Posts Made By: Cameron Chen

I have a f/5, 8'', Dobsonian reflecting telescope and a f/5, 4'', rich field refractor.

At the present, most of my eyepieces are lousy Kellners but I do have a UO 16mm Erfle. I would like to obtain three to four eyepieces under $800 which would cover a good spread of powers.

I'm currently interested in the below eyepieces:
Low power:
40mm UO MK-70, 31mm Proxima, 30mm Widescan II, 42mm Vixen Lanthanum Superwide

Medium Power
21mm Siebert Standard Kellner 80*, 24mm TAL UWA, 8-24mm Vixen LV Zoom

Low Power
7mm Speers-Waler, 9mm Nagler Type I

Any ideas? Any experiences with the above eyepieces? Your views would be greatly appreciated......

A local store has advertised a very cheap 11mm ultrawide eyepiece with a reputed apparent fov of 80 and made by the same Chinese source as the BW Optik 30mm The price is approximately three quarters of the BW-optik 30mm.

I have never tried this 11mm and the only place I could find it on the internet is through a european distributor called ASTROLAN. It has short eye relief 8mm. I imagine that through my f/5 dob the coma and poor correction would render it unusable.

If anyone has used this ep some time, please share your views - I might give it a try if it gives decent results for the money.

I'm in the process of upgrading some of my equipment (in time for the Transit of Venus - which I have a premonition that it will be clouded out for me!)

My main instrument is a 8'' f/5 dob, and I have a couple of achromatic short tube toys that I take on tramps. Current line-up is as follows:

40mm UO MK-70mm (main low power)
24mm TAL UWA (just won't reach focus on my dob, will on refractor, is there a low profile 2'' adapter available somewhere?)
5-8mm Speers-Waler zoom

In addition I have a 19mm Axiom and some Skywatcher super wides.

I've decided to sell my 40mm Konig in favour of a t5 nag 31 (ouch, but I did get a pay rise last week and it's my birthday next week), and am thinking of getting something in the 11-14 range. I also am either getting a 1.6x or a 2x barlow, would need your opinion on the best choice re: power ranges.

Note: I am a spectacle wearer so er is an issue. Also I am more a dso person than planetary.

Hi, I would like some input about what kind of 1.25'' wide field eyepiece at low power I should get for a short tube scope (I newly acquired a meade etx60 as a gadget). All my scopes are f/5. My next higher power ep is a Celestron Axiom 19mm (70*).

Candidates:
KK Magellan Widescan III 20mm (84*)
Televue Panoptic 24mm (68*) [and 22mm]
Antares Wide Field 25mm (67*)
Speers-Waler 24mm (67*)
Meade Super Wide 24mm (67*)
Celestron Axiom 23mm (70*)

Your suggestion? And if you have one available, post your price and condition.

Over the past couple of years there has been an explosion of low-cost eyepieces in the 65-70* field class that might be termed "Poor Man's Panoptics" (not Naglers).

A few examples are listed below:

Orion Expanse
Orion DeepView
Apogee Widescan 70*
Antares W70 Series
Proxima 31mm by Handsonoptics
Synta GSO 2'' Kellner(GenI)/SuperView (GenII 2004)
Antares MER 30mm
Speers-Waler 14, 18, 24 (older style)
Siebert Series eyepieces

I would like to hear your views abuot your experiences with these and wonder which one is the best compromise between price and performance. Personally, I have the 9mm and 11m expanse and I like them;

In the meantime I got a deal on astromart on a panoptic 22 that I couldn't pass up. Long live Astromart!

I'm someone who's really into low power, wide angle viewing and when I got into the hobby I acquired your run of the mill 7x50 binoculars which have served me well over the last few years. Yesterday I used them to have a look at comet LINEAR. My other interests, besides astronomy, include pelagic observation and hiking, and I've always found 50mm binoculars to be rather heavy for either purpose.

A week ago I managed to obtain a pair of used 10x30 Canon IS binoculars on Astromart for the princely sum of $205. I wonder if this was a good call - I hear some review say that they can reveal objects as faint as normal 10x50 binoculars! Also they are somewhat lighter than the full sized ones. It would be interesting to hear what you people have experienced with this one. Sadly, I cannot afford the 15x50 or 18x50 versions, don't depress me by offering me details of their magnificence.

Hello I have just obtained a 31mm Nagler type 5 but sadly I'm unable to use it!

It will not reach focus in my 8'' Skywatcher Dob because you cannot put the eyepiece straight into the focusser but you must put a supplied adapter which is 65mm long in it and then you can put the eyepiece into the other end of the adapter.

Unfortunately, once I put the eyepiece in the adapter there is no longer enough intravel for the eyepiece to come into focus!

If I could get a shorter (say 45mm long) adapter it would come into focus! But I don't know who sells these things and who makes them!

I don't want to have spend $500+ for such a great piece of equipment only to find I can't use it because of this stupid little issue! Please help!