Posts Made By: Jim Nelson

There's essentially nothing on this forum about the University Optics Super-Erfles, and relatively little elsewhere on the web compared to other UO eyepiece models.

Looking at the ad in the latest S&T, I'm thinking that the 20mm is looking awfully attractive - I'd sell off my 20mm and 26mm Meade Plossl's if I can get the magnification of the 20mm plossl with nearly the TFOV of the 26mm, without compromising performance. Considering the UO Super Erfle is only about $80, seems like a deal that would pretty much pay for itself.

This'd be for a 6" f/8 system, so I doubt I'd be stressing the edges of the eyepiece FOV too much.

Does the collective wisdom of AstroMart have an opinion?

Is this one of those trick perspective shots? You're actually standing 30 feet behind a department store special scope, right?

Looks like you're all set for Mars!

Hmmmm...clear skies...seeing good enough to pick out 4 craterlets in Plato quite easily in my 6 inch dobsonian...fingers not frostbitten or even numb...third night of observing in a row...

Dang, life is good!

Anyone know how the newer "Konig II" eyepieces from U.O. differ from the older Konigs?

http://skyandtelescope.com/news/article_949_1.asp

In this article on "The deepest photo ever taken", take a look at the picture of one of M31's globulars...Holy Cow!

Or go to the Hubble ST site...
http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/2003/15/

Has anyone used both a University Optics 16mm Super Erfle and a 16mm Konig?

The 16mm Konig gives *great* views, but the tight eye relief isn't too conducive to extended viewing. Is the SE in the same league for image quality, and does it have substantially longer eye relief?

If you're like me, you'll appreciate this link:

http://www.corona_borealis.homestead.com/files/pronouncing_the_stars.htm

Although, does ANYONE actually say:

"7] Rigel: RYE-i'l" ? Or is that an error?

When you start off in astronomy completely alone, you develop your own idiosyncratic way of saying things. Now that I hang around other astronomers from time to time, I find myself carefully constructing sentences to avoid saying "Ophiucus".

But you may be thinking to yourself, "why is this in the 'Equipment' forum?"
Because while one can, indeed, find sites like the one above, no one seems to give pronunciations for names of optical designs and designers, etc.

For example...I'm really not actually sure if I'm saying "Plossl" correctly (there's an umlaut over the "o", right? Where's the accent?). Or what exactly is the vowel sound in the first syllable of "Konig" (also umlauted, I believe)?

I have a couple of Meade 4000 Plossls (20mm and 26mm) which I use for good general purpose eyepieces, and now that I've recently acquired a 2.5x Powermate, they also form the low end of my planetary magnification range.

The consensus seems to me to be that these ep's fall a little bit short of either the Televues or the Ultima/Ultrascopic family. My 15mm Ultrascopic certainly is a nice performer.

Any views on how worthwhile it would be to upgrade to the TVs or "Ults"? Or is this just splitting hairs at this point?

I think a big factor is that most inhabitants of this site are people who've been around the hobby a little bit, already have "average" equipment, and are looking to upgrade.

Also, for the really high-end stuff, people are willing to pay high prices on the used market to bypass the waitlists. Try to buy a new AP refractor lately?

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I think a lot of people were following these threads waiting for this moment...