What’s your alltime favourite eyepiece?

[gregbradley]

What scope and focal length?

What use - high power views, wide views, planetary?

The most pleasing view I have had was a Nagler 22 type 4
On a 1200mm Tak FS152. Wide view.

Greg

[ab1963]

So far is Eta Carina with Apm XWA 20mm 100 Deg, Tak FSQ106 F8, Baader bbhs correct image prism diagonal. widefield view that was simply superb every star appeared to have a different contrast or color i do get similar results on all targets with my setup but this particular night it was incredible

[Rainmaker]

Delos 6mm & Delos 10mm best the ones I can recall......... they give 310x & 186x in my 18"F3.5 Dob and 200x & 120x in my 6" TMB-LZOS refractor, mainly for planetary/lunar detail viewing...
(I have sold my Ethos,Nagler, XW etc and just kept the Delos series, some Panoptics and Tak LEs)

[gregbradley]

Thanks Matt. I haven’t looked through a Delos.
Greg

[Startrek]

My Televue Apollo 11 commemorative eye piece looking at Mare Tranquillitartus through my 12” Goto dob during winter last year
It really felt like you were orbiting the moon from 100 miles up
A simply beautiful eye piece !!

[FlashDrive]

35mm Orion UltraScopic .... wide field in any refractor I've had.

An equal match for wide field is the Masuyama 32mm 2 inch 85*degree .... outstanding Eyepiece for f/7 and up

[ab1963]

They are a fantastic eyepiece and can't believe i sold mine

[gregbradley]

I have read that before that the Apollo 11 eyepiece is one of the best eyepieces ever.

I wonder if its the start of a new line? What have they done to make it so good? Is it basically a Nagler or something else?

Greg.

[Startrek]

It’s a great eye piece that’s all I know

The technical details of the internal optical train for the Apollo 11 eye piece are not available , maybe there’s a reason for this as it was a historical commemorative eye piece ( no details on no of elements , size and type , angles etc ) All you can access is the basic information on the eye piece ( attached ) I doubt very much it’s a tweaked Nagler
From what I’ve been told by reliable sources who know the Nagler family , they were never going to make a commercial line of these eye pieces.Only 300 were manufactured. I was lucky enough to secure one , only 6 were available in Australia

[Don Pensack]

Mine, too, though I have to give honorable mention to
the 22mm Type 4 Nagler, and the 6mm Ethos, which is, to my eye, like a 100° orthoscopic in terms of contrast and image sharpness.

100 miles up? That would be a magnification of 2400x. If it's 200x, say, that's the equivalent of 1200 miles up. I know what you were trying to say, though--it's a fantastic lunar eyepiece.

[Slawomir]

I only have a few eyepieces and not that many observing hours behind my belt, but my favourite would have to be 5mm Delite, which is quite compact, very comfortable to look though, gives excellent views to the edge and has a reasonable FOV, so I can appreciate the heavens without tiring my eye(s).

Second place would be Delos 3.5mm as well as Nagler 13mm, because while Delos is optically magnificent within entire FOV, it is a quite large eyepiece, and Nagler, while very compact and with a generous FOV, optically it seems to lag behind the other two a little bit.

Oh yes, 2.5mm TOE, while optically possibly as perfect as humanly possible, it has a less comfortable eye relief which matters to me during longer observations. Mind you, this is with only 105mm of aperture, so floaters become noticeable too. This particular eypiece is probably better matched with larger apertures than my 105mm.

[gregbradley]

Thanks Suavi.

I haven’t looked through a Delite or Delos.
I have had quite a few Televue eyepieces in the past.
19mm Panoptic was a favourite. I had a 13mm Ethos and it was extremely
good but large, heavy and expensive.

It gave a wonderful view of M42 in a TEC180fl.
Greg

[AG Hybrid]

12" F5.

ES 25mm 100 degree. (With my ES Coma corrector)

This was a few years ago at Wiruna.

Focused on the LMC and Tarantula Nebula.

Still the greatest thing I've ever seen through any telescope even up to 32".

I don't even own the eyepiece. I've never owned it. I was lent it one night to use in my scope.







I still think about that moment sometimes.

[MortonH]

I remember the 14mm Delos being excellent in my 8" f/5 Newt for low-medium power views of deep sky objects. It's one of the few eyepieces I've bought brand new. Sadly I no longer own one.

[bigjoe]

Some I like
Tak Toe 3.3mm then 4mm equal optically with the incredible 18.2mm Delite , 5mm Delite,Tak 9,12.5mm Orthos
Pans19, 24, 8mm Delos, Naglers 16,9,2.5.. 12mm dual ED gets a very honourable mention..not tried the Morphii yet.
If I just had only one choice it would be an 18.2 Delite and 3x TV Barlow its that good.
Bigjoe.

[astronut]

Seibert 2" Ultra's. All with a 20mm e/r, from 7mm up to 24mm. +the Ultra 2" 2x barlow. The optics are housed in a aluminium barrel. So the weight at the nose is minimal. 70+* Afov.:)

[mandragara]

Explore Scientific 30mm 82 degree eyepiece. My understanding is that it's basically a Nagler clone.

Got it for a hair over $300 AUD from AliExpress.

Have never had a chance to look through the more exotic eyepieces mentioned here, but the ES seems pretty sharp to me and gives an amazingly rich view when walking up the Milky Way

[jahnpahwa]

This is so bloody compelling :)

[ab1963]

If it was so special i can't understand why it would not have been a priority to purchase one ?

[AG Hybrid]

A fair question. One that I have pondered since the moment I used it.

Its currently $1100 AU + delivery from Opt. Pretty expensive for an eyepiece I would only use maybe 10% of my observing time if that? Also, it was always a very expensive eyepiece.

It weighs 1.25 KG. With the coma corrector its about 2Kg hanging off the focuser and sticks out like a foot from the side of my dob. Of course you don't need to use the coma corrector, buuut it matches it perfectly for a pinpoint flat field from edge to edge.

I already have the ES 20mm 100 and the 30mm 82. Which sort of puts it in this awkward position is the focal range. Maybe I could sell the 20 and 30 and get the 25 instead. But... I reckon Id miss that 30. It has sentimental value. The first decent eyepiece I ever owned. After looking through a 31Nagler. I really wanted it but at the time couldn't afford it. That ES30 is a cracker of an eyepiece and a couple who have looked through it have bought their own.

There's also that psychosomatic thing where -maybe its not as good as I thought it was and kind if like the saying "never meet your heroes".

But, I normally talk myself out of it by thinking, "hey for the price of that eyepiece you can buy a Fender Telecaster to go with your Stratocaster. You can use that Telecaster day or night, clear sky or cloudy.".

[Camelopardalis]

Adrian, I still have that eyepiece, and it has a 9mm 120* brother now too :lol: FWIW, your Dob is pretty exceptional.

The ES82 30mm is a cracking eyepiece at what used to be a sensible price, but mine got obsoleted by the 25mm...in the great fire sale of 2017 :sadeyes:

[AG Hybrid]

:thumbsup::thumbsup:


Price rises and currency changes - not a great combination.