Quote:
Originally Posted by Outcast
It's not that I don't like the 14mm I just find it's not quite as impressive as the others in the range...
You will get quite a shock at the size of the 20mm & it weighs almost 1kg... I call mine the Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch (Monty Python Holy Grail).. then I bought the ES 30mm recently & it is huge & weighs exactly 1kg.. so now I have a reload... 
My first Meade UWA was the 6.7mm, came with a Meade Series 5000 80mm Triplet I purchased from the classifieds here 7 or 8 years ago.. the views were stunning & that was when I fell in love with those UWAs.
Fortunately, I've managed to get hold of another Series 5000 80mm triplet just recently & even better, it has the two speed focuser as opposed to the single speed I had... I haven't had first light with it yet as it's been raining since it arrived on Wed...
I think (I don't know yet) you will find the 20mm will work well in your refractor (assuming you have a 2" diagonal)... I'll let you know when I try it in mine if I ever get some clear skies again...
Good to know the smaller ones work well in an fast dob; I should have the scope in house in the next couple of months so, will hold off on anymore EP purchases or even a Coma corrector until I see how they all perform...
Regarding what gives you 'wow' factor... I really think it's all about expectations... my first 2" EP was a 30mm GSO Superview & I was pretty impressed with that to be honest, particularly for the price... A little while back I bought a Sirius Optics 38mm 70*; I wasn't expecting much out of it, I only bought it to open up maximum fov with my SCT (1.3*) to assist with initially locating things if they didn't fall into view when doing alignments or searching for faint stuff... Is it the greatest EP in the world.. no but, the views are still impressive.. then I got the 30mm ES 82*, it gives me 1.22* fov in the SCT & wow... it is impressive but, even given that, the 38mm is still not bad... though, I'm fairly certain it's a clone of the Orion Q70 which I think is an Erfle design so, I'm not expecting it to do well in the dob.. but, hey.. you never know...
I've never looked through a Televue EP so, I have no frame of reference for those; I do have a Televue powermate which I love both visually & for AP.. I can't afford the highend Televues to be honest & I don't see the point of owning the Televue plossls, no matter how much better than other plossls they may be...
Cheers |
I don't know if you saw my thread about highest useful magnification in an 80mm ED refractor in the Equipment Discussion Forum - how far has your's gone on Jupiter and Saturn? I've taken mine to 200X so far, and am waiting to try 250X next.
Two speed focusing you will appreciate.
I've got a set of the 2" Superviews and would find them quite handy in my dob - since they have huge eyerelief, I could wear my eyeglasses and get sharp views.
My otherwise sub-average 30mm Widescan UWA gives a pretty spectacular view scanning around star fields in my SCT - which is it's only real use. Your 30mm ES will be better of course.
According to "The Backyard Astronomer's Guide" Third Edition, the Meade Series 5000 UWA aren't as good at the edges as the Naglers, while the older Series 4000 8.8mm and 14mm were as good. In the Second Edition they had said that the Meade 4.7, 6.7, 8.8 and 14 mm were clones of the Naglers. I've always valued those author's eveluations. The Series 4000 Meade 4.7 UWA has narrow eyerelief, but I think it an extremely sharp eyepiece, which I would often use for planets in my SCT when the atmosphere permitted.
I've got lots of Barlows, including highly rated at the time Televue ones, but my 2.5X Powermate is plainly superior - in that it doesn't feel like you are looking through a Barlow.
Your 38mm Sirius eyepiece sounds impressive. I now would like one.
Cheers,
Renato