14 mm xw

[GrahamL]

Well I have had one night out with this eyepiece .. changeing from a nagler
to a pentax in terms of fov is sure noticable though not overly bothersome ..eye relief is just great in the pentax ..very comfortrable.

I still remember the first time I looked through the 14 xw in my 10 " dob
a couple of years back swapping a 13 mm nagler and having a look at ngc 253
I think I blurted out "thats better" or something like that (rob?)

A bit more time between both and I'm sure the differances are a little more subtle

There is a fair bit of info regarding field curvature in this eyepiece.. every time I look through one it crossed my mind and every time I never had a problem...I guess aside reading around the web you really have to try before you buy

I do miss the wide field of the naglers .. but for every loss I think theres a gain
and between the two theres not a lot of differance both are great bit of glass that anyone would be more than happy to own ..imo :)

cheers graham

[wavelandscott]

I think you have just written one of the best posts on the subject that I have read.

While I have opted to stay with the 13 mm T6 Nagler, the 14 mm Pentax XW is no slouch. In my opinion the FC issue gets overhyped a bit and some people ignore a good eyepiece only from reading the web.

Having written all of that...don't overlook the Denkmeir 14 mm eyepiece in this range either...it is a cracker too!

[ausastronomer]

I agree 100% with Scott on this. While there certainly is some field curvature in some scopes with the 14mm XW, and the 20mm XW, I think it is way overplayed. In fact in my 18"/F4.5 Obsession, the 14mm XW gives an infinitely flatter field with a lot less EOF astigmatism than the 17mm Nagler T4, when both eyepieces are used without a paracorr. Both eyepieces combine superbly with a paracorr. In fact the 17mm Nagler improves remarkarbly when combined with a paracorr in a fast newtonian.

Cheers,
John B

[skies2clear]

While the 14XW does improve with a Paracorr, I still find in most cases I use it without. Not found it to be much of an issue, even in 10" F4.7 dob. No issue at all in this F ratio in a larger dob to my eyes.

I use a pair of the 14XW for binoviewing (my eyes are far enough apart!), but because of the OCS needed with dobs (loosely speaking a kind of a barlow), there are NO field curvature issues whatsoever.

I'd like to know how the Ethos 13 compares with the 14XW in terms of contrast, resolution and light throughput. Obviously the Ethos blows the XW away for AFOV.

Clear skies

[ausastronomer]

The 13mm ETHOS is very very close to the 14mm XW in all of these criteria. On axis I find the XW has slightly better throughput and does fractionally better in resolving the fainter stars in open and globular clusters. The 13mm ETHOS IMO is better than the 13mm Nagler T6, in these areas and is the best of the Televue widefield eyepieces in these performance criteria. The other thing that is immediately noticeable with the 13mm ETHOS is that it offers a cool (whiter) image, similar to the 14mm Pentax XW. It is the first Televue eyepiece to do this in my experience and obviously uses different glass types or coating technology to other Televue eyepieces. Apart from the slightly short eye relief (for eyeglass wearers) it is a 100 deg view, very similar in quality and appearance to what is offered by a Pentax XW or a Takahashi LE.

The 13mm ETHOS is a cracker of an eyepiece that has only one minor shortcoming IMO. It could do with another 5mm of eye relief, to suit eyeglass wearers.

Cheers,
John B

[skies2clear]

Thanks for the good info John. It's seems quite amazing considering the 100 deg AFOV of the Ethos that it just about matches the XW on axis. Quite an achievement.

Cheers,
Nick

[Starkler]

I have the 14XL, which has very similar characteristics to the XW.

The FC never used to bother me either, until I started hunting for planetary nebs, some of which are only detectable as a slightly bloated star. FC in this case makes the task more difficult but the good news is that a paracorr cleans it up nicely.