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Budget 2" widefield eyepiece for flextube Dob?

Space Cowboy

By Space Cowboy
in Discussions - Eyepieces

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Nexus 6

Nexus 6

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you need to be quite careful with budget low power 2" e/ps and fast scopes. I had a moonfish clone that worked ok in my 6" newt but was horrible in my 10" - I kept thinking I had discovered new galaxies until I realised they were just smeary stars...

:) warning noted kniclander

Alan

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John

John

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I'll be honest and say I don't think that eyepiece would be too good in an F/4.7 scope. I used to have a Meade QX26mm 2" eyepiece which is basically the same eyepiece as the Adler SWA 26mm. With my Meade Lightbridge 12" F/5 dobsonian it had 2 issues: i) it's focus position was a long way from other eyepieces, I had ot have it virtually hanging out of the drawtube to get it to focus and ii) the outer 50% of the field of view showed very astigmatic stars (seagull shaped !). With a low cost wide field I think it's OK for the outer 20% or so of the FoV to look like this but 50% is too much !. In an F/10 scope it will work fine of course ......

I believe the 32mm is the best of the Adler SWA range so that might be a better bet.

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russ

russ

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Unfortunately there is no such thing as a good 'budget 2" widefield eyepiece' for an F5 or faster. There is only a 'budget 2" widefield eyepiece with major flaws'.

You need to spend well over £100 to get anything approaching a good eyepiece. But basically anything upto and including the Skywatcher Panaview falls into the 'major flaws' category. Some are worse than others though.

I've found the Panaview and Adler to be better than the Revelation (Meade QX) Superview, which themselves are better than the truly awful (at f5) Moonfish 30mm 80deg clone.

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Doug

Doug

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Stuart

John is correct, if it was me I would save up for a good eyepiece like a Tele Vue

they work great it's a fast scope ,My mate has a 14.5 home made dob and we did use a Meade 18mm UWA eyepiece that worked really well so there are others out there

hopfully you may get others recommened to you

Doug

Essex

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sixela

sixela

Posted
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Two first palatable choices (still with obvious edge of field astigmatism, but palatable while you think of the weight of your wallet) are the Skywatcher Aero ED and the Meade 5000 SWA (from Telescope experts Astroshop , search for "wide fishes").

Unless you tolerate the Panaview, of course: it's a lot better than nothing, but yes, that one makes me wonder why I'd bother given that anything that it shows more than the ubiquitous 32mm Plössl is ugly to look at anyway and you'll want to reposition the scope anyway.

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russ

russ

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William Optics UWAN 28mm (and Skywatcher Nivana 28mm) both work well in faster scopes.

Meade 5000 SWA 28mm & 34mm both work well too. But fast becoming a secondhand option only.

Meade 5000 UWA 30mm (as Doug suggests) is supposed to be superb.

Skywatcher Aero ED 30mm/35mm work well down to F5 and the cheapest good option.

The best choice would a TV Panoptic or TV Nagler or Pentax XW 30mm but they all cost a bomb new. And you used the word 'budget' in your thread title, which these are definitely not, even secondhand.

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sixela

sixela

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based on the above SpaceCowboy, I would suggest buying a 1.25" e/p and just wiggling your scope around a bit more thereby saving several hundred squid

Several hundred? That's going to be rather hard, given you can get both the Aero ED and the Meade 5000 SWA (link provided above) for around 130 GBP. Last I heard, they weren't giving money to people for not using a 2" eyepiece :).

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Space Cowboy

Space Cowboy

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Thanks for all your advice guys!

I did fear the budget option may not work too well. Anyhow you've given me some food for thought. Maybe I'm best sticking to the 1.25" ones for now. Spending over £100 on an eyepiece is something I was hoping to avoid :)

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Moonshane

Moonshane

Posted
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Personally, I'd do one of two things. 1) Get a TV 32mm Plossl. OK not 2" (and a 50 degree field) but gives the widest field (and one which will be good all the way) you can get in the 1.25" size and the quality will be excellent. Used for about £50-70 2) Wait for a 24mm TV wide field to come up. They are apparently very very good and usually about £80-100 (I think). They were the precurser to the Panoptics and have a 65 degree field.

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michael.h.f.wilkinson

michael.h.f.wilkinson

Posted
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William Optics UWAN 28mm (and Skywatcher Nivana 28mm) both work well in faster scopes.

Meade 5000 SWA 28mm & 34mm both work well too. But fast becoming a secondhand option only.

Meade 5000 UWA 30mm (as Doug suggests) is supposed to be superb.

Skywatcher Aero ED 30mm/35mm work well down to F5 and the cheapest good option.

The best choice would a TV Panoptic or TV Nagler or Pentax XW 30mm but they all cost a bomb new. And you used the word 'budget' in your thread title, which these are definitely not, even secondhand.

Add to that list the TMB Paragons (clones available from Telescope Service for about 148 Euros). I have the TMB 40mm Paragon which is great.

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astroimpulse

astroimpulse

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I bought the 3 x set of Alder ones and it turned into deceit and lies from S&S so I never got them in the end. :)

Good value for money I think. Shame they're only sold by that company.

I would buy them if they were sold anywhere else.

I believe the Revelation budget ones are WO Swan clones (made in same factory).

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sixela

sixela

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Add to that list the TMB Paragons

Actually, those that TS now sells are no longer "TMB" Paragons (these were exclusively sold through Burgess Opticals). They're the reincarnations now that Burgess abandoned production, and they're identical in design to the Aero ED and others (e.g. Astro-Tech Titan II ED) and come from the same manufacturer.

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CGolder

CGolder

Posted
Posted

Hello Space,

I have just ordered a set of these to see what they are like, ill write a review when i get a good night with them and see if i can find a fast scope and a dob to try out on the next SNAA meet to do some comparisons.

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russ

russ

Posted
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Hello Space,

I have just ordered a set of these to see what they are like, ill write a review when i get a good night with them and see if i can find a fast scope and a dob to try out on the next SNAA meet to do some comparisons.

I've had two of the Adlers and they were good for money, just as good as the Panaview (or close too). I think you'll like them for the money. In the SCT they should be very good. Look forward to your feedback.

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