Meade Research Grade 10.5mm Orthoscopic eyepiece and the rest!

[astronomer2002]

Bit of a long story but.....

I've purchased and used many (far too) over a lot of years but although I mainly use Naglers for most observing these days I find myself comparing my ancient range of orthoscopics with modern eyepieces, mainly on planets and double stars.

I have old volcano tops and a couple of newer BCO's and even a couple of Fujiyama's but the ancient Meade 7mm Research Grade ortho is just that little bit crisper than any others in the 5-7mm range.  In the longer focal lengths I still find the 16.8 Meade RG ortho is just as sharp and a bit more contrasty than similar modern ortho's

I never managed to get  any other Meade RG ortho's as too costly to splash out on more than one eyepiece at a time when I was young and after buying a s/h 12mm Nagler I was smitten with that range.

Having been stuck with Saturn  as the only viable planet to observe for months now I have been looking at it with everal eyepieces through 12-16 inch SCT's and a 14 inch RCX. The 7mm is a tad high for planets with 2.5metre plus focal lengths  and 16-18mm (Meade RG and Fujiyama) yield magnifications that are not quite high enough.

I have a couple of 12.5mm otho's which are good, sharper and more contrasty, than the equivalent Naglers, but ideally I would like an ortho around the 10mm mark. I have a 10mm BCO but it just isn't as contrasty or sharp as the Meade's.

I've been occasionally looking for a 10.5 Meade RG for years, but they were rare even 40 years ago. I do wonder if the 10.5 Meade RG  is as good as others in the range ,and wondered if there was anyone here who could vouch for it? Better still, of course,  if someone had one they weren't using. Equally, if someone had found a 9-10mm ortho that was as contrasty and sharp as the Meade 10.5mm RGO I would be keen to hear from them.

Historically, when I had a 16 inch F16 cassegrain, I was able to see markings on Ganymede with the 7mm Meade RGO on a couple of occasions, which was 900x! Those nights are rarer than hens teeth and even on other really good nights the highest usable power never exceeded 500-600x.

 

Ian B

 

 

 

 

[Roy Challen]

I do  like the RGOs, I had the 7 and 10.5 at some point in the past. Both are very good indeed, but I wouldn't say that the 10.5 was better than the Baader 10mm BCO. 

[F15Rules]

I have used orthos a lot in the past, including an RG7mm which was excellent.

These days I use mainly wider field eps, but I have a pair of Tak Abbe orthos in 12.5mm which are superb together in my binoviewer and singly for splitting doubles..

I also really rate the Baader Q Turret barlow which is very versatile and works very well with the Tak 12.5mm orthos..when used with the Barlow's  supplied tube this gives 2.25x, but if you unscrew the barlow lens part only, this gives just 1.3x - and thus turns the 12.5mm Tak into a 9.6mm ortho of excellent quality..at its native 2.25x the Q barrlow turns the  Tak 12.5mm ortho into a great  5.5mm unit.

The Q barlow is only c £47 new, and is such a high quality piece of glass, adding nothing by way of aberrations to my Tak Abbe's or any of my other eyepieces for that matter.. highly recommended.

Dave

 

Edited October 23 by F15Rules
Typo

[John]

I've not used a Meade RG ortho but I'm interested to hear that the Baader Classic Ortho 10mm is not quite as good. I thought that the Baader would get very, very close in performance terms. It was rated between the Delos 10mm and the Zeiss ZAO 10mm by some very experienced observers using large scopes in the USA deserts a few years back but I think that was mostly for spotting faint galaxies.

I can recall the "Planetary Eyepiece World Cup" thread started by J R Barnett on the Cloudynights forum quite a few years back pronounced a Meade RG the "winner" but I can't recall what scopes / targets were being used to reach this conclusion.

My own choice of 10mm is currently the Pentax XW which I've enjoyed for years now. 

I guess the Fujiyama or Baader Genuine Ortho 9mm might be worth consideration or maybe even a Tele Vue 11mm plossl if you are OK with shortish eye relief.

In the hyper-wide arena the 10mm Ethos is considered one of the best in that range and rather like a 100 degree ortho. 

The Takahashi TPL range get pretty consistent high praise from owners and there is a 9mm in that range.

 

 

Edited October 23 by John

[Second Time Around]

I seem to recall that the Baader Q Barlow that comes with the turret kit or on its own can't be used with all eyepieces at 1.3x. This is because if there's a lens near the bottom of the eyepiece there may not be room for the Barlow cell to be inserted. There should be no problem at 2x though.