7mm Old vs. New

Discuss telescope eyepieces.
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Jones
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7mm Old vs. New

#1

Post by Jones »


20220213_103227.jpg
Just bought a 6.8mm Univ. Optics flat top ortho from ebay and wanted to compare against the older and newer 7mm's I have. The 6.8 was really clean and looked unused. The contenders:

Meade 7mm erfle WA

Bushnell 7mm ortho that Faworski sells on cloudy nights, spotting scope lenses that are same focal lengths as the older Meade RG's and reputed to be from the same factory.

Meade 7mm PWA 82 degree. TS optics remade the old UWAN William Optics line and this is Meades version.

Takahashi Abbe 6mm ortho.

7mm does not give high enough planetary powers in my 10" f/4.6 dob. So used 2 barlows: Nikon 1.6x and an Apogee 2x from the late 1990's. These give powers from 270-335x.

Since all the planets have gone behind the sun had to use the moon. Selected a medium sized crater on the terminator where the sun was just lighting up the floor. There was a light grey shape that looked like something you would see on Mars. Kinda shaped like a side on view of a little pudgy dog.

The eyepieces performed as lined up. Best the Tak 6mm, least the Meade WA. The 82 degree Meade was very good, just a little step behind the front 2 orthos. The wider field of view distracted the eye from the target crater. The 6.8 had the smallest field of view and was very close to the Tak performance. The 2 meade orthos were a little farther behind. The wa 7 was about the same as the old circle T orthos and the Bushnell version of the RG's a little step better.

The Barlow's difference was easy to notice, Nikon at $200 vs. The Apogee at $29.95 but still usable.

So the newer lenses are finally surpassing the best of the oldies.
Arizona- where the sky's are not cloudy all night.

Triple lensed fracs are so yummy when looking at planets.
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The Happy Parrot
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Re: 7mm Old vs. New

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Post by The Happy Parrot »


Interesting preference comparison. I assume this is mostly about optical performance. Would the ranking be the same in terms of comfort and easy eye placement without blackouts? I've only owned one ortho, a Baader Classic 6mm, and while it had excellent optics, I found it uncomfortable to use with my eyeball so close to the glass. On the other hand, I have an ES 8 mm/82 deg. which is nice, but no easy to get good eye placement. I much prefer the 68 deg versions.
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Jones
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Re: 7mm Old vs. New

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Post by Jones »


My favorite object to look at is Mars, and optical performance is everything. The 6.8mm is the worst for comfort. A tiny eye lens, no eye relief, but very sharp and contrast better than anything except for the Takahashi ortho. The Tak has a little bigger eye lens, some eye relief and the absolute best details seen on the planets.

For comfort the Meade PWA is the best. Big eye lens lots eye relief and almost the best view of planet detail. With an 82 degree field of view I think these are the perfect eyepiece. Wish there were more of them. Just 4, 7, and 16mm now. If they had a 5 and 6mm and maybe a 3, would make a great planetary lineup.
Arizona- where the sky's are not cloudy all night.

Triple lensed fracs are so yummy when looking at planets.
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Bigzmey United States of America
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Re: 7mm Old vs. New

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Post by Bigzmey »


Good orthos are hard to beat on planets and lunar, but using them is somewhat painful. :lol: I still keep a set of orthos in my EP case for the occasions when you need to squeeze the last few percent of performance, but my sessions are mostly carried by modern long eye relief designs.
Scopes: Stellarvue: SV102ED; Celestron: 9.25" EdgeHD, 8" SCT, 150ST, Onyx 80ED; iOptron: Hankmeister 6" Mak; SW: 7" Mak; Meade: 80ST.
Mounts: SW: SkyTee2, AzGTi; iOptron: AZMP; ES: Twilight I; Bresser: EXOS2; UA: MicroStar.
Binos: APM: 100-90 APO; Canon: IS 15x50; Orion: Binoviewer, LG II 15x70, WV 10x50, Nikon: AE 16x50, 10x50, 8x40.
EPs: Pentax: XWs & XFs; TeleVue: Delites, Panoptic & Plossls; ES: 68, 62; Vixen: SLVs; Baader: BCOs, Aspherics, Mark IV.
Diagonals: Baader: BBHS mirror, Zeiss Spec T2 prism, Clicklock dielectric; TeleVue: Evebrite dielectric; AltairAstro: 2" prism.
Filters: Lumicon: DeepSky, UHC, OIII, H-beta; Baader: Moon & SkyGlow, Contrast Booster, UHC-S, 6-color set; Astronomik: UHC.

Observing: DSOs: 3106 (Completed: Messier, Herschel 1, 2, 3. In progress: H2,500: 2180, S110: 77). Doubles: 2382, Comets: 34, Asteroids: 255
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Jones
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Re: 7mm Old vs. New

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Post by Jones »


20211116_151727.jpg
These are 2 of the reworked Teleskop Service UWAN's. They are nitrogen charged and just slightly better than the non gas charged Meade PWA. Their letter designation are UWA. They may be the cheapest versions also. Got these on sale for $150 usd for both add $35 to ship to usa.
Arizona- where the sky's are not cloudy all night.

Triple lensed fracs are so yummy when looking at planets.
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j.gardavsky Germany
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Re: 7mm Old vs. New

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Post by j.gardavsky »


A very nice set in the 7mm class!

Here I have just the old Pentax SMC O 7, and the new Pentax SMC XW 7mm.

Clear skies,
JG
6" F/5 Sky-Watcher achro, 2" BBHS Star Diagonal, 2" zenith prism, 1.25" Takahashi prism
Leica 82mm APO Televid
Eyepieces: Docter UWA; Leica B WW and WW Asph. Zoom; Leica HC Plan S and L, monocentric; Pentax SMC XW, O-, XO; Tak MC O, Carl Zeiss B WW, and Pl, E-Pl, S-Pl, W-Pl;
Swarovski SW; Baader Symmetric Diascope Edition; Nikon NAV SW, ; TMB supermonocentric; Rodenstock; Vixen HR; TV Delos
Filters: Astrodon, Astronomik, Baader, Balzers, Zeiss West and East, Lumicon
Binoculars (7x42 up to 15x85): Docter Nobilem, Leica Ultravid, Nikon Astroluxe, Swarovski EL Swarovision; BA8 (Kunming Optical)
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Jones
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Re: 7mm Old vs. New

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Post by Jones »


Just visited the TS Optics website. Had not been there in a while. They have new UWA lenses- 10, 13 and 15mm's. I had been playing with TV Delite 15mm and a 2.5x barlow to get a 6mm. If you use an invisible barlow like the Baader Hyperion, add a 10mm t2 ring you get a 2.5x from 2.25x. There is very little degradation of the image from a quality barlow. This was done on Jupiter 2021.

The TS UWA's are a step better than the Delites, about as big a difference as a Delite compared to a Delos. Nearly equal to the Takahashi TOE's. So with the new 15 and 13 can have a 6 and 5.2mm eyepieces when added to the 2.5x barlow. Something more for Mars when it arrives closest in December 2022.
Arizona- where the sky's are not cloudy all night.

Triple lensed fracs are so yummy when looking at planets.
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25585
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Re: 7mm Old vs. New

#8

Post by 25585 »


My 7mm choices are a Pentax XL 65°, Baader Morpheus 6.5 mm 76° & Orion E 7-21mm zoom. More options using Barlows, especially my Zeiss Abbe 2x with 14mm & 15mm eyepieces.
Unashamed Linda Ronstadt ♡ fan! :dance: :Clap:

Eyepieces from: Aero, Antares, APM, Baader, Brandon, Bresser, Celestron, Datysun, Docter, Explore Scientific, GSO, I R Poyser, Meade, Nikon, Orion, Pentax, Rodenstock, Siberia, Sky-Watcher, Taiso, Takahashi, TAL, Tele Vue, TS, Vernonscope, Vixen, Zeiss.

Scopes from: Altair, Bresser, Lumicon, Orion Optics UK, Sky-Watcher, Takahashi, Tele Vue, TS, Vixen.
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BFaucett United States of America
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Re: 7mm Old vs. New

#9

Post by BFaucett »


`
New line from Astronomics:

Astro-Tech UWA 82°

4, 7, 10, 13, 16, 28 mm (The 28 is a 2 inch.)

https://www.astronomics.com/eyepieces-b ... eries=1051

The 4 and 28 mm are currently in stock. Astronomics only recently started offering these.

Cheers! Bob F.
_____________________________________________________
I'm a backyard stargazer.  Houston Astronomical Society (link)
scopes: Astro-Tech: AT60ED, AT70ED, AT72EDII ● Celestron: 80ED, Omni XLT AZ 102, C90 Mak ● S-W: Skymax 102 Mak
eyepieces: ES82 4.7, 6.7, 8.8, 11, 14 ● Astro-Tech UWA  4, 7, 10, 13, 16 ● ES68 20, 24 ● ES62 5.5, 9, 20 ● ES52 4.5, 30 ● APM UFF 30
Meade 5000 UWA 82° 5.5, 8.8, 14 ● StarGuider Dual ED 60° 3.2, 5, 8, 12, 15, 18, 25 ● Astro-Tech PFF 60/65° 5.5, 10.5, 15.5, 19, 25
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