Long eyerelief planetary eps: radians, epics, lvs

[castor]

Well Mars is back - the closest it will be for more than a decade and certainly not until I am old, wrinkly and bitter... I wonder whether any myopic people out there have had some experience with long eye-relief planetary (high power) eyepieces. My only really high power eyepiece at the moment is a 6mm Radian..... and a 8mm Vixen Lanthanum wide (FOV65).

Options:
- Epic ED-2 - 20mm eyerelief, 55 degree field of view. I know they come in 2mm, 4mm and 5mm (approximately). Are they actually any good and I hear they are going for $79 at star optics or some other retailer now. Also I hear Synta make regular Lanthanum clones they are going for very low prices.

- Vixen Lanthanums - anyone here tried the 3.5 or 5mm LVW or the ordinary (non-wide) version?

- anyone tried the Burgess TMB planetary series?

- Pentax XW - forget it.

- Orion Stratus - anyone tried one of these?

- and how well do Radians barlow? Or the LVW? It becomes a real mouthful!

[mick pinner]

l have a 5mm Lanthanum standard version and it is fantastic for planetary viewing, since l got the collimation right in my lx200 the viewing with high power ep's has improved dramatically, l used the 5mm to view Uranus the other night at 610X and it was great, these are a much ignored ep but well worth a look.

[Starkler (Geoff)]

Originally Posted by castor

- Pentax XW - forget it.

Pentax XL's are available on the 2nd hand market for around $190-210 US and exhibit very much the same characteristics bar a slight smaller fov of 65 degrees. If radians are on the menu, the pentax XL's could be also

My XL's barlow well with my Celestron ultima barlow.

[iceman (Mike)]

Epic ED-2

I've tried the 14mm version of this in my f/5 scope, and didn't like it at all. Asimov has done a review of a 9.5mm one in the reviews section and gave it a more favourable wrap, so it's possible that some focal lengths are better than others.

[asimov (John)]

Hi Castor.

I have a 9.5mm ED-2 that I like a lot. As Mike stated it is correct the longer FL EDs suffer from blackouts/kidney beaning. 9.5 mm and under are great budget planetary eyepieces.

Also I have the vixen 5mm LV that I just love to use on planets. Both have built in barlows, but only the LV can you take off as a unit to turn it into a 10mm.

[mickoking]

G,day Castor,

I am myopic and I simply take my glasses off when observing and its sweet. The problem is if you have astigmatism that is when you have to observe with ya specs on. Anyway I have a Vixen LV eyepiece and the eye relief is fantastic. you can see the whole field with your specs on.

[videoguy]

I agree with Mick - the LV series Lanthanum's are excellent eyepieces. I use the 6mm for most of my planetary observing and a 4mm if the seeing is really good.

I use a Pentax 3.5mm XW for planetary and double star work, actually I've
nicknamed it my Mars ep. It's a pitty your budget wont allow for such a good
quality ep. It exibits zero field curvature no chromatic errors and the
lengendary flat field of the 5mm, 7mm and 10mm XW's And the coatings
are superior to Naglers and Radians I've tried I wouldn't trade it for any
thing else. I can place Mars half in and half out ot the FOV and it looks as
clean, clear and crisp as if it was on axis.

So if you can treat yourself, go for a short focal length XW, you will not
regret it. But a word of warning they are addictive


regards,CS

Oooop's I should also add, the XW has 20mm ER and a ajustable eyeguard
(not the click model you see on other brands) that can be removed for ease
of cleaning the optical surface. removing this also uncovers a thread on the
EP where you can a attach a camera adaptor which is handy for luna and
solar imaging. They are also build to be weather proof. The eyeguard is
designed in such a way I have never had the ep fog up on me even when it
cold or dew has set in. Besdies that they are a real comfort to use, you'll
never find yourself getting eye strain from long observation periods. I have
the 3.5mm, 10mm, 14mm even the 10mm barlowed make and awesome
planetary setup.

regards,CS... Good luck! with what ever you decide

[castor]

well I wonder, espeically, if any of you have tried the short focal-length Epic ED-2's, 3.8mm and 5.2mm in particular.

Otherwise I might just use Radian and barlow it.

[asimov (John)]

I'll be getting both for review purposes. Not sure when.

[dhumpie]

I have both: a 5mm Celestron X-Cel ED2 (similar to the Orion Epic ED2's) and a 6mm TV Radian. Had a shootout on Mars with them the other night and here is the verdict. Seeing was pretty stable and I got good views of the north and south polar ice caps and some major surface markings. Both are very similar on axis and both gave very sharp views of the planet. Light throughput was similar. However it pains me to say this but the X-Cel gave a slightly more natural tone to the planet. Views were warmer in the Radian. Off axis the Radian was sharp to the edge and exhibited no flares (good if you are using an alt-az scope). By contrast the X-Cel was noticeably softer at the edges and when Mars was placed outside the FOV, there was a minor flare (nothing major just annoying).

And there you go

Darren

[ausastronomer (John Bambury)]

Originally Posted by dhumpie

However it pains me to say this but the X-Cel gave a slightly more natural tone to the planet. Views were warmer in the Radian.

Darren

Darren,

I find that most televue eyepieces (including the Plossls) provide slightly "warmer" lunar/planetary images than what I like personally. This is a very subjective thing of course and depends on the personal observing preferences of the individual. For this reason I prefer the Pentax XW's and the University Optics HD orthos, both of which give very cool/neutral planetary images to my eye.

CS-John B

[atalas]

Castor Tak LE'S are a very sharp eyepiece with long eyerelief ,they go for about $130.00us on Astromart .

Cheeers

Louie

[dhumpie]

Humm maybe I might try some Pentax's against the Radian's

Darren