eyepiece upgrade

[lesbehrens]

hi every one i am looking to upgrade my eyepieces from York optical possles to something with a greater FOV and sharpness. i have looked around the net and i like the William optics UWAN eyepieces. the eye piece has a 82^0 FOV and the price u pay for them doesn't took to pricey to what u would pay for a televe eyepiece. otherwise what are your opinions on the badder Hyperion's and the vixen LVW eyepieces.
i have only experienced the televe nagler but to much for me to buy so your opinions and experiences?
les

[Astro78]

I'd get the LVW hands down :thumbsup:

They do have a slight 'warmth' colour to them, which i find very pleasing.

[wavelandscott]

I've borrowed a Williams Optics (UWAN) 28 mm and I thought it was pretty good in my Discovery Dobsonian. The only big negative I could place on it was its weight. From memory it weighed a kilo! I did not have sufficient counter balance to use it hands free. I'll dig around and see if I can find any other comments.

Do a search of threads I know there was a thread about the UWAN 28 mm...some big differences of opinion depending on the scope it was used in. Comments went from pretty good (except for size/weight) to people who saw lots of Field Curvature. Since there does not seem to be a solid consensus I'd sure try before you buy if possible.

To help narrow down possible recommendations, what other factors are you interested in...
eye relief, weight, "neutral colour", wide field, budget etc.

[allan gould]

On recently upgrading my scope I purchased the full set of Vixen LVW eyepieces. The best thing I ever did when the AUD was high. Great PARFOCAL eyepieces across the set. Sharp contrasty and worth every penny and in my opinion each eyepiece beats the equivalent Baader one by a good margin.

[Paddy]

The LVWs are great eps and I'm very happy with my 17 mm, but I've been told that the 40mm is not suited to fast scopes. I quite like my UWAN 28 mm, but it does have a bit of field curvature - haven't compared it to a nagler of this fl to see the difference. The curvature is significantly more than my 24 mm pan, but the FOV is of course not comparable. Very nice with a paracorr which flattens the field. I agree with Scott about the weight. Have you read the reviews of the UWAN series on Cloudy Nights?

[Wavytone]

If your budget is on a diet, the Vixen LV's (hard to find now) or NLV are good. If you can afford a better set though, a set of LVW will still have you heaps compared to Naglers and I really like the eyerelief.

I have the LVW 8, 13 and 22 and also a 30mm NLVW (rare beast, it's new), they are excellent. I also have a set of LV's: 4, 6 10, 15 and 25, I use these on occasions when I don't want to pull out the LVW's.

If you go LVW, though be sure you want to - the weight of these is so much more than smaller eyepieces (like the LV) that either you balance the scope for the LVW's and stick to them for the night, or balance for the LV's (or otehr small eyepieces) and stick to them.

[allan gould]

I found with the Vixen LVs and LVWs that they were all parfocal with each other. I now have 5,8,13,17,22 and 42mm eyepieces. The 42mm is the only one which is not parfocal. I agree with Wavytone that they are heavy so balance may be an issue but for eye relief, contrast and field sharpness they are hard to beat. I find the 65 degree field of view just right without the effort of eye wandering and kidney beaning with outher wider eyepieces.

[lesbehrens]

hi. i am intersted in wide field, budget and overall better sharpness and contrast. thats y i looked at the william optics ones as it seemed to have those points.
really something thas just going to blow my mind away with in my 16" dob.

[casstony]

While the LVW's are very nice, they may disappoint if you are set on an 80 degree field of view. The 17mm LVW I owned gave good quality images and was comfortable and easy to use, but I did feel confined in comparison to a nagler. Better to get one really satisfying eyepiece than a number that are almost what you want IMO.

[wavelandscott]

While I have not used them, a couple of other considerations might be the Paragon and I believe there is a University Optic that is 70 degrees...not sure on the price either.

Both were at one time (I don't know now) available at Frontier Optics - I have good experiences dealing with them.

I've also heard that a number of people are pleased with the Hyperion/Baader/Stratus (I forget all of the different names)...they are not "wide" wide fields but will be wider than your plossls.

It is a hard call usually when you think about eyepieces you need to remember:
1. wide field
2. budget
3. good to the edge in a fast scope

Pick any 2 you want...

I would encourage to try and get to one of the big star parties before you buy and try some different eyepieces out.

Good Luck,

[lesbehrens]

yes. i think i will waituntill the next star party so view through others. thanks everyone.
les

[Wavytone]

While many may be happy with the Hyperions and Stratus', there is a thread on www.cloudynights.com (http://www.cloudynights.com). comparing the Vixen LVW, Hyperion and Orion Stratus. While they look similar the LVW's are significantly better than the other two, in that the LVW's give sharp images almost to the edge but in the Hyperions and Stratus a lot of the outer portion of the field of view is spoiled by astigmatism and field curvature, to the extent as much as 20-30% of the field in some eyepieces is poor.

I have a set of 8, 13, 22 LVW's and the 30mm NLVW, they are all excellent giving gorgeous, sharp fields on my f/7 refractor and f/15 Mak, though to-date I haven't had the chance to try them in f/5 Newts or do a comparison with the Hyperions/Stratus.

My 22 doesn't get much use and if I was buying a set now, I'd buy the NLVW30, the 17 and the 8. For an f/5 scope I'd add the 5 mm as well.

I bought mine from www.kkohki.com (http://www.kkohki.com).

Lastly, while you will find Naglers, Pan's, Hyperions and Stratus' coming up for sale secondhand here, on Atsromart and on Cloudynights, it is very very rare to find a secondhand LVW for sale, which suggests those who have them, keep them.

[lesbehrens]

hi . i was wondering how the LVW's compare to the naglar eyepieces. as i have read that the lvw are quite good eye piece.(but i haven't looked through one yet).i have looked through the naglar but just want some of your opinions. i am interested in buying the 13mm nagler. what do u think?
thanks
les

[allan gould]

I also bought 3 of mine from KKOHKI - easy to deal with and when the AUD was at its peak. Got 3 for the price of 2. I have divested myself of all other eyepieces and just have a full set of LVWs - just luv them and you wont see mine up for sale to buy an Ethos no matter how good they are.
I'm biased.

[Wavytone]

Ordered an LVW 5mm to round out the short end of my set, while they are available.

Just can't ever see myself using 3.5mm, though.

[saturn c]

Hi Les How R U Mate?

[tnott]

I have used the 28 mm UWAN in my 16" F4.9 and now my 22" F3.6 (with a parracorr) .

Many of the budget widefields are great at F10 but at F4.5 like your scope the outer part of the field will exhibit significant astigmatism (seagull-shaped stars). I have a 24.5 SWA Meade eyepiece that is pinpoint at f15, but by F5 the outer 3/4 of the field is hoplessly distorted by astigmatism.

If the eyepieces are well enough corrected to avoid this astigmatism (like Naglers and Pentaxes) you will notice coma (comet-shaped stars with the tails pointing away from the centre).

A Parracorr can mostly get rid of this coma. In side by side tests of Naglers, I have noticed much, much sharper stars at the edge of the field of view in my 22" F3.6 with the parracorr, compared to an 18" F4.5 scope without.

The 28 mm UWAN I have has virtually the same absence of astigmatism as a 26mm Nagler in side by side tests done on the 16" and the 22". It is heavier though (1kg) and has more field curvature (the centre stars not reaching focus at the same point as the outside ones) but it has not bothered me, my eyes taking up the refocus without trouble. The field curvature seems much less with the parracorr in place too.

The other eyepieces I use are the 13mm and 9mm Naglers and they are great.

There are other issues like eye-relief that can affect your comfort in using eyepieces so it would be better if you can try them first.

Of course, if you bought a 17mm Ethos and a 2 inch barlow, it would probably be all you needed.....:lol: