[gregbradley]

I have been on a drive to accumulate some nice eyepieces for my AP130GT as I got rekindled in doing some visual in between some imaging.

I have 4 main sets.

5 Televue 3.5mm Nagler T6, 9mm Nagler T1, 16mm Nagler T5, 15mm and 32mm TV Plossl.

Baader Morpheus 9, 12.5 and 17.5mm.

APM 12.5 Hi FW 84 degree high eye relief, 20mm XWA 100 degree and 30mm Ultra Flat Field.

and a few other:

10mm Masuyama 85 degree.
Pentax XW 7mm.
Edmunds Optics RKE 8, 15 and the famous 28mm.
University Optics 4 and 12mm
18mm Fujiyama Ortho
SvBony 8-24mm Zoom.
TMB Planetary ii 3.2, 5, 7.5 and 9mm.

Last night was clear and no moon until about 1am.

AP130GT, Semi rural skies, reasonably dark but not like my dark site, average seeing, not bad, not good.

APM 12.5mm Hi FW versus Baader Morpheus 12.5mm:

The APM has a fair bit of hype about it, its expensive and solid. Supposed to be an attempt to copy the famous Docter/Noblex 12.5mm.

Very sharp, very bright - good light transmission, nice wide field, outer edge stars showed some distortion, very minor edge of field brightening (only noticed it because reviewers pointed it out otherwise I wouldn't have noticed it). Easy to view through, good eye relief. Nice colour.

Baader Morpheus 12.5mm:

The Morpheus eyepieces are my favourite of all of these eyepieces. They just seemed to get everything going nicely. Views were very similar to the APM. The APM is a bit brighter and its noticeable but not a huge difference.
The Baaders is more comfortable to view. This is important because you can view for a long time without getting blackouts etc like you can with some Naglers and Radians.
Stars show no distortions out to the edges. The APM is 84 degrees and the Baader is 76 degrees but in use its hard to notice any difference in the field of view.

Both Baader and APM show tiny pinpoints of dim stars, good colour, great detail and contrast. Almost the same view except for the outer edge and the brightnesses being the 2 main difference. The Baader seems to have the more comfortable view and better eye relief. It also is quite resistance to blackouts, more so than the APM although the APM is good in this area as well.

If I had to pick one (I plan on keeping both) it would be the Baader Morpheus but there isn't a lot in it.

Outer edge stars cleaned up on the APM when I added a 2X barlow or a Tak 1.6X Q extender. They became perfect.

For my viewing though, I like having the widefield as it gives a feeling of space but I don't go searching the outer edges for detail so the central area with some room for perspective is what I like personally.

Pentax XW 7mm:

This eyepiece and the 10mm often appear on people's 10 best eyepieces of all time.

It has no aberrations that I could see, but the view does require accurate eye placement much more so than the very tolerant Baader and the APM.

But that probably is something I would have to get used to. This eyepiece may be best for planets and closer views. Very beautifully built. Like the APM that way.

APM 30mm UFF:

A lovely wide view and nice colour, good sharpness, no obvious optical defects. In the 30mm range this eyepiece is probably one of the very best out there.

APM 20mm XWA 100 degree.

I have had a Televue 13mm Ethos in the past and it was wonderful on my TEC180 Fluorite at a dark site. Back then (8 years or more ago) it was $800 - ouch now they are $1200+ Yowsa.

This APM 20 XWA I got off Andrew here a few weeks ago. My first chance to try it. Wow, LOVE it. 100 degrees is so immersive and 20mm suits this scope very well. Outer stars were a tad weak but central 80% probably was very good and centre area was lovely and sharp.

Easy to view through, good eye relief. Views deteriorated when I added Tak extender. Perhaps a 2 inch barlow may work better with it.

My wife loved the view it gave. Now I am wanting another of these. Sensational. Ethos 21mm is currently $1,399.That's just silly. You can get a decent astro camera for that or a nice small refractor.
From what I have read the Ethos has better correction out to the edges compared to this and I can see that is likely the case as the only weak spot was some outer edge star distortion.

I am looking at adapting the field flattener for the AP130 to a visual back so that may correct all these eyepieces better.

A keeper and now one of my favourite eyepieces along with Morpheus 17.5mm.

18mm Fujiyama Ortho:
Nice and sharp and detailed. 18mm is a bit long for planetary, probably fine for lunar but a bit narrow view for DSO. Perhaps barlowing it to get the 6 Trapezium stars of M42 would be a good use. The RKE's are very similar.
I did not spend a lot of time with it so it probably is better than the first impression. Clear, bright, sharp, no optical defects but a narrow field of view.

RKE's University Optics. The 8, 15 RKE are clear and bright. The 28mm is quite an immersive eyepiece and a gem. It often comes up as one of the all time favourite eyepieces of many.

10mm Masuyama, Love this eyepiece. Stars out to the edge not well corrected but that central 70% is divine. Clear, contrasty, good colour, shows very faint detail. Its a tiny little eyepiece but has an 85 degree field.
Eye relief is tight so not ideal for those who wear glasses.
The 16mm or 20mm Masuyama is looking interesting to me.

SvBony Zoom: Seems sharp, not parfocal at all so when you zoom it needs to be refocused. Good sharpness and detail. Good for the price ($125).

Nagler 3.5 - a planetary eyepiece, needs good seeing but a good eyepiece.

Nagler 9mm T1 Very sharp, good detail and contrast. Good correction out to the edges. Lousy rubber eyecup. I've ordered a 3rd party eyecup to fix that. Still a keeper.

Nagler 16mm T5; A very small eyepiece for a 16mm 82 degree view. Very sharp, bright, a lovely eyepiece. Close to the 17.5mm Morpheus but I prefer the Morpheus for the better eye relief and tolerant viewing angle otherwise the views are very similar.

TV 15 and 32m Plossl. the 32 is good for framing and finding an object. Outer stars are not tight though. Overall a pleasant wide view eyepiece.

TMB Planetary 11. I only have received the 7.5mm. It surprised me with a decent field of view and bright sharp images. Gave one of the best views of the moon recently. For $45 each or so they are the hidden bargain although another poster warned of the terrible QC so best to buy from Ebay with a return policy.

Greg.