Pentax XW's

[skysailor (Peter)]

My nephew just arrived in Melbourne for a few days (he lives in pittsburgh) and he brought my christmas present (better late than never) - five lovely Pentax XW eyepieces... so now I can expect lots of cloudy nights I suppose !!!!!!!
cheers

[Kunama]

Nice pressie Peter! I got the 5,7 & 10 XWs and have teamed them with the Denk D14 and LVW22 for a travel kit. Look forward to your opinion of them.

[Camelopardalis (Dunk)]

Peter, good glass lasts a lifetime I'm a big fan of mine

[ausastronomer (John Bambury)]

Hi Peter,

You will love these eyepieces.

Apart from the 3.5mm XW which I got 2 years ago, I have had all the 1.25" XW's since late 2003. I won't ever part with any of them. I haven't used anything in the 12 years since I got them, that I like better, apart from the 12.5mm Docter, which I can't justify buying. In a fast Newtonian the 14mm and 20mm XW's do benefit from a paracorr.

Cheers,
John B

[skysailor (Peter)]

Thanks for all your comments - yep they are pretty nice ... glad to get my hands on them at long last... now I just have to buy my 11 acre block up near Mansfield and build an observatory and I'll be a very happy man... "it's only money after all...heh heh"
cheers

[skysailor (Peter)]

I can see why they are called the "hand grenades"...
cheers
https://flic.kr/p/DskdmA

[skies2clear]

Very nice Peter! Don't think you will be disappointed. Premium glass!

[Fox]

Congrats Peter,
May I ask which focal lengths did you get, and what scope do you have ? I have the 7mm XW, no question it is one of the finest pieces of glass you can buy, and so comfortable to use.
Fox

PS: I heard that they have/will stop making these... is this true?

[skysailor (Peter)]

Originally Posted by Fox

Congrats Peter,
May I ask which focal lengths did you get, and what scope do you have ? I have the 7mm XW, no question it is one of the finest pieces of glass you can buy, and so comfortable to use.
Fox

PS: I heard that they have/will stop making these... is this true?

3.5 - 5 - 7 - 14 - 20 and I have a SkyRover 130mm
and I have also heard that they aren't going to make them for much longer ... ???
cheers

[bigjoe (JOSEPH)]

Originally Posted by skysailor

My nephew just arrived in Melbourne for a few days (he lives in pittsburgh) and he brought my christmas present (better late than never) - five lovely Pentax XW eyepieces... so now I can expect lots of cloudy nights I suppose !!!!!!!
cheers

Peter consider yourself very lucky to have these, who knows if they will produce something like these again!

http://www.cloudynights.com/topic/36...s-of-all-time/

Some above have these as the best ever EP'S esp 10mm

PS: Some surprises as to peoples favourites.

bigjoe

[AG Hybrid (Adrian)]

Going to order the XW5 and XW20 next month. They are rather expensive to order from the US but still acceptably priced when ordering them for Japan. I would order a couple more Delos eyepieces but I would save over $300 getting 2 Pentax eyepieces instead.

Although those DeLites are looking pretty tempting too. Slightly shrunk down Delos apparently.

[Allan]

Originally Posted by AG Hybrid

Although those DeLites are looking pretty tempting too. Slightly shrunk down Delos apparently.

I got to do several hours of observing last week with Al Nagler and all the Delites including the 3 yet to be released focal lengths.

They were optically superb and slightly sharper than the Ethos we were comparing them against. Having said that, I wouldn't replace Ethos and Delos with Delites for deep sky observing because the FOV was not what I appreciate. But as a specialised eyepiece that could replace orthos, plossls and similar simple eyepiece types, the Delites might be the new way to go.