Finally on the TV firm

[John]

You will always have one that you feel lets the side down. Although I am very happy with it and there is no real alternative the 10mm eye relief of my 16mm Nag makes it harder to see the field stop. It is comfortable to use and more compact than all my Nags so I wouldn't want to change it. I just wish they had made the usual 12mm ER then that would have been perfect but I would imagine it would have also have made it much larger. I can see the field stop on my other naglers at 12mm ER but I still need to look around to make out the whole view so I guess the 16mm works out anyway but I can't help but think "if only".

I used to have a William Optics 16mm UWAN which has the 82 degree FoV and 12mm of eye relief. Was I happy ? - no, like a fool I'd decided to go "all black and green" so I sold it and investied a further £70 in getting a 16mm T5 Nagler. Well that was not money well spent - the Nagler was very sharp but that 2mm of eye relief did matter and I realised that most of the time the views with the 16mm UWAN were just as good and the rest of the time 95% as good

The 16mm T5 went when I got the 13mm Ethos.

[callisto]

Well, not bad but not brilliant also,

The reason I have all those WO ep's is because I already had them when I had my Megrez frac, but sold that a while ago.

The Panaview is fairly good but does have some flaring to the edge of the FOV.

Like I said before, they will do me for now but will be splashing out later on for some other TV ep's .

[spaceboy]

I used to have a William Optics 16mm UWAN which has the 82 degree FoV and 12mm of eye relief. Was I happy ? - no, like a fool I'd decided to go "all black and green" so I sold it and investied a further £70 in getting a 16mm T5 Nagler. Well that was not money well spent - the Nagler was very sharp but that 2mm of eye relief did matter and I realised that most of the time the views with the 16mm UWAN were just as good and the rest of the time 95% as good

The 16mm T5 went when I got the 13mm Ethos.

I would probably be gutted if I had payed shelf price but I can live with it for what I paid. The guy I had it off only had it a short time and it wasn't his cup of tea so it was practically new. I never give a WO UWAN/ SW Nirvana a thought. How do they compare size and weight wise ???

[John]

... I never give a WO UWAN/ SW Nirvana a thought. How do they compare size and weight wise ???

A little bigger and heavier - a bit like a Type 6 Nagler that's had too many mince pies !. To use they are very like the Type 6's.

If you own, or plan to own an ultra-fast scope, then it's probably best to stick with the Naglers but at F/5 and slower the UWAN's / Nirvana's come mighty close.

The TV will hold it's value a bit better though, although we don't buy these things as an investment of course.

[spaceboy]

ARRRGGGGHH!!! Well it would appear after last nights all nighter under superb skies the 7mm Nag "I really need this" after all dam weather!! I have been relying on doing my sums to what magnification will work best as Birmingham has had no decent skies for months and when we do the seeing is often so bad I've been settling for lower powers than usual and now I have finally had a decent nights viewing it would appear I F'ed up my calculations!

My 200p happily viewed Globulars with the (167x) 6mm Radian but :iamwithstupid:was hoping the lack of a (171x) 7mm gap would be OK on the 10" and the 6mm Rad at 200x would be OK. I think this might be a tad to much magnification to work efficiently on globulars given our usual poor seeing. As we know upping the mag dulls the image slightly and I think the extra 33x is going to rob me of some view. I'm keeping my fingers crossed the extra 2" of aperture will compensate for any dulling but I will truly be at the mercy of seeing as if it won't take 200x the next best thing after that is my (133x) 9mm or barlowed 16mm at 150x

Finally the last piece of the puzzle (fingers crossed).

Taking advantage of the telescope house 10% off for Astrofest, I raided the last of the savings and a couple of IOU's later the 7mm Nag will now hopefully be the last of the big spends. (where have I heard that before ) I went out under dark skies early Monday morning and the 7mm would have came in so handy. The skies were clear but the seeing wasn't the best so with the 6 - 9 I was between a rock and a hard place. I tried the 16mm barlowed but as I was using the 16mm also as a finder constantly having to mess taking the barlow off soon became a chore. No more money so no more options so this wants to work out as it will be a while before the kids get to repay their Dad for all these years of looking after them .

SPACEBOY

P.S I have to say John I found that the 16mm Nag spent a lot of time in the focuser I am surprised it didn't work out for you. I don't know if it is because it's the most compact of my ep's or the seeing wasn't the best but I found myself reaching for it every time. It made for a great medium power finder although I was shocked how much easier it is to find things under dark skies. Objects seem to jump out at you.

P.P.S I know this thread has seemed to drag on a bit but thank you everyone who showed an interest. It's not the best collection compared to most members on the lounge but it the best I could do given my budget and they are way better than my first set of TAL Super P's

[Kef9]

Its a very nice set indeed!

You haven't dragged on. Its been a pleasure.

I would love to try the 16mm nag someday but can't justify it with a 13mm ethos.

[spaceboy]

Its a very nice set indeed!

You haven't dragged on. Its been a pleasure.

I would love to try the 16mm nag someday but can't justify it with a 13mm ethos.

I doubt Kef9 you would be all that impressed by the 16mm Nag having already got a 13mm Ethos. I try to be honest when representing Ep's but I always like to make it clear that what may work for me may not work for someone else and I think John has proven that. It may be in my case and as you can see from the first post that I came from plossl's straight in to Nags. The 16mm was one of my first TV's and so I was accustomed real easy where as John came from using an 82' UWAN so already had a level of expectation. I have said before the 10mm eye relief is tight for such a wide FOV and some may feel the need to bury their eye right in to the EP to get the most from it but I find it works OK and I naturally find a comfortable eye position. This is a compromise I am more than happy to make for the compactness of the EP but would some consider it worth the price some shops are asking??? I just wish I could have had the same view out of my 22nag but with the compactness of the 20Nag. At first I find myself hesitant to put the 1.5lb 22Nag in the focuser but when I become immersed in that 19mm of eye relief I find it hard to take it out again. I'm sure a view through a 21 ethos may have me throwing the compact EP idea out the window but for now I am happy to make do :)

SPACEBOY

[John]

The 16mm T5 is an excellent eyepiece, no doubt of that. It's probably one of the sharpest Naglers as well, and the others are not slouches in that department !. I think my problem was that I'd already developed "Ethos lust" at the time I had it

I think your collection is suberb - every department is covered really well

[spaceboy]

Thanks John but if only I had known you sooner I could have saved myself a fortune having all your old Nag's I would have loved the 5mm as I can't bring myself to shell out new on an EP that would get little use due to the high magnification in my scopes. I think TV should bring out a 6mm Nag as the Ethos is beyond the reach of most and the Radian only offers 60 degrees.

[spaceboy]

Are you sure its the end though LOL

It would appear you know the allure of the green and black only to well.

Are you sure you don't need to sell the 5mm and 6mm to put towards a 3-6mm Nagler zoom? .

After giving it a lot of thought a well timed sale and this review http://www.cloudynights.com/documents/tmb2.pdf I considered it a worth while investment. It remains to be seen if it will pay off. I know John has had a couple of 3-6 zooms and found they did not work for him and for the same reasons I am hesitant regards fist light results. I have seen a trend towards shorter FOV EP's offering much better sharpness and contrast over WFOV EP's but how it will work out in my manual dob remains to be seen.

Despite sounding like a broken record this really is "THE COMPLETE" collection. I went from having a budget to now being in debt up to my eyeballs so a 31mm Nagler is never going to happen. To be fair I have grown quite attached to the 31mm Baader and don't think I would change it even if I could afford to.

Although I never wanted it to end up this way, I do think it becomes some what an obsession getting the perfect set together. I now consider myself a matching green and black collecting SADDO!

Anyway it's been an interesting 5 months adding new eyepieces to the collection and experiencing all the wonderful views of clouds you get through them.

[Kef9]

Ha Ha Ha

Resistance is futile! You need the 31mm Nagler now!

I think I have got there now with my set. The nag zooms are excellent, thats why I have them both.

[Kef9]

To be honest this hobby is getting on my nerves. Since christmas there have been virtually no goood nigts for seeing and when the clouds have cleared there has been a whacking great full moon lighting up the sky. BRILLIANT

[John]

To be honest this hobby is getting on my nerves. Since christmas there have been virtually no goood nigts for seeing and when the clouds have cleared there has been a whacking great full moon lighting up the sky. BRILLIANT

I feel the same.

It's the worst period can I remember for a long time. The really frustrating thing is that I've got the best set of equipment that I've ever had ........ so it seems like a double whammy

Ironic in a way that the crud weather has coincided with one of the biggest surges of interest in the hobby we have seen for years. I fear that some of the stuff bought by newbies may never get used .......

[Kef9]

Yep, its a shame for the newbies

I've not had my telescope out for 2 months now. The winter sky is passing me by!

I'm depressed.

[John]

...After giving it a lot of thought a well timed sale and this review http://www.cloudynights.com/documents/tmb2.pdf I considered it a worth while investment. It remains to be seen if it will pay off. I know John has had a couple of 3-6 zooms and found they did not work for him and for the same reasons I am hesitant regards fist light results. I have seen a trend towards shorter FOV EP's offering much better sharpness and contrast over WFOV EP's but how it will work out in my manual dob remains to be seen.....

I think the 3-6mm zooms are very fine eyepieces but, having owned two of them now, I have to conclude that they are not quite right for me (more my weakness for wide FoV's than any fault with the zooms )

On the apparent surge in interest in shorter FoV eyepieces, being an observer of the eyepiece "scene" for a number of years now I've noticed that this comes and goes and is almost cyclical. There is also a sort of "sods law" that means that you notice all the adverse reports on what you have just invested heavily in much more than the positive ones that convinced you to make the investment in the 1st place

[Moonshane]

There is also a sort of "sods law" that means that you notice all the adverse reports on what you have just invested heavily in much more than the positive ones that convinced you to make the investment in the 1st place

this is SO true. once you buy - stop looking - that's my rule.

[spaceboy]

Ha Ha Ha

Resistance is futile! You need the 31mm Nagler now!

.

Maybe when they have a 50% off sale I might consider it. I do like my 31mm Baader though. It weighs next to nothing and it IS sharp right to the edge with nice white stars and I also like that if I ever felt the need to I can use it as 1.25".

Despite my best efforts not to........I think the *** poor weather is why I began collecting eye pieces as there is no other involvement in the hobby.

I'm hoping I will be happy with the zoom ( after all I gave up my beloved TMB clones ) in my 200p as it's on a GT mount so FOV should be no worries. The review made sense with regards to loosing things in the EP at high magnification during ep changes so fingers crossed it "may" work out in the dob but I'm keeping my 6mm Rad for the extra 10' just incase.

I think there will be a few new fish out there regretting cashing out on new gear. I imagine for most it's hard enough getting in a nights observing at the best of times, what with getting up for work, other commitments and now cloud almost every night of the week. I am happy to have new EP's sitting around as I already know what's in the skies but for a beginner buying kit and looking out every night at clouds I can imagine is going to loose the interest of many before they even began.

SPACEBOY

[Kef9]

The Baader does sound really good. Managed to get a bit of observing in last night. There were a few clouds but they were moving really quickly. I got to see some new objects.

Now I've pretty much completed my eyepiece collection I don't spend as much time on here as I used to trawl through the for sale section every day. I must make more effort!!!

I've also realised that I need to live in the countryside. Oh well!

[spaceboy]

The Baader does sound really good. Managed to get a bit of observing in last night. There were a few clouds but they were moving really quickly. I got to see some new objects.

For me in my scope I find it superb. I would say it is better than the 22T4 but I put this down to the Baader having a shorter FOV and so less curved glass surface, and so less scatter. I'm shocked to have seen the Baaders for sale on UKB&S as I can't fault them. They only weigh 390 grams, offer 72' AFOV give sharp stars right across the FOV and have the addition of a screw in 1.25" adapter that will give you the same FOV as a 24mm Panoptic should you ever feel it too much of a pain to keep swapping out the 2/1.25" focuser adapter. I would like the FOV that a 31mm Nag could offer but would I pay the price and would I want the hassle such a heavy EP can cause ???? I'm just so used to using plossls that I couldn't see myself using some thing as huge as a 31mm Nag, 28mm UWAN, 34mm Meade 5000 or 30mm Axiom. I find it a struggle to want to put the 22mm Nag in the focuser half the time as even with a counter weight the tension handle is done up so tight it's a pain to track things. I think even though there are compromises to be made and T6 Nags are far perfect I did find they do offer a lot of sky for what is a reasonably compact EP. I know a lot may read this and say I'm missing the point and EP dimensions/weight have nothing to do about it and it's all about the view EP's offer at the end of the day, but I am happy to make those compromises. The 3-6 zoom was also a compromise. As I'm sure ....every astronomer in the UK was out under the stars last night, and for me this offered 1st light of the zoom. As I had suspected it wasn't the best in the dob but it offered me a chance to see what it could do. I had no concern about the short ER as the 16T5 is rated the same but is in fact shorter. The small eye lens was no issue as it's huge compared to the average plossl of the same FL. BUT the FOV was a drain on energy serving only to keep me warm having to keep nudging the scope. I could go up to 300x 4mm with clear breaks in seeing on M13 but my hand was constantly offering support to the scope to keep the object in view. Saturn posed more of viewing pleasure with less nudging and it was at this point when I truly appreciated the magnifications I was getting from the EP. Even messing around and going for 400x with the 3mm it was possible to follow Saturn but it was not long until I found myself yearning for the TMB's. Needless to say when purchasing the 3-6 zoom it wasn't going to be the most reached for EP when it came to the dob and so I went with the original plan of barlowing my nags. From my first light impressions I think the zoom will work out nicely in my 200p as the 50' FOV dose actually offer a fair bit of sky even at 3mm but would I recommend it to a dob only owner... Hmmm?? There are advantages and there are for me big compromises to be made but at the end of the day I have 4 high power EP's in 1 and even under constant nudging the image although warm in tone gave good resolution on M13 right to the center. So many members have or have had 3-6 zooms so I need not review the EP but regards a personal experience am I happy I bought it? Yes & No. Yes because it will save endlessly swapping eye pieces to get just the right mag for the seeing. Yes because it is a dam sight cheaper that buying 4 other premium EP's. No because it is an impractical EP for my Dob under the skies I would most want to use it. No because I used my refractor savings to buy it and I feel a refractor would have probably offered me more usage in the long run. I went against my best instincts with the 3-6 zooms and only time will tell if it earns it's place in my EP collection .

Glad to hear you got some observing in Kef9. What's the new additions to your observation log? I finally got to see the Rosetta Nebula After searching a little while, only with the intent of finding the cluster and then trying to make out the neb I decided to try the UHC filter. I sort of made some thing out and after a bit of perseverance I decided there was something there and would the OIII filter be any better. WOW it was as if the filter had turned a switch on and the neb was as clear as day (in the neb sense) With the ridiculous cost of filers I always had my doubts but last night put them to rest. I have searched for the Rosette for a long time under my light polluted sky's and even under dark skies it would have eluded me if it wasn't for the OIII filter. Needless to say after that I was on to a little neb hunt later finding , NGC1893, NGC281 and the usual M1, ESKIMO, M42 which tend to be better with out a filter. The only one that I gave up on was the Cat's eye neb. I have found the trouble with going to dark skies is observing is an utter disappointment back home. Even the simple things that look great under LP skies like the double cluster become something completely different when there is an additional thousand stars behind them. If it wasn't for the wind howling through the scope at 2:30 I would have been there until dawn. It's the ease at which you can find most things and the benefits you get when you look through the EP that make the 40 minute journey so worth it for me.

SPACEBOY

[Kef9]

That was a mega post! It must of took a while to write that one.

I liked the point about the hyperion being used in 1.25 inch mode giving the same fov as the 24mm panoptic. That is cool.

I thought the 3-6 zoom was so good I bought the 2-4 version as well. Shame you had to use your savings though to aquire one. At the end of the day if you dont get on with it you can sell it and get most if not all of your money back. I think over time you will learn to love it.

Regarding my observing, I dont really keep a log. I tend to open my sky at night mag and search for new objects that I haven't seen before that are in my nice patch of sky in my back garden. I don't even know what the actual name of the things I'm looking at most of the time. I normally go on wikipedia afterwards to see what they were lol. I haven't got my magazine to hand at the moment but I was concentrating around leo and cancer. There was a nice cluster just to the north of the central star of cancer (I need the mag to see what it was) that was nice.

I've just added a baader semi apo filter to the collection so it will be interesting to see how it performs - especially with Saturn coming. I want a UHC filter next so I'll be on the lookout for one of those.

Dark skies are great. deffo red dot finder territory as I find my finderscope useless! Cant wait for a nice holiday in the countryside in the summer so I can take my scope with me!

[spaceboy]

That was a mega post! It must of took a while to write that one.

LOL The wife said the same thing Now my EP collection is complete long posts will probably be the next, only involvement in the hobby. It's almost as if the sky's are playing with us. We wait what seems like an eternity and then get a great nights clear skies with reasonably good seeing and then almost as if it hadn't happened it's back to the normal orange clouds, probably for another month looking at todays forecasts

I have already started selling other stuff to try and build up the refractor fund again so fingers crossed a 2nd hand 120 Evo comes up at the right price and that will take some of the pain out of having the zoom. I'm sure if I had chance to use the zoom in the 8" I will find it of more use (fingers crossed) but when that day will come who knows???

I don't keep a log either even though I mean to take some paper and a pen just to jot down what I've seen. I have some print outs from a web site that ask particular questions ie: seeing, transparency, site etc and you just drop in details rather than scribbling bits down here and there.

SPACEBOY

[Moonshane]

I use my 6-3mm zoom regularly in my dobs (both have a focal length of 1600mm so 256x-533x).

eg I used it tonight to see all six Trapezium stars and it was just usable on Jupiter recently - it really excels on the moon though.

[Rossco72]

I feel the same.

It's the worst period can I remember for a long time. The really frustrating thing is that I've got the best set of equipment that I've ever had ........ so it seems like a double whammy

Ironic in a way that the crud weather has coincided with one of the biggest surges of interest in the hobby we have seen for years. I fear that some of the stuff bought by newbies may never get used .......

It's all the newbies kit that's blighted us with months of cloud. Think about it 6 weeks for each new bit of kit, it'll be cloudy for 100s of years!!!

[Nexus 6]

Wow this thread has gone on for a while and its been a great one to follow, spaceboy thats some ep collection you have! I should really post my collection on here rather than the seperate one I started which was a mistake anyway, still time before the TV sale ends so I do have the chance to buy a couple more

I am still waiting to post a review of both the 13mm Nagler and the 35mm Panaview I acquired recently, we need a sustained period of decent skies first. Hope its on the way!

[spaceboy]

I use my 6-3mm zoom regularly in my dobs (both have a focal length of 1600mm so 256x-533x).

eg I used it tonight to see all six Trapezium stars and it was just usable on Jupiter recently - it really excels on the moon though.

Don't get me wrong it is doable just not enjoyable. I'm not sure on the math but you may find you have a wider FOV out of your scope compare to mine. For planets it should be OK depending on the seeing conditions but my main intention was for globular clusters and teasing out those few extra center stars. This simply becomes too much of a chore and my 9mm Nag will end up in the barlow for these in future.

Wow this thread has gone on for a while and its been a great one to follow, spaceboy thats some ep collection you have!

LOL. Gone on for a while ...... I think I have murdered the thread it's dragged on so long I think the trouble is I started the thread at the start of the ep collection instead of at the end. Every time I got a new EP I figured I may as well update my equipment gallery pic. I didn't originally plan on getting it completed so soon but with all the bad weather there was not much else to do. Thanks for the good comments and you have a pretty sweet set up your self, love those Celestron CPC925