Ortho EP

[SteelRat]

Well folks, got an Ortho EP on the way. Only an old Japanese second hand fleabay job but have read hear that they are good for planetry, and with Saturn getting bigger by the day I thought I'd give one shot.

Its a 12.5mm. Anyone out there tell me how well they barlow?

[mightymonoped]

SR,

Don'tknow about the 12.5, but I bought a Baader 5mm recently and boy oh boy, it's good. Barlow's well with the Televue 2x (pants with the TAL3x) Contrast is so good with this puppy, I tend to use it on it's own rather than adulterate. Am seriously considering a binoviewer setup with a pair of Tal 25 SP's and a pair of Baader 5mm Ortho's !

Tony

[Brass n glass]

My Japanese 18mm Barlows very well. FOV isn't much more than 40deg, and eye relief isn't brilliant, but you'll be fine with a 12.5mm. Smaller focal lengths can be bit awkward; I also have a 6mm which has little eye relief. But I reckon that after more than 100 years the ortho design is still unbeatable for its combination of sharpness and value for money. You can get less straightforward modern designs that are just about as sharp and are more comfortable to use, but they cost far more.

[SteelRat]

Cheers both. Don't like peering through TINY windows but the 12.5mm should be ok for me. This one has cost me £15 B n G so hopefully should be good value for at least something up there. Gonna give this one a try through my x4 imagemate which should put it at around x154 in my Nighthawk. That's pretty close to the max I know, but with the right conditions this scope seems happy working past it's max on the moon and planets. I usually don't go past x120, but that mag would put the 12.5 in the territory of my Talx3 barlow - and like you say Tony it's not the BEST of the Tal barlows - my x2 and x4 Tals are AWESOME.

Can't wait for it to arrive now

[russ]

Yep 12.5mm Ortho should be awesome and will barlow a treat. I think you got yourself a good buy!

I found 9mm the cut off. Above this and Orthos become a major pain in the butt. I had a 5mm Celestron volcano top, it was looking into a pin hole. And eye relief was something like 0.0001mm!

Russ

[SteelRat]

Cheers for the affirm Rus Looking forward to it's arrival. Have a made a slot for it in the EP case.

[fmeireso]

SR,

Don'tknow about the 12.5, but I bought a Baader 5mm recently and boy oh boy, it's good. Barlow's well with the Televue 2x (pants with the TAL3x) Contrast is so good with this puppy, I tend to use it on it's own rather than adulterate. Am seriously considering a binoviewer setup with a pair of Tal 25 SP's and a pair of Baader 5mm Ortho's !

Tony

Yes , the Baader ortho's do have stunning contrast. How's eyerelief on the 5 mm? I am plannning a second Baader ortho , 7 mm perhaps, but i am a bit afraid of short eyerelief.

[mightymonoped]

Eye relief is pretty much non-existent on the 5mm. I wear glasses but have to take them off with the Ortho. Having said that, I tend to take them off with all my eyepieces, as I want as little glass between me and the photons as possible

Tony

[lunator]

I have Orthos ranging from 25mm to 4mm.

I don't wear glasses so eye-relief is OK.

The 5mm & 4mm do get used the least, but for spliting tight doubles they are excellent.

The 12.5mm will not disappoint. I know I have 3

Cheers

Ian

[SteelRat]

The 12.5mm will not disappoint. I know I have 3

Nice one Ian, Cheers 8)