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Mid-range EP suggestions?

GazOC

By GazOC
in Discussions - Scopes / Whole setups

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GazOC

GazOC

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Hi guys,

I'm thinking of clearing out my old EP collection which consists of a rag-tag bunch of assorted Orion Sirius, Meade 4000, Expanse, Celestron low price gear.

I'm looking to spend around £100 per EP on 3 eyepieces, very roughly 32mm, 20mm and 8mm (I'm flexible on this though) , I already have a good Televue x2 barlow and a 7mm Ortho for planets, so I'm just looking for good alround eyepieces, I do like wide FOV an good eye relief so I'd guess these are the main considerations.

I was looking at either the Speer-WALER or the Orion Stratus range for the mid-high powers, which are both around £80 per eyepiece. But then I saw these http://www.scopestuff.com/ss_ew7p.htm

For £25 per EP with a 70 deg AFOV, does anyone know anything about them? Are they clones of another range that I could do a search on?

Cheers

Gaz

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GazOC

GazOC

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Unfortuneatly they are operating the $1=£1 policy that you find a lot of over here! :)

It's maddening that it cheaper to fly gear 5000 miles (and pay customs) than to buy in this country!

That box set looks good value though, I wish there had been something like that when I was starting out. Meade and Celestron were both selling something similar but at mad £££££ :)

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FLO

FLO

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Hi Gaz,

With wide-field eyepieces the old adage 'the quality is reflected in the price' is especially true.  In my experience, wide field eyepieces at around £100 are only wide field in name.  Usually, the image isn't sharp enougth at its periphery to be any use ... so whats the point.  (The Meade's Series 4000QX series is a good example of this - in my opinion). 

Personally, I would look out for the older Meade series 4000 SWA series which, now the 5000 series are out, are beginning to appear at about £100-£130.  (The 8.8, 13.8 and 24.5mm are considered to be particularly good and sell for around £70 on ebay). 

Hope that helps,

Steve :)

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GazOC

GazOC

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Steve,

I've noticed that with my Expanse EP's they are rated at 66 deg but the last 10% or so is mush. What AFOV are the SWAs? I like the idea of getting EPs cheap because a new model has come out, it works great with computer gear!

Cheers

Gaz

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FLO

FLO

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Is that the one for 90 quid? If so, that's the one I bought and I was chuffed to bits with them :)

Daz

Yep, £89.99 for four Plossls, a Barlow and some filters, in a case.  Cracking deal IMHO.

(Look out for an even better deal based on plossls/filters over the next month or two ... can't say more so best not to ask :))

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GazOC

GazOC

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You are such a tease Steve :)

It looks like I'm going to have to go with the 70 deg Antares at £25 each, I've just remembered I have to pay the OU £250 over the next two months.... :) and theres the new XBox out at the end of November. :)

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GazOC

GazOC

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..... and theres the new XBox out at the end of November. :)

Aaahhh, I know where you are coming from. I might be able to hold off til after Xmas ... maybe even til Halo-3 ... but then I'll have to have one :)

I'm going to try to hold out until the new year and the expected price drop. Realisically though I'll have one by the end of November! :)

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russ

russ

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Sorry i'm so late to the thread.

Would really love a premium eyepiece. Keep seeing the Meade SWA & UWA on Ebay...very tempting! One thing that stops me though is the TV Panoptics coming up on Buy'n'sell for £140-150.

I've looked through the 15mm & 27mm Panoptics and it certainly has the 18mm SWA beat. The SWA really doesn't work that well in a fast scope (the clubs scope is a 12" f6 newt). Sharpness really falls off in the outer part of the field. Whereas the Panoptic is sharp edge to edge. However the Meade was damn good in the owners LX90.

Never owned either eyepiece. I'm content with the Orion Ultrascopics and Antares Elite. Don't have the field of the Meade SWA but sharper with better contrast.

Now onto the Xbox360. Would really love one this Christmas, as would my older son. Don't think my wife will go for it though. So it's plug on with the old Crystal Xbox. At least it has an internal hard drive which the 360 won't.

Russ

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GazOC

GazOC

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Ah I read on Warp2search last week that Microsoft were going to make the detachable HDD optional. I wonder if they decided that was a bad idea?

Russ

Optional gear on consoles is a tricky issue, if you have too many configurations it can put developers off writing for it as it splits the availiable market.

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Ant

Ant

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Russ, have you had a chance to use that EP we swapped yet?

I was going to wait for the PS3 till I heard that it's not backwards compatable... What idiot at Sony decided not to make it backwards compatable... there goes the Sony PS's domination in the console market!

Ant

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