|
Hi Jeremy,
I don't own the 17mm Nikon NAV HW. My comment which you have quoted was "The 17mm Nikon is the best eyepiece I have used".
Around this focal length, I personally either own or have exclusive use of as part of my 3RF Australia Equipment, 18mm UO HD Orthoscopic, 17mm ETHOS, 17mm Nagler T4, 14mm Pentax XW and a 13mm ETHOS.
These are all very good eyepieces. None of them are as good as the 17mm Nikon NAV HW. I gave you the reasons already. "Contrast, sharpness and throughput like a Zeiss ortho combined with a wide FOV and excellent eye relief. It gets no better in the eyepiece world." While the others are all excellent eyepieces they are all a fraction behind the Nikon. It has everything one could hope for in an eyepiece all rolled into 1 eyepiece.
If I was starting out from scratch in the modern eyepiece world I would be buying the 17mm (also 14mm) and 12.5mm (Also 10mm) Nikon NAV HW's as my first 2 eyepieces and building my set around that base. I am not starting from scratch. I have had some of my current eyepieces for about 20 years. I don't need to re invent the wheel and start over for the small gains I would make. Particularly so, having regard to the fact that I now do about 1/5th of the observing I did 10 - 20 years ago.
For those that can afford the cost of admission and who own high quality telescopes and want the best possible eyepiece to go with their premium telescopes, then this is the eyepiece to buy. It has no equal in the current eyepiece world. The 12.5mm Docter is pretty good too and IMO runs 3rd behind the 17mm Nikon and 12.5mm Nikon, which is a small fraction behind the 17mm Nikon.
Cheers
John B
|