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Old 12-05-2021, 02:31 PM
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gregbradley
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Join Date: Feb 2006
Location: Sydney
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A good starting point is to find out how wide a field of view you like.

I have lots of high quality eyepieces. Incredible performance. But when I got a 100 degree eyepiece it instantly became my favourite. More the width of the field of view.

Televue Naglers are around 82-84 degrees.

Panoptics are around 62 degrees.

Orthos are typically only 40 degrees, so sharp but strawlike view.

There are cheaper alternatives than the name brands. Celestron, Orion, Saxon, GSO, William Optics etc.

I think that is a good place to start.

Personally I would prefer to only have 2 or 3 eyepieces but high quality rather than several lower quality.

Dual ED eyepieces are good value and fairly wide. They are sold on Ebay at about $89 each.

TMB Planetary 11 are hard to beat at around $50 on ebay. They are 52 degree or so views. Much more pleasant than an Ortho and a good one is very high performance.

Baader Hyperions are close to that price (a bit more). I have only had great experiences with Baader products.

I would rate eyepiece manufacturers (my opinion and I have tried everyone of course):

1. Televue are the recognised leaders and most of their products seem to be the standard others try to match. Sometimes they are matched and exceeded but you are unlikely to get a bum eyepiece with a TV label.

2. APM it seems they most use high end Chinese eyepieces but perform really well for the price. Most of my favourite eyepieces are APM.

3. Baader - Morpheus. Outside your stated budget but a well chosen Morpheus and a good barlow gives 2 eyepieces really that are top performers bar none.

4. Pentax - expensive, field of view is less at 62 degrees like a Panoptic or TV Delite but optically pretty perfect. 5, 7 and 10mm are the ones. The 30 and 40mm are also regarded highly. The 14 and 20 not so much.

5. Masuyama At F8 the Masuyama most likely will shine. Superior light throughput due to a lot fewer lenses in the eyepiece. 85 degree views.
The 10mm is amazing. (I only have the 10mm).

6. I have Fujiyama, University Optics etc Orthos. Hmmm, an acquired squinty taste! Reserved really for planets and lunar. Even so I would prefer to use Morpheus or Nagler.

7. Edmunds Optics RKEs. I have the 8, 12, 15 and 28mm. The 28 often hits peoples all time favourite eyepieces as it has that floating in space effect from the design where the eyepiece housing disappears in the view. About $165 from Edmuncs Optics Singapore (buy online). There is also a 21mm someone said was the best but haven't tried that. The 8, 12 and 15 are pretty good but again the narrowish field of view for me is not ideal. The 28mm doesn't suffer from that because its already quite a wide view.

8. Zooms often make top 10 favourites. Top of those is the Nagler.
The latest Baader 7-24 is another popular choice.

Greg.
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