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Budget eyepieces for fast reflector

starscy

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John

John

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As long as you are happy to stay with a "normal" field of view (45-55 degrees or so) then you don't have to spend a lot even with a relatively fast scope. The Paradigm eyepieces seem to be getting very positive reviews from those on SGL who have tried them and they cost less than £40 each I believe.

It's when you go for wide or ultra-wide fields on a budget that the views can get a bit messy in the last 30% or so of the FoV.

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TheThing

TheThing

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Have a nose around the For Sale section on this here board.

Contrary to popular belief, a great number of EPs can be used with a fast scope (he says, from experience).

For just a few quid you could pick up some nice Orthos, Apogees, Plossls, Vixens etc. Also have a squint on UK Astronomy Buy & Sell .

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brianb

brianb

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Contrary to popular belief, a great number of EPs can be used with a fast scope (he says, from experience).

Can be used, yes, but they don't always perform well. The common 4-element Plossl is far happier at f/6 than it is at f/5.

AFAIK only Televue test their designs at f/4.

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TheThing

TheThing

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Can be used, yes, but they don't always perform well. The common 4-element Plossl is far happier at f/6 than it is at f/5.

Sorry, my experience disagrees with you. I've used a range of EPs from those listed with fast scopes and found that they perform very well.

You can't argue with experience!

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russ

russ

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I can certainly add a vote of confidence to the Paradigm and dealing with Alan (Skies the Limit).

Everyone has a different idea of what is acceptable when it comes to edge correction. For me, a good example of an eyepiece that doesn't work in scopes f5 or faster is the William Optics Swan edition and all its clones. The clones are very cheap (£29), look nicely made but they perform terribly (from experience). They give up at 70% out in an f5 and things get worse by the time you reach f4-4.5. Another that doesn't work well is the 11mm, 15mm, 16mm and 20mm 80deg Ultra Wides. I thought i was onto a winner when i bought the 11mm and 15mm. 80deg eyepiece for budget money. Budget money for very good reason. In the f4.7 dob the stars were starting to tail at 50%. So in effect it was only really a 40deg eyepiece. Although if you have something slow like an SCT they are good value.

The Paradigms are not perfect, best not to expect TV Panoptic performance for £38 delivered. But i would say they are on a par with the Hyperion and Meade 5000 Plossl, which cost £108 and £87 respectively. So excellent value.

Russ

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johnnyp

johnnyp

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Have recently purchased a paradigm 25m and to be honest its no better (worse even) than the standard 25mm supplied with my slt 102. Alan from skys the limit has kindly offered to exchange/refund though. goin to try the 5mm paradigm as a planetary eyepiece as ive heard nothing but good things about these.

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rwg

rwg

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I have just received a 15mm Paradigm from Skies the Limit today - feels solid, the eyecap twists up smooothly and the coatings look good with no blemishes, but can't say much else about it until the skies clear or at the very least I get to try it on a terrestrial target. Will report back.

Robin

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johnnyp

johnnyp

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Have you tried the 5mm Paradigm yet?

Havent tried the 5mm yet, actually i changed my mind and ordered the 18mm as reports suggest these are the best in the range. Also my frac doesnt do high mags very well ive discovered, so not sure id get many chances to use it.;)

These eyepieces are now branded as BST explorer(the 18mm is anyway) but are the same as paradigm apparently.:)

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yesyes

yesyes

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I have the 15mm and 8mm of the Paradigm EPs bought from Alan on ebay and I'm really happy with these (though I have no comparison to expensive EPs). My 5mm Paradigm should hopefully arrive today.

They have to call them Explorer now though. Alan said they are not allowed to call them Paradigm any more for trade mark reasons but he assured me that they are still exactly the same EPs.

Here's a link to his shop on ebay:

eBay UK Shop - Sky's the Limit Astro and Optical: 1.25 Eyepieces, Camera Accessories, Telescope Accessories

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PeterW

PeterW

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Good luck. Best to avoid wide angle eyepieces as they tend to get hammered by short focal lengths worse. As advised look at a lot of reviews. I got an Antares W70 25mm and the edges are horrid at f5... had to save up for a 'proper' wide angle to repalce it!

All the best

PEter

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  • 3 weeks later...
mobi

mobi

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Are these Paradigm/BSTExploers 12mm & 18mm ipieces as good or much better than the Revelation ipieces being sold in kits called "Revelation Photovisual eyepieces and filter set" for £129 at welknown UK astronomy webshops?

Has anyone compared personally in person?

By the way just paid for a 12mm BST Explorer. I will reply back when tried out.

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RikM

RikM

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How do the TV plossls compare to Meade 4000 plossls and Meade 5000 super plossls? Is it worth replacing the Skywatcher 10 mm EP that came with my F5 reflector? Also planning to add a 15mm. Don't really want to spend more than £100 per EP at the moment so TV Radians are out of reach :eek: I also sometimes wear glasses so eye relief is of interest.

Rik

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brianb

brianb

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Plossls have "standard" eye relief i.e proportional to the focal length.

The Meade series 5000 super Plossls are 5 element design with 60 degree apparent field of view - halfway to being a true wide angle. They're sharp & have a neutral colour rendition. The twist-up eyecup is a help for getting your eye correctly positioned. Shorter versions (under 20mm) probably have too little eye relief to allow use when wearing glasses, if that's an issue.

Meade series 4000 Plossls, like the TV Plossls, are standard 4 element designs with around 50 degrees apparent field of view. The Meade version is optically fine but badly let down by the construction standard, lightweight & containing lots of plastic. (The series 5000s are OK). The Televue Plossls are beautiffully constructed & will probably last a lifetime, optically they're OK but they do tend to impart a slight "coffee stain" colouration to the image. Some people don't notice, others quite like it but they are different. Just thought you ought to be aware.

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Astro_Baby

Astro_Baby

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I think much depends on what you can live with. I have found most EPs work ok down to F5 - the only scope I have which gets picky is my Stellarvue F50 finderscope which gets quite snotty with most EPs and shows really excessive coma but then its a tad under F4 which is FAST.

I have tried a range of 30mm and above wide angles in the F5 Newt and most work well enough.

My favourite is the 38mm Sky-Watcher Panaview which does show coma but only right at the edge of the field and to be honest your eyeballs dont have that sort of width of view anyway - that paricular EP is so vast in glass its like putting your head in a bucket.

The Baader Hyperion 13mm is about the same. Vixen NPL about the same again.

While I've no doubt an Ethos gets rid of the coma altogether ( and I am STILL waiting to test the ES 1400) it comes down to what you can live with. I dont doubt some cheapie wide angles may well show terrible distortion but I havent seen one yet that does and to date I have had a selection of Plossls, The SKy-Watcher Ultrawides, Hyperions etc - they all show some mild aberrations but nothing I cant live with.

My advice is get on down to an astro society or a star party and have a look for yourself before spending megabucks.

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