Glen,
I have the 15mm, 22mm and 35mm Panoptics. They are all excellent and are still the sharpest eyepieces that I have used in short scopes. But John makes a good point that in a SCT you may not notice the difference, so you don't have to spend that much if you don't want to.
If you do not wear glasses, I can not recommend a better EP (in the focal length range you need) than the 15mm (or 19mm) Panoptic. The 15mm has slightly over ten millimeters eye relief which is heaps for me and would give you about 150 - 160X in your scope, with 1.5mm exit pupil, and it's cheaper than XW's. It's only $350 from bintel.
Panoptics are very consistant across the range. The Meade 5000 series are not. I owned four series 5000 plossls and there were differences. Same with the SWA and the UWA's have a couple of bad ones but the rest are good, so try before you buy.
If you are going to go any smaller, the 10mm XW is apparently the best but I have not tried it. I can't comment on the 14mm XW. I think the 15mm Panoptic might be a better choice based on price anyway. But if you need the eye relief then the Pentax's are the best choice untill you get up to a 20mm EP.
If you are going to go larger, the 22mm panoptic is awesome. I bought the 22mm because it had the dual 1.25" and 2" barrel. You can use it as either type, just as it is, without removing anything. Optically sensational.
The 35mm will be a bit big for what you want to do I think. But if you decide you want it, you will have to buy it new because I will never sell mine! (And probably no one else will sell theres either).
|