bytor666
21-10-2005, 04:21 PM
Heyyy....how's everybody doin?....I just got in a little while ago from testing out the Speers Waler 5-8mm Zoom and the 27mm Televue Panoptic.
The sky was fairly dark with so-so seeing and the moon was inching its way up and it was getting fairly cold out going from 40 deg F to 32F just before I packed it all up and went back inside.
I put my 12" F/5 reflector in my yard at around 6 pm and didnt start testing until about 8:30 pm.
First off : The 27mm Panoptic.
Contrast was far superior to the 30mm 1rpd I was using and the colors were way better too. There WAS coma apparent , but it wasn't bothersome in the least bit at all, the 30mm 1rpd had some astigmatism present but the 27mm Pan did not. The eye relief on this EP is perfect, with no eyelash lickins against the glass at all. All I really looked at with the 27mm Pan was the double cluster and M-13 and I panned around the sky a little.
I also tried Barlowing the 27mm Pan with less then great results, (the area near the fieldstop became "a tad darkened" and blackouts were more apparent) . There is really no need for me to barlow it anyway because I have close to the same mag in my Meade series 4000 14mm UWA.
Second test: The speers Waler 5-8mm Zoom
This eyepiece had a really huge "WOW" factor when I first looked through it!!!...I couldn't believe how massive the field size looked in this EP !!!!!!!!!
Contrast was immaculate considering you are looking through 9 elements of multicoated glass!!!. The field was extremely sharp from edge to edge in this EP and the zoom action made it a charm to see things closer without having to reach for that barlow lens when the stars are just "whizzing" past in the field!!!!...I even got around to doing the "Star-drift" method to see what kind of power and field size I was getting with all of the combinations I tried.
The eye relief in the SW Zoom was perfect too!!!, all I really need to get used to is untightening and retightening the thumbscrew to use the zoom on this EP.
At one time, I unscrewed the thumbscrew on the Speers thinking that it was my 1.25" adapter on my 2" focuser and my stomach sank when the eyepiece zoomed out and stopped at the end instead of the EP coming right out of the focuser !!!!
People were right about the "slit" in the housing. I had a small green light on above the eyepiece and I forgot that the slit was wide open right underneath the light and I was thinking that maybe the elements had gotten all messed up when really it was just stray light leaking into the eyepiece!!!!....all that is needed here is to remember to keep the slit away from any stray light when using the zoom wide open. This EP barlowed perfectly with everything staying clear and no problems from the exra glass.I even went to the extreme by using the 5mm setting and my barlow lens to get 660x
After looking through the Speers waler zoom I know for a fact now that I will NEVER get rid of this EP, it's just too amazing to want to give it up!!!, It has me wondering how good the 10mm is , as these eyepieces have a different "feel" then the Naglers & Pentaxes.
I would actually say that the speers Waler Zoom has the same feel as the Meade series 5000 6.7mm UWA, as I have looked through that one and they seem to perform very alike to one another.
Of course, the Meade 14mm UWA didn't just sit in my eyepiece case, I plopped it into the focuser as well bringing back those memories from a few months ago saying those "oooooh" and "ahhh" words again as I looked around the sky with it learning to NEVER sell it again!!! :scared:
Well, that's my eyepiece report for now and I hope you folks get something out of what I sat here and typed for you!!!!
~Clear Skies~
-------------------
Mark
12" Sky Mentor / GSO Reflector
27mm Panoptic
14mm Meade series 4000 UWA
Speers Waler 5-8mm Zoom
2" GSO Barlow
The sky was fairly dark with so-so seeing and the moon was inching its way up and it was getting fairly cold out going from 40 deg F to 32F just before I packed it all up and went back inside.
I put my 12" F/5 reflector in my yard at around 6 pm and didnt start testing until about 8:30 pm.
First off : The 27mm Panoptic.
Contrast was far superior to the 30mm 1rpd I was using and the colors were way better too. There WAS coma apparent , but it wasn't bothersome in the least bit at all, the 30mm 1rpd had some astigmatism present but the 27mm Pan did not. The eye relief on this EP is perfect, with no eyelash lickins against the glass at all. All I really looked at with the 27mm Pan was the double cluster and M-13 and I panned around the sky a little.
I also tried Barlowing the 27mm Pan with less then great results, (the area near the fieldstop became "a tad darkened" and blackouts were more apparent) . There is really no need for me to barlow it anyway because I have close to the same mag in my Meade series 4000 14mm UWA.
Second test: The speers Waler 5-8mm Zoom
This eyepiece had a really huge "WOW" factor when I first looked through it!!!...I couldn't believe how massive the field size looked in this EP !!!!!!!!!
Contrast was immaculate considering you are looking through 9 elements of multicoated glass!!!. The field was extremely sharp from edge to edge in this EP and the zoom action made it a charm to see things closer without having to reach for that barlow lens when the stars are just "whizzing" past in the field!!!!...I even got around to doing the "Star-drift" method to see what kind of power and field size I was getting with all of the combinations I tried.
The eye relief in the SW Zoom was perfect too!!!, all I really need to get used to is untightening and retightening the thumbscrew to use the zoom on this EP.
At one time, I unscrewed the thumbscrew on the Speers thinking that it was my 1.25" adapter on my 2" focuser and my stomach sank when the eyepiece zoomed out and stopped at the end instead of the EP coming right out of the focuser !!!!
People were right about the "slit" in the housing. I had a small green light on above the eyepiece and I forgot that the slit was wide open right underneath the light and I was thinking that maybe the elements had gotten all messed up when really it was just stray light leaking into the eyepiece!!!!....all that is needed here is to remember to keep the slit away from any stray light when using the zoom wide open. This EP barlowed perfectly with everything staying clear and no problems from the exra glass.I even went to the extreme by using the 5mm setting and my barlow lens to get 660x
After looking through the Speers waler zoom I know for a fact now that I will NEVER get rid of this EP, it's just too amazing to want to give it up!!!, It has me wondering how good the 10mm is , as these eyepieces have a different "feel" then the Naglers & Pentaxes.
I would actually say that the speers Waler Zoom has the same feel as the Meade series 5000 6.7mm UWA, as I have looked through that one and they seem to perform very alike to one another.
Of course, the Meade 14mm UWA didn't just sit in my eyepiece case, I plopped it into the focuser as well bringing back those memories from a few months ago saying those "oooooh" and "ahhh" words again as I looked around the sky with it learning to NEVER sell it again!!! :scared:
Well, that's my eyepiece report for now and I hope you folks get something out of what I sat here and typed for you!!!!
~Clear Skies~
-------------------
Mark
12" Sky Mentor / GSO Reflector
27mm Panoptic
14mm Meade series 4000 UWA
Speers Waler 5-8mm Zoom
2" GSO Barlow