5mm eyepiece.....

I'd like to pick up a 5 mm eyepiece and a big fan of the Pentax line in short focal lengths and Naglers in long. I currently have the 7mm and 10.5mm XL's. My scope is a 15" Obsession without drives or a tracking platform. So being all manual it is important to have an eyepiece with a larger AFOV. I had owned the baader hyperion 5mm for a while, but sold it because of the way it fit in my focuser. It was a good eyepiece. Fairly sharp at the edge of the field with only a hint of false color around the edge. I guess my biggest question would be how much of a diffrence would I see in the 5.2 XL vs the 5 XW? What did they change? Is the extra 5 degrees worth spending extra money for? Should I go for the Nagler because of the 82 degrees? I'm not a real big fan of the Naglers for shorter focal lengths.

Thanks,
Jay

Hi Jay,
The 5mm XW is great, but the 5.2mm XL is also very good and less money. I have the 5.2mm, 7mm, 10.5mm XLs and I would never sell them as they are all 3 gems.
The XW have the 5° extra field and new coatings. Some say the coatings are better and some think the XL coating have a slight edge on many objects.
The short ER is why I do not have the Naglers in short f/l too, I just don't find it comfortable and they tend to fog on me in the winter.
I also like the Radians and BO/TMB Planetary EPs in the short f/l's. But I do like the XL a lot. I have all three types and use them all. The coatings are different in each brand and they do well at certain things so I keep them all.
The BO/TMB is a good but at $99 and is a good EP too with 60° FOV and and good ER.

I think I'd just go for the 5mm Nagler Type 6.
Wider field will help since no drives, and
optically excellent. Small physical size.
Probably good to try them out at a stargaze, etc.,
first.

Or try the Astromart "loan" program.... buy
a used one and re-sell at same price if you
decide its not for you.

Jay Emirzian said:

I'd like to pick up a 5 mm eyepiece and a big fan of the Pentax line in short focal lengths and Naglers in long. I currently have the 7mm and 10.5mm XL's. My scope is a 15" Obsession without drives or a tracking platform. So being all manual it is important to have an eyepiece with a larger AFOV. I had owned the baader hyperion 5mm for a while, but sold it because of the way it fit in my focuser. It was a good eyepiece. Fairly sharp at the edge of the field with only a hint of false color around the edge. I guess my biggest question would be how much of a diffrence would I see in the 5.2 XL vs the 5 XW? What did they change? Is the extra 5 degrees worth spending extra money for? Should I go for the Nagler because of the 82 degrees? I'm not a real big fan of the Naglers for shorter focal lengths.

Thanks,
Jay

Jay,

I too have a 15" Obsession and I have a 5mm Pentax XW. I really like the eyepiece, very comfortable to use and very sharp images.

Mark