Pentax XW tone

[dweller25]

17 minutes ago, Don Pensack said:

TeleVue's vary from a warm tone (Plössls, Radians, T6 Naglers) to neutral (Delos) to a cool tone (18.2, 15mm Delite) in my tests.

It depends on the glass makeup in the eyepiece.

I have the 20mm Plossls which look warm to me.

[jetstream]

31 minutes ago, Don Pensack said:

TeleVue's vary from a warm tone (Plössls, Radians, T6 Naglers) to neutral (Delos) to a cool tone (18.2, 15mm Delite) in my tests.

Interesting that the Delites are cool tone, might have to try one. In your opinion are they as sharp or sharper than Delos?

Also, I have the Vixen 3.4, 2.4mm HR- thoughts about tone? I find these unusually good eyepieces.

[JeremyS]

I must be odd: I don’t really go in for these EP tone differentials 🤔

There: I’ve said it!

Edited February 28, 2023 by JeremyS

[jetstream]

12 minutes ago, JeremyS said:

I must be odd: I don’t really go in for these EP tone differentials 🤔

There: I’ve said it!

When viewing Jupiter with your TSA120 do you find certain eyepieces bring out more or slightly different colour? Ive read many reports of reflector users in particular not getting much colour on the planet and this has not been my experience regardless of scope type.

[JeremyS]

1 minute ago, jetstream said:

When viewing Jupiter with your TSA120 do you find certain eyepieces bring out more or slightly different colour? Ive read many reports of reflector users in particular not getting much colour on the planet and this has not been my experience regardless of scope type.

Can’t say I’ve noticed differences between EPs. It’s certainly full of (subtle) colour - apart from GRS, of course.

[JeremyS]

4 minutes ago, jetstream said:

When viewing Jupiter with your TSA120 do you find certain eyepieces bring out more or slightly different colour? Ive read many reports of reflector users in particular not getting much colour on the planet and this has not been my experience regardless of scope type.

For a really colourful Jupiter, then the Mewlon 210 is amazing

[jetstream]

2 minutes ago, JeremyS said:

Can’t say I’ve noticed differences between EPs. It’s certainly full of (subtle) colour - apart from GRS, of course.

What I like to see is "secondary detail" ie not just Jupiters bands but the sharp tonal differences in them. The 15" will bring out very fine edges in the bands and in much earlier reports called them "riffles". The TSA is also excellent for its aperture.

I have no doubt that this is due in part to the 15" (and your Mewlons) higher spacial frequency and the high quality optics that allow the contrast transfer to happen.

I also find the eyepieces do matter and the interaction between them, the scope and the individual.

[jetstream]

4 minutes ago, JeremyS said:

For a really colourful Jupiter, then the Mewlon 210 is amazing

👍

Contrast transfer at a larger aperture. The TSA120 also has excellent contrast transfer, to my eyes. Ive seen good eyepieces "dull" the transfer while others do not, depending on a few factors.

[Don Pensack]

5 hours ago, jetstream said:

Interesting that the Delites are cool tone, might have to try one. In your opinion are they as sharp or sharper than Delos?

Also, I have the Vixen 3.4, 2.4mm HR- thoughts about tone? I find these unusually good eyepieces.

The Delites and Delos vary by focal length.  The 6mm Delos is sharper to my eye in a 12.5" coma-corrected scope than either the 7mm or 5mm Delite.

However, the 18.2mm Delite is definitely better than the 17.3 Delos in both sharpness and contrast.

Those differences are fairly subtle, though, and the eyeguard construction on the Delites, if not used all the way down, results in incredible contrast in the Delites.

Personally, I prefer the larger apparent field (one reason I like the Morpheus eyepieces).

I only briefly used the HRs when they were available because they were only usable in my refractor, but even there yielded exit pupils too small for the 'floater vision' in my eye.

I cannot comment on them except to warn people about the 3.4mm--there are still a lot of defective 3.4s out there, even though Vixen called them back and replaced them with a new batch.

[jetstream]

13 minutes ago, Don Pensack said:

I cannot comment on them except to warn people about the 3.4mm--there are still a lot of defective 3.4s out there, even though Vixen called them back and replaced them with a new batch.

Thanks for the excellent reply Don. What was the issue with the 3.4mm Hr's ? Mine works very well.

Edited February 28, 2023 by jetstream

[Don Pensack]

They had a blem dead center in the image that looked like someone had put grease on the lens.
if you don't see that, you didn't get one of the bad ones.  I think that was confined to only one batch, anyway.

 

[jetstream]

1 hour ago, Don Pensack said:

They had a blem dead center in the image that looked like someone had put grease on the lens.
if you don't see that, you didn't get one of the bad ones.  I think that was confined to only one batch, anyway.

 

Mine is excellent, thankfully.

[Deadlake]

On 28/02/2023 at 16:18, jetstream said:

What I like to see is "secondary detail" ie not just Jupiters bands but the sharp tonal differences in them. The 15" will bring out very fine edges in the bands and in much earlier reports called them "riffles". The TSA is also excellent for its aperture.

I have no doubt that this is due in part to the 15" (and your Mewlons) higher spacial frequency and the high quality optics that allow the contrast transfer to happen.

I also find the eyepieces do matter and the interaction between them, the scope and the individual.

I notice a difference in looking thru a Vixen HR and a Takahashi TOE when looking at Jupiter. The TOE colour is more saturated then the HR that does not add any saturation.

tHard to put into words, but I think with the HR my eye can see more detail then the TOE, note its 4 mm vs 3.6 for the HR.

On the moon the HR and LZOS looks like a ultra high resolution black and weight photograph taken thru a Zeiss lens, whereas my Vixen looked like a high end Canon lens. 

Maybe the TOE would suite a slower scope…

[F15Rules]

On 28/02/2023 at 15:51, JeremyS said:

I must be odd:  🤔

There: I’ve said it!

Hear, hear!!! At last😂😂😂

Dave

[nicholasastro]

On 27/02/2023 at 14:55, jetstream said:

I'm wondering what Pentax XW users think about the tone of these eyepieces? ie Rich, neutral or cool.

Also, it would be interesting to hear about the tone of any other eyepieces of the same class ( low scatter,sharp, planetary) . Any AFOV as long as the low scatter, sharp requirement is met.

Neutral

[jetstream]

18 hours ago, nicholasastro said:

Neutral

Thanks Nicholas- how would you describe the scatter and sharpness level of the Xw's?

Edited March 5, 2023 by jetstream

[nicholasastro]

6 hours ago, jetstream said:

Thanks Nicholas- how would you describe the scatter and sharpness level of the Xw's?

My favourite XWs are the 30mm and 10mm, followed closely by the 7mm and 5mm. The 30mm has a certain intrinsic clarity that is hard to describe.  On-axis sharpness across the line is very good and scatter levels are low. In head to head comparisons between the 5mm XW and 5mm Pentax XO on Mars and Saturn under good seeing conditions, the XO was sharper and provided a bit more detail but that is not to say that I didn't enjoy the views through the XW. 

[jetstream]

17 hours ago, nicholasastro said:

In head to head comparisons between the 5mm XW and 5mm Pentax XO on Mars and Saturn under good seeing conditions, the XO was sharper and provided a bit more detail but that is not to say that I didn't enjoy the views through the XW. 

Great info!

Have you tried to barlow these eyepieces and if so did you note any changes, positive or negative?

[nicholasastro]

4 hours ago, jetstream said:

Great info!

Have you tried to barlow these eyepieces and if so did you note any changes, positive or negative?

Not really. I have tended to reach out for the 2.5mm XO and 3.5mm XW instead. 

A high quality barlow lens could possibly help in a fast scope from the perspective of increasing depth of focus and helping to overcome resultant steep light cone issues etc.