MaxVision 11mm - 82 degrees (Explore Scientific)

[AstralFields]

 
I have been lately on a mission to find the ultimate two eyepieces for my GSO 12" Dobsonian. Everything below has been purchased on AliExpress (major sale currently going on with lots of coupons)

The first one was the clear winner, SkyRover 30mm 2" 70 degrees (APM UFF). A lot has been written about it so no need to cover it again. - price 170$ for reference.

The second one was my Angel Eyes 14mm 65 degrees. Price 84$ for reference. That eyepiece I already reviewed here. It is a really relaxing eyepiece, with loads of eye relief and super sharpness in the center with a little bit of Astigmatism at the edges. 

The problem was, the 14mm produces an exit pupil of 2.8mm. Too large for optimal performance. On several nights I did a blind test with my zooms where I would zoom in and out until the image was 'as good as it gets' to my eyes in terms of sharpness, brightness, contrast. The vast majority of times when I looked at the dial , it was right at around 11mm. The magic exit pupil 2.2mm. Even with 1.5x Barlow of the 14mm , I get to 9mm .. a bit too high.

So my hunt for an 11mm eyepiece began. I didn't want to break the bank so I tried to get the Hyperion Zoom but the edges were horrible, so it went away.

I've read a lot of love and hate for the Explore Scientific 82 degrees eyepieces. Mainly of course, the tight eyerelief and some people also experienced bad astigmatism at the edges in their scopes. I gave it a lot of thought but in the end decided to take the chance as I found a great deal on AliExpress with some coupons for 120$ for the MaxVision 11mm. 

Physical properties:

This eyepiece is a real treat, 1.25", 280 grams. Just the right size for compact storage and great viewing experience. The eyecup can be folded in exposing direct access to the lens. Not sure about usage with eyeglasses but without, there is hardly any problems here.

It came in a very nice box. The box looked familiar, so I unpeeled the stickers and low and behold I had myself an original Explore Scientific box. They don't even try too hard to convince you these are different eyepieces.

Different they actually are. There are slight differences in the barrel and most notably the ES are Argon purged, the MaxVision are not. But the same ES eyepiece here goes for 170$. I'll save 50$ over Argon purging any day of the week.

Optical performance in a 12" DOB, f/4.93

OK. No matter how pretty and nice the eyepiece, this is what actually matters.

I totally understand why there is so much love and hate for this eyepiece. I think a big deal of it is simply people not being used to using a wide field 82 degrees eyepiece. It takes some skill and getting used to. The way one normally uses a huge eyerelief eyepiece like my Angel Eyes 14mm simply does not work with the MaxVision. At worst you will get kidneybeaning and you will hardly see 50% of the field. The harder you try to see the edges of the eyepiece with direct vision, the less you will actually see. Funny stuff going on at these levels of field. And if you still want to force yourself into it, you will have to literally press your eyeball to the glass.

I had to read a bit online to figure out the correct technique of using this eyepiece.

It is all about easing yourself into the eyepiece at just the right distance. Sight should be focused on the center of the eyepiece. At a certain range, relatively far way from the lens, just at the distance where my eyelashes begin to touch on the glass, the field stop becomes sharp and clearly visible with averted vision. The whole field is visible at this point, the eyepiece is fully illuminated evenly, and everything is in perfect balance and sharpness. If you want to observe the edges in more detail, very carefully shift the vision a little bit off center but never fully to the edge. To observe the edge directly , the whole head must turn as if looking through a big space ship window. In those cases the edges on the opposite end become invisible. 

They say eyerelief 15.6mm .. This is from the center of the eye lens.. so yeah, I'd say the eyerelief is very good. I have actually ordered some extra eyepiece guards with a shade to the side as I'd like to be able to press against the eyepiece with my eye.. and there is still a bit of room left for that at the optimum distance. 

It does take a little bit of effort, but the views are absolutely amazing. The field is sharp edge to edge with nothing but a little bit of coma remaining. The coma is so far away that it doesn't bother me at all. I am not planning on getting a CC. There is no field curvature and the view is as flat as it gets , comparable to the SkyRover 30mm.

The contrast and sharpness is also very good at the center. The views of the Moon were absolutely amazing. Of course it Barlows very well , both with my 1.5x , 2x and even 3x Barlow. There was no astigmatism I could see at all even at the last 10% of the edges. 

With all this being said, it makes a nice pair with my AngelEyes 14mm which is very different. Double the eyerelief (also bought an eye guard to bridge the gap), very sharp field stop easily visible at 65 degrees. Takes a lot less effort to use and of course brighter and sharper due to the larger exit pupil. I will be alternating between these two.

All in all. Happy to say that I am finally very satisfied with both my telescope and my eyepiece collection. Last thing remaining is to decide which zoom to keep , the SVBony SV135 or SV191 (ordered and waiting for it). But the zooms are kind of 2nd class citizens, so I am not nearly as anxious as I was trying to hunt down the perfect 11mm eyepiece.

Edited June 22 by AstralFields

[Bivanus]

Why the dark grey text? 

EDIT: I red it in the Simple Theme, on white background it's ok , on black background one can barely see the letters.

Edited June 22 by Bivanus

[JOC]

@AstralFields It might be worth bearing in mind that the vast majority of users probably read the forum in the standard fomat of black background and pale letters (which I have always assumed was to help maintain dark vision if the forum was being read outside at night though that may just be wishful thinking on my part.  The dark grey text you have picked to use is quite literally unreadable on the black background.  You may wish to update it?

[AstralFields]

2 hours ago, Bivanus said:

Why the dark grey text? 

EDIT: I red it in the Simple Theme, on white background it's ok , on black background one can barely see the letters.

 

1 hour ago, JOC said:

@AstralFields It might be worth bearing in mind that the vast majority of users probably read the forum in the standard fomat of black background and pale letters (which I have always assumed was to help maintain dark vision if the forum was being read outside at night though that may just be wishful thinking on my part.  The dark grey text you have picked to use is quite literally unreadable on the black background.  You may wish to update it?

It was an unintentional mistake caused by an extension in my browser (Dark Reader) that modifies every website into a dark mode, even those that don't need it. I turned it off for this forum and fixed the text. Thanks for raising it.