13 ethos vs. 13T6

Well I'm seriously leaning toward the ethos plunge, and need somebody to push me over...or pull me back!

There's been a fair amount of "wow" comments about the ethos here, but specifically, I'd like to hear the 13E and 13T6 compared for sharpness and contrast. Somehow, I have a hard time thinking anything could be a whole lot sharper than a T6 Nagler.

I have some other issues--the 13mm length would be a sweet spot in my f/5 and f/5.6 dobs, between my 16T5 and 11T6--some of you may find it silly to insert another length in between these, but I have often found myself teasing detail out of a galaxy, bouncing between the 11 and 16 lengths, and wishing for something in the middle--on such subtle targets, small differences in exit pupil can loom large.

The other thing is that the 16mm length brings out my astigmatism, while the 11 is just ok, so 13 might be a problem--hence the ethos is attractive in accepting the dioptrx, and at f/5, I can barlow my dioptrx-equipped 26N by 1.6X to gain another 16.25mm ep. OTOH, with a paracorr on the way, the 13 might not need astigmatism correction, being reduced to an effective 11.3mm length.

I am also worried that succumbing to ethos fever will wreck utter havoc in my eyepiece collection!

any comments welcome!
-George

>>Well I'm seriously leaning toward the ethos plunge>>

It is futile to resist. Do not look through one because then you are lost for sure.

Rolando

I've looked through both. The Ethos is amazing. You can't even see the entire FOV without moving your head or eye around. I don't however think the view is 200+% better than the nagler which is about the cost difference. The sharpness and contrast both seemed equal to me. One really good thing about the Ethos is that it's caused a lot of Nagler's to appear on the used marketplace for around $200-$225.

Andreas

I bought an Ethos early on and compared it to my 13mm T-6. Not enough "Wow!" for the price to me. My comparison was a Meade 14mm UWA, a 13mm T-6 and the 13mm Ethos through a couple of APOs FS-78 and TMB 175. Sold the Ethos for what it cost me and never looked back.

Thanks to all! As it turns out, the issue for me really revolves around astigmatism, and the ability of the 13E to take a dioptrx, which I can't do with the 13T6. Thanks to Gene Baraff's post in another thread (ethos plus dioptrx question), I was able to determine I really need the astigmatism correction at a pupil of 2.3mm--and that's exactly where the 13mm focal length puts me in my two reflectors...So I think I have my final excuse to make this ridiculous expenditure!