Finally on the TV firm

[spaceboy]

LOL No I'm all done now guys other than maybe a 6mm BGO (or Delos )for a x200 planetary in my dob.

After waiting what seemed an eternity, a 6mm BGO finally came up for sale on UKB&S. A big thank you to those members who gave me a heads up The 6mm BGO will now give me x200 in my 250PX along side the 5mm which gives me x200 in the 200P and EVO120. As I'd not been out under the stars for a while I had questioned if it was worth holding onto the idea having the BGO's but after a long awaited break in the clouds the 5mm BGO didn't disappoint on Jupiter and those doubts were soon put to rest.

As there is no more space in the case I guess this really is the completed collection and decided I would do a past and present. Although not all my original EP's are present (10 mm & 25 mm TAL plossls sold with the 200K) or even all of my new eps for that fact (4 & 5mm TMB Clones, 6mm Radian, 20mm Nagler and 31mm Hyperion) I thought it might make for a good end to the thread?

My original eye piece collection of 6 years and one

I still use regularly for solar observing and in my 127 Skymax:-

6.3mm Tal Super plossl

10mm Tal Plossl (now 10mm SW super plossl )

17mm Tal Super plossl

20mm Tal Super plossl

25mm Tal plossl (now a SW 25mm Spuer plossl )

26mm Meade Super plossl

40mm Tal Super plossl

Tal x2 Barlow (now SW x2 Barlow )

The new eyepiece collection and hopefully one for life:-

6mm Baader ortho

5mm Baader ortho

3-6mm Nagler zoom

7mm Nagler

9mm Nagler

13mm Nagler

16mm Nagler

22mm Nagler

31mm Nagler

[Damo636]

Congratulations Spaceboy. That's a lovely collection of the best money can buy and i would say you have every angle covered for a lifetime of observing. This has been an excellent and very informative thread. I am a couple short of completing my collection but hopefully will get there some day soon.

[John]

Thats a fantastic collection Spaceboy - every conceivable situation is covered by that lot

Mind the Ethos / Delos bug doesn't bite though .........

[spaceboy]

Congratulations Spaceboy. That's a lovely collection of the best money can buy and i would say you have every angle covered for a lifetime of observing. This has been an excellent and very informative thread. I am a couple short of completing my collection but hopefully will get there some day soon.

Thanks Damo. Gutted I deleted all the pictures :iamwithstupid:as it may be a little confusing for new comers to the thread but I hope there is still some advice there that could be taken away from participants posts. You have soon put your collection together and I hope you are able to get your collection completed ready for the new season. I admit I'm still on the look out for a zoom ep mainly for use with my solar set-up so technically my set is not yet complete.

Thats a fantastic collection Spaceboy - every conceivable situation is covered by that lot

Mind the Ethos / Delos bug doesn't bite though .........

I hope I have it all covered John as the case is heavy enough as it is .

I honestly feel for the improvement in views over budget EP's and the larger spacewalk FOV, for the money you can't go far wrong with a Nagler. They are not insanely expensive like the Ethos, Explorer scientific or Pentax. When you consider the alternatives like WO's UWAN they are not actually not that much more expensive. I know of much worse EP's out there that are no more than glorified plossls that demand price tags of £80-£100 just because of a brand name yet a used Nagler in mint condition would only cost £150-£165 and offer a substantial improvement both optically and practically. My EP set as I see it will probably never really need to be replaced so while the initial out lay could be considered high I'm hoping the time and money I will have saved from not buying and selling cheaper alternatives will pay off in the long run. Not to mention I am making the best of the views now The only contradiction to this theory was the TMB clones. While they are long gone now I did find them to be astonishingly good value for money and had I had these instead of my Tal plossls it may have been a lot longer than 6 years before I upgraded my EP collection. This said I have come across other threads where members have been less than impressed with there performance but that just goes to show what may work for one person may not necessarily work for the next.

Thanks to all who showed an interest and participated in the thread and I hope it helped pass the time on cloudy nights.

NICK

[Nexus 6]

Respect for a high quality collection Nick

seems to be missing a Delos

[MjrTom]

The Way I see it is that telescopes come and go but eyepieces I tend to only buy once, once I have decided exactly what will meet my needs.

[spaceboy]

seems to be missing a Delos

Don't tempt me Alan. I do really like the idea being publicized about the Delos and it stands a good chance it will be everything it claims. The 6mm for me is the most appealing FL as I find this is a very useful magnification in most of my scopes for both globular clusters and planetary.

Having given it much thought I really don't think I would need the Delos (not to say I wouldn't grab one coming up at the right price ). The FOV isn't overly necessary for planetary observation as even at high magnification and in only 40' AFOV Jupiter and Saturn revealed most of their satellites. The much larger eye relief and eye lens of the Delos may be considered appealing over the BGO's but I have a sneaky suspicions this combination "may" suffer on bright planets due the light from the planet reflects off your retina back on to the large lens causing a ghosting effect ????? Having got out under the stars the other night with the 6mm BGO it's performance was found to be equal (if not slightly better due to the larger eye lens) to the 5mm. While I don't doubt the Delos will be a hit and I'm sure it will perform as advertised I just can't warrant the £270 price tag when I get what I need from the zoom, BGO's and barlowed Nags.

[Nexus 6]

Its the 6mm Delos I will be considering for those high power views. Will need to put one down on my list for santa and be good for the next few months.

Clear Skies mate

[spaceboy]

Just for the hell of it. 7mm BGO, I'm hoping this really is the last edition but then we've all heared that before

[Nexus 6]

are you still at it?

am willing to bet its not the last

[spaceboy]

LOL... I know it's like an addiction. I have to admit I almost committed to a 6mm Delos at PSP but after sleeping on it for the amount of times I would get to use it with the UK seeing being the way it is seemed pointless. I have the 3-6 zoom that is perfect for dial a seeing when the skies do permit and as I have most of the other bases covered so I don't envisage any future TV purchases. The only other BGO I've been tempted by is the 9mm but at the magnifications I would be getting I'd consider this out of the realm of a purposeful planetary EP so the 9mm T6 would do an equally good job.

If I'm honest I have been pondering the idea of a 10mm Ethos but these just don't seem to come up used. I'm not a big fan of the Ethos due to the bulky baseball bat characteristics but after seeing Shane at PSP only needing to swap between 2-3 EP's had me thinking. I wouldn't say I was all that blown away by the 100's as you have to look around to take it all in anyway which I felt took some effort but the image was a lot cleaner than with the Nags. Can't comment on the sharpness as Shane was using a Paracorr but my first impression of the Ethos were that they would save a lot of EP swapping and so increase actual observing. I'm still not sure they're for me but I can at least now understand the appeal.

[MjrTom]

Hmm yeah I know how you feel.

I looked through a few ethos and some 2 inch Naglers at PSP2011 and it did get me thinking.

I was also looking at the Delos eyepieces but decided the physical size of the ethos and Delos were a little too much.

With the exception of the 35mm Panoptic all my eyepieces are fairly compact which was a deliberate intention.

In the end I sacked off the Delos idea and picked up the 7mm T6 which will be suited nicely on a 1000mm to 1200mm focal length scope.

Maybe further down the line I might switch to a 31 Nagler and an ethos or two but can't see it happening in the near future.

I actually found the ethos a bit too wide for my liking, much preceding the 68-82 degree FOV even if it means swapping eyepieces more often.

I am happy with my collection of panoptics, T6 Naglers and BGO's

[Damo636]

Can't comment on the sharpness as Shane was using a Paracorr but my first impression of the Ethos were that they would save a lot of EP swapping and so increase actual observing.

This was exactly my reasoning for switching to the Ethos eyepiece's. I exactly halved my collection in a frantic 2 week period of buying and selling. I still have every angle covered but now with a lot less glass. Most nights now i only use 2 ep's as the 13mm is wide enough to use as the finder. I would love to add the 21mm at some point in the future but it certainly won't be today or tomorrow. The 100 degree fov Ethos are admittedly not everyones cup of tea but man oh man they sure do rock my world

[Kef9]

Spaceboy!!!! When will it end!!! NEVER!!!!!

Just get the whole set of BGO's and be done with it and while your at it you need to get the full set of ethos too!!!! You know you want to and to deny it is madness!!!!

You can get completely carried away and it's hard to stop!!!

[spaceboy]

No.... that's it now for me Kef9! I have had some opportunity in between clouds to see what works in each of my scopes and I now think I have all the bases covered. The BGO's were an unexpected surprise so I wanted to make sure I had a couple to pick from depending on seeing conditions but I think it would be pointless me getting a set of them. The only change I would make if I was going to would maybe swap the 16T5 & 22T4 out for just a 17T4 but other than this it's all good at last (pocket sighs in relief )

[Damo636]

No.... that's it now for me Kef9! I have had some opportunity in between clouds to see what works in each of my scopes and I now think I have all the bases covered. The BGO's were an unexpected surprise so I wanted to make sure I had a couple to pick from depending on seeing conditions but I think it would be pointless me getting a set of them. The only change I would make if I was going to would maybe swap the 16T5 & 22T4 out for just a 17T4 but other than this it's all good at last (pocket sighs in relief )

Or a 17mm Ethos, almost same tfov as 22T4

[CGolder]

I love my 17e no regrets at all

[Damo636]

I love my 17e no regrets at all

My only regret is that i don't have one

[spaceboy]

I'm not a big fan of the Ethos due to the bulky baseball bat characteristics but after seeing Shane at PSP only needing to swap between 2-3 EP's had me thinking. I wouldn't say I was all that blown away by the 100's as you have to look around to take it all in anyway which I felt took some effort but the image was a lot cleaner than with the Nags. Can't comment on the sharpness as Shane was using a Paracorr but my first impression of the Ethos were that they would save a lot of EP swapping and so increase actual observing. I'm still not sure they're for me but I can at least now understand the appeal.

Still resisting the tall dark and green side for the time being but yes a 17mm Etho would fill the gap nicely Damo.

[CGolder]

I used to have 7 eyepieces, now all i need is 3, the pan is great for the larger targets, the 17 mm is at nearly 150 mag in my main scope so fits everything else and is also decent for planets, i then use a 12mm plossl for that extra mag, ill prob get a few orthos in time but the performance is marginal over a rev plossl so no rush

The best view i have had in the ethos is all m45 in a field of view in my z66, the sky was so dark and i could see so many stars between them a real wow moment for me

Sent from my A101IT using Tapatalk

[Kef9]

You deffo only need 3 eyepieces really. For me its the 5mm XO, 13mm ethos and 31mm nag. All the rest are just luxuries really but these are the ones I would keep if I had to choose

[spaceboy]

The only thing that makes me now wonder if only 3 EP's work is mother nature and scope set ups . Ethos tend to replace 2-3 EP's which is great if seeing is perfect for that magnification or that FL is usable in your selection of scopes. What I mean is if I had an 6 or 8mm ethos for high power it would be reliant on the seeing conditions to if I get any higher magnification observing in. This is why despite having the BGO's which I like very much I still keep the 3-6 zoom. There are those nights when seeing is great one minute and a puddle of water the next. The zoom easily compensates for this with the minimum of fuss. While not as easy to dial a seeing I do have 5,6,7,9mm FL (magnifications) to choose from but I could never justify having 6,8,10 mm Ethos. Not to mention this would kind of defeat the object. I agree 2 long FL Ethos would work replacing a handful of EP's but higher magnifications really need to adjust to the seeing.

[Moonshane]

The only thing that makes me now wonder if only 3 EP's work is mother nature and scope set ups . Ethos tend to replace 2-3 EP's which is great if seeing is perfect for that magnification or that FL is usable in your selection of scopes. What I mean is if I had an 6 or 8mm ethos for high power it would be reliant on the seeing conditions to if I get any higher magnification observing in. This is why despite having the BGO's which I like very much I still keep the 3-6 zoom. There are those nights when seeing is great one minute and a puddle of water the next. The zoom easily compensates for this with the minimum of fuss. While not as easy to dial a seeing I do have 5,6,7,9mm FL (magnifications) to choose from but I could never justify having 6,8,10 mm Ethos. Not to mention this would kind of defeat the object. I agree 2 long FL Ethos would work replacing a handful of EP's but higher magnifications really need to adjust to the seeing.

I totally agree with this Nick. I find that for my big 16" dob, I really only need my 26mm and 13mm eyepieces for the vast majority of the time. In that scope I like the very wide vistas and packed star fields with a nice DSO parked in the middle. These eyepieces give me 71x (1.1 degree field) and 142x (0.7 degree field) and exit pupils of 5.8mm and 2.9mm.

However, in my 6" f11 which is used as my main higher power scope I have a 32mm plossl, 15mm plossl, 12.5mm ortho, 10mm Radian, 9mm ortho, 8mm Radian, 7mm ortho and a 6-3mm zoom. These cover the range of mags used for lunar/planetary and double star observing very well and moving from even 8mm to 9mm can sometimes make a real difference when the seeing is variable. I often move up and down the magnifications throughout a night's observing when doing higher power stuff.

Also, changing the exit pupil sometimes seems to help with double stars. eg the other night I was trying to split Theta Aurigae and with my 7mm ortho it was not possible due to the seeing, when I put in my 8mm Radian it was obviously split. These eyepieces also double up for use in my small wide field frac so although slightly extravagant, they do multi-task.

[John]

...Also, changing the exit pupil sometimes seems to help with double stars. eg the other night I was trying to split Theta Aurigae and with my 7mm ortho it was not possible due to the seeing, when I put in my 8mm Radian it was obviously split...

This is a good point Shane. I find particularly that picking out E & F Trapezium needs an eyepiece that is "just right" and that can vary from night to night. Too much or to little power just does not seem to work with those pesky little blighters

[CGolder]

I think ill get a 12.5 ortho and 9mm ortho in time, that will cover my planets and good seeing planets, no real need for me to push the boat out gett more fov as this mag is only decent on planets, i have considered a 10mm radian... i have actually never looked through one, i liked the 10mm delos i tried at kelling but 10mm is normally to high power for my scope (250x)