Is this a good range of EP's

[leon]

Hi All

In the market for some real EP's, never owned any really.

Do you consider a 9mm, 16mm and 31mm Nagler a good range for me to have, i only want three, low power, medium and high.

Thanks Leon

[Starkler (Geoff)]

Leon what you havent mentioned is what scope you intend to use them in.

[danielsun]

If you have a good 2x barlow on the 31mm you can probably do away with the 16mm as the barlow wiil bring you to 15.5mm.
Might save you some dollars too!

[leon]

To be honest with you Geoff i didn't think that would matter to much, i just want some good EP's, better than the crapy things i have at the moment.

Mybe you could suggest three 1.25mm Ep's of good quality.

Thanks Leon, (i'll take anyones advice on this)

[dugnsuz (Doug)]

Leon,
You've quoted around $2000 worth of glass there!
I'm on a budget, but I know that sometimes the difference in a $50 budget EP to Premium $500+ EP doesn't always translate to 10x difference in quality so therefore I would go for..
30mm 80 degree Andrews UWA @ $149
13mm 70 degree Baader Hyperion/Orion Stratus @ ~$250
Decent 1.25 inch 2x barlow - Televue($180) or Orion deluxe($99)
There may be some soft edges in the 8 inch newt, but very little abberations in the ED80.
There you go Leon I 've saved you around $1500.
Remember me in your Will!!!!!
Cheers
Doug

[Starkler (Geoff)]

7mm TMB/Burgess planetary should work well at f7 for mag 200x
14mm pentax xw for a 2mm exit pupil or can be barlowed to replace above.
35mm panoptic for a nice wide view and 5mm exit pupil.

[ballaratdragons (Ken)]

Leon, I can't recommend many good EP's as I don't know much about them (stuck with bottom of the range myself) but I do know of a ripper!!!

Takahashi 7.5mm ED LE. Man, that is a stunner of an EP! Fantastic contrast and quality when doing EXTREME close-ups on faint Galaxies!!! and has long eye relief.

[ausastronomer (John Bambury)]

Leon,

FWIW I don't like the 30mm 1rpd. If your on a budget and own a slow F-Ratio scope its "fair" at best. If money isn't a serious concern you can do a lot better than it regardless of your scopes.

The Baader Hyperions/Orion Stratus that Doug has recommneded are very good value for money. I like them, a Pentax XW they are not !!!

Forget about all the Nagler hype.

This comes about because of the US market and Televue's advertising in the US. They are fine eyepieces BTW, doesn't mean they are the best in all focal lengths. In the longer focal lengths the Naglers and Panoptics are the eyepiece of choice, in the shorter focal lengths the Pentax XW's are a clearly superior product for less money IMO. Most televue eyepieces add a "coffee" tint to all images and are less suitable for daytime use than some others, like the Pentax which give very cool neutral colour reproduction (read whites are white as opposed to cream or coffee coloured) . This is not a major issue for night time astronomical viewing, but personally I prefer the cooler images on moon and planets. In the shorter focal lengths, 10mm and 7mm the Pentax XW's are better eyepieces than the short FL Nagler's. The only people who will argue that, are loyal Televue supporters or patriotic Americans. That having been said, the shorter focal length Naglers are great eyepieces, the differences are fairly small in most cases, the Pentax's are currently as good as it gets at any price.

Sticking with 3 eyepieces only (I think you need 4) :

31mm Nagler T5
10mm Pentax XW
7mm Pentax XW

That may sound like a big gap between the 31mm Nagler and the 10mm Pentax XW. IMO its a gap you don't need to visit all that often. I have a 20mm and 14mm Pentax XW and rarely use them. I go straight from my 27mm TV Panoptic to the 10mm Pentax XW. Ideally, I would also get a 14mm Pentax XW, which offers the coveted 2mm exit pupil (or very close to it) in both your scopes.

The Pentax XW's are currently on special at Star Optics. The price is $410 on the website but they are $399 until the 31st July. I just bought a 5mm which cost me $410 including overnight shipping.

http://www.staroptics.com.au/index.php?a=accessories

CS-John B

[wavelandscott (Scott)]

I'll jump in here as this 3-4 high quality eyepiece strategy is one I've tried to adopt...

I also added the proviso that I wanted to stay with 1.25 inch eyepieces (that is the size filters I have)...

As my widest field of view eyepiece I have a 24 mm Panoptic...I like it a lot and it proides the widest field avaialable in a 1.25 inch eyepiece...evey viewing session uses this eyepeice.

I have a 16mm T5 Nagler tack sharp across the FOV...however eye relief is a bit tight for some...this eyepiece was not part of the original plan but circumstances allowed me to pick this up at a price I could not resist...

11 mm T6 Nagler...nice eyepiece and was my first "quality" eyepiece purchase, nice size and quality....for my first scope this gave me the "magic" 2 mm exit pupil...

7 mm Pentax XW...to be my native "higher power" eyepiece...it is top shelf and the difference in it's neutral (I describe as colder) color compared to Naglers is obvious...at first I was not sure I liked the way it handled color compared to the Naglers...but as I've used it I find it does grow on you...at first I thought I might mind the difference between 82 degrees and 70 (Nagler vs. XW) but I don't really notice it viewing...70 is more than ample...I highly recommend this eyepiece if you need something in this focal length.

I unfortunately recently had the opportunity to try a 10 mm Pentax XW in my Discovery Dob...trying it was a mistake in that brief use it was exceptional...I've now ordered one that I want to set alongside the 11 mm T6and see what happens...I'll probably sell one of them after comparing them for a while...but maybe not .

I round out with a 2.5x Powermate and some assorted plossls of different makes and sizes that have been accumulated over time...

So to answer your question...and stay in 1.25 inch sizes I'd go based on my (limited) observations...

24 Pan...10 mm Pentax XW and 7 mm Pentax XW

I agree with austronomer's general comment that Pentax appears to me to have a slight edge vs TV in the shorter focal lengths...but nobody does long focal lengths like Al Nagler (in my opinion)...

Cheers!

[RB (Andrew)]

Leon my pick would be:

31 mm Naggler
10 mm Pentax
7.5 mm Tak L.E.

And just to throw in another nice 1.25"-
24 mm Panoptic.

[leon]

Hi All
Thank you all very much for your imput.
Now i'm totally confused, (no, not really), but i've had a look at the Pentax range and they sort of hit me right away, a bit cheaper than some and probably more expensive than some, fairly mid range i think.
not that i'm going to rush out and get some but i think i certainly will consider them.

Thanks again. Leon

[mickoking]

Originally Posted by leon

Hi All

In the market for some real EP's, never owned any really.

Do you consider a 9mm, 16mm and 31mm Nagler a good range for me to have, i only want three, low power, medium and high.

Thanks Leon

I would consider that a very fine range of eyepieces

[Harpspitfire]

ill just add this- if you dont need the eye relief and use the highX for planetary- its tuff to beat a quality abbe ortho for under $100 if you dont mind the narrow FOV- i got what looks like a plastic piece of junk for $49USD (ortho)- but after viewing with it, its one of the best planetary EP,s ive looked through