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OK, now I am envious!!!!
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Well to be honest, I feel very privileged.
I was the 5th person in the world to look through it, at a proper astronomical sky target. Many looked through it at NEAF, but this was only on printed test targets which were set up 30 feet away on the wall. Sad thing is, I can't even claim to be the first Aussie to look through it, Andrew Murrell went before me. The 3 people in line before Andrew were Al Nagler, Larry Mitchell who owned the 36"/F5 telescope and Alan Dyer, the author from Sky and Telescope.
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They look to be quite lengthy.
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Yes it is, it is about 170mm or 180mm tall at a guess. It isn't as heavy as I expected for its size, it weighs about 70% to 80% of the weight of my 17mm Nagler T4.
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Was the edge performance consistently good with all test scopes?
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Yes, the edge performance was outstanding, even in Barbara Wilson's 20"F4 dob without a paracorr. I also compared it in Van Robinsons Televue 85, to an 11mm Televue Plossl. The TV 85 is F7.0 and the Ethos was sharper, with less distortion, at the edge of its 100 deg AFOV than the plossl was at the edge of its 50 degree AFOV.
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Is there any distortion??
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Minimal, its one of the most distortion free Televue eyepieces I have used.
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How does the eye relief compare to a type 4 Nagler?
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Not as good. I use both the 12mm and 17mm Nagler T4's with glasses on. I couldn't use this with glasses on and get close to taking in the full field. The eye relief is perfect for non eyeglass wearers and inadequate for use with glasses on.
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Did you find the "spacewalk" feel at all disorienting? Some folk complain when the FOV is very large that it can be TOO large.
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That effect is caused by the high degree of pincushion distortion in some Televue eyepieces, not the FOV. Some Panoptics are well known to cause this effect. This eyepiece has minimal distortion hence this isn't a problem. You do need to use it for a period before you are capable of taking in the full field of view.
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Did Al Nagler indicate what the likely range will be, and how long it is likely to take to bring out the full set
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They haven't planned any other focal lengths yet because he wants to leave this in the market for a while and gauge all the user feedback, before designing other focal lengths. This is 6 months off the shelves and the only one that will be initially going to market. Other focal lengths will follow but they may be some time off. Despite claims by many on the internet, they have no clue as to pricing. My guess is, selling your wife and kids will require you to also pitch in the dog and the neighbours to cover the cost and that's casting no aspersions on your wife and kids
Keep in mind that I wasn't able to do a direct comparison against other eyepieces under night skies, so I don't know how it is for contrast and light throughput. Also keep in mind I was observing unfamiliar targets. What I saw impressed me no end. Under daylight conditions contrast appeared very good and the images were certainly bright and clear so I can only assume it performs well in these aspects.
CS-John B