New astro-toys + ED-2 9.5mm @ F8 review added

[asimov (John)]

Hi all.

Received this gear in the post today.

Binos: 15X70 77M AT 1000m Fully broadband multicoated BAK4 prism.

Very nice coatings on the objectives & eyepieces. Dark green in colour. During the day, they throw up nice bright terrestrial images with very little colour fringing. I used them briefly just after sundown for about 2 hrs before the clouds blew in. The nearly half moon was pretty nice to look at indeed. I could see 3 moons of jupiter with the dark planetary bands on jupiter resolved.

Scanning the milkyway was great! I could clearly make out the lagoon nebula & the Swan. Omega centauri was pretty spectacular.

Slightly out of collimation, so I'll have to learn up on that. Overall, I'd say their definitely worth the bucks. I'm quite pleased with them.

ED-2 1.25" 9.5mm eyepiece: Build quality is not bad. Coatings look ok, Dark green in colour.

Tested in F8 achro refractor: Magnification = 126X. Eye relief was pretty good, would like a fraction more though. A bit of kidney beaning going on but overall, not too bad once you learn where to keep your eye. FOV was wide enough for me.

Objects viewed: Jupiter: Good contrast, dark bands easily resolved, GRS easily seen. No ghosting or flaring. On axis nice & sharp. kept it's sharness till 90% off axis.

Omega centauri: Pretty good view, considering the moon.

Swan nebula: An excellent view of this! Can't wait for a moon less night. Oh...It did really well on the moon also. Overall I'd say performance was pretty damn good considering the cost! I'm keeping it. The big test will be in the F5 later.

Baader UHC-S.....I've been longing to try this out! I can't give you a comparison to a lumicon or any others. My first narrow-band filter.

All I can say is, it works...& works GREAT! Tested on lagoon nebula @ 50X: Plenty of 'extended nebulosity' (hope I've got that term right?) Put it this way, I saw a lot more of the nebula than without it! Turns stars a slight greeny colour. I didn't see much advantage using it on the triffid though. A general slow scan of the milky way turned up a lot of stuff I've either never seen, or taken notice of before. On the swan nebula it did great. Brighter than usual, with heaps more nebula clouds seen. I'm very impressed!

The other item in the pic is my drive motor/controller for the 12.5" newt kindly built by AOE in Sydney. The EP/filter binos from AOE as well.

I'll do up decent reviews on all items & submit later.

[ballaratdragons (Ken)]

John,

The knockies sound impressive. No need for a scope now! The Baader sounds like the best buy. Good report mate.

How much was the Baader Filter?

[asimov (John)]

G'day Ken. Yeah, pretty impressed with the whole lot really. The EP is no nagler...but hey! at 80 bucks, what can one expect? I like it. Quoted price on the neb filter was under $115....So I'm not too sure as yet. I'm going to use that filter a LOT me thinks!

[davidpretorius]

can't wait to see them at snake valley along with your good self!!!! (hint hint)

[Starkler (Geoff)]

John are the binos the same as these ?
http://www.aoe.com.au/aoe70hp.html

Ive been thinking of getting some for a while now.

[ving (David)]

sounds great john
I'll keep an eye out on your review of the filter and EP... they both sound interesting to me

[davidpretorius]

hey A mate, what magnification roughly for the binos?

[ving (David)]

15x?

[fringe_dweller]

LOL 115 clams for a nice bit of gear - how sweet is this era? welcome to the big binoculars club mate!! they sound very nice
Kearn

[asimov (John)]

Starkler: Yep, same as. A word of warning though...BE QUICK! AOE are close to being out of stock & having trouble with the next shipment getting here within 8 weeks.

[asimov (John)]

ED-2 9.5mm eyepiece review

Tested using F8 achromatic refractor =126X



On-Axis sharpness: I found this to be good to excellent on Jupiter & stars.

Off-Axis Sharpness: Off-Axis it performed quite well. Good clean sharp focus. Slight anstigmatism on stars visible at the last 90-95% AFOV.

Contrast: Fairly dark back-ground on DSOs. Jupiters dark regions & the GRS more readily visible than some of my more up-market EPs. Did a respectable job in the contrast department.

Field flatness: Focusing on an object On-Axis & letting it drift to the edge of the field, I found a little de-focusing was apparent. Better than some of my other EPs. I found this to be not bad.

Ligh Transmission: I found this to be ok. I could Probably compare this to a Vixen LV for light transmission.

Chromatic Aberrations: As this test was conducted in an F8 achromatic refractor, I am not in a good position to judge in this area. Suffice to say it was no worse than any other eyepice I own. Using the aperture mask on jupiter, very little chromatic aberration was visible.

Eye Relief & comfort: I found the eye relief to be sufficient for me. IE: I did not have to roll the eye-cup back. If I had to guess, I would say it was between 10-15mm. If you wear glasses this EP may not be suitable, although rolling the cap back may be successful. This eyepiece does have a slight kidney bean problem. But I would say it was not overly annoying. Takes all of 30 seconds to learn where to position your eye for optimal results.

Ghosting: Nil.

Scatter: Better than most of my up-market EPs on Jupiter.

Field Stop Condition: I saw no 'ring of colour' around the field stop.

I also positioned the half moon just out of the FOV. The light grey colour in the FOV was evenly illuminated. I saw no long bright spikes of light spearing across the FOV as I see in some of my EPs.

Build Quality: Looks ok to me, Although at a quick glance you can tell it's not a $300 EP. The only thing that lets it down slightly is the cheap chrome job done on The barrel. It has a safety under-cut. It fits in the focuser slightly loose, with a deflection of approx .75mm when doing up the retaining screw. The 'blackening' job done on it is not up to standard. IE: The inner barrel thread where a filter might screw on is not black enough.

It looks to me to have the built-in barlow system. Somewhat similar to the LV in design. With the LVs you can take the barlow off.....With the ED-2....Just don't do it! You'll have elements flying all over the place if your not extremely careful. Not recommended.

Summing up: The ED-2 kept up with some of my better eyepieces which incidentally, I paid 3X as much for on some of them. Not bad for $80 AUD.

Having NOT tested this EP in a fast F5 system as yet, I can only say this EP is quite ok in my F8 telescope. Weather permitting, I will conduct the same tests in my F5 newt soon.

[davidpretorius]

thanks asimov for review??? hmmmm what to replace my series 500 with????

[asimov (John)]

Don't be too hasty Dave. They may not be as functional in a F5.

[davidpretorius]

no worries, i won't do anything until i have seen all the eyepiece i can lay my hand on and in my f5 at snake valley.

to the noobie, how can they (eyepieces) change when going from f8 to f5 or the other way

[asimov (John)]

To put it in laymans terms....It's the chip eating seagulls. If you see any sign of them in a EP @ F8, it's pretty well a guarantee to see them worse in the same EP at F5.

I'm sure someone else can explain this better than me?

[davidpretorius]

what do seagulls look like? the ones in eyepieces i mean before you get that glint in your eye and give me a serve!!

[asimov (John)]

Basically stars that have little wings on them in the outer part of the FOV 'Off axis coma'

BTW Dave! Hope you like this pic...Took me a long time to find it!

[asimov (John)]

http://www.opticalmechanics.com/about_coma.htm

[davidpretorius]

yup, i have seen them, thanks for link, seriously, any chance of snake valley?

[asimov (John)]

Where is Snake valley, & when is it on? I went looking for dates/locations etc but can't find anything.