Moonfish 30mm help needed

[gazmass]

Hello all

I am currently getting a moonfish 30mm for my birthday. After making the order they told me they had sold out but had some eyepieces with a little damage to them. This is what he has said

We have some 30mm UW eyepieces with a cosmetic problem: the lenses are tighten together using a big ring inside the 2" barrel. And for any reason, sometimes, the strength applied is too much, so the upper lens, the one closer to the eye, shows a small piece of glass broken on the side, in the lateral of the lens, not in its surface. You can see it because the sides of the lenses are painted in black and the small scratch breaks the continuous black colour. I prefer to tell you this instead of disassemble the eyepiece, take out the small scratch and paint the glass on black again, and send it as perfect.

Now he has been very good and really good customer service. He has offered to send it me with a 2" visual back (as i brought a orion diagonal and found out it does not fit my scope). for the same price.

I am unsure what to do as i am not too sure what is wrong with it and do not have that much experiance in astronomy.

So what do you think i should do?

Thanks

[Space Bat]

It is difficult to say - but what worries me is the glass has been trapped (locked too tight) possibly expanded and caused the glass to crack/chip.

The rest of the optical part of the glass may not have become distorted or damaged (but likely if this is due to expansion) - but I presume you wouldn't find out until you have paid your money...etc.

[russ]

It is difficult to say - but what worries me is the glass has been trapped (locked too tight) possibly expanded and caused the glass to crack/chip.

I agree totally, that's what would worry me most too.

All i can say is that if it was me spending my money, i would walk away and look for an alternative. Unless it's really cheap, it just sounds too much of a risk.

[John]

I'd say this was a little more than just "cosmetic" damage - the lens is actually damaged and there may also be unseen damage elsewhere from the over tightening of the lens retaining ring. I'd say steer clear unless they are practically giving it away. Damage like this will also have a big effect on the eyepiece's re-sale value should you choose to sell it on - and the Moonfish 80 deg 30mm's don't command a great deal used anyway.

[gazmass]

this is what he says about the eyepiece too

The performance of the eyepiece is exactly the same, don't worry at all. It doesn't affect at all to the field of view or the quality of its views.

The visual back is it just a conversion from SCT tread to a 2" end, so, your 2" orion should fit without problem! This visual back use a compression ring to not mark your diagonal also. It is really nice, I promise.

I am sure that you will love the eyepiece, and if you already have the 2" refractor diagonal, just use this visual back. You will not be disappointed by this setup. And if you have any problem or doubt, or you just would like to send it back, no problem, ok? If you are not happy with your new products, that's not good at all for us. So, be sure that you will love this!!!!

[John]

Hmmm ...... remember they are trying to make a sale here and rid themselves of some damaged stock (sorry to be harsh but that's the situation). Can you tell us a bit more about the scope you will be using it in, whether you already have a 2" diagonal or not (thats not clear to me) and, if you don't mind, how much they intend to charge you for the eyepiece.

PS: Might be interesting to know who the supplier is as well.

[johninderby]

A Moonfish 30mm has just come up for sale here on SGL under "Various astro items"

John

[gazmass]

Awesome thanks for that John i have pm him as soon as i saw that thanks. The diagonal i got was a orion one my telescope is a SCT C8 SGT celestron only have it about two months.

[hunterknox]

Before you spend your pennies, gaz, you might want to look for a discernable difference between the Moonfish eyepiece and Astronomica's offering: 30mm Ultra Wide Angle Eyepiece (2 inch fitting) | Ultra Wide Angle | Eyepieces | Astronomica.

Put it another way: I used to have a Moonfish, which was a great eyepiece, but not ideal for my scope. If I was ever after a 30mm eyepiece for a new scope I'd be giving Astronomica a call first.

[beamish]

Before you spend your pennies, gaz, you might want to look for a discernable difference between the Moonfish eyepiece and Astronomica's offering: 30mm Ultra Wide Angle Eyepiece (2 inch fitting) | Ultra Wide Angle | Eyepieces | Astronomica.

Put it another way: I used to have a Moonfish, which was a great eyepiece, but not ideal for my scope. If I was ever after a 30mm eyepiece for a new scope I'd be giving Astronomica a call first.

Pretty sure they're the same EP.

I have one "Cape" and are quite nice to use, as long as the scope is no faster than F6, slower would be better. I recently read an interesting and favourable report regarding VFM televue vs 30mm UW.

[Astro_Baby]

Or you could spend a tiny bit more and get the SkyWatcher 32mm Panaview which is just the business as quite a few people will testify to and it works well in F5 scopes. Ok theres a tiny bit of coma at the very edges but no worse than most wide angle EPs in fast scopes. The views are great and the quality is top notch.

[gazmass]

Pretty sure they're the same EP.

I have one "Cape" and are quite nice to use, as long as the scope is no faster than F6, slower would be better. I recently read an interesting and favourable report regarding VFM televue vs 30mm UW.

So do you think i should get this instead? Is it the same one? I went for the moonfish as it won sky at night

[John]

So do you think i should get this instead? Is it the same one? I went for the moonfish as it won sky at night

I'm pretty sure that the Cape, the Moonfish, the Astronomica 30mm UWA, the Skywatcher 30mm UWA etc, etc are all the same eyepiece and from the same factory. This happens quite a bit with astro equipment - the trick is to find the lowest cost "clone" !.

[russ]

If you got in first for the secondhand Moonfish for £60, stick with it. It's a great eyepiece for an SCT, almost certainly designed solely with the SCT in mind. My dob came with the Moonfish and while i didn't think much of it in a fast scope like that, it was just what the doctor ordered for the SCT working at a slow F10.

The Astronomica is a variation on the same clone. So has all the same traits as the Moonfish.

The Panaview 32mm would be a nice alternative, i have the same eyepiece but with a different badge and it does indeed work better than the Moonfish (or it's clones) in faster scopes, just as Mel says. I have the 2" eyepiece for the dob alone though. My SCT is exclusively 1.25" only....read below.

Just out of interest, the Moonfish gives a true FOV of 1.2deg in the 8" SCT. The 32mm Panaview gives 1..15deg. So you can see the appeal of the Moonfish. It gives a larger true field but at a more desirable higher power. That's what makes it such a good SCT low power eyepiece.

I've gone a different route myself and one i prefer. I snagged a 0.63 reducer for my SCT bringing the focal length down too 1260mm from 2000mm. And then with a Meade 5000 26mm Super Plossl with a 60deg AFOV i get a true field of 1.24deg. More than the Moonfish and i don't have to play around with 2" accessories. Basically if i'm going to do a DSO night i bung in the reducer and operate at f6.3. It means all my eyepieces give a much greater FOV.

Russ