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Dave: Many thanks for your input.
It was interesting to hear your views on the XW14, especially against the LVW. The reverse is true with me, I find the XW easier to look into than the LVW (tho I love it all the same). I also find - and last night is a good example of this - the LVW eye cup cuts into my eye socket. I fold down the eye cup as having them on is actually worse. Six hours looking into this eye piece last night and my eye socket bone still hurts as I've obviously bruised the bone (there was also a big dark mark on it after I'd finished observing). My eye socket is bony . Then, I put my cheap Orion Expanse 15mm with nice eye cups, and whoa the relief. The views annoyed me too much, so ended swapping back to the LVW and suffering more pain. For this reason, I would not have preferred the Vixen (if possible, but not closed off from it either, because at the end of the day, it is an excellent performer).
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Hi Suzy,
I was just reading this entire post. Nice post BTW! Anyhoo, I was out last night testing out my 10mm XW and 13mm Vixen LVW to see just how close they are in magnification. I *WAS* going to sell one, but decided to keep both! I also have the 22mm Vixen LVW and stars are super sharp pretty much right out to the edges in my 10" F/4.7 reflector like you have.
As far as the LVW's go, what I did was remove the eye cups altogether, (not shown in my attachment, but I have them cup-less now), and I keep them that way and have them tucked away safely where I can find them. I find with the eye cups right off of the LVW's it is super cozy and I don't even touch the housing of the EP when observing. I also keep them off so that they won't eventually break over time by folding them down and then back up again after observing. I found two dust caps that fit perfectly on both the 22mm and 13mm LVW's as well.
Give that a try and see if that helps!
PS: I love both the XW's in the 10mm, 7mm, 5mm ranges and love the 22mm and 13mm LVW's too, and more than likely I will end up with a 5mm XW as well!!!
Cheers,
Mark