Eyepiece Options

[Benny L (Ben)]

Hi I am curious as to what are the BEST options out there for eyepieces, money is no object as the Italian side of me forces me to buy the best and most expensive

Basically I am looking at 2 inch eyepieces only, not interested in 1.25, in the focal length range of 12-60mm with decent eye relief.

Optical Quality is my first and foremost concern and if it means looking at some of the more expensive eyepieces then so be it, i consider it to be at least a 20 year investment if they are well looked after in the first place..

Fire away and cheers in advance

[wavelandscott (Scott)]

Just for the record what scope(s) do you have?

What do you intend to look at?

Do you wear glasses when you view?

First cab off the rank without enough knowledge on my part to make a real recommendation would be to get a Televue 13 mm Ethos...While I have not tried one myself, I respect the opinion of some who have and they say it is a cracker...and at over $800 it should be...

From there it would depend greatly on the scope and what you want to see...but a base rule of thumb with no budget constraint you can't go far wrong with the Televue range (Nagler and Ethos) or the Pentax range (XW and some say the XL)...

Hope that gets you started...

Based on your 2 inch stated preference you will need a barlow...the 2 x 2 inch Powermate is probably the go there...and depending on the scope, a Parracor might be in order too...

Okay so far I've spent over $1,500 of your money...

Good Luck!

[Benny L (Ben)]

I have a meade 14" f10 LX200R and a Takahashi TSA-102 to play with, as far as glasses are concerned i have perfect vision but my dad is has an astigmatism (I thinks thats what its called) so it might be handy for that extra bit of eye relief, if he starts choosing to wear glasses.

cheers for the reply wavelandscott

[Benny L (Ben)]

Just had a quick look at Televue/Bintel Prices and eyepieces and here is a spread of what i think would be a very versatile collection of eye gear..

Televue Ethos 13mm 2"
Televue Nagler 22mm 2" IV
Televue Nagler 31mm 2" V
Televue Plossl 55mm 2"

which will give me magnification of 15x - 63x on the Tak and 65x - 273.5x on the 14"

I'd be more than happy with that. but keep the opinions/ideas flowing people

Being a pro photographer with astrophotography technically being "Photography" i think i have just found a nice little tax deduction.. very noice indeed.

[casstony]

I wonder if you're not getting many responses because people are stunned by your equipment list

Your eyepiece choices look fine to me, but depending on the size of the tax problem you could also purchase Pentax XW 30mm & 40mm and sell what you don't like.

[janoskiss (Steve H)]

Buy all the XWs 10 to 40mm, with 2" skirts for the 14 and 20mm (since you want all 2"), and all the long eye relief Naglers, i.e. 31mm T5, and the three T4s. Then keep the ones you like, sell what you don't use. Ethos might not meet your "decent" eye relief requirement.

[Benny L (Ben)]

well it looks like i'm on the right track then no-one has spanked me and said "No! Bad Televue! Bad!" so it looks like i will go with the range i posted in one of my previous posts, we'll see what happens i guess

[Stephen65]

Televue Ethos 13mm 2"
Televue Nagler 22mm 2" IV
Televue Nagler 31mm 2" V
Televue Plossl 55mm 2"

Though I do prefer Pentaxes and Vixens to Naglers those are all excellent choices save for the 55mm Plossl - I wouldn't bother with an EP with such low magnification and narrow FOV, if you want something wider than the 31mm Nagler I would get the 40mm Pentax.

[wavelandscott (Scott)]

Originally Posted by Stephen65

FOV, if you want something wider than the 31mm Nagler I would get the 40mm Pentax.

I agree...not sure I see the value in the 55 mm plossl with the rest of the identified choices...

[CoombellKid]

I prefer XW's 3.5mm through to 14mm for the shorter focal length I prefer
the on axis performance with slightly more contrast of the XW over the
nagler t6's. Not having been able to check out the 30 & 40mm XW's I like
the Nagler t5's for the longer focal lengths.

regards,CS

[ausastronomer (John Bambury)]

I would be looking to base the set starting with the 40mm Pentax XW as the longest focal length. It gives the same TFOV as the 55mm plossl but at higher magnification with better contrast.

If money was no object and I owned that scope, I would go something like this:-

40mm Pentax XW = 89X, 48' TFOV
26mm Nagler T5 = 137X, 36' TFOV
20mm Nagler T5 = 178X, 28' TFOV
17mm Nagler T4 = 210X, 24' TFOV
13mm Ethos = 273X, 22' TFOV
10mm Pentax XW = 356X, 12' TFOV

You better start taking a lot of award winning photographs to pay for that little lot

Note that the 20mm Nagler and 13mm Ethos do not have sufficient eye relief to use with glasses on. However, in that scope the exit pupil with the 20mm T5 will be only 2mm (less with the ETHOS) and with such a small exit pupil your fathers' astigmatism will not manifest and he will not need to wear his glasses.

Cheers,
John B