Pentax XW 10mm

[mike-h]

I have had this eyepiece for a couple of months now. I've been meaning to write a review for a while but felt a little inexperienced as I dont have a vast amount to compare it too.

I wanted to treat myself to one great eyepiece and the 10mm in my 250px Dob gives a useful 35' FOV with 120x magnification.

I bought it for £243 from FLO. Steve said that no-one has ever returned an XW. Delivery was prompt as always. It was very well packaged. Initial thoughts were that it was very well engineered with top notch build quality. I'd read this in many reviews and I can now appreciate what the reviewers meant (tho it is difficult to describe). The materials just seem pleasing and it seems built to last forever.

It works exactly as expected. Sharp stars across the 70 degree FOV it a great feat in an f4.7 scope. It also seems to offer more detail and resolution than any of my other eyepieces. Eye position is a little fussy but I got used to it quickly. It barlows well even in my cheap (£30) Meade 126 2x barlow. You get a bit more dispersion (i think) with the barlow but not enough to justfy £80 for another barlow.

It cost nearly as much as my telescope but feels like a good investment. I dont regret buying it at all and usually I suffer badly from buyers remorse.

However, unless I come into some money, I won't be buying another. This is no reflection on the value of the eyepiece. Simlpy that 10mm does me for the vast majority of what I want to observe. I couldnt justify another £279 now for a 3.5 mm to look at planets or a 20mm one to look at the relatively few objects that are bigger than 35'. I get decent views of these things with my cheaper eyepieces.

Buying a Pentax (or Nagler but the eye relief was a little short) was an itch I needed to scratch. I'm a satisfied customer and the 10mm is the jewel of my small collection of eyepieces.

Mike-H

[MartinB]

Not surprised you're pleased with it Mike, I have one too and have never regretted getting it. I think the 10mm is supposed to be the sweet spot in the range. It is a very comfortable eye piece to use and the threaded adjustment of the eye cup is very effective.

Like you it is my most used EP. I now take it for granted and don't think about how much it cost or that it is a premium EP. I just plonk it in the scope and enjoy the view!

[mike-h]

P.s I compared the Pentax to the 10 mm supplied wth the scope. The Pentax beat it easily (as you'd hope!). However, I also bought the £69 Long Eye relief bundle when I bought the 250px. The 20mm eyepiece from this set with a 2x barlow gave a respectable (initially alarmingly good) performance against the XW (to my rather untrained eye). Obviously the FOVs werent comparable but the barlowed 20mm didn't produce to much more coma than the XW and gave decent contrast and resolution.

Moral of the tale: a budget eyepiece with a 2x barlow seemed to perform much better than a budget eyepiece with half the focal length. eg if I wanted a 10mm plossl I'd be tempted to buy a 20mm and barlow it.

Just my opinion.

Mike-h

[Ben Ritchie]

The 10mm is a really great eyepiece, along with the 7mm it is the 'sweet spot' amongst the shorter (20mm and below) ones - they do barlow very well too, and i've tested the 10mm + a good 2x barlow against my 5mm and there's very little in it, so I suspect any additional scatter you're seeing probably is the barlow.

[bish]

All my eyepieces are around the £50 mark. They do the job OK but I would like to get a really good quality eyepiece to see the difference.

[John]

All my eyepieces are around the £50 mark. They do the job OK but I would like to get a really good quality eyepiece to see the difference.

You can get some excellent eyepieces for £50 or less such as the classic "volcano top" orthoscopics and the Planetary HR eyepieces. I have tried these less expensive ones out against my Naglers and, while the Naglers offer some improvements like the very wide field of view, if I'm honest the differences are very subtle in most observing conditions.

By all means get a premium eyepiece to experience it for youself but you won't get 4x better views with an eyepiece that costs 4x as much.

John

[mike-h]

I agree entirely with John. The pentax is great, but not 10x better than a £25 plossl.

It is nice to know that you are viewing thru a top quality eyepiece but the limiting factors to getting the best views are nearly always weather, atmosphere or darkness of sky rather than the eyepiece or telescope.

Mike H

[bish]

Hi John and Mike,

Thanks for the piece of advice. I have been happy with my eyepieces but suppose I felt like I might have been missing out by not having a top grade one. As money is tight at the moment I wont rush out for one. When things are a bit easier I may well try one out but curb my expectations.

[John]

Hi John and Mike,

Thanks for the piece of advice. I have been happy with my eyepieces but suppose I felt like I might have been missing out by not having a top grade one. As money is tight at the moment I wont rush out for one. When things are a bit easier I may well try one out but curb my expectations.

Look out for them 2nd hand - I've bought the majority of my eyepieces that way. If you pick up a decent condition Tele Vue or Pentax you can usually sell it on (if you decide it's not for you) for most, if not all, of what you paid for it.

John

[memoryman]

You say you buy your eyepieces second hand. Which sites, or outlets do you recommend?

Paul Bertenshaw

East Midlands

UK

bertiep@yahoo.com

[John]

You say you buy your eyepieces second hand. Which sites, or outlets do you recommend?

Paul Bertenshaw

East Midlands

UK

bertiep@yahoo.com

Gosh this is an old thread Paul

I buy either from the buy & sell section here (you will need 50+ posts and 1 months membership to access that) or the UK Astro Buy & Sell website:

U.K. Astronomy Buy & Sell

I will occasionally use E.Bay as well as long as I'm confident I know exactly what I'm getting - I tend to ask sellers a lot of questions