planetary eyepieces

Dave --

I did quite a bit of comparison a couple of years ago, and aside from color tonal differences, on most nights I can't really tell them apart.

When the skies are Pickering 7 or 8, I can start to tell the differences, and it Pickering 9 or 10 the differences become more obvious. I'd rate the ones I've tried (from good to best):

Meade s4000 UWAs, BO/TMB Planetaries, TV Panoptics

UO orthoscopics, TV Naglers, Takahashi LEs

RKEs

TV Plossls

Pentax SMC orthos, CZJ orthos, Astro-Physics SPLs

Note that this ranking is only for planetary. My top favorites for deep sky are still Naglers and s4000 Meade UWAs.

Within each group, I can't really tell the difference (optically). The AP SPLs have by far the best eye-relief of the top group, but even they only get me down to about 10mm. I use an OCS in my binoviewer so that I don't really need to go any shorter than that. If I did, I'd probably try out a Radian, or use my existing Naglers, or pick up some BO/TMB Planetaries if I needed new focal lengths.

I only tried the Tak LEs in focal lengths that were too short for me to be comfortable with them. They'd probably rate higher if I had tried them in longer lengths, although whether or not they'd have beat the TV Plossls is hard to guess.

The TV Plossls, are, to my mind the best value for money.

I haven't tried TMB Supermonos, ZAOs (I or II), Claves, or Brandons. (I did pick up a Brandon, but I need to find the other half of a pair before giving it a go.)

Cheers,
-- Jeff.

NeilP wrote:

Yes I think the image is definitely sharper, some observers in the states think the view is too sterile and cold through the supermonos but I do not mind it.

Yea, I read that, so it is a noticable affect, but like you I dont think I'd mind it though.

NeilP wrote:

I have the 10, the 8 and the 4mms, though the 4 gets very little use it is quite hard to use.
I will have them at the Burren and you can give them a blast in the Obsessionator if you want.

Now thats something to look forward to.: cheer: Thanks for the offer of the view through the eyepieces. It'll be interesting to see how they fair on a F5 scope, the 8 and 10 should work well but the 4mm will probabily be too high at 625x.

Jeff, Thanks for that extensive comparison list. Its certainly something to think about.