[Wavytone]

Graeme,

I have a set of LVW's and use little else after selling the rest I had. They are definitely superior to Baader Hyperions, optically, however cost more, too. There are a few clones such as the Orion and others but all the clones are DEFINITELY inferior to the LVW's, having had the chance to do some side-by-side tests both on my make and faster scopes including typical dobs up to Alex's 13" BTW I have had a 6" f/5 newtonian many years ago, and these days I use a side-by-side mount and two 180mm Maks that fit on it.

In my case with these short, heavy Maks, the weight of these eyepieces is not an issue. But for you, on your 6" f/5 Newtonian I would not regard them as an ideal match.

For a 6" Newt .. optically, fine, but from a practical aspect, they're a problem for your scope - these are big and heavy, to the extent:

a) they will shift the centre of gravity of your scope well off-axis - to the extent balancing WILL be a significant issue unless you add a counterbalance weight on the opposite side.

b) the weight will place a lot of strain on your focusser and the tube supporting it; if flimsy its going to flex to the extent the eyepiece may droop visibly, this means its no longer coaxial with the optics and the result may be a bit of a problem achieving a good focus across the field of view at all orientations in the sky.

On the plus side...

a) the 20mm eye relief is great (I wear specs)

b) 65° AFoV is enough. I care more about image quality than the fishbowl effect of the ultra wide eyepieces. Secondly, having the black fieldstop in your field of vision IMHO does help with your night vision - and faint fuzzies - when observing in light-polluted skies typical of suburbia. In this respect a narrow AFoV eyepiece may show more on faint objects in surbubia because it blocks more of the superfluous background sky, and your dark adaptation is better. An ultra wide eyepiece is often not such a smart choice IMHO.

c) their weight is consistent enough across the whole set from 3.5 to 42mm so you won't need to rebalance after swapping eyepieces.

Suggestion:

1. stick to smaller, lightweight 1.25" eyepieces
2. the focal lengths you require range from 4mm to 30mm.

If you want a budget set, a good match for your scope are Edmund RKE's, these were originally designed to match the Edmund Astroscan and are an excellent match for an f4 to f/5 scope. The set runs from 8mm to 28mm.

Ata later date if 8mm isn't enough, you could add a 6 and 4mm orthoscopic, or similar Televue Radians, if you really find the need (I personally doubt it.)