Ed Ting on eyepieces

[John]

I've been following Ed Ting's reviews for years. I've not seen so many of his video reviews though. He has just posted this one on eyepieces and reveals his most used ones, which is quite interesting. I don't necessarily agree with all of his preferences but a number of the points that he discusses are relevant I think. Apologies for the ad breaks, which are beyond my control 🙄

 

Edited May 8, 2023 by John

[Mr Spock]

Yep, his 'high power' eyepiece is about half what my usual minimum is for the 12". So not really any use at all.

While Televue eyepieces are excellent, there are many in 'the others' that a better or preferable. So for his 27mm Panoptic I prefer the 30mm UFF. To me it is a better eyepiece. On a night of good seeing I'll use my 3.3mm TOE the most - in both the 12" and the 4" backing off to 7mm in the 12" on a less than perfect night. I can't think of anything in Televue's line up that comes close to the TOE.
Then there are popular brands I don't have, such as the Pentax range, the Morpheus, the ES 92° eyepieces. Many deep sky observers will prefer using an Ethos - surely they are the pinnacle of Televue's range.

Then for doubles I'll use the sequence 30mm (of 42mm), 13mm, 7mm, 4mm. So four eyepieces. 

I have too many eyepieces of course, but I'm not parting with any of them. And they are a personal choice - he's right about that!

[Paul M]

My eyepieces are all packed away, but I can watch Ed Ting all day.

I think he does a good job of such a subjective er.. subject. Very personable and humble.

[Guest]

Just remember gang, these are his choices based what and how he observes.  Our milage WILL vary.  

[Guest]

46 minutes ago, Paul M said:

My eyepieces are all packed away, but I can watch Ed Ting all day.

I think he does a good job of such a subjective er.. subject. Very personable and humble.

Agree with him or not, Ed is just fun to watch.  

[dweller25]

Even Mrs Dweller25 watches Ed Ting videos 🙂

[Nik271]

I kind of agree with Ed Ting that two eyepeices end up most used, but with the correction that you need two EPs for each telescope. There is a vast difference between a ST80 with 400mm FL and a C8 at 2000mm FL. And the slow scopes will not reallly need a TeleVue, the brand is all down to personal choice.

[bosun21]

I used to follow Eds work before he started doing his YouTube videos. I really enjoy his videos and he’s definitely a great character.

[Ratlet]

Lot more civil discussion on here than one of the other forums.  Could practically hear the pitchforks being sharpened.

Probably why he hasn't done an eyepiece recommendation before lol.

[johnturley]

Ed said that he liked eyepieces with a dual 2in/1.25in barrel which used to be quite common.

Personally I disliked them as it made the eyepieces more bulky and heavier than they otherwise needed to be, and I was always dropping the removable screw and then having to search for it in the dark.

I agree with him however that it was a shame that Tele Vue discontinued their 26 mm Nagler eyepiece, I was until recently on the look out for a good secondhand one, but opted instead for a Stella Lyra 30 mm UFF, which cost new less than half of what I would probably have to have paid for a secondhand 26 mm Nagler. 

John 

Edited May 9, 2023 by johnturley

[Zermelo]

Obviously, many will disagree with his characterization of the market as "Televue and the rest", though he did preface that with "eyepieces are a very individual choice".  For me, one of the interesting aspects of the hobby is precisely the availability of decent alternatives to the premium-priced kit, and in the trade-off between any extra improvement in experience versus the (usually substantial) incremental cost.

But it was an interesting watch, and worth it just to see his (incomplete?!) array of eyepieces, and the bemused comment "I don't even know how some of this stuff got here".  I think many of us can relate to that, whether or not we have succumbed to the green and black.

[Coco]

Al Nagler should be in the Guinness Book of records for having the most nephews and niece's.

[Paz]

An interesting video but my experience is different. In any given session I'll usually use only 1 or 2 eyepieces , rarely more. But which ones depends on the scope and the targets. I would say most of my eyepieces get a fair run out over time.

[Louis D]

4 hours ago, johnturley said:

Ed said that he liked eyepieces with a dual 2in/1.25in barrel which used to be quite common.

Personally I disliked them as it made the eyepieces more bulky and heavier than they otherwise needed to be, and I was always dropping the removable screw and then having to search for it in the dark.

I like my Redline (AT AF70, etc.) eyepieces' take on 2"/1.25" barrels.  For the 17mm on down (in terms of focal length), they have a screw-on/off 2" skirt that is parfocal with the 1.25" barrel.  You can leave it on all the time (as I do) or off all the time (for 1.25"-only scopes), or swap it in and out if that's your thing.  I'd like to see more eyepiece adopt this very useful feature.

I haven't found any particular advantage to the Tele Vue style non-removeable skirt on my 12mm Nagler T4 or 14mm Meade 4000 UWA smoothie.  There's generally not enough 1.25" barrel sticking out to safely lock it into a 1.25" focuser, not to mention it vastly increases the in-focus requirement in this mode.  Also, you can't use 2" filters with the skirt unless you screw on a 20mm 2" extension first.  It seems like a solution in search of a problem.

[Don Pensack]

18 minutes ago, Louis D said:

I like my Redline (AT AF70, etc.) eyepieces' take on 2"/1.25" barrels.  For the 17mm on down (in terms of focal length), they have a screw-on/off 2" skirt that is parfocal with the 1.25" barrel.  You can leave it on all the time (as I do) or off all the time (for 1.25"-only scopes), or swap it in and out if that's your thing.  I'd like to see more eyepiece adopt this very useful feature.

I haven't found any particular advantage to the Tele Vue style non-removeable skirt on my 12mm Nagler T4 or 14mm Meade 4000 UWA smoothie.  There's generally not enough 1.25" barrel sticking out to safely lock it into a 1.25" focuser, not to mention it vastly increases the in-focus requirement in this mode.  Also, you can't use 2" filters with the skirt unless you screw on a 20mm 2" extension first.  It seems like a solution in search of a problem.

The 2" skirt fits OVER the 1.25" focuser and a thumbscrew in the 2" skirt tightens down against the 1.25" focuser.

The TeleVue Hi-Hat adapter fits up inside the 2" skirt to grab a longer section of the 1.25" barrel and the slot in the 2" skirt allows the thumbscrew in the adapter to be accessed.

TeleVue's eyepieces and adapters were made to work with each other.

I do note, however, that the 2" skirt idea is now down to only 4 of TeleVue's eyepieces.

If you want to use the eyepiece as a 2", the Ethos 4.7 and 3.7 and all the APM XWAs and the TeleVue Apollo have a threaded-on 2" adapter that works fine.  It's a "better mousetrap" for a dual-size eyepiece.

And I agree, Louis, the Barsta 70° eyepieces have a nice adapter.

Edited May 9, 2023 by Don Pensack

[John]

The Tele Vue hybrid barrels work well enough with "Hi-Hat" style 1.25 inch adapters where the adapter slips up inside the 2 inch barrel part which gives the 1.25 inch clamp a longer barrel to grip. The only ones I have experience with are the Ethos 13mm, 8mm and 6mm though. I have used those eyepieces in a standard 1.25 inch fitting but much prefer the security that a 2 inch fitting provides. The downside of the hybrid design is that I needed to fit barrel extensions to these 3 eyepieces so that I could use 2 inch filters with them. On the whole I prefer the approach used with the 4.7 and 3.7 Ethos SX eyepieces where you are provided with a 2 inch barrel section that screws over the 1.25 inch barrel. Again, for security reasons, I prefer to use these long and heavy eyepieces in 2 inch mode. Also the bottom end of the 2 inch eyepiece barrel contains an additional light baffle which I think improves the contrast a wee bit.

On the number of eyepieces used in sessions, I have had sessions where I've used just one and others where most of my collection have had a turn in the drawtube. It all depends ......

 

Edited May 9, 2023 by John

[Franklin]

As always, another great video from Mr Ting, though I did notice a couple of things.

a) Ed's most used eyepiece, the venerable TeleVue Panoptic 27mm needs a jolly good clean and b) Ed mentions "kids at star parties putting their grubby fingers into the eyepieces"😄.

 

 

[Don Pensack]

6 minutes ago, John said:

The Tele Vue hybrid barrels work well enough with "Hi-Hat" style 1.25 inch adapters where the adapter slips up inside the 2 inch barrel part which gives the 1.25 inch clamp a longer barrel to grip. The only ones I have experience with are the Ethos 13mm, 8mm and 6mm though. I have used those eyepieces in a standard 1.25 inch fitting but much prefer the security that a 2 inch fitting provides. The downside of the hybrid design is that I needed to fit barrel extensions to these 3 eyepieces so that I could use 2 inch filters with them. On the whole I prefer the approach used with the 4.7 and 3.7 Ethos SX eyepieces where you are provided with a 2 inch barrel section that screws over the 1.25 inch barrel. Again, for security reasons, I prefer to use these long and heavy eyepieces in 2 inch mode. Also the bottom end of the 2 inch eyepiece barrel contains an additional light baffle which I think improves the contrast a wee bit.

On the number of eyepieces used in sessions, I have had sessions where I've used just one and others where most of my collection have had a turn in the drawtube. It all depends ......

 

I don't worry about where to put filters.  I use a Paracorr and mount all filters on the Paracorr.

In my refractor, I put all the filters on the 2" adapter.

Hence, all 2" filters, even with 1.25" eyepieces.

With the threaded-on adapters, all the weight of the eyepiece is hanging on a few mm of 28.5mm thread.

I don't think it is more secure than using the eyepiece as a 1.25"--maybe less.

Though, in practice, it works fine.

[Louis D]

55 minutes ago, Don Pensack said:

TeleVue's eyepieces and adapters were made to work with each other.

Too bad they weren't made to work with focusers and adapters in general.  I could see this attitude working if they were a huge telescope marketer with eyepieces as a side business, but the opposite is true.

[PatientObserver]

8 hours ago, Ratlet said:

Lot more civil discussion on here than one of the other forums.  Could practically hear the pitchforks being sharpened.

Probably why he hasn't done an eyepiece recommendation before lol.

I was reluctant to read this thread after perusing the other forum. I am glad to see this one is more civil.

As a new astronomer, I find his videos to be helpful. He seems to have a joy of astronomy that he is willing to share.

[John]

1 hour ago, Louis D said:

Too bad they weren't made to work with focusers and adapters in general.  I could see this attitude working if they were a huge telescope marketer with eyepieces as a side business, but the opposite is true.

I've been using Tele Vue eyepieces from most of their ranges for about 30 years now and in over 20 scopes of various brands, types, and sizes. I've never encountered a Tele Vue eyepiece that I could not get to work and work well.  

[JeremyS]

12 minutes ago, John said:

I've been using Tele Vue eyepieces from most of their ranges for about 30 years now and in over 20 scopes of various brands, types, and sizes. I've never encountered a Tele Vue eyepiece that I could not get to work and work well.  

I’ve only been using Tele Vue in earnest the last 5 or 6 years. And I have used/continue to use many other brands incl Pentax, Tak, Vixen. But every TV I have found to be excellent, even the Pan 24 which has a wonderful wide field tho suffers from rectilinear distortion the latter is only really evident on the moon, which I don’t observe regularly in any case.

I also like the way Tele Vue has been at the leading edge of EP design for many years. Not to mention their products are made in Japan/Taiwan/US.

[bomberbaz]

Interesting video, good job he threw in his caveats at the beginning or I would be shouting at the screen 🤣

Yes his "there is tele view and the rest" comment could have grated me a little. There are some dam good competitors out there, however since I now sold my Nikon glass it is a less contentious comment  but I still don't agree with him😉

Where I think I am tending to agree is the use of two eyepiece in a session.  If I am galaxy hunting, I use one, an APM zoom. Nebula, an APM UFF 24mm. Planets, a zoom and another zoom. Then I have a panoptic 27mm for everything not covered with those 3!

If you look in my signature, the statement in white has nearly been achieved 👍

[DirkSteele]

All my eyepieces are Tele Vue and I can almost match Ed in number of them as well which is a bit silly.  But just like him, in most of my scopes (not the FS-60 or FC-76) I use the 21mm Ethos and 10mm Delos most of the time.

 

 

[Space Hopper]

Like others, i've watched and enjoyed Ed's stuff for many years.

I can also relate to his comment about just using two eyepieces.

In my case its often just the 24 and 19 Panoptics (in pairs ) in the binoviewer I use with its various multipliers. They are my main 'workhorses'

I also have a 35 Pan, but don't use it as much. They are the only Tv eyepieces I own (ex Powermate) and some of those are second hand.

I also use Vixen LVW's and an APM zoom and a Docter as well : i would say I have a 'reasonable' collection.

I've never really gone for the big expensive Ethos line : I'm happy enough with the Panoptics and I think the 24mm Panoptic is one of the best eyepieces on the market.