|
Ok,
I've just been out with all of these EPs.
To my eyes the 24 Pan beats the 17 Nagler for the following reasons:
Noticably flatter field of view. The Nagler, while sharp over 90% of the FoV had noticable curvature toward the edge.
24 Pan exhibits a brighter image with more contrast
For me (I like to squish my eye close to the lens), the 17 suffers from blackout or "kidney-beaning" unless you are at just the right distance. The 24 is more forgiving. I also found this with the Pentax XW EPs, but others don't seem to mind.
If you don't want to go too wide the 19mm Panoptic is a real jewel. My most used eyepiece in my 8" Newt.
If I was picking just 3 I would have:
19 Panoptic
13 Nagler
7.5 Takahashi LE / ED
The latter is pretty dear (about $320), and has a narrow (c.50* FoV), but has fantastic throughput with no flaring and is just the bees knees on not just planets, but bright Nebulae and close clusters.
Just my humble opnions, but although the raw numbers are a good guide, they don't always reflect the "experience" of viewing.
Peter
|