Pentax XW vs Televue Ethos

[PlanetMan]

Hello All

I am hoping I can get a little advice over a tough choice.

I am very fortunate to have come into the possession of both a Televue 8mm Ethos as well as a Pentax 7mm XW and Pentax 10mm XW eyepices. All three strike me as wonderful eyepieces with their respective merits but in terms of focal lengthsa etc I feel I have too much overlap. I will keep the 8mm Ethos and need to make the difficult choice over which of the Pentax XW'S I should sell? I thought the 10mm as the 8mm Ethos has a larger afov than the 10mm Pentax XW while also maintaining a lower magnification. However, I am also wondering whether I should sell the 7mm Pentax as well. Alternatively, am I going about this all wrong and I should a sell the 7mm Pentax and keep the 10mm given that I don't have an eyepiece at this focal length until I hit my 13mm Nagler


All suggestions/comments are very much welcome

[Kunama]

Might help the experts (Yes, I know I am not one of them !) if you tell them what scope/scopes you use them in and what you look at mostly.

My new set goes: 3.5>5>8>13>17>22>42 or 24x, 45x, 59x, 77x, 125x, 200, & 285x. Mine are all 65º AFOV

[PlanetMan]

Sorry - mistake in my original post - I meant true field of view in the sense that the 8mm Ethos provides a larger fov than the 10mm XW but at a higher magnification - due to the 8mm focal length.

I have two scopes both refractors - an ED80 F7 and a 100mm F5 achro

[Kunama]

If I was keeping the 8mm and 13mm with those scopes I would sell both the 7 and 10 and get something like a 5mm. Giving you about a 1.6x factor between Eps.

Then you would have 43x, 70x & 112X with the ED80 and 38x, 62x & 100x with the achro. I am not a fan of the very wide eyepieces, my favourites are 65 or less.

[PlanetMan]

Yep - I have the 5mm Pentax XW as well which is probably my favourite planetary EPs hence my fondness for the 7XW and 10XW - however I can't help feel that I have too many in the same range

[Allan]

Matt has summed it up well. If you are dead certain in keeping the 8 Ethos there is really no home for the 7 and 10 XW's, even though they are great eyepieces. I think you would be better served by selling them both and building your collection around the 8 Ethos.

What long focal length eyepiece do you use? I have a couple I use a lot in my 4" refractor under dark skies. Have you considered a 31 Nagler? You seem to like premium eyepieces, and it doesn't get much better than that for maximum wide field observing.

[MattT]

Any other scopes in the pipeline?

As you want to keep the Ethos the choice is potentially easy....sell the 7 and 10 XW get a few more Ethoi as funds permit....BUT....

I'd make really sure you like the Ethos above the XW's though. I loved the ES 100's for the first 6 months but after that.....I dunno just became bored with them. Personally I prefer the 68º view over the 100º, The 68's are easy on the eye is the only way I can put it.... I have had the XW's 10 7 5 3.5 and ES 100's 20 14 and 9 in the past. The only 82º eyepiece I truly like is the ES 30 82º in my f5 4" refractor. It is a hard choice between the 30 82 and 34 68 in that scope though. Even the ES 40 68 is pretty darn good.

My favourites all round are the affordable ES 68's with barlows for higher mags. One day I will ditch the barlows and go back to a few XW's 10 7 5 or Delos 12 8 6.

Matt

[Allan]

Ok, I see now. You have a 5, 7 and 10 XW. You have similar short focal length eyepieces to what I have. When I get to higher power eyepieces for observing smaller targets I love the Delos field of view. Personally I think the Ethos are outstanding at longer focal length, low power observing for framing the really big targets in the sky.

Maybe you should re-think your 8 Ethos. Keep the XW's you have and sell the 8 Ethos for a longer focal length Ethos, like the 17 or 21.

[PlanetMan]

This is terrible as I accept what everyone has said. I really like the Ethos for the widefield but the XWs are ultra comfortable and are famous for their contrast etc. This probably sounds crazy but I also want to hold onto the XWS on principle as I don't want my eyepiece case dominated by Televue and nothing else

[Camelopardalis (Dunk)]

When in doubt, do nothing...

You can never have too many great eyepieces to choose from

[issdaol (Phil)]

If budget is no concern there is no loss in just keeping all your EP's.

However if budget is a concern keep the ones that work for you and that you prefer for whatever those reasons are.

I would not get concerned about what other people might think about your EP lineup or if one is supposedly famous for one reason or another :-)

[GrahamL]

If you really like the ethos sell the 10

Below 8 mm,,, I'd always have the 7 & 5 xws .

[clive milne]

Seriously... you're soliciting the subjective opinions of people who have divergent value judgements (from you) when you have all the experiential data to draw from (and they don't)?

All suggestions/comments are very much welcome

Trust your own judgement. Your opinion on this subject carries more weight than everyone else, combind.

[Profiler (Profiler)]

Originally Posted by clive milne

Seriously... you're soliciting the subjective opinions of people who have divergent value judgements (from you) when you have all the experiential data to draw from (and they don't)?

Trust your own judgement. Your opinion on this subject carries more weight than everyone else, combind.

You obviously don't work in the legal industry

[clive milne]

Originally Posted by Profiler

You obviously don't work in the legal industry

Don't get me wrong,
I have a soft spot for lawyers.

(it's a bog in the north of Ireland)

[Profiler (Profiler)]

Originally Posted by clive milne

Don't get me wrong,
I have a soft spot for lawyers.

(it's a bog in the north of Ireland)

Love it

[clive milne]

[N1 (Mirko)]

Clive, very true, on both matters.

[bytor666]

If you need the eye relief, keep the XW's. I've seen a post of one user on CN who had the 8mm Ethos, but sold it due to needing more eye relief.