The Eyepiece Oscars

[cajen2]

The Eyepiece Oscars.

 

I spent a long while observing the moon tonight, but for different reasons from the usual: I wanted to compare all my eyepieces for clarity and detail. For anyone who's interested:

 

Low mag/wide field. Nominees: Vixen NPL 30mm, StellaLyra 80° 2" 20mm. And the winner is: the SL. The Vixen gets an honorary mention as it's cheap, sharp and clear but the SL is even better, plus having its amazing 80° FOV, clear right across the image.

 

Medium mag. Nominees: StellaLyra 68° 18mm, Pentax XW 14mm and Baader Morpheus 12.5mm. And the (perhaps controversial) winner is: the Morpheus! Don't get me wrong, the other two were superb too but the Morph's view was somehow more involving.

 

High mag. Between the BST Starguider 8mm, the Svbony UWA 6mm and the Pentax XW 5mm. The clear winner was, of course, the Pentax (it cost twice as much as the other two combined!). Even at 240x mag, it was detailed and sharp.

I realise that the winner was the highest mag EP in each category (this was a coincidence) but not always the most expensive.

All this was just a bit of fun, my opinions entirely and not to be taken as a serious test but it was very interesting all the same.

Edited April 13, 2022 by cajen2

[Louis D]

If you think the 12.5mm Morpheus is engaging, try the 12mm ES-92 which is breathtaking in comparison.  When I swap back to my 14mm Morpheus, the view seems claustrophobic.  It's all relative to your most recent experience.

[cajen2]

5 hours ago, Louis D said:

If you think the 12.5mm Morpheus is engaging, try the 12mm ES-92 which is breathtaking in comparison.  When I swap back to my 14mm Morpheus, the view seems claustrophobic.  It's all relative to your most recent experience.

I'm well used to the views given by my Pentaxes and SL 80° EP. I'm sure a 92° view is also excellent, though I feel there is a law of diminishing returns operating here: one can't take in the whole view at a time. Plus the ES 92 is £470 here! 😱

[Louis D]

1 hour ago, cajen2 said:

I'm well used to the views given by my Pentaxes and SL 80° EP. I'm sure a 92° view is also excellent, though I feel there is a law of diminishing returns operating here: one can't take in the whole view at a time. Plus the ES 92 is £470 here! 😱

It's something to do with the edges going beyond my eyeglass frame above and below with the ES-92s.  They're $800 before sales tax here.

[vagk]

18 hours ago, Louis D said:

If you think the 12.5mm Morpheus is engaging, try the 12mm ES-92 which is breathtaking in comparison.  When I swap back to my 14mm Morpheus, the view seems claustrophobic.  It's all relative to your most recent experience.

Ethos 13mm/17mm vs Nagler 12mm/17mm vs ES 12mm/17mm 92°. Which are the best ?

[Space Hopper]

I raise you the 12.5mm Docter UWA.

 

[cajen2]

Just as I thought, you lot will take this far too seriously! 😆

[Voyager 3]

Who is the host? 🥶

[NGC 1502]

Eyepiece choice?  It’s not life or death it’s much more serious than that😁

[Alan White]

Indeed a serious subject for many, torture for some.

My real concern about the Oscars, is who gets slapped!

[Louis D]

5 hours ago, Alan White said:

Indeed a serious subject for many, torture for some.

My real concern about the Oscars, is who gets slapped!

Beat me to it. 🤪

[Guest]

I would like to add this one for a possible nomination.  Even on a crappy night it returned good views.  Can't wait to see what it does on a good dark night

[Don Pensack]

That eyepiece wouldn't get an Oscar from me, but I have to agree it is quite sharp at f/5-f/6, especially in a coma corrector.

I have yet to see an eyepiece that bests the TeleVue Apollo 11, though there would be many contenders that are all quite satisfying to use.

[JeremyS]

7 hours ago, Don Pensack said:

That eyepiece wouldn't get an Oscar from me, but I have to agree it is quite sharp at f/5-f/6, especially in a coma corrector.

I have yet to see an eyepiece that bests the TeleVue Apollo 11, though there would be many contenders that are all quite satisfying to use.

How does the TV Apollo 11 compare to the Nagler 11, Don. Slightly Wider field and longer ER. But so much better?

[Sunshine]

Nice, my eyepieces are divided between Baader Morpheus and Pentax XW's so I know exactly what you mean.

[cajen2]

Well, all I can say is I bought myself the StellaLyra 20mil because it's so impressive and another two Morpheus. Whether something that costs two or three times more is better is for you to judge, or in the case of the Apollo, nearly 10x more. I'm not made of money!

Edited July 12, 2022 by cajen2

[Guest]

My wife would do unspeakable things to me if I bought an eyepiece that expensive, then she would just get mean lol.

Edited July 12, 2022 by Mike Q

[cajen2]

27 minutes ago, Mike Q said:

My wife would do unspeakable things to me if I bought an eyepiece that expensive, the she would just get mean lol.

Mind you, she did buy a Stellina, Mike....😉

Edited July 12, 2022 by cajen2

[Guest]

16 minutes ago, cajen2 said:

Mind you, she did buy a Stellina, Mike....😉

And a dedicated tablet for it.  However it was a discussion we both had a jointly we decided this was a good thing to do.  We do the same with eyepieces and came up with a limit and we have stuck to it.  

[Don Pensack]

17 hours ago, JeremyS said:

How does the TV Apollo 11 compare to the Nagler 11, Don. Slightly Wider field and longer ER. But so much better?

Hard to define but:

--easier to use, i.e. to find the exit pupil and stay there.

--much thinner ring of color at the very edge by the field stop

--somewhat better contrast--feels less like a Nagler and more like an Ethos.

Is it worth all that money?  Maybe not, but certainly one of the best eyepieces ever made with that wide a field.

[A Scanner_darkly]

The oscar for immersiveness and freeing oneself from earth, the ultimate spacewalker, is TeleVues Type2 20mm Nagler an unparalled experience of 82° visual excellence, dam the weight !!

The Versatility oscar goes to the Baader Mark IV zoom.

The lunar eyepiece of a lifetime is in my considered opinion the 6mm Ethos @150X and 2/3degree true field.

 

Highest and acutest data retrieval eyepiece oscar is/are two, TOE 4mm & 3.3mm.

 

 

Clear and steady skies

[Ags]

Best documentary - Vixen SLV 6mm

Best special effects - Skywatcher Super 25

Lifetime Service Award - Speers WALER 10mm

Best Newcomer - Explore Scientific 20/68°

[Mr Spock]

For use in the 12"

Low power: LVW 22mm - x69. Really sharp stars with lovely colour. Very comfortable to use.

Medium power. LVW 13mm - x117. Another comfortable to look through eyepiece. Great for extended objects.

High power. Circle-T Orthoscopic 7mm - x217. Exceptionally clean, crisp view. Can't wait until Jupiter comes into my range - this is the one to tease out those faint cloud details.

Very high power. SLV 4mm - x380. My best ever views of the moon came with this eyepiece. Not surprisingly, years ago when I had a 250mm Newt, the older NLV 4mm (x300) gave me my best ever view of Mars.

[Zeta Reticulan]

All of my Tak' ortho's, because they're all stars.