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Old 15-04-2006, 02:12 PM
ausastronomer (John Bambury)
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Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: Shoalhaven Heads, NSW
Posts: 2,620
Simon,

If you are looking for a 1.25" barrelled 20mm to 25mm focal length eyepieces the two best options IMO are the 21mm Denkmeier WA eyepiece available from Daniel at Frontier Optics or direct from Denkmeier in the USA, or the 22mm Vixen LVW available from Steve Massey at My Astro Shop. Both of these will cost you about $330 to $340, they are premium quality eyepieces in every respect. They both have 20mm of eye-relief and a 65 deg AFOV, with excellent sharpness to the EOF in fast scopes. I had never seen or heard of the 21mm Denkmeier until recently when I used one at Coonabarabran. It impressed me greatly, to the extent I have ordered the 21mm Denkmeier for myself after using it at Coonabarabran. Note that I already own a 20mm Pentax XW. The 22mm Vixen LVW is the same quality optically as the 21mm Denkmeier but is twice the size and weight. The 24mm Panoptic is very nice but a little short on eye-relief IMO. It is over $100 more expensive than the 21mm Denk or 22m Vixen and no better optically, if it's even as good. The Meade SWA series don't row my boat. They are not at their best in F5 scopes and there are many better options for similar money if you own an F5 scope.

CS-John B
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