brian nordstrom
23-11-2015, 12:07 PM
:D As the title says , this is a short review of a short 3 way shootout between 3 of TelVue's mid power eyepieces .
They are ,
#1 , The awesome 19mm Panoptic , giving 53x , probably one of the best eyepieces ever made , its beautiful to look at as well to look thru .
#2 , The now seemingly forgotten 18mm Radian , giving 55.5x , this eyepiece is beautiful to look thru with its 20mm eye relief .
#3 , The now not made TelVue 21mm smooth side plossl , giving 48x with sweet Japan made optics .
All 3 were only a gnat's hair from being par-focal so this made it very easy in the swapping out eyepieces .
The night was Friday night 20/11/15 , a very good night here .
Targets were , the 8 day old moon , M42 and M22 .
Scope used was my well collimated and cooled iStar 127mm f8 achromat refractor .
First up was M22 before it dropped to low in the mire .
Here it was obvious that the Radian did not have the light thru-put as the other 2 , it still resolved the intervidual stars but not as easily as the Panoptic and especially the Plossl , this is where it really shone , showing the Globular as a tight ball of stars as only a refractor can , beautiful .
So here the winner is the Plossl '
#1 , 21mm Plossl .
#2 , 19mm Panoptic.
#3 , 18mm Radian.
Second up the moon and as the refractor does show very faint CA on the moon , this is very subdued for a refractor working at f8 , the main test here was the colour imparted by each eyepiece .
Time and time again I changed these 3 out testing , taking rough notes and one thing I kept seeing was the more natural hues seen on the moon thrown up by the Radian , I seen this every time I looked at the moon using this eyepiece and it became the favourite of the night , the Panoptic with its slightly larger field was vey good , but seemed a little ' Clinical ? '
The Plossl was easily as sharp as the Panoptic , but showed the most CA of the 3 , very subtle but definatly there '.
So on the moon I found this ,
#1 the 18mm Radian .
#2 the 19mm Panoptic .
#3 the 21mm Plossl .
Next up , M42 , I found that the Radian did not have the light thru-put the Panoptic and Plossl had , it was as sharp but the wings were harder to make out in the Radian .
The Panoptic was the best here as its larger FOV really shone as it took the whole field in its stride , very nice view .
The Plossl was as sharp but the FOV was not there .
The trapezium was easily seen as 4 stars in all 3 .
#1 here was the 19mm Panoptic
#2 was the 21mm Plossl .
#3 was the 18mm Radian .
All 3 of these eyepieces are winners , excelling in what they do best and essentially perfect in all ways .
Hope you all enjoy this and please , comments welcome .
Brian.
They are ,
#1 , The awesome 19mm Panoptic , giving 53x , probably one of the best eyepieces ever made , its beautiful to look at as well to look thru .
#2 , The now seemingly forgotten 18mm Radian , giving 55.5x , this eyepiece is beautiful to look thru with its 20mm eye relief .
#3 , The now not made TelVue 21mm smooth side plossl , giving 48x with sweet Japan made optics .
All 3 were only a gnat's hair from being par-focal so this made it very easy in the swapping out eyepieces .
The night was Friday night 20/11/15 , a very good night here .
Targets were , the 8 day old moon , M42 and M22 .
Scope used was my well collimated and cooled iStar 127mm f8 achromat refractor .
First up was M22 before it dropped to low in the mire .
Here it was obvious that the Radian did not have the light thru-put as the other 2 , it still resolved the intervidual stars but not as easily as the Panoptic and especially the Plossl , this is where it really shone , showing the Globular as a tight ball of stars as only a refractor can , beautiful .
So here the winner is the Plossl '
#1 , 21mm Plossl .
#2 , 19mm Panoptic.
#3 , 18mm Radian.
Second up the moon and as the refractor does show very faint CA on the moon , this is very subdued for a refractor working at f8 , the main test here was the colour imparted by each eyepiece .
Time and time again I changed these 3 out testing , taking rough notes and one thing I kept seeing was the more natural hues seen on the moon thrown up by the Radian , I seen this every time I looked at the moon using this eyepiece and it became the favourite of the night , the Panoptic with its slightly larger field was vey good , but seemed a little ' Clinical ? '
The Plossl was easily as sharp as the Panoptic , but showed the most CA of the 3 , very subtle but definatly there '.
So on the moon I found this ,
#1 the 18mm Radian .
#2 the 19mm Panoptic .
#3 the 21mm Plossl .
Next up , M42 , I found that the Radian did not have the light thru-put the Panoptic and Plossl had , it was as sharp but the wings were harder to make out in the Radian .
The Panoptic was the best here as its larger FOV really shone as it took the whole field in its stride , very nice view .
The Plossl was as sharp but the FOV was not there .
The trapezium was easily seen as 4 stars in all 3 .
#1 here was the 19mm Panoptic
#2 was the 21mm Plossl .
#3 was the 18mm Radian .
All 3 of these eyepieces are winners , excelling in what they do best and essentially perfect in all ways .
Hope you all enjoy this and please , comments welcome .
Brian.