New toys arrived in the post today!

[AlexN]

My red dot finder and My Astro Shop 30mm 2-inch 80 degree AFOV Super View Eyepiece arrived today from My astro shop, and wouldn't you know it... the skies almost immediately darkened and the sound of thunder began to roar in the distance :rolleyes:

Thankfully, the heavens opened up for a mere 40 minutes at around midnight, and I was able to have a quick play...

I am STOKED with this eyepiece. Its razor sharp!! I didnt have the whole sky to look at, but had a brief glance at the following...

N6397 - Never managed to spot it before tonight.
N4755 (jewel box) - found this EP allows me to see more color :)
N3372 (Eta Carinae)
N3532
N3293
Jupiter + 4 moons
Saturn + 3 moons
(Im not yet knowledgeable enough to distinguish the differences between the moons around Saturn and Jupiter)

Alpha Centauri and Acrux were visible as doubles despite the magnification..

There were a few other open clusters I looked at also, but they were the most brilliant of them all....

Thanks to the red dot finder, I actually found more in my 40 mins out tonight than I think i've seen since buying the dob :D


Anyways, I suppose thats about enough from me... I am just a bit amazed and had to share it :)

:eek: its 3am....

Alex.

[Dennis]

Nice report Alex, looks like you had a great time. Isn’t it great when you get new gear to extend your capabilities.

Cheers

Dennis

[goober]

Well done - it's amazing how time slips when you're enjoying yourself :)

[AlexN]

Dennis - Yeah, I had a lot of fun. Only downside was that I got driven back inside when some dark ominous clouds started moving in from the east... got my fingers crossed for better weather when I get home from work tonight.

Goober - 'Aint that the truth!

[allan gould]

You should also try the 80 degree 15mm of the same brand-awesome.
Try the 30mm on Orion nebula from a dark site. I bet you have never seen its like before - the whole shebang in one eyepiece

[AlexN]

Allan,

the 15mm is one of the next things on my shopping list!

With my work hours, im not home in time to view orion till friday, however I've been hanging for it since i received the ep... Mind you my back yard is hardly a 'dark spot'. airport light polloution from SSE, city polloution from the south, Strathpine polloution from SE and street lights + houses kill northern viewing... If it aint at zenith, contrast SUCKS!!

will give it a fly all the same though... cant be bad.

Alex.

[GazzMeister]

Very nice. I've been looking for a cheap wide field eyepiece and I think this will be the one. I see on the My Astro Shop site there is a copy of a group test from Sky at Night and it won, it even bettered the Nagler in FOV! At $129 I don't think you could find better value. Thank you for putting this eyepiece in the spotlight.

[AstralTraveller]

Lets be fair about that review. The Moonfish 'beat' the Nagler overall because it cremed it in the 'value for money' category. Under optical quality it was Nagler 97% vs Moonfish 77%. The Moonfish did however beat some brand name eyepieces which cost more than it including Celestron, Meade and Orion. The other standout performer in the review was the Meade 28mm Series 5000 SWA.

I have a '1rpd' brand 30mm 80 degree AFOV eyepiece which is also very nice. In my 15cm f/8 refractor it gives a great 2 degree fov which is sharp to the edge. However in a f/4.5 it was disappointing. I'm waiting to see how it goes in my GSO 25cm f/5. I suspect I'll be in the market for a coma corrector.

Happy viewing,
Dave

[GazzMeister]

Yeah I saw that the Nagler has better optics, it would want to with a price tag like that. If they were giving both of them away for free I would jump at the Nagler but at the moment $800 (or so) is way out of my league.
What's a 1rpd brand? I'm looking at any 25-35mm wide angles (cheap of course :))

[AlexN]

I cant say i've ever looked through a nagler, and do not have any idea how nice they are appart from what i've read, but i've been incredibly impressed with this EP (having used it every night since i got it... Couldnt be happier for the price.

[erick]

Yes, I need a coma corrector to get some improvement on the 30mm 80 deg eyepiece I bought from Bintel - their chinese version for a hundred something dollars. I liked it in my 8" f6. As expected, more coma is seen in my 12" f5, but I still like it. I know there is a limit to what could be achieved with a cheap eyepiece, but I want to give it a go. Strange when the accessory (the corrector) costs at least two times the price of the eyepiece :D

[AstralTraveller]

Google '1rpd'. You'll find they are owned by Astrobuffet and also find some reviews. I've yet to compare it to my GSO 32mm - which one reviewer rated very well next to it. The consensus seems to be that they are very nice with long f-ratio scopes but not so good at short ratios. I don't know how it compares with the Moonfish or the Andrews versions.

One of the nicest views I've seen for some years was eta carina under very dark skies in the 15cm f/8 refractor with (someone else's) OIII filter.