What are your best 3 eyepieces?

[gregbradley]

Answers will be different if only because of different scopes and different seeing and darkness locations.

But my favourite eyepiece is an APM XWA 20mm. I imagine its very similar to an Ethos 21.

Second favourite is APM 12.5 Hi FW.

3rd favourite is Baader Morpheus 17.5.

Greg.

[Startrek]

I use a Skywatcher 12” f5 Goto dob under Bortle 3 skies
My 3 favourite DSO eye pieces
1/ Ethos 21mm
2/ Apollo 11mm
3/ Panoptic 27mm

My 3 favourite Planetary eye pieces
1/ Apollo 11mm
2/ Ethos SX 4.7mm
3/ Delos 6mm

In January I experienced the best view of the Homunculus behind Eta Carina Star using my Apollo 11 eye piece during new moon.Even better than my Ethos 21mm with 2 x Powermate
I just thought I would mention it. The Apollo 11 eye piece is “Definitely Not” a show piece in a trophy cabinet , it’s a superb, well designed and engineered optical instrument worthy of its historical name.

[Tropo-Bob]

My most used scopes are 80 & 100mm ED refractors. My favourite 3 EPs are 15, 7 & 5mm DeLites.

[N1]

Xo5
13t6
zao16

[Outcast]

My 3 favourites... & this was a tough pick...

ES 82* 30mm
Vixen LVW 22mm
Vixen LVW 13mm

these work in all my scopes, the ES is just so immersive & the other two are just so sharp & clear..

Still looking for the perfect planetary EP at a shorter FL...

[FlashDrive]

Mine ......

Orion UltraScopic 35mm ( Japan )
Parks Gold Series 30mm ( Japan )
Parks Gold Series 25mm ( Japan )

On an equal par with these is the
Baader17.5mm Morpheus 76*degree

Col...

[Don Pensack]

My 3 favorites (in terms of "I really like this eyepiece") are not the same as my 3 most-used.
That's because they don't yield the magnifications I most use.
3 favorites: 22mm T4 Nagler, 11mm Apollo, 6mm Ethos.
3 most used: 14mm Morpheus, 11mm Apollo, 8mm Ethos.

[Allan_L]

Ethos (2″/1.25″) 13mm
Nagler t6 (1.25") 9mm
Panoptic (2") 27mm

[mandragara]

Sorry Don but I have to ask, what are the three magnifications you use the most?

I use 50x, 125x and 170x the most. ES82: 30mm, 8.8mm and Delos 12mm

[Don Pensack]

Most used magnifications?
130x, 166x, 228x.
I have a 12.5" scope with excellent optics.
The Favorite eyepieces yield 83x, 166x, 304x.
Where I observe, 304x is almost always nice and sharp. It's a good eyepiece for planetaries.

[Googaliser]

Bino sets:

Clave 30
TV Panoptic 24
ZAO_II 16

[DeWynter]

Pentax XW 30mm
Pentax XW 10mm
A pair of BCO 18mm for binos for planets (gives me nice 6mm).

[Steffen]

Favourite three: Brandon 6mm, TV 3-6mm, Nikon 17.5mm fieldscope
Most used: Nikon MC II 7-21mm, Brandon 24mm, Brandon 6mm.

[Rainmaker]

Delos 6, 10, 14

[The Mekon]

At present my most used are:
Delos 17.5mm
Nagler 9mm
Nagler 5mm

[Logieberra]

TV Nagler 31mm
Denkmeier D14mm
Pentax XW 10mm

[mura_gadi]

Hello,

Fav EP:
Can only list one atm, the Vixen LV 8-24mm zoom, great optics coupled with great function. A high quality flexible plossl without ER issues.

Greg, in regards to the United Optics lens 100degree history, (I think Rover/Lunt/APM/WO etc), a good background write-up is available from astro-talks.ru. (the 20mm APM is reviewed)

Steve
http://astro-talks.ru/forum/viewtopic.php?f=32&t=1445#p69238

[gregbradley]

Thanks Steve. I have the APM 20 and 9mm XWA. They are wonderful as are really all my APM eyepieces.

APM now have a super zoom 7.7 - 15.

Greg.

[LewisM]

I'm weird (no surprise there), but my favourites are:
1. Vixen 8-24 LV zoom - every one I have used or owned has been razor sharp and sufficiently wide for my tastes.

2. Parks GS 25 (give it back Col! :) )
3. Parks GS 10
4. Tak LE24
5. Tak LE30


Naglers and I have never gotten along well - big issue for me with blackouts and other issues. Sharp enough, but with ease of use issues for my eyes. I prefer the TV Plossls to any of the Naglers.

[Eldest_Sibling]

I can't say that these are my three best, no, but they are meaningful to me nonetheless...

279648

From left to right: a Celestron "PowerSeeker" 4mm SR(?) kit-eyepiece, and surprisingly performance-driven; an 8mm .965" 60° Konig, gleaned from a pair of inexpensive binoculars, and surprisingly good as well; and last, but by no means least, a 20mm .965" Kellner, the very first eyepiece I ever looked through, with my late father, and whilst I saw my very first object, Saturn.

My very best eyepieces are these, and what I call my "planetaries"...

279649

...but not just three.

279650

[sopticals]

Nagler T5 31.
Nagler T6 13
Nagler T6 9

Stephen.:eyepop:

[Culford]

13mm Nagler (Televue)
16mm Series 3000 Plössl (Meade)
27mm Panoptic (Televue)

I guess there is something magical about green on black?!

[dangerous]

There certainly is. I have a set of Ethos 8", 13" and 21". Using them feels like an IMAX experience, and I feel privileged and lucky to have had the chance to own them.

[ausastronomer]

I have quite a few to choose from and asking for 3 favourites is liking asking someone to name their favourite child. While most of what I own has now been around for a long time, and I've owned for a long time, I haven't used too many eyepieces that I like better, apart from a couple mentioned below. I'm happy with what I have and have no intention to change eyepieces, or telescopes.

31mm Nagler T5
27mm Televue Panoptic
25mm UO HD orthoscopic
22mm Nagler T4
20mm Pentax XW
18mm UO HD orthoscopic
17mm Nagler T4
14mm Pentax XW
13mm Televue ETHOS
12mm UO HD orthoscopic
12mm Nagler T4
10mm Pentax XW
9mm UO UO HD orthoscopic
8.5mm Pentax XF
8mm Televue Radian
7mm Pentax XW
7mm UO HD orthoscopic
6mm Televue DELOS
6mm Televue Radian
6mm UO HD orthoscopic
5mm Pentax XW
5mm UO HD orthoscopic
4mm UO HD orthoscopic
3.5mm Pentax XW

As part of our 3RF eyepiece kit, I also have access to all of the ETHOS focal lengths, but I rarely use an ETHOS eyepiece, because I prefer long eye relief and to observe with my glasses on. Pre COVID we had a lot of overseas people attending OZSKY. They always bring a collection of high class eyepieces with them, which I also get to try out.

Of the eyepieces I own my 3 favourites and most used eyepieces are:-

17mm Nagler T4 (critical to use a paracorr with this one)
10mm Pentax XW
7mm Pentax XW

Of the eyepieces I have used but don't own, the best eyepiece I have used is without question the 17mm Nikon NAV HW. It gets no better. The 2nd best would be the 12.5mm Docter Optics. The Leica Zoom is also very nice but zoom eyepieces just aren't for me.

Cheers
John B

[gregbradley]

A great list. A list of who's who in eyepieces.

The Nikon NV HW 17mm with the reducer is one I am interested in at some point in the future. I have read that its the best several times now.

Greg.

[Rainmaker]

1. Leica Asph Zoom
2. Leica Asph Zoom and matching Leica Extender
3. Nagler 31 or 22 or 17

[doug mc]

The three I use on a night of excellent seeing.

[Don Pensack]

To clarify the above, I'll modify the post as follows:
Most used magnifications:
130x (14mmMorpheus), 166x (11mm Apollo), 228x (8mm Ethos)
Favorite eyepieces:
83x (22mm Nagler), 166x (11mm Apollo), 304x (6mm Ethos)
There is something special about each of those 3 eyepieces.
But since the thread is about your BEST 3 eyepieces, I'd have to say:
11mm Apollo, 9mm Morpheus, 6mm Ethos, with honorable mention APM 30mm UltraFlatField.

[Stonius]

I think for me, definitely the ES 30mm 82*. I use this more than any other EP because it's *both my widefield EP and my finder EP, so even if I intend to go to higher power later on, I still use this one to find the object. I prefer it to my XW30 and XW40.

I like the entire 1.25" Pentax XW range, especially the 14, 10 and 7mm EPS
For Binoviewing, I'm really enjoying the Baader Zooms. They're a gift if you don't have the Denk powershifter thingy


The 24mm Panoptics are pretty good, but have a bit of rectilinear distortion, which I guess doesn't matter too much on stars which have no straight edges, but you notice it when panning over a star field. But they give you the widest possible view in my BV, so there's that.

[AG Hybrid]

Naturally it depends on the telescope. But, of my collection over the years.

1. Pentax 10mm XW
2. Televue 14mm Delos
3. Vixen 22mm LVW / Explore Scientific 30mm 82.

[furyz]

Only got 3 eyepieces and haven't had a reason to get any more.

1. Baader Hyperion Mark IV Zoom 8-24mm
2. Baader Hyperion 36mm
3. Baader Hyperion 5mm

I probably use the 36mm and the Zoom at 24mm the most. I have a Celestron C8, so the 36mm is great to go wider field without having to pull out the focal reducer.

I got a 3x Visionking focal extender as well. Which covers all the planets. Works great with the 36mm and the Zoom.

I got the 5mm just in case, but to be honest, I rarely use it. Its relatively quick to throw in the focal extender, so I use that a lot more often if I need a big boost to magnification.

[PLR]

I have had a few eyepieces over the years but then I got these 3 in a package deal and I found that I started to use them more and more until I mainly just use them :Tele Vue 7mm Nagler 6, 13mm Nagler 6 and 27mm Panoptic in a 8" F10 Meade SCT. I also got a Tele Vue big Barlow in the deal.

[Peter Ward]

Eyepiece? Ah! so that's what those small lenses are kicking around the
bottom of my imaging accessory drawer :)

[astro744]

You should be using those to prevent dust entering the OTA when not imaging. Some have 8 or 9 elements giving no chance for any dust to get through. Much better than a plastic dust cap.;)

[Zubenel]

1.12mm Type 5 Nag
2.20mm Type 4 Nag
3.Pineapple ;) ( I'm a bit biased ) but my eye just doesn't agree with the Ethos series.

[Stonius]

Pineapple?

[astro744]

1. >> 12mm Nagler only came in Type 2 and Type 4
2. >> 20mm Nagler only came in Type 2 and Type 5



3. >> 31mm Type 5 Nagler generally referred to as The Pineapple

My three best depend on which telescope I use, e.g. longer reflector or shorter refractor.

[Zubenel]

O yes look at that. I swapped the types! And previously to the holy hand granade🤔😉 the 35mm Pan ( no type) 🤪 was the fav and still is a mighty fine view whether it be in the 10” or the 20” 👍🏻✅🙂

[MortonH]

My eyepiece collection is tiny these days so it's an easy choice:

1. Panoptic 19mm
2. Panoptic 24mm
3. William Optics 7.5 - 22.5mm zoom

Maybe it's time to acquire a few more...

[Wilso]

My three best and favourites,
The little Nikon CFIUW 10x25 , cracking little eyepiece, and yes it’s a microscope eyepiece that I use for astronomy. Super sharp and crystal clear.
Second would be my old faithful the 22Nagler type 4 , just a beautiful eyepiece, a pleasure to use.
And last the old Masuyama 20mm, superb with my scopes from f5.6-f10 for a 5 element eyepiece. One to set the standard by.

[ausastronomer]

Every plossl and orthoscopic eyepiece in use around the globe for astronomy purposes, is a microscope eyepiece that's had a change of purpose for astronomy. They do a very fine job of it and have done for over 140 years. Since 1860 with the Plossl and since 1880 with the Orthoscopic. Both were originally designed for use in microscopes. There have been countless design variations over the decades to try and improve on them. Some pretty decent eyepieces came out of the variants, including the 5 Element Plossl or Masuyama, as a derivative of the plossl, and the 4 Element and 5 Element Koenigs, as a derivative of the orthoscopic. Albert Koenig was in fact a co worker at Zeiss with Ernst Abbe, who invented and patented the orthoscopic.

Cheers
John B

[Steffen]

Hi Morton, have you had a chance to compare the WO zoom to the Baader zoom?

[bigjoe]

Just too many but usually a
20mm Masuyama 85° now...Amazing clarity.
9 Morpheus or 10mm Masuyama 85°at F10
4mm Tak TOE..
so many really even my 12.5 Tak Abbe or 19mm Pan are amazing..below a pic of the 2" compact but weighty 20mm Masuyama.
Bigjoe

[MortonH]

Hi Steffen,

I haven't done a detailed comparison but I did own the Baader Zoom Mk IV at the same time a few years ago and found them to be similar. I'd say the Baader was slightly better, and the AFOV is a little wider than the WO, but they were more similar than different. I like that the WO goes to 7.5mm rather than 8mm although I didn't test to see if I could actually detect the difference.

[By.Jove]

Easy, would have to be APM UFF 10,15 and 30mm, but then I dont have much else, just a UFF 24mm.

[OzEclipse]

Depends on the F ratio of the scope and the eyepieces it can take?

My 6" f7 has a 3.5% diagonal and only uses 1.25" diameter eyepieces
Deep Sky
1. 21mm Denkmeier D21
2. 14mm Denkmeier D14
3. 10mm Pentax XW
[+ 5mm Pentax XW for planets]

My 18" f5.5 takes 2" eyepieces
1. 31mm Nagler
2. 17mm Nagler
3. 14mm Denkmeier D14
[+ 7mm Nagler & 5mm & 10mm Pentax XW for double stars and planets when seeing is good enough]

Joe

[Steffen]

Interesting, thanks Morton. Why did you end up keeping the WO?

[MortonH]

Funny story - while on holiday in Cyprus I was offered a Dob to use but it didn't come with eyepieces or a 1.25" adapter. The local astro shop had no 1.25" adapters so rather than passing up the Dob I decided to buy the Baader zoom and use it in 2" mode. On returning home I decided I should sell one and figured I'd get more money from selling the Baader than the WO. Plus I'd been happy with the WO for a while before getting the Baader. And the WO is slightly lighter and goes to 7.5mm. But mostly it was financial! :lol:

[EpickCrom]

My current 3 best eyepieces are:
1. Saxon SWA 17mm. ( There is something magical about this eyepiece, open clusters and rich starfields are glorious through it)
2. 6.5mm Saxon Cielo. ( Planets are razor sharp through this eyepiece)
3. Panoptic 24mm. ( Sharp and crystal clear clarity)

Happy observing!!

[ab1963]

Nikon Nav SW’s 7,10 and 14mm
I have the full set but they are my 3 favourites

[Don Pensack]

You like the 40% rule: "Magnifications should be 40% apart".
That is 14/10/7mm.
Extend it both ways, and you have 5mm and 3.5mm on the short end,
and 20mm on the long end (you can see Pentax had reasons for those focal lengths).
Pentax is following that rule with their new 85° XWs: 23mm and 16.5mm are 40% apart. If they continue with the line, the next shorter focal length should be 11.5-12mm.

The Baader Morpheus range follows the same rule:
17.5/12.5/9/6.5/4.5 with the 14mm the "odd man out"
[Originally, 14mm was the longest focal length they could make with the design, but a redesign of the internals allowed a 17.5mm to be made]

I won't argue that the 40% rule always works, but it is a bit more rational than having a focal length every one or 2mm.

[castor]

Panoptic 24
Leica zoom 9-18
Vixen SSW 5mm

[sfarndell]

Top 3:
Explore Scientific 20mm 100 deg
Televue Ethos 13mm
Televue Delos 8mm

[Saturnine]

I quite like ( understatement ) my WO 4,7,& 16 UWA, perform well in all my scopes, whether fracs, newts or Mak
Backed up by ES 11 and 24mm UWA, gives a great range.

[EpickCrom]

UPDATE: My current top 3 eyepieces are:

1. Sky Rover (APM) 9mm: Incredible
2. Saxon SWA 17mm. : Magical
3. Panoptic 24mm. : Wonderous

[Tinderboxsky]

Well, I only have a set of Vixen LVW eyepieces: 42, 22, 13, 8, 5 and 3,5. All were acquired second hand years ago. These are matched to my Vixen NA140SS with a focal length of 800mm.
Most used and, by default, my favourites are the 22, 13 and 8mm eyepieces.

[gregbradley]

My favourite 3 are:

1. APM 12.5mm Hi FW.
2. APM 20mm SWA (Ethos would be a tad better).
3. Baader Morpheus 14.5mm.

I usually use an AP130GT for visual so those eyepieces suit that scope really well. Favourite eyepiece would vary with different scopes.

Greg.

[gaseous]

The APM 20mm is a terrific eyepiece. I think you may have bought the one that was in the classifieds a few years ago Greg - I had to order mine from APM and wait a full year for it to arrive. Along with my 31T5 nagler and ES 13mm 100, they'd be my top 3 I guess, with the Baader 8-24 zoom a close 4th.

[dabbeldi]

That's always a tough question. With the 18 inch, my 3 favourite eyepieces are:
- 12.5 mm Nikon HW, I use it a lot in either 12.5 or 10 mm mode. Just a good magnification (150x or 184x)
- 17 mm Nikon
- 7mm delite for high contrast and planetary work.

In the 120 mm f5 refractor, it's definitely the 30 mm es82. 20x mag and a 4 degree rich field view.