Your best/favourite EP?

[FLO]

1 hour ago, Don Pensack said:

I did not compare every eyepiece 

We have 🙂 

We compare them regularly because we have publicly assured UK astronomers FLO's prices for Tele Vue eyepieces reflect equivalent US prices. 

Steve 

[Louis D]

I'll bet UK/Euro prices for Chinese sourced eyepieces are significantly less than ours thanks to an extra 25% tariff applied by the US government only to them.  Regular import tariffs on optical gear is maybe 8%, IIRC.  Tele Vue gear is Taiwan or Japan sourced, so it is not affected.

[Don Pensack]

Steve may not be aware there are almost no brick and mortar astronomy stores in the US.

California has a few for its 40 million inhabitants, but most states have none.

Easily 95% of astronomy products are purchased on line, maybe more.

And buyers who buy from out of the state pay no sales tax on the purchase.

I presume I am fairly typical as an on-line retailer--99% of my sales are from out of state because people want to avoid the sales tax.

So it is quite fair to compare a US price without tax to a UK/EU price with tax.

It is also quite true that shipping is now very high, so equivalent out-of-pocket prices would be nearly the same.

 

Louis is right about Chinese goods, also.  The high tariff puts US importers at a disadvantage compared to the UK and EU.

[Grant]

11 minutes ago, Don Pensack said:

Steve may not be aware there are almost no brick and mortar astronomy stores in the US.

California has a few for its 40 million inhabitants, but most states have none.

Easily 95% of astronomy products are purchased on line, maybe more.

And buyers who buy from out of the state pay no sales tax on the purchase.

I presume I am fairly typical as an on-line retailer--99% of my sales are from out of state because people want to avoid the sales tax.

So it is quite fair to compare a US price without tax to a UK/EU price with tax.

It is also quite true that shipping is now very high, so equivalent out-of-pocket prices would be nearly the same.

 

Louis is right about Chinese goods, also.  The high tariff puts US importers at a disadvantage compared to the UK and EU.

If a U.K. customer buys from America then the 20% VAT and duties gets added on as part of the import process.

Equally if a U.S customer buys from the U.K. then the U.K. VAT at 20% is removed automatically.

On that basis and using your example, the price of a 6mm Ethos for a US customer if they buy from the US is $618 and if they buy from the U.K. it is £669 including U.K. VAT so when that is removed it’s £557.50 which is $625.

For a U.K. customer buying the same eyepiece from the U.K. is £669 but if brought from the US it’s $618 which is £550 but, on import VAT gets added on which makes it £660.

This ignores shipping costs and any potentially tariffs on the goods.

So as Steve said once VAT is accounted for correctly the prices between US and U.K. are pretty much identical.

 

[badhex]

We're probably a bit off topic though now, so back to the point it is interesting to see such a range of different brands and product lines feature as favourites. It goes to show that so much of an observer's experience is highly personal, I love that! 

[FLO]

@Don Pensack UK customers pay UK tax (regardless of whether they buy from US or UK). It is a legal requirement so cannot be ignored. 

If you still believe it is "quite fair" to compare US Tele Vue prices without tax with UK Tele Vue prices with tax then we must agree to disagree. 

Steve

[Louis D]

58 minutes ago, Don Pensack said:

And buyers who buy from out of the state pay no sales tax on the purchase.

Wrong.  Ever since the Supreme Court's South Dakota v. Wayfair decision in 2018, most states are requiring retailers anywhere in the US to collect and remit sales tax.  Retailers outside the US seem unaffected, however.  I believe this is mostly due to a lack of state enforcement power on international sales.

[Louis D]

Now that I think about, my favorite eyepiece is whichever one is yielding the best view of an object at any given time. 😉

[Don Pensack]

1 minute ago, Louis D said:

Wrong.  Ever since the Supreme Court's South Dakota v. Wayfair decision in 2018, most states are requiring retailers anywhere in the US to collect and remit sales tax.  Retailers outside the US seem unaffected, however.  I believe this is mostly due to a lack of state enforcement power on international sales.

That decision says that if the retailer has a warehouse or retail store in the state in question, they must collect tax from customers in that state, even if the order is an on-line order.  Example: Amazon.

If they do not have a warehouse or physical location in that state, they do not have to collect sales tax.

The consumer, on his taxes, is supposed to declare all out of state purchases and pay state sales taxes on the out of state purchases.  The state of CA estimates compliance with that to be less than 1/100 of 1%.

In essence, people who buy from out of state pay no taxes if the purchase is made from an out of state retailer who has no warehouse or store in their state.

That is getting far afield from the thread, however.

 

It would be very interesting to find out what exit pupil is being produced by each person's favorite eyepiece.  Would you guess it would be 2-3mm?

 

 

[RobertI]

In a previous thread I jokingly mentioned that I don’t really like eyepieces and pondered whether there was something wrong with me.😆  I have a bit of a rag-tag, randomly selected, middle of the road collection of eyepieces, none of them excel, none of them fail epically. And the only time when I really start to become dissatisfied is when I start to try and assess how good they are! Perhaps I have a high tolerance for mediocrity or perhaps, as someone told me, “I just haven’t met the right eyepiece yet”! As far as my favourite eyepiece goes, in my very limited collection, it’s my 10mm Hyperion - 68 degrees seems just right and it works nicely in the 102ED. I have a Baader Mk4 Zoom but it never seems quite as good as the Fixed FL Hyperions, losing out on FOV on higher FLs and getting edge of field brightening at the lowest FL. I would love to experiment with a more expensive premium eyepiece, but I’m really scared. 😬

[IB20]

48 minutes ago, Don Pensack said:

 

 

It would be very interesting to find out what exit pupil is being produced by each person's favorite eyepiece.  Would you guess it would be 2-3mm?

 

 

0.53mm 😅😅

[cajen2]

25 minutes ago, RobertI said:

In a previous thread I jokingly mentioned that I don’t really like eyepieces and pondered whether there was something wrong with me.😆  I have a bit of a rag-tag, randomly selected, middle of the road collection of eyepieces, none of them excel, none of them fail epically. And the only time when I really start to become dissatisfied is when I start to try and assess how good they are! Perhaps I have a high tolerance for mediocrity or perhaps, as someone told me, “I just haven’t met the right eyepiece yet”! As far as my favourite eyepiece goes, in my very limited collection, it’s my 10mm Hyperion - 68 degrees seems just right and it works nicely in the 102ED. I have a Baader Mk4 Zoom but it never seems quite as good as the Fixed FL Hyperions, losing out on FOV on higher FLs and getting edge of field brightening at the lowest FL. I would love to experiment with a more expensive premium eyepiece, but I’m really scared. 😬

If you like the Hyperion, you'd love a Morpheus! Wider FOV and better-corrected edge of field.

[RobertI]

18 minutes ago, cajen2 said:

If you like the Hyperion, you'd love a Morpheus! Wider FOV and better-corrected edge of field.

Yes I have heard very good things about the Morpheus. Perhaps I can convince myself I have a glaring gap in my collection. Currently I have 38mm (70 deg), 24, 21, 10 (all 68 deg) and 5mm (60 deg) plus a Hyperion zoom with 2.25 barlow. Most of my observing is done with the 102ED F7 and the C8 @ f6.3, all my lunar/planetary is done with my binoviewers, and doubles usually done with the zoom. So I guess anything new would be for deep sky. Perhaps a 14mm……

Edited October 16, 2022 by RobertI

[cajen2]

1 minute ago, RobertI said:

Yes I have heard very good things about the Morpheus. Perhaps I can convince myself I have a glaring gap in my collection. Currently I have 38mm (70 deg), 24, 21, 10 (all 68 deg) and 5mm (60 deg) plus a Hyperion zoom with 2.25 barlow. Most of my observing is done with the 102ED F7 and the C8 @ f6.3, all my lunar/planetary is done with my binoviewers, and doubles usually done with the zoom. So I guess anything new would be for deep sky. Perhaps a 14mm……

The 17.5mil Morph is said to be the crème de la crème. That would fit your EP range... 

[badhex]

1 hour ago, Don Pensack said:

It would be very interesting to find out what exit pupil is being produced by each person's favorite eyepiece.  Would you guess it would be 2-3mm?

The 17.5mm Morpheus gives an exit pupil of 2.5mm and 2.97mm in my 102ED and ZS73 respectively, so bang on the money! 

[badhex]

26 minutes ago, cajen2 said:

The 17.5mil Morph is said to be the crème de la crème. That would fit your EP range... 

Plus one to that 🙂

[IB20]

The 17.5mm Morpheus is a beaut. Works amazingly well in my 3” frac & 200P. A certain +1.

Edited October 17, 2022 by IB20

[graham56]

plus one for me I've  got 2 for binoviewing

[RobertI]

18 hours ago, cajen2 said:

The 17.5mil Morph is said to be the crème de la crème. That would fit your EP range... 

18 hours ago, badhex said:

Plus one to that 🙂

6 hours ago, IB20 said:

The 17.5mm Morpheus is a beaut. Works amazingly well in my 3” frac & 200P. A certain +1.

2 hours ago, graham56 said:

plus one for me I've  got 2 for binoviewing

Your arguments for the Morpheus are strong, and I am weak……….I have just ordered one. 🙂   Apologies to OP for diverting thread.

[badhex]

4 hours ago, RobertI said:

Your arguments for the Morpheus are strong, and I am weak……….I have just ordered one. 🙂   Apologies to OP for diverting thread.

Good work! I look forward to a first light 🙂

[Stardust1]

Depending on the seeing, when it's steady, my favorite eyepiece is the one that I'm using at that magical moment 😁

[Moon-Monkey]

My favourite unusual eyepiece is my Bausch and Lomb 4mm Ortho for splitting doubles on those wonderful nights of seeing 🙂

[Dave scutt]

My favorite was ES 82 14mm , but just sold it😔.

And brought an Telvue Ethos 13mm instead😁

[HollyHound]

1 hour ago, Dave scutt said:

My favorite was ES 82 14mm , but just sold it😔.

And brought an Telvue Ethos 13mm instead😁

I suspect this will be a highly regarded replacement 😃

[F15Rules]

On 16/10/2022 at 22:27, RobertI said:

Yes I have heard very good things about the Morpheus. Perhaps I can convince myself I have a glaring gap in my collection. Currently I have 38mm (70 deg), 24, 21, 10 (all 68 deg) and 5mm (60 deg) plus a Hyperion zoom with 2.25 barlow. Most of my observing is done with the 102ED F7 and the C8 @ f6.3, all my lunar/planetary is done with my binoviewers, and doubles usually done with the zoom. So I guess anything new would be for deep sky. Perhaps a 14mm……

I see you've just ordered the Morpheus 17.5mm..it's a cracking eyepiece and I'd agree it's probably the best of the bunch (closely followed by the 9mm and 12.5mm IMO)..

Just something to consider that might also help you in terms of versatility: you have the Hyperion Zoom Barlow, which is also excellent. Using this at 2.25x with your new Morpheus 17.5mm would give you a really good 7.77mm medium-high power (c 91x in your F7 frac with Barlow and c 40x native)..

Also, I'd respectfully suggest that you don't need both 21mm and 24mm eyepieces as they seem too close to one another..so you could keep the 24mm and sell the 21mm, leaving the new Morph 17.5mm nicely bridging the gap between medium and long focal lengths.. if you feel you need something around 11-12mm, try the barlowed 24mm Hyperion, giving 10.66mm..if you like it, then I'd recommend the Morpheus 12.5 (or 9mm if you want more power)..the Morpheus 14mm is a nice ep, (it was the first one I bought), but it does have a bit of field curvature (less than the Pentax XW 14 that it replaced in my set, though)..so I personally would go for the Morpheus 12.5mm.. (and then the 10mm Hyperion might suddenly become surplus to requirements 😱😊)..

So you could end up with:

5mm (could be sold if you liked the next option below)

5.55mm (barlowed Morpheus 12.5mm if you buy one)

7.7mm (barlowed Morpheus 17.5mm)

10mm Hyperion (could be sold if you liked the next option below)

10.6mm (barlowed Hyperion 24mm)

12.5mm Morpheus

17.5mm Morpheus 

24mm Hyperion

38mm wide angle

You could potentially recoup some of your Morpheus outlay by selling the 5mm, 10mm and 21mm units.

This would also cut down your number of fixed length EPs to 5, plus the Hyperion zoom plus its' 2.25x Barlow, to give you 9+ usefully varied magnifications (I wouldn't recommend barlowing the 38mm SWA as it's a 2" ep, and if barlowed would only give you similar magnification to your new Morpheus 17.5mm with reduced optical quality).

Note also that the Morpheus are all at least 76deg fov, a couple are a bit more..you WILL see the difference vs your Hyperions!

HTH..and Don't be Scared!😁👍

Dave

 

 

Edited October 18, 2022 by F15Rules
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