ED eyepiece question

[serge]

Hello Everybody,

I was wondering if anyone knows what ED eypieces sold by Andrews are. What would they be like for planets, what is their FOV, etc.?

Has anyone had any expirience with them?

Best Regards,
Serge.

[RAJAH235]

Hi serge, A very warm welcome to our little corner of the world.
General info. on E/Ps. You get what you pay for, so if poss. BORROW before BUYING, is the rule.You don't say what,T'scope or E/Ps you have. More info. please. Dob, Refractor, SCT? focal length etc etc.
:2thumbs:
ps. How long you been in SASI? How's BRETT?

[serge]

Thank you for the welcome.

I have an 8" Newtonian, F5 (1000mm) from Andrews. I bought it a couple of years ago, just did not have a chance to use it until I moved to Sylvania a few months ago and now I have some backyard...

It came just with two eyepieces - Plossl 10mm and 25mm and a 2x barlow. I do not know if they we made by GSO at the time. I do not like the view I get through the eyepieces and would like to get something better for planets and for DSOs.

I am surprised you call them cheap as they are even more expensive than 2" SuperView that got quite a positive response in the forum. I am not saying that they are expensive, just that they are expensive among the cheap ones.

Geoff, do you mean that the cheap EPs that do not emulate expensive ones are OK?

Best Regards,
Serge.

PS: RAJAH235, I joined SASI three weeks ago. I have not met eveyone there but I think I know Brett and he is doing fine.

[iceman]

Hi Serge!

:welcome: to the forums! :hi:
How did you hear about us?

I've seen those Andrews ED eyepieces as well, and wondered about them myself. They don't claim to be widefield or anything, so maybe they're trying to be planetary/lunar eyepieces. I'll see if I can get a couple to do a review of them.

I'll try and find out the specs.

Hope to see you back at the forum regularly!

[Starkler]

Better in what respect?



A good quality standard plossl can offer sharp contrasty quality views at a good price. If you want quality wide field views or extra eye relief built into your eyepiece, it gets expensive to do this well, especially at fast focal ratios like f5. Cheap copies are always a comprimise and IMO if you cant afford to buy Televue or Pentax, you are better off to stick with a good quality standard plossl.

[Starkler]

Do a search for "Orion epic ED ". I strongly suspect these are the same eyepieces. Their claim is 55 degree FOV and long eye relief.

[MintSauce]

hows the review of the other eye piece lee sent you going mike?

[iceman]

Going to a dark site tonight, so will be able to give it a run then.

Unfortunately I was sent the Andrews UW 30mm, instead of the Andrews UW 11mm. Mark Hodson has already done a review of the UW30mm, so i'll just be adding my thoughts of its use in an F5 scope. But he also sent me a 2" GSO barlow, so i'll take some time to test it out with that.

[ving]

sweet!

from whgat i understant the ed eps are like ortho in that they have a narrow fov and offer extra contrast.

[mch62]

I looked at those EP a while back and gave Lee a call but he was unable to tell me , any thing about them except the price and that they were ED.
I wanted to know the manufacturer so I could check out reviews on them find the FOV eye relief ect ect.
As such , I never bought one.
I have bought quite a few things from Lee at times but think he needs to do some research and supply the specs on products he sells.

Astronomers are naturally very curious and want to know all the ins and outs of the products they buy.

Lee if you are reading this nothing personal , just some specs would be great on what your selling.
This won't stop me buying from Lee as his prices are hard to beat.
So if any one has one of these let us know the results or do a review.

Mark

[ving]

or send one to mike or someone for testing :)
you know, just so we know what they are...

[RAJAH235]

Hi Guys,
serge, A few of our W.A.A.C.ers use the Andrews E/Ps, and they perform well. One member has about 7 or 8 and uses them for both his 10" f5 dob and 4" home built refractor.(f8 I think). I have only borrowed 1 or 2, so cannot really comment.
ps. Did I call them cheap? Didn't mean to.
:thumbsup:

[serge]

Hi Guys,

Thanks for the replies.

Geoff, I am looking for better corrected view than what I get from my plossls as stars do not look like points (and it is on just collimated telescope). I compared my 25 mm plossl to 32 mm TeleVue plossl I borrowed and the views are very different:( . In short focus eyepieces I look more for clarity and contrast. Also you mentioned that Orion's ED EPs produce a lot of ghosting. How bad? I happened to look at Saturn through 10 mm Vixen LV EP and that looked very bad - just full of ghosting when the object is not in the centre of view:confused: .

Does anyone know what brand of orthoscopic eyepieces Andrews is offering?

Mike, I found this forum while looking for a review for SuperView EPs through google.

Best Regards,
Serge.

[mch62]

Hi serge it sounds like your after a good planetary EP.

If that is the case than a good Orthoscopic is the way to go.

There simple design means less ghosting clearer and sharper views and a quick search will find lots to be said about Orthos and simpler designs like Monocentrics(3 elements) on the planets.
The only thing is that at f5 in a Newtonian the mirror aberrations are going to come into the equation. A barlow will help with that by slowing down the light cone .

Orthos only have a 40-45deg FOV due to the design but for planets that is not important and Eye relief is about .75 x the EP ratio. These are not for DS if you want wide field.


University Optics have good Orthos with out having to trade in your car house ect for one.

Another eyepiece that is good for planets if you want a little more versatility in an EP (wider field and longer eye relief for DS views ) ,are the TV Radians , but there going to cost a lot more. They work well in faster scopes due to the 2 extra elements in the EP (which act like a barlow).

I regularly use 25 -12.5mm UO Orthos with a 4X Powermate for the planets and find that combo hard to beat .Comfortable to use with good eye relief and well corrected in an f6 . Any good quality Barlow will work though.

I have tried the Radians and would love to have a set of them though.

Good quality Plossls (like TV)are also a choice for a more versatile EP.

[iceman]

I was sent the Andrews ED 14mm and the GSO SV 30mm by Lee from Andrews for the purposes of a review, they arrived today.

The full moon and all the clouds are probably going to ruin most opportunities for a constructive first light for the next few days at least, but i'll see how I go.

[Starkler]

The moon is useful for testing the ghosting performance of an eyepiece Mike.

[iceman]

Good point Geoff, will hopefully have an opportunity to give it more of a run tonight.

Gave it about an 20-30 minute test drive last night on Saturn and the moon. Compared it to my 15mm GSO plossl, barlowed it and compared it with my barlowed 15mm GSO Plossl as well as my 9mm plossl unbarlowed.

Hopefully will have a few more clear nights to test it out on different objects and when the seeing is better. Last night the seeing was shocking, just couldn't bring Saturn to focus at any more than 100x.

[ving]

/me holds breath

[ving]

I emailed andrews and asked what orthos they had... they dont stock any anymore. he sugested a planetary filter :confused:

[iceman]

Why? :shrug:

[ving]

well, i stated that i wanted one for plantary viewing and he didnt even mention the ED EP. just said go for the filter:confused:

[serge]

Thanks for the replies! It is really appreciated.

Mike, did you have a chance to have a second look through the ED eyepiece? Did you see any ghosting Geoff was mentioning?

Best Regards,
Serge

[ving]

yeah mike, did you? :)

[iceman]

umm :whistle: tonight is looking cloudy, but tomorrow night hopefully.