Does anyone know if the Agena ED, Orion Epic, and Vixen Lanthanum eyepieces are using the same design? Minus cosmetic differences, the housings appear similar, and they all offer 20* eye relief with about 50* afov.
Long eyerelief ep's
Started by Larry Seguin, 04/22/2007 12:54AM
Posted 04/22/2007 12:54AM
Opening Post
Posted 04/23/2007 05:11PM
#1
I have no experience with any of these specific ep's. So I am not actually answering the question.
But it has been my experience that there is a direct connection between the retail price of any ep and it's performance, within a general eyepiece catagory. In this case 20mm ER with 50-ish Degree fov. The more expensive ones will out perform the less expensive. And there is a pretty significant difference in price from top to bottom between these three.
Bright Messier's, Luna and Saturn often look pretty cool in just about any scope/ep combo. Particularly at modest magnifications. Optical finish and coating differences show up on more difficult targets and at higher magnification. Like bright planets with subtle details or fine detail in fainter objects. More expensive ep's, again within a general type, have less issues with glare, internal reflections, sharpness on axis and light through put in my experience. They are priced higher because they cost more to make.
Sorry to sound preachy and repetetive. I've screwed around with budget ep's for years, and found this out for myself by trial and error. At retail price, the higher end plossls, orthos, konigs and various multi-element wide fields always out do the budget ones of similar advertized parameters. The used market is a little different. Seems to be less hype, and more supply driven. So it is sometimes helpful to look up retail prices as a judge of performance.
Anyway, I'd bet the Vixen will spank the Agena pretty soundly.
But it has been my experience that there is a direct connection between the retail price of any ep and it's performance, within a general eyepiece catagory. In this case 20mm ER with 50-ish Degree fov. The more expensive ones will out perform the less expensive. And there is a pretty significant difference in price from top to bottom between these three.
Bright Messier's, Luna and Saturn often look pretty cool in just about any scope/ep combo. Particularly at modest magnifications. Optical finish and coating differences show up on more difficult targets and at higher magnification. Like bright planets with subtle details or fine detail in fainter objects. More expensive ep's, again within a general type, have less issues with glare, internal reflections, sharpness on axis and light through put in my experience. They are priced higher because they cost more to make.
Sorry to sound preachy and repetetive. I've screwed around with budget ep's for years, and found this out for myself by trial and error. At retail price, the higher end plossls, orthos, konigs and various multi-element wide fields always out do the budget ones of similar advertized parameters. The used market is a little different. Seems to be less hype, and more supply driven. So it is sometimes helpful to look up retail prices as a judge of performance.
Anyway, I'd bet the Vixen will spank the Agena pretty soundly.
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