gary
17-10-2007, 02:45 PM
Last week myself, Andrew Murrell and John Bambury were taken aback
when observing colleagues from the US we were hosting presented us
with a wonderful gift, a brand new 13mm Ethos eyepiece.
Thank you Dave, Scott, John and Don for your generosity.
I had the first opportunity to use an Ethos when Al Nagler brought a couple
of the pre-production units to the Texas Star Party in May. It was the first time
for Al to use this eyepiece under a dark sky site and I was sold and wanted one.
I got to look through the Ethos through a variety of scopes both at TSP and
then at Riverside so I knew this was an eyepiece that worked equally well
on a variety of scopes.
Last week afforded the opportunity to use a pair of Ethos eyepieces on
5 nights from a dark site at Coonababran. The eyepieces were used on
a pair of Obsession 18" scopes as well as on a new Obsession Ultra
Compact 18 (first in Australia) along with a 25" Obsession. A common
comment was that "it was just like looking out of the port-hole of a space-ship".
Particularly dramatic were objects such as NGC 253 and NGC 55, where the
combination of power plus the 100 degree effective FOV allowed one to
look around the object in detail. The Tarantula was incredible through it and the
detail so dramatic that at one point I removed the eyepiece to confirm that
nobody had left a UHC filter in it. No, in fact it was delivering incredibly
bright, detailed images to the eyeball just raw.
This is a wonderful piece of optics and on the 18's is a convenient eyepiece to
leave in place as the defacto "cruising eyepiece".
On another note, the new Ultra Compact (UC) 18" Obsession was a real
joy to use. As a disclaimer, Obsession Telescopes is a customer of
Wildcard Innovations. However, with my observer's hat on, I can tell
you that this scope delivered all of the quality one expects from an
Obsession with the bonus that the scope will fit easily into any car.
It can be assembled in under three minutes and makes many smaller aperture
scopes appear large, bulky and impractical to transport by comparison. Combined
with the Ethos, it was a killer combination.
Best Regards
Gary Kopff
Wildcard Innovations Pty. Ltd.
when observing colleagues from the US we were hosting presented us
with a wonderful gift, a brand new 13mm Ethos eyepiece.
Thank you Dave, Scott, John and Don for your generosity.
I had the first opportunity to use an Ethos when Al Nagler brought a couple
of the pre-production units to the Texas Star Party in May. It was the first time
for Al to use this eyepiece under a dark sky site and I was sold and wanted one.
I got to look through the Ethos through a variety of scopes both at TSP and
then at Riverside so I knew this was an eyepiece that worked equally well
on a variety of scopes.
Last week afforded the opportunity to use a pair of Ethos eyepieces on
5 nights from a dark site at Coonababran. The eyepieces were used on
a pair of Obsession 18" scopes as well as on a new Obsession Ultra
Compact 18 (first in Australia) along with a 25" Obsession. A common
comment was that "it was just like looking out of the port-hole of a space-ship".
Particularly dramatic were objects such as NGC 253 and NGC 55, where the
combination of power plus the 100 degree effective FOV allowed one to
look around the object in detail. The Tarantula was incredible through it and the
detail so dramatic that at one point I removed the eyepiece to confirm that
nobody had left a UHC filter in it. No, in fact it was delivering incredibly
bright, detailed images to the eyeball just raw.
This is a wonderful piece of optics and on the 18's is a convenient eyepiece to
leave in place as the defacto "cruising eyepiece".
On another note, the new Ultra Compact (UC) 18" Obsession was a real
joy to use. As a disclaimer, Obsession Telescopes is a customer of
Wildcard Innovations. However, with my observer's hat on, I can tell
you that this scope delivered all of the quality one expects from an
Obsession with the bonus that the scope will fit easily into any car.
It can be assembled in under three minutes and makes many smaller aperture
scopes appear large, bulky and impractical to transport by comparison. Combined
with the Ethos, it was a killer combination.
Best Regards
Gary Kopff
Wildcard Innovations Pty. Ltd.