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Got my XW's et al...
Ok guys,
I have ordered my eyepieces and have received some and awaiting others. After a lot of deliberation I got the following:
Teleview 2.5x Powermate: the powermate has a great reputation for excellent quality, little degradation of image and the 2.5 will "stagger" the magnifications, reducing duplication. The Powermate optics design also addresses some of the traditional limitations of Barlows, or so they say. I have read some reviews on the Powermate and the opinions seem to back it up.
Pentax XW-10: everyone seems to love this one and why should I be any different! This will give me a magnification of 100x or 250x with the powermate. 250 is pushing the usable limit with a 200mm aperture, especially in the burbs! Some think this really is the "bees knees".
Pentax XW-14: opinion is mixed on the forum on this one. Some say it has a bit of curvature, others may disagree. Overall though, I think it is considered to be excellent and will give a magnification of 71x and 178x. I was tossing up between this and the 7, but taking the 7 would have made a "low power" hole and lower power will be used a lot more often. You never know, maybe Santa will get me one later!
TeleVue Panoptic 24mm: TeleVue has a reputation for excellence, and I think many people have this one in their collection and love it. I expect I will come to love it too. I was thinking of an XW-20 to fill this spot, but I think everyone will at some time own a TeleVue anyway, so why not me. This will give a magnification of 41x and 104x (a bit of an overlap with the 10, but I expect to use this one without the Powermate often). This will be, for the moment, my low power "wow factor" eyepiece. I wanted to get the lowest power 1 1/4 I could and this was about it. A Nagler of this focal length would be 2" and would make the transition from one magnification to another a little less smooth.
The future? I would like to get a "real" wow factor eyepiece, looking at the XW-30 (can't find anything much on this one, have you found something?) or the Nagler (say no more). The Pentax is a lot cheaper and lighter, the Nagler has the reputation...thinking. What would you choose? Either will give a magnification of around 30x and an exit pupil of around maximum. Either would give a feeling of imersion, especially at a dark site.
Paracorr? I have found a little on this, mainly the TeleVue site, and people who use one love it. In fact, a reviewer on CN got one to do a review with the intention of selling it after...and still has it. It has a reputation for tack sharp across the field and anyone with a Newt between f4 and F6 or so should have one, mine is f5. The alternative is a Baader coma corrector, I can't find much on this either, but it too has an excellent reputation. I will wait to see what my new eyepieces do for me!
Well, I guess I just wait for Santa now....is it Christmas yet?
As for the other half, she is looking forward to having a look. Fortunately I am blessed with a lady who shows interest in my hobby and sometimes thinks I should be outside rather than in (or is that a hint?)...I think she loves spinning the buzz words when we have "guest" viewers in the backyard!
Of course, I would hate to have to take these outside into the cold as I would much prefer to keep them in mint condition. The last thing I could possibly want would be to have clear skies...gee I hope this cloud doesn't lift any time soon! Clear skies would be sooooo annoying!
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