Quote:
Originally Posted by skies2clear
I'd like to know how the Ethos 13 compares with the 14XW in terms of contrast, resolution and light throughput. Obviously the Ethos blows the XW away for AFOV.
Clear skies
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The 13mm ETHOS is very very close to the 14mm XW in all of these criteria. On axis I find the XW has slightly better throughput and does fractionally better in resolving the fainter stars in open and globular clusters. The 13mm ETHOS IMO is better than the 13mm Nagler T6, in these areas and is the best of the Televue widefield eyepieces in these performance criteria. The other thing that is immediately noticeable with the 13mm ETHOS is that it offers a cool (whiter) image, similar to the 14mm Pentax XW. It is the first Televue eyepiece to do this in my experience and obviously uses different glass types or coating technology to other Televue eyepieces. Apart from the slightly short eye relief (for eyeglass wearers) it is a 100 deg view, very similar in quality and appearance to what is offered by a Pentax XW or a Takahashi LE.
The 13mm ETHOS is a cracker of an eyepiece that has only one minor shortcoming IMO. It could do with another 5mm of eye relief, to suit eyeglass wearers.
Cheers,
John B