Pentax 1.25" SMC XF 12mm or TV Delite 13mm

[konza]

Kindly view my signature...the eyepieces. Primairlary for the ES102. Notice there is a gap between 16mm and 8.8mm oculars. I will fill that with a 12-13mm eyepiece to round out things a little. Either a Pentax 1.25" SMC XF 12mm Eyepiece or TeleVue Delite 13mm. Really leaning to the Pentax for a balanced spread of magnification. Price difference is of small issue. Looking for nice quality and 60+ FOV.
A bit of information: Visual only, Star clusters are my favorites, Bortle 4.5'ish, high humidity part of the country, 70-90+ (Ozarks, trees, lots of trees breathing humidity), low lying valley area-200 yds (180 meters) from natural waterway. And not to forget the 102mm refractor.

I mostly use the 24 & 16mm for viewing, only occasionally the 8.8mm eyepiece but i find it often to be over kill. Any personal experience with either of these eyepieces is very welcome.

[Lady Fraktor]

I have not tried the TeleVue but the Pentax is a quite good eyepiece.
Very contrasty and around 18mm eyerelief.

[DeanD]

If cost isn't an issue, what about the Nagler 13 T6? I use one with my TSA 102: it is an excellent eyepiece, and sharp to the edge. Eye relief is only 12mm though.
All the best,

Dean

[OzEclipse]

Both eyepieces you are considering are very good. The Pentax XW 10 and XW14 are both excellent. Denkmeier D14 is also an excellent eyepiece as is the Nagler 13 mentioned by Dean. I have the D14 and have looked through the other 3 on my scope and others. The Nagler 13 is 82 deg the Denks are 65 deg, Pentax's 70 deg.

There may be a gap but you only have a short FL instrument. It is less important IMO to have a lot of eyepieces for a short FL instrument than for a longer instrument where magnification jumps up quickly. Given the choice between a few high quality eyepieces and a lot of low quality eyepieces, I choose the former.

My 18" f5.5 is my prime visual instrument, I have 7, 17 & 31 mm Naglers and use those most of the time. The 7mm only gets used on rarer occasions of excellent seeing and I mostly use the 31mm (83x 0.9 deg, 5.5mm exit pupil) and 17mm This year I picked up two well price Denks a D21 and D14 do fill gaps but I primarily bought these for my 6" f7 which can only take 1.25" eyepieces.

Joe

[Bigzmey]

I have both and you can't go wrong with either. Both are good quality EPs.

XFs fit nicely between XWs in my main EP line up. XFs also appear to be parfocal with XWs. I also prefer slim size and twist eye cap of XF over ergonomics of Delite.

Optically XF and Delites are neck to neck. If you ever decide to assemble ~60 deg FOV EP set you should go with Delites, since they cover 3 to 18.2mm range. There are only two XFs 12mm and 8.5mm. If you just looking for one EP and 12mm XF gives your more even spread I would go with XF.

[konza]

Baader Morpheus 12.5mm ~ I have one being shipped from Agena Astro..the last one they had or anyone else has short of "more coming". 12.5mm splits criteria 12-13mm FL, great eye relief, generous FOV-(plugged specs of it and all others into stellerium for a 'guestimated' view), reported comfort of use w/wo glasses, middle of the field in cost, and from a company of good repute. Would have liked something a wee bit more compact given my smallish scopes but...beauty is in the beholding, not in the holding. Anxious waiting to give it a look through!

[John Baars]

The Pentax XF is meant to be used in terrestial telescopes. I had the 8,5 mm version. Fine eyepiece. On bright objects like the Moon or Jupiter there were some reflections from the eye on the eyelens visible. I don't know about the 12mm though. Still, I would prefer the Delite

[Bigzmey]

Baader Morpheus 12.5mm ~ I have one being shipped from Agena Astro..the last one they had or anyone else has short of "more coming". 12.5mm splits criteria 12-13mm FL, great eye relief, generous FOV-(plugged specs of it and all others into stellerium for a 'guestimated' view), reported comfort of use w/wo glasses, middle of the field in cost, and from a company of good repute. Would have liked something a wee bit more compact given my smallish scopes but...beauty is in the beholding, not in the holding. Anxious waiting to give it a look through!

Congrats on the new glass! I found eye position with Morpheus too sensitive for my liking. But EP preference is individual and Morpheus has a good following.