Iceman EP

[mch62]

Hi Ice , how's the 30mm going ?:astron:

likes dislikes or bad weather stop you trying it out ? :cloudy:

I am interested in your honest opinions on it , but remember one thing before crucifying it if you don't like it ---- the price!

I won't be offended if you don't like it as every one has there own expectations.

Mark

[ving]

yeah, come on!
tell us what you think! :)

no need to be bashful :P

[iceman]

Hey guys,

Was planning to give it a bit of a writeup once i've had more of a chance to use it.. so far i've only been able to give it 10 minutes on M45 and M42.

It was clear later last night, but I was watching Hewitt instead :ashamed: :D

btw for the others, this is the Andrews UW80degree 30mm that Mark reviewed in the reviews (http://www.iceinspace.com/?reviews) section.

First impression, it's a monster! It's like a hand-grenade! I had no idea how big it would be. It feels really nice and solid, looks like good construction.

On M45 and M42, I compared it with my only other similar magnification eyepiece, my 32mm GSO plossl.

Obviously, the field-of-view was bigger, a fair bit bigger.. the quality in the centre of the field was great, no better or no worse than the plossl.

However at f/5 the outer edges of the field were definitely suffering from coma, and i'm not only talking the last 10%, more like the outer 25% or even more.. All the stars out there looks like bright little comets with their tail extending in or out (can't remember :D). It was really only at the centre of the field that the stars were pinpoint and sharp.

I couldn't give it any more time as there was high clouds coming over and the full moon was rising washing out most of the sky.

Will I buy one for myself? I don't know yet.. I need to give it some more time on a different range of objects.. I can see though it's going to be a case of either:
1. widefield on a budget, good for starhopping but knowing that the edges aren't sharp and whether you'll be able to put up with the abberations.
or
2. Save the $150 or whatever it is, and put it towards a nagler or pentax that won't suffer from those abberations.

It's a tough choice, I don't know what i'll do yet, because I know I can't afford a nagler.. and spending $900 on an eyepiece for a $1000 telescope just isn't going to happen right now..

[Starkler]

My suggestion are as follows:

1: Cheap option - 30mm GSO superview
2: Not so cheap - 27mm Televue panoptic ( Got mine for $270US via astromart)

3: bloody expensive - 31mm nagler t5 (damn nice ! )
I saw one on astromart for $499US , i was very tempted after having looked through one.

[gbeal]

Ice/Mark,
is this the same as the 1RPD that Astrobuffet sells for about US$95? (I have one of these, as does Rob Beck).
Great big heavy thing, but for the money it is easy to forgive the lack of sharpness/quality across the whole field.
Be good to compare Robs with the one you have when he goes across the ditch.
Gary

[iceman]

What are the specs for the panoptic? Will it be sharp to the edge? What's the difference between the pano and the nag?

What are they worth new? Do they come up 2nd hand often?

Thanks for your advice.

[Starkler]

Just had a look on astromart, theres one for sale at this moment.

http://www.astromart.com/classifieds/details.asp?classified_id=326937

68 degrees field for the pan, vs 82 for the nagler.

In our scopes it gives 1.47 degrees FOV, 46x mag with 5.4mm exit pupil


The panoptic is the best ep you can get short of a nagler :)

[iceman]

How much is that one on astromart? (I need to register a new account, forgot my username/pwd for my old one).

It looks like they're about US$330 brand new..

Is it just the FOV that differs between the nag and the pan?

[Starkler]

Its going for $275US which is about standard for astromart.

How to put it ...hmmm. A panoptic is like viewing space through a large porthole, whereas the nagler is more like sticking your head into space :)