mm is an EP I'd been after for quite a while - and one that I'd had no substitute for in terms of focal length - so I'd always expected it to be a winner. The 17.5mm Morpheus though was a real surprise. I was comparing it to a UWAN Nirvana 82-degree 16mm which, up until that point, had been my go-to 1.25" 'seeker' EP. Immediately, it was clear that the Morph took things up a notch - eye relief doesn't really matter to me, but contrast and control were substantially better with the Baader. Can't wait to see more of my favourite DSO's!

In the meantime, I am now looking to replace my Meade 5.5mm UWA with a Morpheus 6.5mm - and the full E/P case overhaul will be complete

[Don Pensack]

Don't know if UK/EU prices will keep pace, but as of today, the Baader Morpheus goes to $299 in the US.

That's roughly £219

If you find a lower price, I'd jump right away, as you may see UK/EU prices jump as well.

[Stu]

12 minutes ago, Don Pensack said:

Don't know if UK/EU prices will keep pace, but as of today, the Baader Morpheus goes to $299 in the US.

That's roughly £219

If you find a lower price, I'd jump right away, as you may see UK/EU prices jump as well.

There are some focal lengths in stock at FLO at £188 currently, 6.5, 14 and 17.5mm that I could see. Hope they don’t go up here as they seem excellent value for money.

[Don Pensack]

1 hour ago, Stu said:

There are some focal lengths in stock at FLO at £188 currently, 6.5, 14 and 17.5mm that I could see. Hope they don’t go up here as they seem excellent value for money.

Baader shows €245.00 for the Morpheus, or £208, so that may be the new price.  I don't know.

[johninderby]

Tring Astro has put the Morpheus eyepieces up to £223.00 😕

[MetroiD]

Baader seem to have realized they'd left quite a gap in terms of pricing between their product and its direct competition. Which was rather prudent as a way to make stake your claim in the market, but was never going to last for too long, especially with profit margins rapidly shrinking in the current weird economy. No wonder second-hand Morphs have become just as rare as Delos or XW's. I'm still harbouring hopes of a Black Friday special over at FLO though, before the revised prices kick in.

[Sargares]

It’s still a good price to be fair to them but the cheaper the better for us. 

[johninderby]

To think that about a year ago 365astronomy had them on for £149.00. 😕