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Old 05-06-2020, 11:26 AM
Startrek (Martin)
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Televue Apollo 11 Commemorative Eye Piece - Review

When I first purchased the Apollo 11 eye piece just before Christmas last year a few members enquired about me providing a report after using the eye piece
Below is my review of the eye piece to date -

Televue Apollo 11 Commemorative eye piece review

With a 95% waxing moon passing the north meridian at good altitude I decided to use my Apollo 11 eye piece for only the third time this year and report on my experiences during lunar observations

Apollo 11 eye piece Specifications
Serial no 186
AFOV 85 degrees
Focal length 11mm
Eye relief 18mm
Field Stop 16.2mm
2” and 1.25” barrel
Length 138mm
Weight. 2” is 620gm and 1.25” is 526gm

Scope used
Skywatcher 12” f5 Goto dob
Focal length 1500mm

My eye condition
I wear glasses but choose to observe without glasses
Left eye - myopia
Right eye - myopia with astigmatism 1.5 diopter

Filter
Orion 2” variable polarising filter 1% to 40% transmission ( set to approx 30% )

Sky Conditions
Bortle 3
Clear no cloud present
Light westerly wind at 3 knots
Seeing average to good
Transparency good

Viewing comfort
With an eye relief of 18mm this eye piece was very comfortable to use. It has a large 30mm diameter of glass and a generous rubber eye guard ( 9mm depth) at the observing end
Bringing my eye to the eye piece and close to the rubber guard I experienced no kidney beaning or black outs

Optical Performance
Centering the 95% waxing moon in the eye piece, I could fit the whole planet just inside the AFOV
After fine focus I observed both off axis and on axis regions and experienced no field curvature or distortion
The colour and contrast across the field was uniform with little or no noticeable aberration

Moving across to different regions of the moon the views were sharp and consistent and as expected improved at the edges against the blackness of space where the profile of craters and mountains were accentuated by the backdrop

Summary
Having used Televue eye pieces namely Delites, Panoptic, Delos and Ethos for the past 4 years in various size scopes ranging from 6” to 12” you tend to expect a high level of performance from these quality eye pieces and the Apollo 11 commemorative eye piece is no different. It is a superb quality eye piece and definitely not a show piece for a cabinet. Although I’ve only used it on a limited number of objects , my recent lunar observations exceeded my expectations and I look forward to other planetary observations ( Jupiter and Saturn ) in the coming months.I would be most interested to see how this eye piece performs with a Powermate should conditions allow. Before finishing up for the night I popped my Delos 10mm eye piece in to gauge some comparisons with the Apollo 11 and although the Delos views were superb , I found the Apollo 11 refreshingly different and pleasing to the eye.The 85 degree AFOV gave the Apollo 11 eye piece a bit more “wow factor”

The above review is an individual observation based on one celestial object only and by no means comprehensive and maybe different from observer to observer

Comments welcome

Cheers
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Old 05-06-2020, 12:27 PM
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FlashDrive (Poppy)
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Very Nice Eyepiece ... !!

Hope you don't mind, I turned the pic right side up .

Col...
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Old 05-06-2020, 05:40 PM
croweater (Richard)
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Very nice Martin. Should be very nice with the powermate on the planets
Cheers Richard.
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Old 11-06-2020, 01:15 AM
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Don Pensack
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Televue Apollo 11 Commemorative Eye Piece - Review

You might be interested in reading what i wrote about it back in February:
https://www.cloudynights.com/topic/6...re/?p=10009894
The night was a night of uncommonly superb transparency. The high-altitude site normally has clear air, but this night was special. I don't think I ever saw a night where a 30mm eyepiece had a black background with no evidence of light pollution at all.
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Old 11-06-2020, 07:50 AM
Startrek (Martin)
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Don
Great review , thanks for bringing it to my attention
Interesting to read the comparison with the 10mm ethos too
Yes it is a high quality , well designed eye piece worthy of its name ( definitely not a show pony as some folk have suggested)
Thanks
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Old 11-06-2020, 11:39 AM
SkyWatch (Dean)
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Don Pensack View Post
You might be interested in reading what i wrote about it back in February:
https://www.cloudynights.com/topic/6...re/?p=10009894
The night was a night of uncommonly superb transparency. The high-altitude site normally has clear air, but this night was special. I don't think I ever saw a night where a 30mm eyepiece had a black background with no evidence of light pollution at all.
Hi Don, I am a bit confused. Doesn't the Commemorative eyepiece have a fl of 11mm? You mentioned it as 30mm in your review, and here too.

- Dean

(PS: I am a bit jealous Martin, and it is good to hear that you are using it: I suspect a lot of buyers would have it locked in their trophy cabinets! )
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Old 11-06-2020, 02:53 PM
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You misunderstood because I took it for granted the reader would automatically understand that a 30mm eyepiece would display a bright background and a lot of light pollution. My comment about the 30mm was not about the Apollo 11, which has an 11mm focal length, but merely that the night was so dark and transparent a 30mm eyepiece (not the Apollo 11) displayed incredible contrast and a dark background sky.
Sorry for not being clearer.
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Old 11-06-2020, 03:43 PM
SkyWatch (Dean)
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Don Pensack View Post
You misunderstood because I took it for granted the reader would automatically understand that a 30mm eyepiece would display a bright background and a lot of light pollution. My comment about the 30mm was not about the Apollo 11, which has an 11mm focal length, but merely that the night was so dark and transparent a 30mm eyepiece (not the Apollo 11) displayed incredible contrast and a dark background sky.
Sorry for not being clearer.
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Old 12-06-2020, 06:43 PM
Startrek (Martin)
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Thanks all for your comments
Much appreciated !!
I will endeavour to provide another review once I complete some planetary observations with either Jupiter, Saturn or Mars over the next few months
Cheers
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