Ok, let me start off with this. The conditions were not good and the Moon was almost full. Besides the Moon there was plenty of light pollution.
12.5" f/4.8 Dob with good optics and properly collimated.
EPs used for comparison,
5mm, 6mm Radian
5mm, 6mm UO Ortho
5mm Orion Ultrascopic
6.7mm Meade UWA
Objects used for testing.
M13, M2, M-57,
Polaris with companion, Kaus Australis, Antares
Ok, now for my first impressions.
On M-57, there was little doubt that the 5mm,6mm Radians just edged out the other EPs for contrast and detail.Followed by the UO Ortho, then the UWA and Ultrascopic which were very close to one another. One thing that made up my mind
was the stars around M57. I could see 1 star clearly in the Radian that required
averted vision with the Ortho. This was listed as 14.5 mag.
M13, again the Radian had a slight edge followed by a tie with Ortho and UWA then the Ultrascopic.
More stars were resolved and larger field seen by the leaders. Background was very milky due to all the light. It was amazing how close the Ortho and the UWA were on this test. The Radian did not win by much, it was really close!
M2, this was harder as the Radian and the Ortho seemed almost too close to call, the Ultrascopic and UWA were not quite as bright and not as many stars were resolved.
On doubles the Ortho and the Radian were very close and the UWA was also close with he Ultrascopic trailing slightly. I might give the edge on this one to the Ortho, but only by a small margin.
The next to the full Moon star field test (how many stars visible) was again very close between the Radian and Ortho. It did seem that the Radian showed a couple of star by direct vision that only blinked in the Ortho, but conditions were less than steady, so inconclusive.
Now I will not call this a conclusive test as the conditions were really not that good, in fact they were quite bad.
In two weeks I will be going on vacation and will be a a dark sky location for a week. I will have a 4mm Radian as well then and I will give this a better shot at testing. With better skies, more time and EPs to test out I think I can give a better review of the Radian issue.
I did not see any false color in the edge as stated in some reviews. I also did not see anything but sharp stars edge to edge. The kidney bean was not noticeable to me unless I move my eye a bit and was not a problem. The adjustable eye guards were very nice at eliminating the black out as well and with them adjusted for me, it was not even seen.
Over all I was impressed with the clarity, bightness and ease of use. The Eye relief was more than ample and allowed the wearing of glasses.
It was enough for me to buy a third one, 4mm, to add to the high mag EPs in my TV box.
Hope you enjoy this and get something out of it. I don't doubt that some might not agree with my findings.
Floyd
12.5" f/4.8 Dob with good optics and properly collimated.
EPs used for comparison,
5mm, 6mm Radian
5mm, 6mm UO Ortho
5mm Orion Ultrascopic
6.7mm Meade UWA
Objects used for testing.
M13, M2, M-57,
Polaris with companion, Kaus Australis, Antares
Ok, now for my first impressions.
On M-57, there was little doubt that the 5mm,6mm Radians just edged out the other EPs for contrast and detail.Followed by the UO Ortho, then the UWA and Ultrascopic which were very close to one another. One thing that made up my mind
was the stars around M57. I could see 1 star clearly in the Radian that required
averted vision with the Ortho. This was listed as 14.5 mag.
M13, again the Radian had a slight edge followed by a tie with Ortho and UWA then the Ultrascopic.
More stars were resolved and larger field seen by the leaders. Background was very milky due to all the light. It was amazing how close the Ortho and the UWA were on this test. The Radian did not win by much, it was really close!
M2, this was harder as the Radian and the Ortho seemed almost too close to call, the Ultrascopic and UWA were not quite as bright and not as many stars were resolved.
On doubles the Ortho and the Radian were very close and the UWA was also close with he Ultrascopic trailing slightly. I might give the edge on this one to the Ortho, but only by a small margin.
The next to the full Moon star field test (how many stars visible) was again very close between the Radian and Ortho. It did seem that the Radian showed a couple of star by direct vision that only blinked in the Ortho, but conditions were less than steady, so inconclusive.
Now I will not call this a conclusive test as the conditions were really not that good, in fact they were quite bad.
In two weeks I will be going on vacation and will be a a dark sky location for a week. I will have a 4mm Radian as well then and I will give this a better shot at testing. With better skies, more time and EPs to test out I think I can give a better review of the Radian issue.
I did not see any false color in the edge as stated in some reviews. I also did not see anything but sharp stars edge to edge. The kidney bean was not noticeable to me unless I move my eye a bit and was not a problem. The adjustable eye guards were very nice at eliminating the black out as well and with them adjusted for me, it was not even seen.
Over all I was impressed with the clarity, bightness and ease of use. The Eye relief was more than ample and allowed the wearing of glasses.
It was enough for me to buy a third one, 4mm, to add to the high mag EPs in my TV box.
Hope you enjoy this and get something out of it. I don't doubt that some might not agree with my findings.
Floyd
[SIZE="Large"][/SIZE][COLOR="Blue"][/COLOR] Floyd Blue
Amateur Imager
