Thanks Arthur, I'm dying to try out a binoviewer!!
Hey Allan, I knew you'd be an Ethos spokesman!!
The 100deg field looks great, but I never see the edges, so it seems to me you are paying $200+ extra for the extra 18deg over the Naglers and not seeing some of it. I like the Naglers, and I have also considered getting a 12-13mm Nagler (in my price range), but the eye relief is better on the Delos, and I'd much rather be comfortable than be giving myself wicked eyestrain after only a short session. As I said in the original post, given unlimited budget I'd consider getting the Ethos, but they are a luxury I can't justify. Even building a useful set of Naglers is going to take me a while, I'll probably be considering other brands of 82deg to save some dollars along the way... I keep coming back to the same line of thinking I do with camera lenses... Canon L glass is awesome, but not worth the expense at my level of photography.
I do plan on getting a 17mm Nagler when I can afford it.
I've put off getting the eye piece until next weekend... with the week ahead I knew I wasn't going to get any time to use it this week anyway.
The Nagler I have is a beauty. Very comfortable and nice wide FOV. I don't think you can go wrong with a mix of Naglers and Delos. The Naglers seem to come up more regularly in the classifieds, so you could pick them up that way if so inclined.
best wishes with your purchase Rob never looked through a Delos they sound great though , I bumped a 13mm t6 for a 14 mm xw because I felt the 14 gave a better view, aside the FC issues you might come across in regard to this eyepiece in a fast scope (12" f5 for me ) I still found it optically a great eyepiece .
But have now replaced it with an ethos 13, your right the field stop is hard to see, and that imo is where if your going to warm to 100* fields is what you have to let go , in that don't look for it .
[QUOTE=GrahamL;1009674] 14 mm xw because I felt the 14 gave a better view, aside the FC issues you might come across in regard to this eyepiece in a fast scope (12" f5 for me ) I still found it optically a great eyepiece .
QUOTE]
Just an FYI, the field curvature observed in the XW14 is directly related to the focal length of a Newtonian, not the focal ratio.
While the outer field is obviously defocused in a 10" f/5 dob (1250mm focal length), it should be much less obvious in a 16" f/4.5 dob (1800mm focal length).
The shorter focal length mirror produces more curvature (of the same sign) to interact with the curvature built into the eyepiece.
Never knew that Tony thanks my experience with the 14 xw was I'd bought a new 13 t6 read the info on the 14's Fc then looked through one side by side, nothing wrong with the 13 but when the chance came up I didn't miss it .
that is interesting flash............ but it does not ACTUALLY say that is what they use, just that is what is necessary for the best optics!
pat
True....I guess it's how you read ' into ' the article....are they saying they ' do ' or are they just informing us about the ' benefits ' of exotic glasses....but in fact don't use them in their eyepieces....
Is it a kind of deception hoping that a person ' will buy ' because they mention exotic materials.......who knows.
Has anyone ever heard of someone buying an eyepiece because it contains a particular glass type .............. or do people buy an eyepiece based on it's performance/cost?
Delos are pretty good, but I've settled on Nagler as my weapon of choice for hunting the faint fuzzies!
While my credit card is going to be in shock for a while, I decided I wasn't going to wait and bought both the 12mm and 17mm Naglers. I'll probably be living like a student for a while, but I think it is worth the sacrifice.
While it could be argued that I could have just bought 1 Ethos for the same money, I think I would have missed the flexibility - going from 12mm to 28mm is a bit too much of a jump, the 17mm fits in nicely, eventually (next year) I'll get the 22 Nagler to complete that set.
Thank you again for all your advice and assistance!!
Before I bought this one, I don't think so... I have looked through some Naglers with a longer focal length before, just not the 12 I don't think...
Had a play with this one in my refractor last night, very nice!!
Ok. Glad you like it. I tried one in my scope and found it unusable with its horrendous black out problems. After about 30 seconds I gave it back to Alex who also found it unusable in his scope and sold it about 2 weeks later. Never did get to try it in a refractor though.