Wow, what a great report and story John - many thanks. Must thank DavTuc too, because you mentioned Meade in the first place.
The older UWA Meade's (series 4000) did seem to perform better from what others have said, and Marki will agree too. I got the 6.7mm 5000 UWA, lucky I only paid $50 for it (figured I wouldn't have too much to lose). On my scope it's a piece of junk- I've kept it only because it'll be an eye piece I will let kids use (along with the ones that came with the scope). Chromatic abberation a good 30% I would say, and so white and bright - Jupiter didn't give me much colour or detail at all. Threw the Pentax back on, and I had to pick my jaw off the floor with the difference.
Dave: Many thanks for your input.
It was interesting to hear your views on the XW14, especially against the LVW. The reverse is true with me, I find the XW easier to look into than the LVW (tho I love it all the same). I also find - and last night is a good example of this - the LVW eye cup cuts into my eye socket. I fold down the eye cup as having them on is actually worse. Six hours looking into this eye piece last night and my eye socket bone still hurts as I've obviously bruised the bone (there was also a big dark mark on it after I'd finished observing). My eye socket is bony . Then, I put my cheap Orion Expanse 15mm with nice eye cups, and whoa the relief. The views annoyed me too much, so ended swapping back to the LVW and sufferring more pain. For this reason, I would not have preferred the Vixen (if possible, but not closed off from it either, because at the end of the day, it is an excellent performer).
Astro744: Thank you for Your valued and appreciated input also. I agree with you what you said and I guess it depends on how much time one spends looking at the edge- I do a lot (searching for objects and manually star hopping), so to me, f/curv. is an important factor (I could probably put up with about 10%) It'd make my job that much harder looking through bloated stars thru 20% of the ep. So I guess I would pick it and call it severe.
The Radians are off my radar, as they only have 60 fov, and I'm after a minimum of 65. For me, having an object as long as possible in the ep is important so I can concentrate on observing instead of constantly nudging the dob. Thank you though for the suggestion. I do hear they are a great eye piece.
Erick: What do you think I'm made of money Parracorr can stay in the shop on the shelf, I'm flat out getting my eyepiece man. I'm having a friendly dig. Thank you for your money spending input though.
Regarding the Explore Scientific. After re-looking at those, I see the 900g weight is for the 2 inch 100deg. The 85 degree ones only weigh 255g. John, I wish you had some experience with these - would have loved to have had your input. As Adrian pointed out, they are on sale for half price (1 1/4 inch in 85 deg) at only $99, till the 31st of March! They look such a good & comfy eye piece. I must admit, I thought seriously about these. But not enough feedback on this to base my decision on buying them. I would have bought two at that price.
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Hi Suzy,
I haven't used this version. I have used the 14mm 100 deg version. It's a pretty fair eyepiece optically. Probably only 5% behind the 13mm ETHOS for a lot less money. Unfortunately its the size and weight of a Hippopotamus and has shorter eye relief. Not an eyepiece I will ever own. Dunno where the 82 deg version fits.
Quote:
Frontier Optics got back to me with a price on the Denks. $330 + $12 postage. Do-able, as this was the budget I'd set aside to originally get the XW from the U.S. I need to go back and check what the Denk. site was offering them at, as I now forget.
That's exactly where I would head and that's a pretty good price, if you can cover the cost, budget wise. It used to be a good bit cheaper. Maybe the world has realised how good an eyepiece this is and the manufacturer is "squeezing the lemon". Currently they are $US329 plus postage, individually, from anywhere in the US so Daniel has done you a good deal. I would be jumping on that tomorrow. It's an eyepiece you will never ever want to sell. I rate it on the same pedestal as my 10mm Pentax XW.
Currently they are $US329 plus postage, individually, from anywhere in the US so Daniel has done you a good deal. I would be jumping on that tomorrow. It's an eyepiece you will never ever want to sell. I rate it on the same pedestal as my 10mm Pentax XW.
Cheers,
John B
I agree, Daniel was always nice to deal with and that price looks good (if it fits in your budget)
Thanks everyone once again for all your help, I'm very grateful. I'm sure many others would have learned from this thread as well.
I have ordered and paid for the Denkenmeir eye piece yesterday and should get delivery within a week.
Daniel at Frontier Optics said that this isn't a sale price, but could only guarantee this price for two weeks (that was a week ago). He has placed an order for a batch of them, so if anyone is interested, now would be the time. I'm guessing he has placed an order for a batch of them because many on here have ordered some So who else ordered, I'm curious Are you one of them Liz (you ep addict you)
Thanks everyone once again for all your help, I'm very grateful. I'm sure many others would have learned from this thread as well.
I have ordered and paid for the Denkenmeir eye piece yesterday and should get delivery within a week.
Daniel at Frontier Optics said that this isn't a sale price, but could only guarantee this price for two weeks (that was a week ago). He has placed an order for a batch of them, so if anyone is interested, now would be the time. I'm guessing he has placed an order for a batch of them because many on here have ordered some So who else ordered, I'm curious Are you one of them Liz (you ep addict you)
I went against the grain and bought a 17mm Type 4 Nagler
But then I already have a 13mm Nagler so a 14mm Denk was too close for comfort
Daniel at Frontier Optics said that this isn't a sale price, but could only guarantee this price for two weeks (that was a week ago). He has placed an order for a batch of them, so if anyone is interested, now would be the time. I'm guessing he has placed an order for a batch of them because many on here have ordered some So who else ordered, I'm curious Are you one of them Liz (you ep addict you)
Heehee ... I am an EP addict, and freely admit it. Look forward to hearing what you think Suzy.
I know this review has been a long time coming- wow I just realised by the date of the last post how overdue it is!
So here it is...
I love it!!!!!
The stars aren't as pin point as my XW or LVW- could it be the astigmatism it's picking up from my eyes that my other eyepieces don't?- I don't know. But that's okay- because everything else about it I absolutely love!!!! Nice black background- amazing contrast! It seems to have a slightly darker background than my XW10mm. It has a very shallow cup and with the 20 degree eye relief, it means you can see the entire fov without having to get that close into the ep. Comfort wise, personally, I rate this even more comfy than the XW (in itself a very comfy ep). Seems to suffer the effects of dew a lot quicker than my XW's or LVW though- I wonder if this is because it has a very short eye cup .
You steered me (yet again!) very well John in pointing me towards this ep.
Oh, I nearly forget- the advertised fov is supposed to be 65deg- I would say it leans more towards 68 deg.
The stars aren't as pin point as my XW or LVW- could it be the astigmatism it's picking up from my eyes that my other eyepieces don't?- I don't know.
Hi Suzy,
I don't think this is likely to be the case.
Generally your own eyes astigmatism, if not corrected with glasses or a dioptrix, will get worse as the exit pupil gets larger. This means assuming the same telescope, the longer the eyepiece focal length the more noticeable your own eyes astigmatism becomes. On that basis assuming you are using both eyepieces in the same scope, your 22mm Vixen LVW would show more astigmatism and star flaring than the 14mm Denkmeier. I don't believe this is what you are seeing?
Things then become a mystery. I have used 3 different samples of the 14mm Denkmeier in newtonians as fast as F4.5, and found them all to give a really sharp flat field view across the entire FOV, without a paracorr. In fact when I directly compared the 14mm Denkmeier to my 14mm Pentax XW in my 10"/F5, I found it to be noticeably better in the outer 60% of the FOV than the 14mm Pentax XW, due to the slight field curvature of the 14mm Pentax XW, when it is used in a newtonian without a paracorr. I am really puzzled here as to why you are seeing what you are seeing and I am wondering if you do not have an eyepiece which has some slight quality control issues. eg. slight misalignment of a lens for example during assembly. If you can find someone else with a 14mm Denkmeier to compare against, or maybe even someone who will loan you one to make a direct comparison with your own eyepiece. The only 3 I know of and have used are all now located outside Australia. One of which belongs to Scott Mitchell (Wavelandscott), who moved back to the USA.
Generally your own eyes astigmatism, if not corrected with glasses or a dioptrix, will get worse as the exit pupil gets larger. This means assuming the same telescope, the longer the eyepiece focal length the more noticeable your own eyes astigmatism becomes. On that basis assuming you are using both eyepieces in the same scope, your 22mm Vixen LVW would show more astigmatism and star flaring than the 14mm Denkmeier. I don't believe this is what you are seeing?
Things then become a mystery. I have used 3 different samples of the 14mm Denkmeier in newtonians as fast as F4.5, and found them all to give a really sharp flat field view across the entire FOV, without a paracorr. In fact when I directly compared the 14mm Denkmeier to my 14mm Pentax XW in my 10"/F5, I found it to be noticeably better in the outer 60% of the FOV than the 14mm Pentax XW, due to the slight field curvature of the 14mm Pentax XW, when it is used in a newtonian without a paracorr. I am really puzzled here as to why you are seeing what you are seeing and I am wondering if you do not have an eyepiece which has some slight quality control issues. eg. slight misalignment of a lens for example during assembly. If you can find someone else with a 14mm Denkmeier to compare against, or maybe even someone who will loan you one to make a direct comparison with your own eyepiece. The only 3 I know of and have used are all now located outside Australia. One of which belongs to Scott Mitchell (Wavelandscott), who moved back to the USA.
Cheers,
John B
I am surprised too and not sure what is going on...mine works a treat and I often advocate others to give them a go.
I'm really happy with the eyepiece, which I often use on a 12" F5 dob. It gives me 107x which is about ideal for Deep sky observing from my location. A few nights ago I was just able to pick out a faint diffuse comet low in my light polluted western sky using this eyepiece which I could not see with a similiar focal length Plossl. The contrast, the nice comfortable eye relief as well as the largish field of view all help with observations of very faint extended objects like this.
After using eyepieces with very short eye relief (i.e small focal length Plossl's the older Naglers, etc) it took a few minutes to adjust when I first got the eyepiece. Subsequently I have come to appreciate the extra eye relief and the comfort it gives.
I have also found it works very well with a Tele vue Powermate 5x and a 1980's vintage TV 1.8x barlow. The view of Saturn during one night of decent seeing was something else with the Denk + Powermate giving a very nice 530x view!
The only - minor - pain I had with this eyepiece is I went to clean the eyepiece and found there is some lubricant around the eye cup which managed to contaminate the cleaning fluid. So you have to be careful with that.
Once again thanks for your original recommendation regarding this eyepiece.
Generally your own eyes astigmatism, if not corrected with glasses or a dioptrix, will get worse as the exit pupil gets larger. This means assuming the same telescope, the longer the eyepiece focal length the more noticeable your own eyes astigmatism becomes. On that basis assuming you are using both eyepieces in the same scope, your 22mm Vixen LVW would show more astigmatism and star flaring than the 14mm Denkmeier. I don't believe this is what you are seeing?
Things then become a mystery. I have used 3 different samples of the 14mm Denkmeier in newtonians as fast as F4.5, and found them all to give a really sharp flat field view across the entire FOV, without a paracorr. In fact when I directly compared the 14mm Denkmeier to my 14mm Pentax XW in my 10"/F5, I found it to be noticeably better in the outer 60% of the FOV than the 14mm Pentax XW, due to the slight field curvature of the 14mm Pentax XW, when it is used in a newtonian without a paracorr. I am really puzzled here as to why you are seeing what you are seeing and I am wondering if you do not have an eyepiece which has some slight quality control issues. eg. slight misalignment of a lens for example during assembly. If you can find someone else with a 14mm Denkmeier to compare against, or maybe even someone who will loan you one to make a direct comparison with your own eyepiece. The only 3 I know of and have used are all now located outside Australia. One of which belongs to Scott Mitchell (Wavelandscott), who moved back to the USA.
Cheers,
John B
Thanks John, that's very helpful information.
Yes, all my eyepieces are used only in my 10" dob.
To answer your question about the LVW, this issue doesn't happen in my LVW- stars remain pin point. Hmmm so it looks like this could be a fault then like you said. But honestly, it's very minor so I can put up with it because it has so many positives. As Terry said, it's fantastic for picking up those very faint fuzzies and I love the comfort.
I don't think I'd be able to do anything about it now anyway, as it's probably out of warranty- I don't even know what the warranty period is. I got it from Daniel at Frontier Optics in Sydney, so return wouldn't have been an issue.
Terry, thanks for your offer- it'll be worth comparing them one day. Probably no hurry as I'm sure this eyepiece must now be out of warranty.
Scott, many thanks for your input too. This eyepiece has certainly peeked a lot of interest since I posted this thread a long time ago, as up to this day I get pm's asking my thoughts- that's why I decided to bump this up finally and put in my thoughts. In all my replies I have still recommend it, as it's such a great eyepiece (listing all the positives).
Suzy,
hi, I have 14mm Denkmier with 10" dob, it's my favorite eyepiece!, however at astro-fest I looked through a 10mm delos and it blew me away, and I see Tele-View now have a 14mm for sale, twice the weight of the Denk though, similar in size to Vixen LVW.
Cheers Andy.
Hi Andy,
Good to hear you're enjoying the awesomeness of the Denk. 14 .
Delos? Hmmmm I hear they're very good, but I'm a Pentax fantatic thru and thru. Just placed an order for another XW (to join my 10 & 7) a few days ago- an XW5, can't wait yaaaaaaay .
Dave: Many thanks for your input.
It was interesting to hear your views on the XW14, especially against the LVW. The reverse is true with me, I find the XW easier to look into than the LVW (tho I love it all the same). I also find - and last night is a good example of this - the LVW eye cup cuts into my eye socket. I fold down the eye cup as having them on is actually worse. Six hours looking into this eye piece last night and my eye socket bone still hurts as I've obviously bruised the bone (there was also a big dark mark on it after I'd finished observing). My eye socket is bony . Then, I put my cheap Orion Expanse 15mm with nice eye cups, and whoa the relief. The views annoyed me too much, so ended swapping back to the LVW and suffering more pain. For this reason, I would not have preferred the Vixen (if possible, but not closed off from it either, because at the end of the day, it is an excellent performer).
Hi Suzy,
I was just reading this entire post. Nice post BTW! Anyhoo, I was out last night testing out my 10mm XW and 13mm Vixen LVW to see just how close they are in magnification. I *WAS* going to sell one, but decided to keep both! I also have the 22mm Vixen LVW and stars are super sharp pretty much right out to the edges in my 10" F/4.7 reflector like you have.
As far as the LVW's go, what I did was remove the eye cups altogether, (not shown in my attachment, but I have them cup-less now), and I keep them that way and have them tucked away safely where I can find them. I find with the eye cups right off of the LVW's it is super cozy and I don't even touch the housing of the EP when observing. I also keep them off so that they won't eventually break over time by folding them down and then back up again after observing. I found two dust caps that fit perfectly on both the 22mm and 13mm LVW's as well.
Give that a try and see if that helps!
PS: I love both the XW's in the 10mm, 7mm, 5mm ranges and love the 22mm and 13mm LVW's too, and more than likely I will end up with a 5mm XW as well!!!
Hi Mark,
Thanks so much for that, I will definitely give that a go! I thought I was the only one that suffered that problem!
Aside from the extended cup which cuts into my eye socket, I also find the fov restricting. So much more comfy for me when I fold it down. Tho others seem to prefer it as it blocks out stray light. The Denkenmeir eyepiece caps are just the most comfy ones I've ever used- they have a sort of rolled rubber which is short, so with the combination of the 20mm ER, you can keep your eye at a good distance and still see the entire fov.
I recently added a brand new XW5mm to my collection!
And I think I'm awfully glad I did- I'm hearing that Lanthanum glass is going to be hard to come by soon and could get very expensive.
I even heard someone say on this forum, they seem to think Pentax XWs will be no more in the future (as they use this rare earth element)?
So I did some homework because I started to get worried!
Quote:
If you think the rise in gold has been impressive, you should check out silver, which has been leaving it in the dust. And if you think that the rise in silver has been impressive, then check this out: A multi-year price chart of rare earth element Lanthanum Oxide from China.
Carl (re-normalised) said to me on facebook: "It's becoming scarce because the deposits of Lanthanum are mostly in Russia and China. For 8 months of the year, you can't mine in Russia because the ground is frozen solid and China is mining it for "strategic" reasons and stockpiling what it has. That's why the cost is going up."
Yup the price and lack of availability of cerium and lanthanum has gone through the roof, but it has also motivated people to start looking elsewhere. A new rare-earth deposit was discovered in WA and the company concerned is negotiating to process the ore in Malaysia, so the Chinese will find they have a substantial competitor soon.
Ditto on the comments related to lanthanum as well. From what I understand the increasing cost is going to impact on whoever is left and uses it in their glass - so Vixen's are going to be effected in the near future.
Hi Mark,
Thanks so much for that, I will definitely give that a go! I thought I was the only one that suffered that problem!
Aside from the extended cup which cuts into my eye socket, I also find the fov restricting. So much more comfy for me when I fold it down. Tho others seem to prefer it as it blocks out stray light. The Denkenmeir eyepiece caps are just the most comfy ones I've ever used- they have a sort of rolled rubber which is short, so with the combination of the 20mm ER, you can keep your eye at a good distance and still see the entire fov.
I recently added a brand new XW5mm to my collection!
And I think I'm awfully glad I did- I'm hearing that Lanthanum glass is going to be hard to come by soon and could get very expensive.
I even heard someone say on this forum, they seem to think Pentax XWs will be no more in the future (as they use this rare earth element)?
So I did some homework because I started to get worried!
Hi Suzy,
I just leave the eyecups right off of the LVW's and the views are just right! Anyhoo, big change in eyepiece plans!!! I just sold the 13mm Vixen LVW and I picked up a 24mm Denk! I had it in my scope briefly tonight, as the skies were a bit on the "hazy" side, so a full evaluation wasn't going to happen. From what I did see however, the 14mm Denk barlowed perfectly and held right up in regards to sharpness, etc to my 7mm Pentax XW.
I think the 14mm Denk will be in my eyepiece case for a very long time from what I saw. I'll coma back here and drop a link to CN, or leave a report here on the 14mm Denk when I get some better skies.
. Then, I put my cheap Orion Expanse 15mm with nice eye cups, and whoa the relief. The views annoyed me too much, so ended swapping back to the LVW and sufferring more pain. 
For this reason, I would not have preferred the Vixen (if possible, but not closed off from it either, because at the end of the day, it is an excellent performer).
Parracorr can stay in the shop on the shelf, I'm flat out getting my eyepiece man.
Thank you for your money spending input though.
They look such a good & comfy eye piece. I must admit, I thought seriously about these. But not enough feedback on this to base my decision on buying them. I would have bought two at that price. 
So who else ordered, I'm curious 
Look forward to hearing what you think Suzy. 
