cometcatcher
07-03-2006, 05:24 PM
It's here! Finally.
Some of you have asked me to jot down my impressions of the Nagler when it arrives. Well it's here, along with the mandatory 3 months of bad weather after getting astronomy toys. Sorry North QLD guys for ruining your night sky.
As I write this it's truley impossible to wipe the smile off my face. No sky for a while so pointed a couple of my fast scopes at trees about 100 metres down the back.
The first thing you notice with 82 degrees apparent FOV is that it's like you've stuck your head in the scope and become immersed in the scene. With this eyepiece the experience is even more pleasurable due to the edge to edge sharpness, even in a fast scope like my 6 inch f5 Newtonian.
When I first heard it was 13mm I thought this EP was not going to be that good for true wide field use. Wrong! The apparent 82 degrees FOV fits in about as much as sky, or trees in this case, as my old 45 deg FOV 25mm Kellner.
On to the pics taken afocal through a 6" f5 Newt. Sorry the trees are sideways, but ya get that. Pics were taken with my Nikon Coolpix with the lens set to wide.
First tree pic is with the Nagler. There's no vignetting, in fact I can't fit the entire view in the camera lens. There's probably half as much again to see. It's nice and sharp along the entire branch. For those that want nice afocal pics without vignetting this EP makes it easy.
Second pic is with my Celestron Orthoscopic 18mm apparent FOV 50 degrees. This EP is 20 years old but still in good condition. Was worth about $100 back then. Notice the drain pipe view and blurred edges when focused at the centre.
Third tree pic is with my 0.96 inch 25mm Unitron Kellner. It has bad shadow in the centre due to central obstruction. This eyepiece performs better at longer focal lengths but is pretty bad in an f5 scope. Where's the bin...
Fourth tree pic is with a Celestron? 10mm LV eyepiece. Blurred everything except the centre and bad chromatic aberration. I never thought much of this $200 eyepiece. Bin time again.
I have a couple of others but my eyepiece collection isn't that big and admittedly was pretty ordinary to start with. The Nagler blows them all away.
Thanks to Mike at Bintel and Mike at IIS for this lovely eyepiece.
Can't wait to see the night sky with it!
Some of you have asked me to jot down my impressions of the Nagler when it arrives. Well it's here, along with the mandatory 3 months of bad weather after getting astronomy toys. Sorry North QLD guys for ruining your night sky.
As I write this it's truley impossible to wipe the smile off my face. No sky for a while so pointed a couple of my fast scopes at trees about 100 metres down the back.
The first thing you notice with 82 degrees apparent FOV is that it's like you've stuck your head in the scope and become immersed in the scene. With this eyepiece the experience is even more pleasurable due to the edge to edge sharpness, even in a fast scope like my 6 inch f5 Newtonian.
When I first heard it was 13mm I thought this EP was not going to be that good for true wide field use. Wrong! The apparent 82 degrees FOV fits in about as much as sky, or trees in this case, as my old 45 deg FOV 25mm Kellner.
On to the pics taken afocal through a 6" f5 Newt. Sorry the trees are sideways, but ya get that. Pics were taken with my Nikon Coolpix with the lens set to wide.
First tree pic is with the Nagler. There's no vignetting, in fact I can't fit the entire view in the camera lens. There's probably half as much again to see. It's nice and sharp along the entire branch. For those that want nice afocal pics without vignetting this EP makes it easy.
Second pic is with my Celestron Orthoscopic 18mm apparent FOV 50 degrees. This EP is 20 years old but still in good condition. Was worth about $100 back then. Notice the drain pipe view and blurred edges when focused at the centre.
Third tree pic is with my 0.96 inch 25mm Unitron Kellner. It has bad shadow in the centre due to central obstruction. This eyepiece performs better at longer focal lengths but is pretty bad in an f5 scope. Where's the bin...
Fourth tree pic is with a Celestron? 10mm LV eyepiece. Blurred everything except the centre and bad chromatic aberration. I never thought much of this $200 eyepiece. Bin time again.
I have a couple of others but my eyepiece collection isn't that big and admittedly was pretty ordinary to start with. The Nagler blows them all away.
Thanks to Mike at Bintel and Mike at IIS for this lovely eyepiece.
Can't wait to see the night sky with it!