Best “cheap/mid range” eyepieces??

[LondonNeil]

Yes that's a comment I'd agree with,  at rrp Hyperion are £120 ish and that's a whack.  As I said though,  Hunt and they are £40-60 used though which isn't so bad.... where as a used Morpheus is still 3 or 4 times that and I wouldn't consider as mid range (although I know its far from top range!)

 

For completeness,  astrobuysell has a set of used Morpheus...s  (Morpheii?) Listed,  £160 each.

[cajen2]

1 hour ago, LondonNeil said:

Yes that's a comment I'd agree with,  at rrp Hyperion are £120 ish and that's a whack.  As I said though,  Hunt and they are £40-60 used though which isn't so bad.... where as a used Morpheus is still 3 or 4 times that and I wouldn't consider as mid range (although I know its far from top range!)

 

For completeness,  astrobuysell has a set of used Morpheus...s  (Morpheii?) Listed,  £160 each.

I think a Morph compares extremely well with some "top range" EPs. I recently bought myself a TV Delos and it's as good an image as my Morphs, but no better, despite being £160+ more. The Morphs are more forgiving on eye placement too.

You can do better on price too:

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/baader-planetarium/baader-morpheus-76-degree-wide-field-eyepieces.html

£229.

[Louis D]

I'd agree that at least for the 9mm Morpheus versus 10mm Delos, there is very little to choose between them image wise.  I have no issues holding the exit pupil while wearing eyeglasses with either.  The fact that the Morpheus has a noticeably wider AFOV is a bonus in its favor.  In the US, there's only an $88 ( £70) difference between the two, so not such a huge difference as in the UK.

[cajen2]

In my case, it was the 8mm Delos v. the 9 and 6.5mm Morphs.

I've found Morphs will forgive slightly off-axis eye angles better than the Delos.

[Zermelo]

6 hours ago, LondonNeil said:

My perception is they aren't nearly as available used either

I have a saved search on eBay for second hand Morpheuses. It finds one about once a month, but they're often priced more than the new price.

[Don Pensack]

10 hours ago, Louis D said:

Well, they're $169 apiece new in the US, so well above what I would consider as mid-range eyepiece pricing.  I consider $100 apiece pushing that title.

Used, they're going for around $90 +/- $10 here in the US.  I suppose if your budget allows, they would qualify as mid-range when purchased used.

There are also the various Redline 70 degree eyepieces out there as well in that same price range new and used.  The 22mm is excellent.  The rest have varying levels of aberration issues.

Mid-range may be determined by your pocket book.

I consider <$100 to be inexpensive (Paradigm, X-Cel LX), $100-$200 as average price (Hyperions, BST 70°, UFF), $200-$350 as medium price (XWA, XW, Morpheus), $350-$500 the low end of high-priced (Delos, Naglers), and $500-$1500 as high priced (Ethos, Nikon HW, Leica Zoom).

My data for the US puts the median price at ~$100, so the pricing pile resembles a pyramid.

[Don Pensack]

7 hours ago, Zermelo said:

I have a saved search on eBay for second hand Morpheuses. It finds one about once a month, but they're often priced more than the new price.

What about AstroBuySell.com/UK/  ?

[John]

7 hours ago, Zermelo said:

I have a saved search on eBay for second hand Morpheuses. It finds one about once a month, but they're often priced more than the new price.

There is a 17.5mm Morph on e.bay currently priced at a touch below 75% of retail.

 

[cajen2]

2 hours ago, John said:

There is a 17.5mm Morph on e.bay currently priced at a touch below 75% of retail.

 

That's a very good EP - supposed to be the best of the Morphs (not that there's a bad one!).

[Zermelo]

7 hours ago, Don Pensack said:

What about AstroBuySell.com/UK/  ?

I dip in occasionally, but I don't find it as easy to use.

[Louis D]

13 hours ago, Don Pensack said:

Mid-range may be determined by your pocket book.

I consider <$100 to be inexpensive (Paradigm, X-Cel LX), $100-$200 as average price (Hyperions, BST 70°, UFF), $200-$350 as medium price (XWA, XW, Morpheus), $350-$500 the low end of high-priced (Delos, Naglers), and $500-$1500 as high priced (Ethos, Nikon HW, Leica Zoom).

My data for the US puts the median price at ~$100, so the pricing pile resembles a pyramid.

Maybe for the US market where we seem to have more disposable income; but for Europeans, based on what I read on here all the time, they consider inexpensive to be $40 or less, step-up around $40 to $100, mid-range $100 to $200, and anything above $200 is considered expensive.  I literally never see discussions about eyepieces over $500 on here.  No one ever starts a thread critically comparing their Noblex 12.5mm to their Apollo 11mm to their Nikon HW 12.5mm.  There are a few UK folks who do own such eyepieces, but they've all migrated to CN to discuss such things.  In fact, if you do try to start such a thread, it turns into a discussion of why anyone would need such an expensive eyepiece, let alone three of roughly the same focal length.  For example, years back, I started a thread asking about a comparison between the 27mm Panoptic, the 30mm ES-82, and the 30mm APM UFF.  Literally crickets for months, so I finally bought the APM myself and did a critical comparison of the three, writing it up on here.

It's largely the same for cars.  Americans regularly drop $50,000 to $80,000 on SUVs and even more on pick-up trucks and their large SUV brethren.  Over and over on here, many folks don't even own a vehicle, and when they do, it's tiny, severely limiting how big of a scope we can recommend even if they had the disposable income to purchase it.  You would think with either not owning a car or owning a tiny one, that they would have tens of thousands of dollars of extra disposable income to spend on their hobbies, but that never seems to be the case on here.

I won't even get into the motorcycles, off road vehicles, and boats that many American indulge themselves in, but seem quite rare for working class Europeans.  Perhaps they spend their money on other toys that don't interest Americans.

[Roy Challen]

When it comes to astro gear, why spend tens of thousands of £££ when we're limited by our rubbish weather? And why buy a giant SUV if it doesn't physically fit on our narrow roads?

But, some of us spend that kind of money on bicycles, hi-fi, fishing, golf etc😄

[Louis D]

1 hour ago, Roy Challen said:

When it comes to astro gear, why spend tens of thousands of £££ when we're limited by our rubbish weather? And why buy a giant SUV if it doesn't physically fit on our narrow roads?

But, some of us spend that kind of money on bicycles, hi-fi, fishing, golf etc😄

Yep, different strokes for different folks.

[Mr Spock]

Plus if I lived in the US by now I would have lost my house and be bankrupt due to medical bills 

I've spent all that cash on other things  All the astro kit I have adds up to about half what my hi-fi cost, not counting all the CDs to go with it... Astro is a minor hobby really when it comes to expenditure.

Anyway, we are straying from topic 

[LondonNeil]

19 hours ago, John said:

There is a 17.5mm Morph on e.bay currently priced at a touch below 75% of retail.

 

If its still there,  add it to your watch list.  The seller gave me an offer of a tenner less. 

[John]

10 minutes ago, LondonNeil said:

If its still there,  add it to your watch list.  The seller gave me an offer of a tenner less. 

I don't need a ~17mm eyepiece but I think that one has been snapped up now.

Oddly, I've never found 17mm a focal length that I used much, despite owning some very good ones over the years 

[LondonNeil]

What are you after?  the guy on astrobuysell has the set

6.5, 9, 12,17.5mm available ££160 each.   He did have the 14mm too.... did 🤭 I might have the phone number of a guy called Steve.. ..

[Mr Spock]

9 hours ago, John said:

Oddly, I've never found 17mm a focal length that I used much, despite owning some very good ones over the years 

Strange, me too. I used to have a Nagler T4 17mm which I think I used once. I sold that and bought a 17mm LVW - it just completes my collection really. I use the 22mm and 13mm, but rarely the 17.

[bosun21]

1 hour ago, Mr Spock said:

Strange, me too. I used to have a Nagler T4 17mm which I think I used once. I sold that and bought a 17mm LVW - it just completes my collection really. I use the 22mm and 13mm, but rarely the 17.

My 17.5mm Morpheus is my most used eyepiece. I always start my observing sessions with it and then decide whether to increase or decrease the magnification for a given target. I just wish that they made a 24mm in the range.

[Louis D]

I didn't use 17mm much until I added the ES-92.  It's nearly as wide as my 22mm Astro-Tech AF70 (Redline variant).  I actually bought my 22mm NT4 from a guy who quit using it after getting a 17mm ES-92.  I find I like them both due to the difference in presentation, so no plans to sell either.

[John]

7 hours ago, bosun21 said:

My 17.5mm Morpheus is my most used eyepiece. I always start my observing sessions with it and then decide whether to increase or decrease the magnification for a given target. I just wish that they made a 24mm in the range.

In the 1.25 inch format I skip straight from 24mm (Panoptic) to 14mm (Delos) so 17mm (I had the 17.3 Delos for a while) gathered more dust than photons, sadly.

Similarly with my 2 inch eyepieces, I find the step from 21mm (Ethos) to 13mm (Ethos) worked well for me so I ended up parting with the 17mm Ethos and later with the 17mm ES 92 as well.

Nothing wrong with those ~17mm eyepieces of course, they were excellent. They just didn't fit into my observing approach or scope range.

I don't tend to hang on to stuff that is not getting used.

 

Edited February 8 by John

[Neutrinosoup]

7 hours ago, John said:

In the 1.25 inch format I skip straight from 24mm (Panoptic) to 14mm (Delos) so 17mm (I had the 17.3 Delos for a while) gathered more dust than photons, sadly.

Similarly with my 2 inch eyepieces, I find the step from 21mm (Ethos) to 13mm (Ethos) worked well for me so I ended up parting with the 17mm Ethos and later with the 17mm ES 92 as well.

Nothing wrong with those ~17mm eyepieces of course, they were excellent. They just didn't fit into my observing approach or scope range.

I don't tend to hang on to stuff that is not getting used.

 

Same issue…..my 17.3 Delos isn’t used that much.

I use The Panoptic 24, Delos 10 and 6 on average night &  10 and 4.5 on a good night.

I’ve also got a Nagler 13mm that I use when I go on holiday with my 72mm small refractor. Delos aren’t good for a travel bag!! I’ll probably add 5mm Nagler to my travel setup at some stage. 
 

On the cheap eyepiece front - the starguiders have got my daughter out with the Dobsonian without fear of damaging the eyepieces above and are performing well.

[bosun21]

10 hours ago, John said:

In the 1.25 inch format I skip straight from 24mm (Panoptic) to 14mm (Delos) so 17mm (I had the 17.3 Delos for a while) gathered more dust than photons, sadly.

Similarly with my 2 inch eyepieces, I find the step from 21mm (Ethos) to 13mm (Ethos) worked well for me so I ended up parting with the 17mm Ethos and later with the 17mm ES 92 as well.

Nothing wrong with those ~17mm eyepieces of course, they were excellent. They just didn't fit into my observing approach or scope range.

I don't tend to hang on to stuff that is not getting used.

 

That's the great thing about humanity, we're all different. Please stop tempting me with Ethos eyepieces as my resolve is weak 😂.

[Mr Spock]

We are definitely spoiled for choice with high end eyepieces. They are all excellent and of course which ever you prefer is a personal choice. I'm sure I would be happy with any of them, though, I'm not tempted to change what I have already.

You can get excellent performance with mid range eyepieces too. The range from £50 to £150 has a number of top quality choices. 

[Naughty Neal]

Sounds like  a good new thread /starter topic Michael.