Wide angle eyepieces & a Dob

[davo]

Hello,

I have a 12" Dobsonian at F5. All my eyepieces are cheapos so i'm going to replace them with some better ones. I have in mind these....

Set of three Meade 5000 UWA

6.7mm, 18mm & 30mm (2")

+ case

or

Three William Optic UWAN

7mm, 16mm & 28mm (2")

Which are the better ones? Both sets are around £600.

Thanks

Dave

[Ben Ritchie]

I really liked the 16mm and 28mm UWANs in my SW 12" f/5 dob. They seem to exist in cheaper SkyWatcher forms now too.

If I was looking at a £600 budget i'd really look used though, you could pick up the 13mm Ethos, a 28mm UWAN and a decent 1.6x barlow which would give you more options and the Ethos is a brilliant eyepiece. Or several Naglers, e.g. the 7T5, 17T4 and 26T5s, which will outperform the Meade/WO options and are easy to sell on if you ever need the money back.

[davo]

I'm liking the idea of a 13mm Ethos & the 28mm UWAN. A lot.

£720 new... mmmm

Could you possibly recommend a decent barlow to go with these?

Thanks

Dave

[Ben Ritchie]

Both the Ethos and UWAN are reasonably easy to find used, which brings the price down a bit. The Ethos is still very expensive, but it's a superb eyepiece.

As for barlows, the 2" Antares 1.6x barlow is very repectable, if you can afford a bit more the Astro-Physics BARCON (1.7x) is excellent.

[davo]

Yep. I'm convinced. I'm going to look out for these. I'll probably buy new unless the two come up here secondhand (i'm impatient like that)

Thanks for you help.

Dave

[Ben Ritchie]

Thanks for you help.

A pleasure, but don't just listen to me ... sure other people have other ideas!

[davo]

Sure I appreciate that.

I didn't think of the barlow route for higher mags + besides it's an Ethos! and it being a 13mm sound a good length to go for. + the UWAN for lower mag. Unless anyone else suggests differently it all sounds pretty ideal for me.

Cheers

[Ben Ritchie]

There's a thread on Cloudy Nights about the 13mm Ethos + 1.6x Antares barlow vs. the 7mm Pentax XW

Telescope Reviews: disappointed w/PentaxXW7mm vs 13mmEthos+x1.6Barlow

which gives an idea of how well the Ethos barlows (bearing in mind that the 7XW is a seriously good eyepiece in its own right). I'd agree with the conclusions.

[Doc]

Or the 30mm Pentax, 20mm Pentax and the 10mm Pentax. Comes to about £750.

On par if not better then the Naglers.

[Ben Ritchie]

If you did want the Pentax route, they barlow very well, so i'd be tempted to interleave them to get a greater range of options - 30XW, 10XW and 7XW maybe, plus a 2x barlow. That gives 30, 15, 10, 7, 5 and 3.5mm options (the latter of limited use in a Dob, admittedly, although I do barlow by 7mm XW occasionally).

The 7XW and 10XW are two of the finest eyepieces i've ever used (I own both), the only weak one i've tried is the 14XW. Never used the long-FL ones, but been told good things.