Axiom LX 23mm..a real Dark Horse?

[Don Pensack]

I'm working on a system to accurately measure the "effective eye relief" (from the folded down eyecup to the exit pupil) for glasses wearers.

If it works well, it'll be possible to measure it on any eyepiece.

I think glasses wearers will be surprised how little effective eye relief it takes to use glasses with an eyepiece.

One eyepiece I have that has a design eye relief of 18mm and which I found *just* usable with glasses on had only 14.3mm of effective eye relief.

When people look for eyepieces with 20mm of eye relief for glasses, that is not the eye relief from the rubber up, but the design eye relief from the glass,

and the depth of the lens varies all over the place from eyepiece to eyepiece.

One eyepiece with 20mm of eye relief had 12mm of effective eye relief, and another with 20.5mm of eye relief had 19.2mm of effective eye relief.

On paper, both were glasses compatible.  In reality, only one was.

[Pixies]

I recently acquired the 19mm Axiom LX (still a 2" EP) but I haven't had a chance to use it properly yet.  I also have the 22mm LVW. Both EPs will have a similar FOV, with the Axiom's wider AFOV.  So I'll be interested to see how they compare.

It's likely I'll be selling on the Axiom, though.

Edited September 6, 2022 by Pixies
19mm not 18mm!

[F15Rules]

I haven't tried the Axiom LX 19mm, but I imagine it's a good deal heavier than the LVW 22mm (which I rate very highly indeed, IMO the best of the whole LVW range).

My 23mm Axiom LX  is optically excellent and works well in my FS128 with its large tube (145mm ID) and robust 2.7" focuser with Baader furniture.. but it is much heavier at well over 900gms than the relatively small LVW 22mm - and so, on smaller scopes, the Axiom may just be too physically large/bulky. From my own recollections of the LVW22, I would say that the Axiom 23 and the Vixen are very close in performance: if you like wide fields, the Axioms' c84 degrees (vs the LVWs 65 degrees) may swing you in that direction.

I mainly use a driven mount, so for me the extra c 19degrees of the Axiom do count.

Both are excellent eyepieces. I'd expect your Axiom 19mm to work well, and look forward to reading your impressions.

Dave