i am looking for advice on a low power,widefield eyepiece,i only want to buy one so it's critical i buy right first time,my scopes are WO66SD,SV80HD and a SW100HD if i could get some clarity on the eyepiece to suit the scopes i have it would be most appreciated.
I gather these are f/6 scopes and slower. Too hard to answer without more constraints: #1 being budget but also weight & size (incl. 1.25" or 2"), what you mean by wide field: wide AFOV (how wide? 60deg, 80deg, 100deg?) or just TFOV?
There are lots of good options from 30mm Superview through 35mm 1.25" Ultrascopic, 35mm 2" Panoptic to 31mm Nagler and many more but it comes down to budget and personal preferences.
budget not important as it will be a once buy and keep,will be as good at f5.9 as f9 pinpoint stars across the fov good contrast and 70 to 80 degree fov and i will be happy
ES30 82 or Nagler 31 T5 82. About as good as it gets. Nagler costs more, but if cost not a consideration that would be my recommendation as an "all time" keeper. I have both. The edge definitely goes to the 31T5.
Be patient because they do come up but not very often. Buying a well-looked-after second hand one makes good sense because then you lose practically no money. These EPs hold their resale value.
Mine , 31mm Axiom LX ( 1kg ) and 60mm LP triplet .
Awsome views but the eyepiece weighs as much as the telescope .
The views are awsome as well .
But to be fair as already said here the TV Panoptics are hard to beat , the 2nd photo shows my lovely 27mm Panoptic ( this is the way to go ) in the 2 inch diagonal on the 60m triplet and as Morton said these scopes have trouble with 1kg monsters ... they will get away on you .
Brian.
Last edited by brian nordstrom; 12-04-2016 at 10:56 PM.
Reason: oops info
ES 34 68º is excellent in my f6.5 80mm Achro, pinpoint to the edge.
At f9 ES 40 68º is also pinpoint as is the ES 30 82º.
It all starts to fall apart a bit in my f5 4" Achro with ES lot though.
I have never really seen the point in spending big apart from the Nag 31 at the long FL end....more important at the short end. I have the ES 30 82 instead, I'm not that fussy.
Brian how is the Pan 27 in your scope? I have the Pan 27 in a Sharpstar 60mm ED f5.5....OK for 70%of the field then FC rears its little head. Great colour and snap to focus though, miles ahead of the ES 28 68 in that area.
I have the 2inch Williams diagonal on the zs66 Morton so should be ok in the porta mount,I have noticed a lot of raps for the Es eyepieces but I have one concern,I had the 11mm 82 degrees but found it to suffer from a little false colour that put me off as it is probably my biggest pet hate ,is that corrected in the longer fl's ? I suppose the big question to work out is the 31 type 5 really the holy grail in widefield oculars,would the 27 pan be an option or would one of the Es line be suitable, I appreciate any advice
The ZS66 will have more field curvature than the other scopes. Not sure how visible it would be in the 31 Nag. I only use my SV66 in 1.25" mode and was pretty happy with the performance of a 24mm Panoptic but I wasn't looking at the edges critically.
I certainly think a 27mm or 35mm Panoptic is worthy of consideration. I haven't used the longer ES eyepieces so can't comment n them.
I'm quite happy with my WO UWAN 28mm. You can't get them new any more but they come up second hand at times. All the reviews compare them very favourably to the Nagler. I've had only the briefest chance to compare mine to a 31mm Nagler but I thought the WO had less field curvature - then the clouds rolled in and the opportunity was lost.
BTW bought mine 2nd hand here. I was waiting for a 31mm to come up but none had appeared in >6 months when the WO was advertised. Considering how much I saved I reckon I did well.
I have put 2 ads in the wanted section for the 31 nagler and the 27 panoptic,if I don't get any offers in a week or so I will buy the panoptic new for the weight side of things and how highly they are rated for small refractors,so I would like to thank everyone who has contributed on this post and giving me the clarity I really needed,as this will be my last serious purchase I just had to get it right
I don't remember seeing false colour at the edge of the 30 and 18mm ES 82's. The 34 and 40mm 68's don't have this problem...actually none of the 68's do. The 1.25" ES 82's do but it is at the extreme edge.
ES has a sale going on in the US. The 30mm and 24mm (82 degree) and the 28, 34,40mm 68 degree eyepieces are all very good. Of those the 30mm and 40mm are heavy, over 1kg from memory.
If you have any astigmatism at all and want to use spectacles the 68 degree eyepieces have more useable eye relief and I prefer them for this reason.
I find stars are little crosses at low power even with only 0.25 astigmatism.
I have made my choice and bought the ep this evening,i have gone for the ES 30mm 82 deg,can't see a used 31 nagler coming on sale and at a little over 400 aud posted in the sale think it was the right way to go , there has been too many people recommending these ep's not to take notice,bought it from agena as Explore Scientific has sold out
Mine , 31mm Axiom LX ( 1kg ) and 60mm LP triplet .
.
they will get away on you .
