Orthoscopics - where to buy ?

[Starkler]

Anyone know of anyone selling UO or other high quality orthoscopic eyepieces in Aus?

Thanks

[gbeal]

Starkler,
don't know of anyone in Aus, but if you feel like dealing with someone in the US, I can put you in contact with a dealer that sells U/O orthos.
Gary

[Exfso]

I have purchased a UO HD from Daniel at Frontier, good to deal with and reasonable price too.

:astron:

[iceman]

What do you want them for Geoff? Planetary?

What size are you getting? What price?

How are they going to be better than your Pentax's?

[Starkler]

I was going to look at just getting one for planetary to compare with the pentax/barlow combination.

With the pentaxs i can view planets in supreme comfort but the tradeoff is extra scattered light using a barlow vs the tiny fov, harder tracking and short eye relief of the ortho, but hopefully with more contrast. Jupiter is comming !

Frontier thats the mob I was thinking of , thanks Aragorn.

[mch62]

Hi starkler get your self a Powermate to use with the orthos.
Best investment in planetary viewing or CCD .
I use a 4X powermate with my 25 18 and 12.5mm University orthos and there is no light scatter or change to the eyerelief .
It is my standard planetary combo and works well for me.
With a 4X PM I can use a web cam with out having to resort to eyepiece projection . I have a barlow but find the powermate far supperior to it for high power stuff.
Mark

[Dave47tuc]

Hi Geoff,
I brought my Ortho's which are now sold:mad2:
I'm mad at doing that.
I got them from University Optics, http://www.universityoptics.com/

I just emailed them then faxed my order and in a week they arrived:eyepop: all safe and sound.
Geez i regret selling them.
I will get another set one day.:P

A freind of mine has the 7mm for planetary viewing:cool:
He also has a set of Naglers!!

Good luck:)

Best.


:astron:

[Starkler]

I was considering rehashing my entire mid/high power eyepiece collection to delete the barlow and go for a "purists" approach due to scattered light which was objectionable viewing jupiter.

Then last night I discovered a daddy long legs spider living inside my OTA with quite an intricate web network
:lol2:

Time to fashion a cover for the bottom of the OTA, thats the second spider I have had to evict in a month !

[Dave47tuc]

There must have been a few webs for you to see that much light scatter:P
Happend to me once, so your not alone on this one:whistle:

Best.


:astron:

[ving]

andrewscom.com.au has them at a please call price. dont know what that means.
excuse my newbieness but what are they and what do they do?

[Starkler]

Othoscopic eyepieces achieve maximum sharpness and contrast by following the "less is more" philosophy.

A simple design with small fov of 40-45 degrees and eye relief similar to an equivalent plossl.

http://www.universityoptics.com/uoep.htm#Orthoscopics


Dave, the friend with the 7mm ortho, have I met him ? :)

[Dave47tuc]

No Geoff you have not met him yet:D


Best.


:astron:

[astrodave]

I'm also a bit lost when it comes to quality of eps. How would an orthoscopic compare to a Meade 4000 Super Plossel?

[Starkler]

lots of user eyepiece reviews (http://www.excelsis.com/1.0/section.php?sectionid=22&PHPSESSID=e5eb6f5feff57596fdcba52b9 b8a503a)

[Astro_Guy]

David,

The apparent field of view of an ortho is typically 40-45 degrees, vs. 50 degrees for a plossl. At equal focal lengths, the plossl will provide anywhere from 10-25% more true field of view.

Eye relief of an ortho is normally 0.8x the focal length vs. 0.7x the focal length of a plossl. A 12.5mm ortho provides 10mm of eye relief vs. under 9mm for the plossl. You will notice this difference in a hurry with eyepieces below 9mm focal length.

All else being equal, orthos have a slight advantage in image sharpness over plossls. The early Meade 4000 Series eyepieces that were made in Japan are quite good, but the quality seemed to drop off a bit after they moved production to China. The 4000 series has now been discontinued in favor of the 5000 series, which is also produced in China. It should be noted that the new 5000 Series Plossl from Meade is a five elemenet design; therefore, it is not really a plossl.

Assuming that you have a scope on a driven mount, then you might want to give a slight preference to the orthos. If you are not working with a driven mount, then consider giving preference to wider field designs.

Clear Skies,

Bob

[Starkler]

Just paid $54US for a second hand 7mm circle-T (unbranded generic same as UO).
Hopefully should have it in 2 weeks :)

[Starkler]

Just got it today in the post. For a simple eyepiece its quite heavy and appears solidly made.

The eye relief is short with my eyelashes brushing the top to take in the full FOV. Its probably about equivalent to a 9mm plossl.

When the clouds dissapear I'll be able to see if its one I'll keep or sell.

[Dave47tuc]

Geoff,
Hope to see the 7mm in action soon:D

[ving]

want a full review please and comparision with a plossl

[iceman]

Agree with that call Ving.. onto it Geoff! It's been a while since we've had any reviews to put up on the site.

[Starkler]

Ok then Mike and Ving.

I'll be responsible for writing a review if you'll be responsible for keeping the clouds away Saturday night :P

[iceman]

heh I don't want them up here either.. taking my son to Koolang Observatory on Saturday night, and hitting the dark skies with Rodstar on Friday night!

[ving]

I'll do what i can... (nothing) :P

[Starkler]

Very little light scatter compared to my pentax xl/ barlow combo, and WAY less than a nagler type 6.

Yet to make a full judgement on sharpness. Dave seemed to think my pentax xl/ultima barlow combo beat it in this regard.
The seeing was good one moment and mush the next, so im not 100% sure on this aspect.

Sorry I didnt have a comparable plossl on hand to compare with.

[iceman]

You call that a review? I can't post that in the reviews page! More Mr Geoff please, more! :)

[Starkler]

Mike you didn't keep your end of the bargain :P (see above)

[iceman]

You wouldn't have dragged out those 14" and 18"ers if there was clouds! I'll give you another week to try it out, then I want a full review! :D

[ving]

then we send around the heavies! :P

[ving]

i've decided to get an ortho too... for planets and splitting doubles :)

where did you get yours starkler?

[Starkler]

I got mine from Astromart second hand.

You can buy UO orthos from frontier optics in Aus.
I was quoted $99 + $7 to ship for the standard 'volcano top' type.

[DougAdams]

I ordered a 5mm HD from Frontier Optics. Daniel told me it will ship in the next day or two. They are $125 plus $7 P/H.

[ving]

sweet! I'll prolly get one soon.

what focal length would you recomend as a start?

[DougAdams]

I don't know - what scope(s) have you got? It's going to get me to 180x with my refractor, and 244x with my Dob. I have no idea how practical these magnifications are going to be, but I'm curious :)

[ving]

I have a 8" gs dob...

i was thinking about 7mm which would give me about 171x and double that barlowed. wadayathink?

[Starkler]

Ving I doubt you would ever get to usefully barlow that 7mm.

One thing to remember is that the fov on these eyepieces is smaller than a plossl and very high powers will make it harder to track.

If you get good seeing conditions often you could go shorter than a 7mm . I got the 7 as Melbourne seeing is lousy.

Doug, 188x should be a good planetary mag in your refractor, and usable in the dobbie if you like getting up before dawn to observe :whistle:

[ving]

well yeah... I wasnt going to hunt DSOs with it. I dont need a big FOV to split doubles and view planets. :P

I am in sydney so my seeing is prolly at the most on par with you :P

[trufflehunter]

Yeah what Ving and Ice said! Geoff, is it one of those 'volcano tops'? I've always thought that was a good design to help overcome the short eye-relief problem, but I worry about it stabbing me in the eye!
Seriously, though... I've been considering a 7mm ortho. I like the idea of the new UO "Planetary" ortho series but they bottom out at 9mm. They're on the University Optics site.