TheSkySearchers

OzEclipse wrote: ↑Wed Apr 14, 2021 6:31 am Hi,
You don't mention which telescope you are using. This makes quite a difference. I note that in your signature, all your telescopes are long f ratio refractors and so they will be quite tolerant of eyepiece design. I have a 6" f7 newt and an 18" f5.5 newt. The 6" is quite tolerant of eyepiece design but the 18" isn't. I have been using various 5 mm eyepieces trying to find a good one for the 6". 5mm gives me 210X.

I own a Baader Hyperion 5mm and a Meade Series 4000 UWA 4.7mm. Neither has really impressed me. A couple of years ago I put a friends Pentax XW5mm in the 6" and WOW!!! It bowled me over. Huge difference in light transmission and sharpness to the Baader. No competition IMO. I recently found and bought a Pentax XW5 second hand for $200. Should be here next week.

If at all possible, try the eyepiece in your own scope. Take it to a star party and see if you can find someone who will let you try in.

Joe

Other than shorter eye relief I was happy with a mixed set of ES82 and Meade 5000 UWA EPs. I still consider them solid performers. But one look through XW 5mm and I was hooked. I have traded ES/Meade one by one and now a happy owner of XW set.

I prefer long ER so my Vixen SLV 6mm works well for me. I use a GSO #7 yellow filter unless it's close to full when I use an orange. Filter that is.

I have a University Optics 12mm Plossl that I never use if you're interested. :wink:

For sharpness and good eye relief, I don't think the TV Delites and Pentax XW series can be beaten.

Yup,

my signature has somehow disappeared.
The refractor, I am using, is actually not very well suited for the high magnifications, and when then this refractor is picky.
It is the old Sky-Watcher (Synta) 6" F/5 achro.

Best,
JG

The two LER 6mm and 5mm arrived. I also received the BST 4mm. Will let you all know how things go after the next clear sky and good Moon position. These three eyepieces along with my 24mm to 8mm zoom eyepiece has me covered for high power magnifications. Eventually these 4 eyepieces will become bench warmers, and the Delites will be starters. However, only if the first Delite eyepiece puts up a wow difference in views.

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/stella ... piece.html

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/stella ... piece.html

https://agenaastro.com/bst-1-25-uwa-pla ... e-4mm.html

Sounds good. I will be interested to hear how the LER's compare to the Delite. I suspect they will do pretty well.
Keep us posted!

Happy cloud scaring.

Dean

Here they are out the boxes. I will try them out tonight. Looks like the weather will cooperate. Left click the images.

Congrats on new glass!

The 5 and 6mm look like they are made by Long Perng. If so, they should be very nice eyepieces.

All three showed no blackouts, internal reflections, or kidney beaning. All three are clear and sharp with good eye relief. The Svbony 20mm and 15mm are good. However, even a half Moon is just to bright for the Svbony 6mm and 9mm. I purchased a Svbony 12mm aspheric for barlowing, but the eye relief is terrible. The zoom eyepiece is just as good as the LER eyepieces. However, when barlowed it shows some bad kidney beaning/blackouts. With these three new eyepieces and the zoom I am happily covered for high magnifications.

Ran another test of the three new eyepieces. I drifted crater Copernicus from the 2 o'clock position to the 8 o'clock position with each eyepiece. Neither eyepiece showed me a need to refocus. So all three are pretty sharp to the edge using my 150mm f/8 refractor. The 4mm has a sweet spot to prevent blackouts. However, it is very easy to achieve by just barely touching the eyecup.

Sounds like you have bought yourself some good eyepieces! Thanks for the update.

From my perspective, since the Moon literally fills the FOV with details galore, a wider AFOV eyepiece makes the observing always more fun since the details are so abundant with this object. I also find, like most, the more comfortable the eye relief the better. So for me I find the 68-76 degree eyepieces the best for the Moon. The reason I do not like the eyepieces with AFOVs greater than 76 degrees, like the 82 degree ones, is that with their very large AFOVs the Rectilinear Distortion (RD) in the off-axis is just too much and it makes any straight features on the Moon (which there are many), including the Terminator, curve into a bow shape. Pretty much all the very wide fields have quite noticeable RD as they either have to have that or Angular Magnification Distortion (AMD) to keep the off-axis sharp, so not something you can get away without. But in some eyepieces where the AFOV is not too wide, like the XWs and the Morpheus, the RD is still pretty tame. So those two are my favorites. I used to have the Nagler T6s and the ES82s but got tired of seeing the familiar straight walls, rilles, and Terminator on the Moon look deformed when in the off-axis. Those larger AFOVs are great for DSO as linear features are just not there. But on the Moon, once you notice the many known linear features look bent, it may bother you seeing the distortion. Anyway, food for thought.

PS - If you have a binoviewer, that is definitely the way to go on the Moon if you do not mind the extra complexity of using a binoviewer because there is zero eye fatigue when using both eyes on the Moon and I can easily spend all night with the binoviewer on the Moon as it feels as comfortable as looking naked eye.

I have been thinking about these Orion binos. https://www.telescope.com/Orion-Binocul ... /52071.uts

Refractordude wrote: ↑Thu May 27, 2021 5:10 am I have been thinking about these Orion binos. https://www.telescope.com/Orion-Binocul ... /52071.uts

This is what I have. They are simple but serve the purpose. The only issue is that to achieve the focus in fracs one need to add lens from 2x barlow in front of BVs this changes my F7 scope to F21 scope.

Bigzmey wrote: ↑Thu May 27, 2021 5:01 pm

Refractordude wrote: ↑Thu May 27, 2021 5:10 am I have been thinking about these Orion binos. https://www.telescope.com/Orion-Binocul ... /52071.uts

This is what I have. They are simple but serve the purpose. The only issue is that to achieve the focus in fracs one need to add lens from 2x barlow in front of BVs this changes my F7 scope to F21 scope.

Would my LE 5mm and LE 6mm work with the Orion binos?

Refractordude wrote: ↑Thu May 27, 2021 8:13 pm

Bigzmey wrote: ↑Thu May 27, 2021 5:01 pm

Refractordude wrote: ↑Thu May 27, 2021 5:10 am I have been thinking about these Orion binos. https://www.telescope.com/Orion-Binocul ... /52071.uts

This is what I have. They are simple but serve the purpose. The only issue is that to achieve the focus in fracs one need to add lens from 2x barlow in front of BVs this changes my F7 scope to F21 scope.

Would my LE 5mm and LE 6mm work with the Orion binos?

Worth a try.

Refractordude wrote: ↑Thu May 27, 2021 8:13 pm

Bigzmey wrote: ↑Thu May 27, 2021 5:01 pm

Refractordude wrote: ↑Thu May 27, 2021 5:10 am I have been thinking about these Orion binos. https://www.telescope.com/Orion-Binocul ... /52071.uts

This is what I have. They are simple but serve the purpose. The only issue is that to achieve the focus in fracs one need to add lens from 2x barlow in front of BVs this changes my F7 scope to F21 scope.

Would my LE 5mm and LE 6mm work with the Orion binos?

You will be in the same situation with your F8 150mm frac. To reach the focus with BVs you will need to use barlow lens or optical path corrector (OCA). I am researching what's compatible with Orion/WO/Celestron/etc. run of the mil BVs I have, but so far could not find better option than the lens from 2x barlow. It will add 3-4x factor to your scope in combination with BVs. So, the longest 1.25" EPs (25-40mm) will be the most useful, you might be able to get away on the Moon with 12-15mm. Anything below will give you blurry empty powers.

Now, if you go with more expensive Baader Maxbright II (out of order now) you will get OCA/GPC options ranging from 1.25x to 2.6x. You will likely need 1.7x to achieve focus in your C6, which still much better than 3-4x.

Another option is linear (mirror based) BVs like Orion premium. They don't add extra foucser travel, so you can use them in any scope without affecting the scope's power. I am considering those for DSOs. For lunar and planets opinions are mixed because linear BVs produce half circle exit pupils.