What Illuminated Reticle EP do you have?

[Phoenix]

Hi Folks

I'm looking for some advice on illuminated reticle EPs for star aligning/guiding.
.
I recently purchased a Meade 12.5 mm illuminated reticle EP (MA12) and while the views through the EP were surprisingly good, there was no variable brightness control as advertised - it's only on or off. Most importantly, to bring the double cross hairs to focus one must turn the upper most EP section but after only one or two turns, this section starts to wobble from side to side on top of the EP. Also, with minimal force I can simply pull this focuser section off without unscrewing it. Similarly, I can also push it back on all the way without screwing it on. In fact it seems the threads do little and the only thing holding the focuser on is the sticky grease. I either have a dud EP or the quality of this EP leaves a lot to be desired.

Basically, I would like to replace it but the only options from the local supplier with the same/similar FL is the skywatcher 12.5 mm IR or Orion 12.5 mm IR. Otherwise, I could replace it with another Meade, which to be honest, I am reluctant to do.

It seems that the other main players are Celestron's 10mm IR, Lumicon's 12.5mm IR (seems expensive) and Rigel System's 12.5 mm Pulsguide. I am sure there are many others. I am interested in the Rigel System's EP mainly due to reports that the brightness control actually works but I can't seem to find any information on the quality of the EP - 3, 4, or 5 element plossl etc.

So I am keen to know if anyone has had experience with any of the EPs above or could provide suggestions on alternatives. What do others use?

Many thanks.

Steve

[Screwdriverone]

Hi Steve,

I have the skywatcher one, and its great, does all the things you said your one lacks, I have only used it half a dozen times before I bought the DOB - DOH!

May dust it off again and bring out the Eq2 with the 5 inch scope for some widefields though.

Cheers

Chris

[Ian Robinson]

I have an Orion USA 12mm illuminated recticle eyepiece , is battery powered and has provision to focus the recticle so its nice and sharp and to very the brightness of the recticles too.

I have a sneeking suspiction it may be parfocal with an Orion Starshoot Autoguider too ,which will be handy when I get my big scope's OTA done (nearly finished) and I start using the Atlux and 10" newt for imaging.

The recticle eyepiece will be handy for drift aligning.

[Harpspitfire]

i use the antares 10mm. its a true plossl design so has a nice wide FOV, the battery seems to last forever!

[mithrandir]

Me too.

[Gallifreyboy]

I have the skywatcher 12.5mm, $79 from Andrews. I have been very happy with it while learning to master drift alignment. It is quite solid and definitely has variable brightness.

[erick]

Antares 12mm - picked up second hand here. Just fine. In fact the illumination is so good, I took it off and put it on my illuminated finderscope.

There are three controls:- 1) of/off/brightness; 2) how long off before it cycles to on; 2) how long it stays on before it cycles back to off.

No trouble with focussing on the reticule. Double crosshairs.

Details here:-
http://www.antaresoptical.com/eyepieces/1.html
http://www.scopesnskies.com/prod/118.html

Anything here? :-

http://www.cloudynights.com/ubbthreads/showflat.php/Cat/0/Number/3257762/Main/3255473
On the readup, I wonder if my illuminator came from somewhere else before I got the eyepiece - they look to be simple versions on those pages.

[Phoenix]

Thanks to everyone for your valuable comments.

Good to hear the Skywatcher is serving you well Chris and does all the things mine does not. I'm going to try and make a swap with the retailer so I only have the Skywatcher and Orion 12.5mm to choose from. If I can get my money back then I might consider some of the other alternatives posted here.

I'm probably not looking hard enough but I can't seem to find the 12mm Orion EP that Ian and Andrew are referring to - only the 12.5mm version.

I didn't think about the Antares 10 and 12mm EPs - and the 12mm illuminated reticle that Erick is referring to sounds more like what the Rigel Systems IR does. How usefull do you find the 3 differnt settings Erick?

Choices, choices.... thanks everyone.

Regards
Steve

[erick]

I'm not too sure whether that illuminator is standard Antares, now, sorry. However, it's not three settings. You tweak two little knobs to get it to do what you want. I have it so the illumination is mostly off. It comes on about every two seconds and stays on for about half a second. The on/off knob still performs the brightness adjustment for when the illumination switches on. This setup works very well for faint stars/objects for which continuously-on illumination is too much.

[Phoenix]

Hi Eric

Yes, sorry I did pick this up out of your original post - ie. you are not sure if illuminator is standard Antares. How do you find the quality of the EP itself?

Cheers
Steve

[rogerg]

I have the meade 12mm, never had a problem with it. The crosshairs come in to focus fine with the eyepiece still strongly intact, and the on/off dial increases brightness as I turn it more. The minimum brightness used to be a bit too bright when manually guiding on a star, but these days just using it for alignment etc it's fine. Being able to move the crosshairs is very useful so whatever one you get I recommend you get one that allows for fine adjustment of he X position.

Roger.

[erick]

Seems fine but I'm just using it to centre bright stars for Argo Navis alignment - nothing too hard. If I was trying to manually guide on a faintish star - I don't know. No problem focussing the reticule - good solid feel.

[mithrandir]

The .5 that Ian forgot to type and I didn't think of correcting? :rolleyes:

It's a bit like the people with Dobs going on about their 2mm eyepieces when an 8" f10 SCT is pretty much unusable with anything below 6mm.

[Phoenix]

Thanks Andrew - fair enough, sorry for being so pedantic - I thought it was a different EP.

Thanks also Roger. Good to know not all Meade IR EPs are a dud - must be just mine. Ill have to think about my need for an EP where you can adjust the X position of the cross-hairs. For the moment I am only star aligning.

Cheers
Steve