[castor]

Well Mars is back - the closest it will be for more than a decade and certainly not until I am old, wrinkly and bitter... I wonder whether any myopic people out there have had some experience with long eye-relief planetary (high power) eyepieces. My only really high power eyepiece at the moment is a 6mm Radian..... and a 8mm Vixen Lanthanum wide (FOV65).

Options:
- Epic ED-2 - 20mm eyerelief, 55 degree field of view. I know they come in 2mm, 4mm and 5mm (approximately). Are they actually any good and I hear they are going for $79 at star optics or some other retailer now. Also I hear Synta make regular Lanthanum clones they are going for very low prices.

- Vixen Lanthanums - anyone here tried the 3.5 or 5mm LVW or the ordinary (non-wide) version?

- anyone tried the Burgess TMB planetary series?

- Pentax XW - forget it.

- Orion Stratus - anyone tried one of these?

- and how well do Radians barlow? Or the LVW? It becomes a real mouthful!