Which Eyepieces??

[crazyjedi]

It was the Feb issue from this year. These were all wide angle EP's and the Nagler type 6 was beaten on; build and design, ease of use, extras, and eye relief but was the best for FOV (unsuprisingly) It was noted as on the pricey side but was cheaper than the overall winner - the Celestron Axium. personally i'd eat my own cat to get my hands on any of those top three EP's

[crazyjedi]

My scope is reasonably quick so i'm gonna save and get a good one and be damned

[nicnac]

mine too so a few plossls and a few radians for me, maybe a panoptic later on

[John]

Having been lucky enough to try and own some very nice eyepieces, the nearest I've found to a "budget" premium ultra-wide field eyepiece is the Skywatcher Nirvana. Setting aside the "are they the same as William Optics UWAN's ?" debate (personally I think they are and I've used both types), the Nirvana's provide very close to Nagler performance levels at around 60% of the price - the 16mm is a great eyepiece for £135 - the Nagler equivilent costs twice that !.

I realise that these are still not "cheap" eyepieces but they are genuinely excellent eyepieces - the 28mm is outrageous !!!.

[nicnac]

im in the spend more on EPs camp John, a good set will last a life time.

the TV plossls are only £70(ish) i dont think thats too bad.

john, have you used one of TVs zoom EPs? i know zooms are not much up against a fixed EP but still, it would be good to have a review on one.

[John]

...john, have you used one of TVs zoom EPs? i know zooms are not much up against a fixed EP but still, it would be good to have a review on one....

The only zoom eyepiece that I've used is the Tele Vue Nagler 3mm-6mm zoom. In fact I've owned one twice now !.

Despite the Nagler name it provides a 50 degree field of view across it's zoom range. It's very sharp and contrasty and has less glass in it than the ultra-wide Naglers - 5 elements. It's an extremely useful eyepiece in the fast ED / Apo refractors - I believe thats what it was designed for. The zoom range has click stops at the 3-4-5-6mm positions but can be set in between these positions as well. The only thing I was not too keen on was that the eye lens was set very close to the top of the eyepiece and could attract eyelash marks although the eye relief of the eyepiece is 10mm which is quite comfortable.

In the end I decided that I needed the wide fields of the Nagler ultra-wide design as most of my observing is done with scopes on undriven alt-azimuth mounts so I've stuck with my Nagler Type 6 5mm and 3.5mm's but the Nagler zoom was just as sharp as those, in a somewhat more compact and flexible package.

Other that that my experience with zooms is nil I'm afraid, other than a quick glance through a Baader Hyperion zoom which was in a PST solar scope at last years SGL star party. That seemed quite nice but it was only a short encounter !.

[Supay]

I'm trying to decide on some nice EP to go with my new scope. Just for your info, I found this site which seems to be cheaper for EP than some of the others I've been looking at, such as First Light and Optical Vision.

Astronomy eyepieces, Antares plossl and kellner eyepieces

The Meade 4000 Super Plossl are a lot cheaper there, starting at £29.49 and only hitting £44.99 for the 40mm.

Not used the site myself so not sure on their service, but I'm thinking of ordering from them simply because the price on those EP is so much better. There's also an offer on to get a free foam-filled case and glow in the dark stickers to mark the eyepieces if you buy 3 EP, which seemed to be your original intention.

[johninderby]

Televue are the bees knees i've heard many times but in a recent 'sky at night magazine' review of wide angle EP's the much vaunted televue nagler came out 3rd behind a Meade UWA and the winner - the Celestron Axiom. The Televue was commended for it's optics but the other two were generally better apparently. Either way no one can argue with Al Nagler when it comes to EP's - I just can't afford any of his

Sky at Night reviews are not reviews as we know them in the real world. Not that I would be so churlish as to suggest that the amount of advertising revenue received could have any bearing on the outcome of a Sky at Night review. :rolleyes:

I firmly agree with previous posts, if you want a good widefield eyepiece that will work in a fast scope it won't come cheap. However if you sacrifice FOV then there are some fairly inexpensive eyepieces that can perform well in a fast scope.

John

John

[crazyjedi]

OK if i were to get on Wide field EP for a skywatcher 150 f/750 BELOW £200?????????? What would it be?? I'm thinking Meade 5000.

I'm under no illusion as to the subjectiveness of the Sky at night mag - Marking an EP down on "extra's" what extra's do you get with an EP???? (i think they were refering to the eye-cup but still??

Extra's What do they expect? Air con and alloy wheels?)

Having said that, i've not tried the axium and have no doubt's that it's good. i just wonder at the scoring system.

[nicnac]

optics, price, weight and i think the last is most likely fanciness, have they got what it takes to be the next fashion accessory (scope sense)

to me its all about the optics and price, i will spend some on quality but i do draw the line at certain figures.

televue's are a proven brand in fast scopes. there will be some to rival no doubt but even so i will be safe and stick to what i know, whats the point in buying second best or worse, a lemon.

i suppose this could be regarded as a personal choice type of thing so will say "horses for courses"

[Moonshane]

OK if i were to get on Wide field EP for a skywatcher 150 f/750 BELOW £200?????????? What would it be?? I'm thinking Meade 5000.

I'm under no illusion as to the subjectiveness of the Sky at night mag - Marking an EP down on "extra's" what extra's do you get with an EP???? (i think they were refering to the eye-cup but still??

Extra's What do they expect? Air con and alloy wheels?)

Having said that, i've not tried the axium and have no doubt's that it's good. i just wonder at the scoring system.

bide your time and get a good condition used 35mm Panoptic - I got mine for £200.

[John]

OK if i were to get on Wide field EP for a skywatcher 150 f/750 BELOW £200?????????? What would it be?? I'm thinking Meade 5000.

Do you mean wide or ultra-wide ?.

If the latter and buying new then the UWAN's / Nirvana's are very hard to beat. If buying used then you can get Naglers for that money or Pentax XW's if you prefer longer eye relief. Buying used opens up many possibilities and quality stuff tends to get well looked after.

[great_bear]

If buying used then you can get Naglers for that money

There's one on astrobuysell right now:

U.K. Astronomy Buy & Sell

It's a TypeII Nagler, which has better eye relief than the later versions. It had very good comments when I asked about it on cloudynights <click here>

[John]

There's one on astrobuysell right now:

U.K. Astronomy Buy & Sell

It's a TypeII Nagler, which has better eye relief than the later versions. It had very good comments when I asked about it on cloudynights <click here>

I saw your post on CN - this looks a bit of a bargain, if eyepiece costing nearly £200 can be called that

Certainly a Nagler 16mm T5 would cost as much used and, as you say, has tighter eye relief.

[crazyjedi]

I think i'll just save up for a while and see what i can afford at the time for an ultra-wide. in the mean time i'll get a couple of Meade 5000 plossl's. I don't mid spending on EP's (within reason) cuz - as was mentioned before they'll be with me for a life time, even if my scope gets upgraded or changed.

interestingly the Nirvana was in that review peice too and came 4th out of 5. The major problem with Televue is the price i think. they're not just expensive - they're OUCH!