I'm only a little interested in astronomy but can't get enough of Ed's presentation, he truly is the standard for this kind of content. I love how Ed presents the reasoning and experience behind his opinion rather than just the opinions themselves.
Thats why I just subbed after watching a few of his videos. Its not just opinion, its opinion with reasoning demonstrated which is great for understanding.
Thank you. At 66 yeara old i finally have time to really check out astronomy. I just got my first telescope since childhood and am trying to understand eyepieces. You video is very helpful.
Hello Ed, I've just recently found your channel a few weeks ago, and binge-watched probably all your videos. I just wanted to say I really appreciate all the thoughts and work you have put in the making of these highly educational and valuable videos, and for sharing all the wisdom and experience! Thank you, Sir! :)
From the nearly 10 articles that I read when I was a beginner, one stood clearly over the others, and that was Ed's. That's why I started in this on the right foot.
Completely agree with using cheap eyepieces for star parties. Inexperienced viewers won't appreciate the quality of an expensive eyepiece, and cleaning sticky fingermarks off the cheap ones is fine. I always take 2 or 3 and keep the spares in my jacket pocket in case a kid pokes the one on the scope.
About two years ago, I got my first scope, a 102 mm Mak, with a 1300 mm FL. It came with one eyepiece, a decent but not great 25 mm Plossl. So I found this video reviewer, Ed Ting, who told me to get a better eyepiece at the same FL. But he also said, if anything else, to consider going to a longer FL, thus picking up more angle and brightness. So I got a 32 mm TeleVue Plossl, and you guessed it, I use it almost exclusively. Such a solidly built optic with a great feel, nicely coated lenses with zero reflections visible, a very comfortable eye relief, and not too expensive (a little under $150 then), and miraculously it was in stock during the pandemic shutdown and supply shortages. You are spot-on about TeleVue's quality, and yeah, I get nervous when I let kids look through (the first thing they do is grab the eyepiece).
Ed is right IMHO, the Tele Vue eyepieces are top of the class (there are Nikon, Noblex, Pentax, Zeiss that rate just as high or higher but they are either more expensive, limited focal lengths or just plain near impossible to get). That said, not everyone can afford Tele Vue, in the little bit cheaper category but 90%+ as good IMO are the Explore Scientific series...and I have heard great things regarding the Morpheus series from Baader, but have never looked through any. If you are on a very limited budget and do not have a very fast scope (F5 or faster) the Dual-ED eyepieces are a nice, discernible upgrade from the eyepieces that come with most scopes, these are sold by many under different names ...StarGuider Dual ED from Agena are the ones I have tried (people seem to like the very inexpensive Svbony eyepieces as well...but again I have never tried them and also it sounds like their various lines and FL's are not always consistent). In the end you get what you pay for. Buy once, cry once is very applicable to Telescopes and Eyepieces.
Similar situation here with me, an amateur astronomer for 40+ years. I've had many eyepieces but quickly realized that most didn't get used and were just trophy pieces and not utilitarion. My set includes All TeleVue: 13 Nagler Type 5: Great all around for highest usedful power in my Missouri atmosphere. Paired with a 2X barlow when possible. 24mm Panoptic: Great for globulars and galaxies in many scopes. 32mm Plossl: First eyepiece to use for everything. 35mm Panoptic: For when super wide and bright is necessary (Veil). Not always used due to weight Great video, Ed!
Hello Ed. I completely agree and am in your camp. I had what I thought were higher end ED eyepieces for years and was very happy....until I bought my first Televue Delite just two years ago. The difference was literally night and day. So much more clarity, detail on planets and brighter too. Andromeda and the Orion Nebula suddenly became larger than life. Never knew what I was missing. My kit now contains just 3 Televue Delites and one 26mm 2" eyepiece which will also soon become a Televue (when I save up the money). All of my "old" eyepieces have gone into a box that is collecting dust in the corner of my room. As you said, "buy it once". Highly recommended.
Nice story. If you can find the discontinued 26mm Nagler Type 5, that is my favorite in that line. If you can't find one, you might have to "settle" for the 31mm Nagler.
For an f/6 8" Orion Intelliscope (unfortunately no longer made), I use three eye pieces: Panoptic 24mm, Nagler 13T6, and either a Orion Expanse 9mm or the Nagler 7T6 depending on seeing conditions and for targets like globular clusters. Why the Orion Expanse 9mm? It's a 66 degree eyepiece which is affordable ($40-$50 USD), but known for its quality. I base this eyepiece set on exit pupil as many others have posted. Another more affordable set is the based on the Agena Starguider Dual ED eyepieces (60 degree field of view): 25mm, 12mm, and 8mm (about $70 USD each) and they're good and a step up from the 25mm Plossl eyepieces that come with many telescopes. I have a set of Starguider eyepieces which I use in smaller scopes like the Orion ST80.
I love watching Ed Ting’s RUclips channel and hope that he keeps them coming:) Always something😂. A kid eating an eyepiece cup. 😮. Maybe he will be a future stargazer who can say that he once ate Ed Tings eyepiece cup. How many of us can say that?:))😂
Thanks for being such an accessible resource for folks making their foray into astronomy. I've been enjoying using my good ol' binoculars to look at the moon and the stars; looking forward to making a telescope purchase sometime soon. Keep up the great work!
Thank you Ed. I got an XT8 after watching almost all your videos, it came with a 25mm plossl and I bought a 10mm. Loved them. Later I got a set from SVBony , 6mm, 9mm, 15mm and 20mm, 68 degree, they made my scope pop. I am a happy camper. Keep up the videos.
Ah the gold/red lines. They were also sold as "Orion Expanse" for a while. If you like them, no reason to toss them, but I'd look into adding a GSO SuperView 30mm for a lowest widest while keeping with the budget theme.
@@BlueTrane2028 I am thinking about a 30mm, but it will have to wait a while, I’m having major surgery the end of the month so it will have to wait. I’ll check it out, thanks.
Thanks Ed Been trying to decide if purchasing a Televue eyepiece was worth it. SOLD!! can't wait to view them through my various scopes. Keep the videos coming I learn so much everytime! Frank Rich
My favorite eyepieces are my 13mm Nagler, and my Svbony 26mm SWA 2” and lastly my Explore Scientific 34mm that my wife bought me for Christmas. I also own a Celestron X-Cell 9mm, but I find I struggle to keep my eye centered and my view gets cut off. I use these in my 8” Orion SkyQuest 1200mm focal length telescope. I wish I would have held out for a 10” Dobsonian, but the 8” was all I could afford used at the time. Now cash is even tighter and my dream of a 10” or 12” is on hold indefinitely. It’s more important to fix the broken things in my house first. Lol My grandson got to look through my telescope just two days ago and was blown away by the Bee Hive Cluster. I thought he would have been more into the moon, but he really loved the Bee Hive. This is why I hope to win the 10” dob giveaway so I can donate the 8” dob to a local children’s program in my area. To see that excitement in their little eyes is so worth it.
I have three eyepieces that I use pretty much exclusively now. My 13mm Nagler gets the most use by far. The 3-6mm Nagler zoom is for planets and the Nagler 22 is wonderful for wide. On my Meade LX90 I now use the 41mm Panoptic for wide field. I have a Celestron 26mm Plossl in my eyepiece projection setup for my mirrorless camera.
Ed I took you advice from the beginning. I have a 10" dobs and 3 Teleview eyepieces. actually the exact ones you showed. You are correct the difference between what came with my scope and the teleview are night and day. Thanks
Hi Ed. This was the video I've been waiting for. I have my collection of Plossl eyepieces, but once I got my first Televue eyepiece, I now have 12 Televue eyepieces. Delites, Delos, and one Nagler. There definitely is a difference. I was hoping to see you at N.E.A.F. a few weeks ago. Maybe next year. We traveled from California.
@@Astronurdcheaper maybe, better no. With a few exceptions where the cheaper option matches the televue in a focal length or 2, such as 14mm es100 and meade 5.5uwa, as well as the 28 uwan/PWA. I also found the 20mm XWA/HDC 100deg offered by several brands to be remarkably close to the 21 ethos where the 20mm es100 fell short. The only cases where cheaper eyepieces outperform naglers is really old ones, type1 and 2, that had shorter eye relief with decades aged, very old technology coatings, that can be beaten by modern Chinese clones of nagler type 5 and 6, which is what the es82 is.
Some of the best eyepieces I' have owned are University Optics. The contrast on their orthoscopic eyepieces are exceptional. I also have a UO 20mm Erfle and a 17mm Konig and never appreciated them until I started going to darker sites. Using those eyepieces is like doubling the aperture of your scope compared to generics. Since UO is defunct I have bought Kokusai Kohki Fujiyama HD-OR Orthoscopics. I think it may be the same manufacturer.
I believe the manufacturer for both is/was Ohi in Japan. I had some of the Fujiyamas for a while - 7mm, 9mm, two 12.5mm for binoviewing, and 18mm. The 7 and 9 were exceptional. Both 12.5s were very, very dirty. Aim at the Moon and they lit up like a Christmas tree. It was like someone had been doing drywall construction in the room where the lenses for the 12.5s were waiting for assembly. Contrast was noticeably poor on the Moon because of it. The 18, like the 7 and 9, was exceptional.
I always wanted the MK70 and 80, but settled for 30mm widescan II and III, and 4k 40mm SWA. I did have some UO HD orthos, the whole set except for my 7mm being an Antares branded one. Dumbest thing I ever did was sell the set too cheaply. Not that it mattered in the long run because they would have been stolen anyway
Your statement, "there is Televue and there is everything else" rings true to my ears. Due to wearing eyeglasses and being on a budget, I started with 32mm and 25mm TV Plossels and then added the Delite series, 24mm Pan and a 2X Barlow. I was talked into another brand for a 30mm wide angle and was sorely disappointed and learned my lesson the hard way. I find 62deg to 68deg nice and am trying to decide on what long FL to get for my 10" f5 Dob.
31 nagler, but that isn't budget. Budget options would be used 30mm meade UWA, 31mm celestron axiom LX, and 30mm es82, which are all actually the same eyepiece, but used celestrons and meades can be found for way less. An even better performer that is closer in performance to the 26 and 31 naglers is the 28mm william optics UWAN, also available as orion megaview and meade PWA (the current offering, around 300 new). I got my 28 megaview used for less than $200. The 23mm axiom LX and 24mm meade UWA and 24mm es82 is also a top performer, very nagler like, better than the 30/31 of the same lines. The celestron luminos versions are made by someone else, and are not as good. Another surprisingly budget option is the 20mm 100deg XWA/HDC offered by William optics, stellarvue, APM, lunt and others. That one blows the more expensive 20mm es100 out of the water, and comes extremely close to the 21 ethos. I was able to score my WO 20mm XWA for less than $200 I have personally owned the 31 nagler, 14 and 20 es100s, and 23mm axiom LX. And used them in 10" f5 dobs. They were all stolen, and I now own 28mm megaview and 20mm XWA, and highly recommend them. A used visual paracorr is also something to consider. The current type 2 paracorr is even better but super expensive. Avoid the photo/visual version as it's design, in order to be used in photo mode, will vignette a 31 nagler, and possibly the 28mm uwan as well. The 20mm xwa would not be affected since it does not use the full 2" field stop. The 23/24mm 82s would probably also not be affected if a photo visual is all you can find.
Good discussion Ed and I tend to use just 2 EP for a typical night of viewing as well. My scopes included a C8 for general observing, C90 travel scope, and a low power AT72ED mostly for imaging. Due to the longer native focal lengths I use a simple 32mm Plossl for wide field and a 12.5 Plossl for high Magnification. On very rare nights of excellent seeing I might use a 10mm to push these folded scopes close to their limit on Mars, Jupiter, or Saturn but most nights favor the 12.5. For outreach especially involving kids I may bring an 8x24 Zoom and just leave it in the scope so hopefully nothing disappears or becomes damaged during a swap. So far that has been my experience but kids really want to touch the instrument. Cheers!
I started out on simple Baader Classics (32mm Plössl and Classic Ortho 18, 10, 6) and still use those. They're simple, light and offer very good views. But sooner or later I'll try out TV, and probably get hooked…
Hi Ed, I am still pretty new to astronomy, but I bought a Celestron Starsense Explorer 10 inch dobsonian telescope with the Televue 27mm Panoptic eyepiece that you showed in this video and love them both. It is very easy to find targets in the night sky with the StarSense and the views through this eyepiece are wonderful. I bought this eyepiece on your recommendation on an earlier video that you made talking about it. Thanks for recommending it.
@@higgs1913 Does it really make sense to question his equipment purchase? It what way, did it affect you? P.S. It didn't...start your petty argument elsewhere...
I was wavering about buying myself a 13 mm nagler because having a wide angle at 13 milimeters while having a clear image sounds like magic to me. You made the decision a little easier for me, so thank you mate
Nice video. I tend to agree: You don't need a lot of eyepieces, TeleVue is the gold standard, and viewing the sky through a 82°+ makes you addicted and you never wanna go back! I got a 12" Dob and I mainly use the Nagler 7mm for planets and the moon when the conditions allow it, a 12mm Nagler for most smaller deesky objects and a 34mm Explore Scientific Maxvision 2", 68°. The latter is a little cheaper but still a great piece of gear. I might wanna add something in between the 34 and 12, but so far those eyepieces were just a great choice.
Excellent presentation yet again. I took your advice and got an XT8 in November. It came with a 2" 28mm and 1.25" something. The 28mm is okay. I don't use it often however. What I use for wide views is an Orion Q70 38mm. Cheap enough at under $100 on sale, and it offers a crystal clear wider field of view. For more magnification, I use a cheap SVBony 1.25" super wide (they call it an Ultra wide) 68 degree 9mm. It gives pretty amazing and clear views for a thirty something dollar item, and it brought M104 right to my eye the other night (I couldn't make out the dust ring, but that might have been seeing). Eye relief is vastly superior to any Plossl near the range. I initially "upgraded" to a set of Plossl eyepieces with some colored filters, but really don't care for shorter Plossls at all, mostly because of the eye relief and tiny eye opening. I used any under 12.5mm only once each, and consider the protective caps more valuable. I'm retired and on a fixed budget, so TeleVue is out of my range at this point. My next purchase will be a 12" Dob, instead of eyepieces.That's just me. Viewing in Bortle 2-3 skies is right outside of my door, so transport isn't an issue. I can swing the $1300 right now, but don't want to pay interest on a card or take funds from my retirement accounts. The XT8 is a great tool for now as I learn to navigate the sky. Thanks again, and clear skies.
Great intro. I agree that less is more! It’s also definitely worth favoring a parfocal set so you don’t have to rack in and out the focuser (possibly disturbing balance while you’re at it) when changing magnification.
I'm pretty new to amateur astronomy, but what I do when changing to a higher powered but 1.25" (vs 2") eyepiece is just have it fixed in the adapter before dusk. No fumbling in the dark, but changing focus is still necessary. Just my experience, and thanks for your input. Clear skies!
Hi Ed, wow Kid's really are the essence of chaos aren't they! Taking an 8" f/6 Dob as an example I would recommend a 6mm giving 200x, as its a good compromise between image scale and what the seeing conditions can handle, also whilst not dropping below a 1mm exit pupil which can evoke eye floaters. If they already have a 25mm I would recommend a 12-15mm giving a 2mm exit pupil for good contrast on DSO's, but upgrading the 25mm is also a good shout IMO. If they need glasses for astigmatism I recommend an eyepiece with 20mm eye relief. It's all personal as you say, and we can only do our best to advice. Thanks for the interesting video as always.
If you used a 40mm eyepiece or longer, do you think you'd be ok without a finder scope on that Dob? Does it work that way? Would the image be brighter with a longer eyepiece? I'm trying to plan my 1st scope. So far I've had fun finding objects on my camera with a cheap zoom lens. I want to point and hunt.
Ed Made a great point in that there are very personal factors when choosing an eyepiece. One important factor for me is eye relief. I vastly prefer 20 mm, may tolerate 15mm in some cases. Si, That narrows my choices considerably. Another thing to mention is that everybody needs to have a barlow lens. It effectively doubles your number of eyepieces.
The Panoptic is a scaled design, so if you like one of the focal lengths, you will probably like all the others. The 2" barrel just allows the use of a longer focal length whilst being able to see more sky, otherwise the 1.25" barrel would, as you say, vignette the view. I tried the local club's 35mm Panoptic in my C11 and hated it, it turned the Moon into a strong egg shape even 60 per cent of the way out from the centre of the field of view, and I asked a club member to test for that back to back with his own 35mm Pan, as I suspected that someone had disassembled the club's 35mm Pan and put it back together wrong, but they performed the same. However, strangely, when I tested another club member's 41mm Panoptic recently at a Starcamp in his 16" F5, the Moon was awesome looking at the centre of the FOV and I really loved the comfortable view, so I may end up getting one to go with my 40mm Pentax XW lol. What can I say, I am an eyepiece junky. I have actually held off buying any of the Panoptics for one more reason, the design is very old and I was feeling that TeleVue will probably revisit and upgrade the design soon?
The reason for the distortion is because that was needed in order to get pinpoint stars to the edge. Naglers have a bit as well but not as much as the panoptic. With the 40XW, there is field curvature requiring a slight refocus to be sharp at the edge or the center. So beware In that regard
Ed, could you make a video about 'exit pupil' and your opinion on its uses. I know, its esoteric, but it appears to be the most important factor as everyone has different scopes. I don't consider magnification as a useful metric anymore. I always calculate the exit pupil on a sheet per eyepiece per telescope. Anything less than 1 I consider to be high power and anything over 3.5 is low power, and everything else is mid-power. Thats my opinion but I'd like to hear yours.
Interesting, a couple of people have brought this up. The original draft of this video had a ~2 minute discussion on exit pupil but I cut it because I didn't think people would be interested.
A crucial topic to understand an master, as there are some tricks that are counter intuitive based on the things beginners are taught, and they apply to dsos that benefit from smaller than you would think exit pupils, as well as when using nebula filters, which are good at small exit pupils for small but bright planetaries, and the larger 4-7mm pupils for getting the most out of filters on targets like the veil. One trick I will share is the 1.3-1.6mm exit pupil range on globulars, even in light pollution, coupled with 3 and 4 element outreach options on f10 telescopes like the 4 element 15mm superview, the best in the line and the only 4 element one, and the little known 3 element 15mm plastic body "celestron 15" which has about a 70 degree field, and the slightly more known 20mm that has a 65deg field, and came with several cheap scopes. The 25mm that came with many more scopes, is not as good having bad internal reflections. My 15mm superview on my c11 and 8"R(acf) was my go to eyepiece for showing m13 at outreaches, even from very light polluted skies, and after telling viewers to let their eye adjust for a few seconds, fully in the eyecup, I had a greater than 90% wow response, including children and elderly. And over the years, my knowledge of the many tricks, got me many comments along the line of my view in a smaller scope was better than the big scts, which many users tend to frequently have the wrong ep and filter for the target. Where they would need a 55-56mm plossl to get the most out of their OIII, most would be using something like a 31 nagler, 27pan or even a 26mm plossl. And I would be with an f5 newtonian and a 30mm 2" like a superview or UW80, and have a killer OIII or uhc view of a nebula. Or later on when I had my 8 and 11 cats, I would be using a 40mm or 50mm eyepiece when they were still stuck on their 31 naglers. Yes, many people in the local club did not have the concept of "outreach eyepieces " but thankfully for that, I got some of my earliest views through nagler and panoptic eyepieces when I would attend with my 60mm spotter and 15x70 binoculars, and later with my 5"mak and 8"f4, I could try out some eyepieces in my own scopes and that helped me know what I was getting into in my early days. The first thing I remember being blown away by was m22 in a 16mm type 2 nagler in a c11, and his 2nd most used ep was the 27mm panoptic. My first used premium eyepieces I got for my 8"f4 that needed them, were the 16mm type2, 8.8mm smoothie UWA, 4.8mm nagler smoothie, and 7mm nagler. Before that I was using a 13.8mm swa and 18mm WA (etx kit cheapie) with barlows since they were useless at f4 without it. It is a rabbit hole I never got out of, along with older japanese widefields for my slow scopes, like widescan III, 4k SWA, and original axiom, not to mention 5 element super plossls and ultima types. And of course, tons of very low, to low to mid level outreach eyepieces, superview, QX/es70, e-lux, SMA wides etc...
Great thoughts about eyepieces, Ed! I learned the "Tele Vue vs. everything else" lesson the (VERY) hard way. I bought some great TV eyepieces over the years to use with my 6" dob and I thought the eyepieces weren't a big deal since I just couldn't see much with the 6" dob. It was the dob and not the eyepieces, of course. Long story short, I sold most of my TV eyepieces and I now regret it immensely, having used other brands that, well, just aren't Tele Vue. Never thought I'd 'feel' such a difference looking through less expensive eyepieces vs. my TVs. Anyway, thanks so much for the great overview! Terrific stuff. You gave the absolute best advice for eyepieces - buy them once.
For what it's worth, there are definitely good non-TV eyepieces out there. Explore Scientific 92s are incredible and not just second fiddle copies of Tele Vue eyepieces, Pentax XWs are wonderfully comfortable with excellent performance, Nikon NAV-SWs are similar, Nikon NAV-HWs are better than Ethos, and Baader Morpheus are very close to Delos in performance as long as focal ratio stays above 4.5, but have wider fields and feel more immersive. BUT, nobody offers the combination of choices and quality that Tele Vue does. Nobody is even close. From Plossls, to DeLites, to Panoptics, to Delos, to Naglers to Ethos. So many choices, and no compromise on quality.
@@vbikcl Thanks, Jon. Haven't tried Nikon yet, but I have a Baader Morpheus 4.5 and it's okay, but I think it's too much power for the seeing conditions I have here in VT. I'm surprised there's something better than an Ethos! Not sure why, but I've never considered Nikon eyepieces. Like TV eyepieces, I see they're expensive puppies, too! I'll have to do a little more research. Thanks again for the info.
100% agree The 2 eyepieces I use all the time are SuperView 30mm 68° and ES 8.8mm 82°. The 8.8mm replaced the cheap 9mm provided with the telescope. The 30mm is the one provided, it is enough good to stay with it for the moment. It allowed me to buy an ES14mm 82°, instead of replacing it. I use a good 3 lenses barlow to double the 8.8 and that's all...
Great video Ed! For those who do have a C14 or C11, the Televue Panoptic 41mm, Nagler 26mm, and Nagler 17mm are the eyepieces I use. In a C14 they yield 95x, 150x, and 230x, respectively, and in the C11 they yield 68x, 108x, and 165x, respectively.
You also need a 55mm plossl, or 56mm super plossl, but a Japanese one, as the current Chinese ones are a little sloppy. Other options would be the 50mm axiom and Tak LE 50mm. I can vouch for both the axiom which I used to own and love in my c11, and the smoothside 56mm meade super plossl, which I now own and love in the vintage 10" meade I had to settle for after being robbed blind out of my storage unit. Since tweaker storage theives don't know what a g11 tripod is when it is dissambled, what counterweights are and why they are needed, nor what dovetails, saddles and 3 point rings are, they left those parts and I was able to trade them straight across for the meade. Why a 50, 55 or 56 when the 41 pan has the same true field you ask? The answer, exit pupil, especially when using filters to look at faint nebulae, or just when in really dark skies in general and you want to make something brighter. There were even larger than 2" 60 and 70mm kellners for the old C14s back in the day, but you can just order up a televue 55mm plossl and get it right away. Personally I prefer the older 5 element meade super plossl over the televue, and the 7 element 50mm axiom with 56 degree field was nice, but the televue 55 is the best one currently available (I haven't used the 50mm takahashi but I assume it is great, but it has to have at least a 45mm field stop for me to be interested). Also the 55 plossl fits your green lettered theme.
Hi Ed, as always another great episode of your show. One thing to note though, especially for beginners: If you are wearing eyeglasses due to astigmatism, those short Naglers and Ploessls may not work well for you! Maybe some suggestion for long eye relief eyepiece would be welcome as well. I know this very well as I am one of those people myself! I have a whole set of Vixen LVs for that purpose. I did not get on with the ultrawides... Cheers!
Yes, I re-watch some of your great videos. Primarily an astrophotographer, most of my eyepieces came with telescopes I bought. The exceptions include a Meade 2" 21mm wide field, Meade 8-24mm zoom, and an Orion 40mm Plossl. The Meade 21mm is a bargain with great optics comparable to much more expensive eyepieces and gives fabulous views through my 10" Orion Dobsonian. The Orion 40mm is theoretically a misfit for the 10" Dob but the views are wide and bright. The zoom is just handy for quickly checking out objects before selecting a single focal length eyepiece. Now you got me want to take a peek through a Televue Panoptic.
My two personal go-tos are a TeleVue 24mm Panoptic and a 9mm Nagler. The view of M13 through the 9mm in my 10" Dob is breathtaking. I use that view as a star party showpiece object. Yes, I do bring the good stuff with me but I actually carry them on my person if I step away from the scope. I have star party eyepieces I leave in the scope. My public set of eyepieces, beyond cheap 25mm and 10mm Plossls is a set of Astro-Tech ED Paradigms. They fit into a nice small case and they work well in my 400mm to 1200mm focal length scopes I tend to bring out for such things. I have a TeleVue 55mm Plossl for two purposes. One, it is a conversation piece. It is a monster eyepiece comparable to the 31mm Nagler "grenade". The second is actually for purpose. It is for very long focal length telescopes. One of my bucket list items is to take it to Mount Wilson and use it in their 100 inch scope when I rent it for a evening. It has already been to Lowell Observatory and spent time in a 24 inch Planewave available for evening rentals there. They wouldn't let me put it in the Clark refractor but, true to form, they had a TeleVue eyepiece in it!
I use a 22mm Nagler type 4 almost exclusively. I use it on everything from my 72mm 420mm refractor and 6" Newtonian, to my C8 and 10" dobsonian. It's just a pleasure to look through. The other eyepieces I enjoy are my set of Meade 5000 HD-60 series eyepieces which range from 4.5 to 25mm. They're quite versatile for the price I paid for the set ($350). The ones that get occasional use are the 12 and 18mm pieces. On rare occasion I will pull out the 6.5mm for lower power scopes when the seeing is good. The others largely go unused. In the end, I generally agree with Ed. I only use a few eyepieces. I have gotten rid of pretty much everything else and I don't miss them.
I really like my Pentax XL eyepieces. I started with the 21, 10.5 & 5.2 for my 16"f4.5 dob. I like how the plastic cups unscrew and put my eye in a perfect position for a great, relaxing view. The 21mm gets the most use followed by the 5.2 for Saturn & Jupiter at 350x.
Over the years (I am 76 now) I had several TeleVues in Radian, Plossel, Panoptic and even the "Terminagler"....the 31 which I hated. Now I have all the Pentax XLs, I kept one of the TeleVues....the 32mm Plossl....and one TMB planetary and an old UO Ortho. I sold all the other Tele Vue. I use a variety of APO refractors.... 80mm and 152mm from Officina Stellare, a TV 85 APO, and Celestron SCTs in 8" and 11" HD. I am mainly an astrophotographer but now my main eyepieces are Pentax because they are so easy to use unlike others that may be OK but not comfortable to use for long periods of time due to artifacts, kidney bean shadows, eye relief (I often wear glasses). I like the gas sealing of the Pentax so they won't get internally dewed up. With the refractors my most used eyepiece is a Pentax 8-24 zoom. It is optically excellent despite a narrower FOV and like the other Pentax's is gas sealed. With a refractor the zoom allows me to "adjust" the background brightness which can reveal a lot of detail often missed if you stick to one focal length. It is almost like a variable contrast feature. Others that have used mine also got one and found the same feature that many people don't realize is a benefit. I have a friend that has a Tak 150 TOA and he found that he liked my zoom Pentax so much he bought one and found it his most used eyepiece also. I would say that it is less useful with my SCTs...mainly due to the the SCT longer focal lengths. I don't have a DOB anymore but if I did the 31 "Terminagler" and similar ultra wide FOV eyepieces is nice to avoid the constant moving the scope over to keep the object in the FOV....but they give unacceptable artifacts in the image with a fine refractor and centering of the objects is not an issue with my tracking mounts. So in short the real answer is to match the eyepiece type and focal length to the type of scope and mount you have AND how you will use it....planets, lunar, deep sky, Ha solar, etc. If you have a factory diagonal with a mid to low end refractor or SCT in most cases they are the limiting factor....not the eyepiece. I always tell people that before getting another eyepiece they would be better off with a much better diagonal from TV, AP, BAADER, etc.
You are right on the money I think. I have a 30 mm 2" barrel Apertura combined with an Apertura 2x barlow. The barlow gives me the extra magnification I like sometimes, plus the barlow gives the focal range I need to couple my Nikon DSLR to the 8 inch Dobsonian.
Just a note for owners of Maksutov- and Schmidt-Cassegrains with apertures less than 9.25": Compare your Baffle Tube's inner diameter with the Eyepiece's Field stop before buying. Most 2" EPs will vignette the image. Cats 6" and under will only safely utilize 1.25" EPs without vignetting, except the C90 Mak, which is limited to EPs w/FS=
Great video, Ed! I’m pretty much in line with you… my two (90%) workhorse eyepieces are TV 24mm Panoptic and TV 9mm Nagler Type 6. They are both 1.25” and that just makes it easy regardless of the scope.
It’s really nice to see you doing videos after all the years of reading your reviews in writing. Thanks for giving us great advice and honest reviews of of the myriad of telescopes available (and NOT available!) to us amateurs.
I too use a 12.5 and 32 Plossil 90% of the time. Star fields to planets. Occasionally I use a 25mm for relaxed viewing of nebula or galaxy smuges and sometimes for Saturn I use a 6mm. I ended up with two boxes 4mm to 25mm that came with second hand scope buys. They mostly stay in the box. I just have smaller 5" SC 900mmFL and 4.5" 1000mmFL true classic Newtonian. Small house, and they take up less room. We have the university observatory only 20mi away with open house nights on Friday for my big scope fix. Living on a very remote mountain in a national forest gives me excellent views with smaller scopes. I just have a LOT of trees so I only get 100degrees of the sky any leafy month.
I've recently got a 20mm "100° AFOV" eyepiece (Sky Rover, APM, W.O., etc.), and now I don't want anything with a narrower field. It's not perfect, but it costed less than a quarter of the price of a televue ethos, so I think it's good enough for me.
Yes, the 27mm Panoptic is a personal top choice of mine. I picked up a set of TV Radians when that series was being phased out and on sale. Great eyepieces in my refractors for viewing the Moon, planets and splitting doubles. Your videos are always well produced and have interesting content. Thanks!
I was never a huge radian fan, they are a tad on the dim side, and the cheaper tmb/burgess planetary eyepieces performed almost just as well. When televue discontinues a line and replaces it with something else, like the delite, there is usually a reason. Except in the case of the 26mm nagler, that reason was stupidity, but in all reality, it was probably due to low sales as many considered the 31mm and the 26mm redundant, and opted to go for the 31mm. There weren't many requests for the 26mm when I worked at opt. 2 less expensive, but near equally performing options straddle the 26mm focal length. The 24mm es82 (or used 23mm axiom LX/meade 24mm UWA, all 3 the same optics), and the 28mm WO Uwan/orion megaview/meade PWA). Note, the 30mm ES82 has noticeably worse edge performance than the 31 nagler, the 23/24 is the star in the 2" line of 82s. The 28 is made by the same company that make the 20mm XWA/HDC 100deg eyepieces, that is surprisingly close to the 21mm ethos.
@@edtingbut yeah, they might become collectors items that is for sure. But delite is a huge improvement, with ethos genetics, as I am sure all DE prefixed eyepieces refer to Paul Delachaie, the designer of the ethos, which was morphed into the Delos and Delite to cover the long eye relief market
@@k.h.1587 I've since picked up a set of flat top Brandon's to pair with my 100mm f/8 Takahashi apo and 6" f/12 ISTAR achromatic refractors. (The 48mm Brandon was getting lonely!) 😄
Ed, I always enjoy your videos, reviews and advice. I may not always agree with your recommendations but I can certainly see the logic in what you suggest. No one will go wrong following your advice. When I started in this hobby 8 years ago, I was told the same thing you said. There is Tele Vue and there is everything else.In my hobbies I rarely buy the top of the line of anything because I know that it costs a LOT to get that extra 5% of whatever it is that makes one product better than another. So I standardized on Explore Scientific 82 degree eyepieces. I have compared them to comparable Naglers. There is a difference but not enough for me to pay the significant premium for the TV. I have them from 14 mm to to 4.7 mm. But my most used 1.24" is my Baader Hyperion 8-24 zoom.
I purchased an Ultra-Wide 14mm Meade 2" eyepiece back in 1992 and boy did it make a huge difference in my viewing times and overall experience viewing deep sky objects as well as the planets. I still have and use this 14mm exclusively. It runs the middle ground between a 27 or 32mm and a high power 10 or 6.5mm. Great eyepiece... optics were made in Japan. Another informative video Ed...thanks!
@@edtingI'm one of them, but not exclusively. I find the 14mm and 8.8 to be better than the type1 13 and 9, but not better than the type6 versions. Plus the meades tend to cost a little less used, and a lot less than the type 6. And nobody can touch the 31mm, the closest being the 28mm uwan/megaview/PWA. 1.25 to 2" adapters are cheap enough to get multiples and dedicate them your type 6s. The type 6 has more comfortable and forging eye relief, better edges and most importantly, contrast and brightness.
I have TeleVue and Pentax eyepieces. 20mm and below are Pentax. I just cannot comfortably use 15mm and below TeleVue. So, most used are 35mm Panoptic, 20 and 10mm Pentax. 20mm Pentax is champion!
For myself, I make use of an f/14 100mm EQ Mak, and a 10" f/5 Newtonian dob. And, the two best I use are a 40mm & 20mm Plossl. The planetary scope can make use of a 12.5mm on clock drive, and one can also daringly use a 4.5mm on the 10" - however, I've found the 40mm and 20mm (with occasional use of a 12.5mm) seem to be the best and most used eyepieces for me.
As an ameteur night skygazer, I've learned enough from Ed over the years to qualify as a bonafide expert! He's saved me countless hours and dollars. Love this channel. Cheers.
Nice explanation of your choices. I agree about the ~ 13mm eyepiece being one of the most used, but for a slightly different reason: I prefer to think in terms of exit pupils. An exit pupil of 2mm is easy for the eye to use, while nicely darkening the background sky. With my scopes in the f/6 and f/7 ballpark, that would mean a 13mm eyepiece. I had a 13 Nagler Type 6, but the eye positioning is not as easy. I got a 14 Delos, love that (super comfortable and with an expansive ocular) and sold the Nagler; they're both close in price. I've extensively tried the Ethos line and I just do not see (ha ha) the hype, especially for the price - so as you said, it's very personal. After the 13mm, either go up to an exit pupil of 4mm or down to 1mm: so, ~ 26mm or ~ 6.5mm. Here, the resultant magnification becomes a bigger factor and what your local conditions most often allow. For my f/7 TV85, it's between the 31 Nagler and the 8 Delos. Thank you!
2mm exit pupil is definitely a sweet spot for general purpose DSO observing. It's consistent no matter what scope I use. In my F/5.4 scope, my 10mm eyepiece is my most used focal length. It can live in the focuser most of the night. Yes, "only" 1.85mm exit pupil, but close enough. In my F/13 Mak, the 24 Pan is a match made in heaven. In my F/7 refractor, my 14mm eyepiece is perfect for cruising through most DSOs until I need either more magnification, a wider view, or a brighter view (when using nebula filters). EVERYONE should have an eyepiece that produces close to a 2mm exit pupil for their scope. Perfect balance of view brightness and magnification for general purpose deep sky observing. Multiply the telescope's focal ratio by 2 and that's the eyepiece focal length you need for a 2mm exit pupil.
I also have my share of Televue eyepieces but having to select only two, neither would be a TV. For wide field, it would be the 28mm UWA 82-degree Astro-Tech which is also sold under other brands and based on the old UWAN design with better ergonomics. This is a good substitute for the 26mm Nagler which is no longer made and fetches a high price on the used market. For everything else, I'd choose the 7.7-15.4mm APM Super Zoom to dial-in on the right power for the object being viewed. My other eyepieces are more specialized in nature like the 21mm-10mm-6mm Ethos for big dobs, 25mm ES100 for SCTs wide field, 20mm 84-degree Widescan IIIs for SCT binoviewing, 17mm ES92 for outreach, etc. For general purpose, I've found the UWA and Super Zoom to be the most useful.
Good to hear your praise for the AT 28mm UWA 82°, I just ordered one a few days ago. I’ll be using it with a 13 Ethos though because I rather have that large AFOV. If the seeing is good I turn the 13 Ethos to a 6.5mm or 5.2mm with 2x and 2.5x Powermates for up to 230x Magnification in my 8” Dobsonian.
For my homemade 131mm refractor at 700mm seems to work quite well with a 10mm and a 40mm eyepiece, I know they are wildly different but it does function well.
Ed....Nice article. One thing many people miss.... if your scope came with a factory diagonal such as the ones on SCTs.... a better first investment would be a much better diagonal from TV, Astro Physics, BAADER, etc. A stock diagonal is just a choke on the performance of a higher end eyepiece. Of course that isn't an issue with a DOB (no diagonal used) but is on a SCT or medium to low end refractor.
Hello Ed, Great advice on eyepieces! I took your recommendation on the Televue 27mm Panoptic, and you are correct--I take it wherever I go with my Celestron 9.25 SCT. I would mention one other eyepiece you briefly mentioned--the TeleVue 55mm Plossl. I use StarSense to align my Celestron SCT, often requiring a second-step calibration. I have NEVER failed to get my reference star in the FOV using the 55mm. It is a significant way to acquire alignment without searching outside the FOV. I also want you to know that I caution your viewers about zoom eyepieces. I am down to only one--the Baader Mark IV. I keep it primarily for terrestrial views using my Orion ED80CF. It is a big disappointment for planetary use--I have had some success with lunar observing with the Mark IV. For planetary views with my 9.25 SCT, nothing beats the 18.5mm and 9mm DeLite eyepieces by TeleVue. Less expensive than the Delos but still spectacular for Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn. EJN
Many years ago when I first got into the hobby I got to try out a 19mm Panoptic and it blew me away (NexStar 11). At least on the first couple nights. After that....meh. Naglers never did capture my attention like most of my buddies. You mentioned the 19mm panoptic a video or two ago and decided to finally buy one (I need another eye piece like a need another motorcycle but life is shorter now :^) ). A few years go by and I discovered Pentax and just loved the adjustable eye cup design (optics were nothing to complain about either) so of all the eye pieces I have they get the most use. For some reason I like the older Celestron orange labeled eye pieces - I suppose they just work well in my scopes. I have a couple full sets of "cheaper" eye pieces that work well in slow scopes, not so much in fast refractors. Kinda too good for public outreach but they do get pressed into work for that as they are "cheap" to replace. Which has not happened yet. People have asked me the same question; I tell 'em to get to a star party and check things out with their eyes. What happens if they are not impressed with the $500 eye pieces but click with the $100 one?
Great video Ed. I’m in Australia. My main eyepiece is a Badger HyperionMK4 Zoom. I love it. I use it in my Ed120 and edge Hd and my Nadirus Dob. 24mm-8mm gives a wide range of magnification. But it has its sweet spot @ the 16 or 12 mm. I hate changing out eyepieces during the night. So I love this baader. Yes one day I will by a televue. 😮
Ed, Thanks for the video. I agree with Televiews being superior. For those of us that can’t swing that amount of coin for those Naglers; I did a side by side at a start party between a Nagler and a Williams Optic swan series. I saw very little differences in the center FOV, and slightly more on the edges. Also-my 2 EP’s for most star parties are a Speers-Whaler 10mm and my Williams 26mm. And for public star parties with a bunch of kids,I agree with plossls 9-25mm , but i keep a few top shelf EP’s in my hoody pocket for a quick swap for someone who really shows an interest. I am amazed that there are those who will go to a free event, use our equipment, and then steal an eyepiece. Keep up the great work. Good video and audio on these.
Do the same with a william optics UWAN (now available as meade PWA), and you will see it hold up surprisingly well against the nagler. Definitely in the big 28mm, as I never really looked through the 4, 7, and 16mm ones, since I always had naglers or meade UWAs in those focal ranges already, I can't personally vouch for them, but that 28 holds up well next to the 31 and 26mm naglers
It’s always a good day when Ed posts a new video. Today is no exception. This is one of the best videos I’ve seen on eyepieces. I need to compare Eds recommended eyepieces to my personal collection and seriously think about making some modifications to my collection. Thanks Ed for sharing your knowledge with the community. Very much appreciated. Hope all is well. Ed.
Nice intro to eyepiece collecting. I have more than I need, but cool to have them. Televue are the standard.have several eyepieces from their different lineups, panoptic, nagler, radian, all great eyepieces
Ed, I have both the 27mm PanOptic and the 24mm PanOptic and use both about equally. My 13mm and 16mm Naglers are better for magnification, but I use the for planetary viewing. Oh, I both most all of my eyepieces directly from Al’s shop. I don’t share these only with my closest friends and family.🎉
Oh, l almost forgot to say that I have been following you for a long while, even before the RUclips channel was a dream. Do you still have the Meade ETX scopes and do you use them?
I bought a cheap beginner set, and it was on sale, too. Haven't found one I like yet...but then haven't been able to use them much because either weather wasn't cooperating, wind, rain, clouds, haze, etc. I do appreciate your experience in such matters, and wrote a few of them down. Thank you for the advice.
Thanks for the video. In the past I had an 8 inch Dob and used the 27 Panoptic & 12 Nagler T4 with Antares 1.6 Barlow. Getting back into the hobby and this time getting the 10 inch. Planning on using the same eyepieces!
Thank you for sharing this instructive video. I just subscribed to your channel after watching a couple of your videos. I have a few years experience with telescopes. My current telescope is the Orion 10" Newtonian on a German equatorial mount I purchased in 2000. Unfortunately because of unforseen events in life I haven't viewed through it since 2007. I hope to change that before I get too old. I'm almost 63. After purchasing my telescope I purchased much higher quality oculars, or eyepieces. I have advised people for years that even if you purchase a low price telescope that disappoints your expectations to not give up. Spend a little more and replace the low quality oculars with high quality oculars. Your video is an inspiration for me to get back into astronomy. To say I have missed it is an understatement.
I own a 10 inches dobsonian that I use under a slight polluated urban sky. My top picks are from the Explore Scientific brand : 30mm 82°, 12mm 92°. Honorable mentions to the 17mm 92° (for some designated targets), and 4.5mm 82° LER (for planetary, when the sky allows it) They are quite cheaper than Televue's, but not quite neutral, but since I wear glasses, I enjoy how comfortable they are. Yet, again, very personal feeling.
For newer observers, I'd recommend the less expensive (but quality) alternatives. That 10% improvement that a Televue offers over some competitors is notices only when you're deep into the hobby, like any hobby. It takes a while to become a connoisseur, and, because it's such a personal taste issue, it's good to own a bunch of eyepieces over time. Because they're comparatively easy to buy and sell, they can work their way up to the Big Investment items. I won't notice any flaws in my ES 100s until I start spending a lot of time with Ethos's - which I won't do (call it "Vice Management" (same reason I'm choosing not to develop a taste for Scotch)). Great video, of course. Keep them coming!
First of all hello and I hope you're doing well. I have no clue about anything astronomy or telescopes. Your video just popped up on a search engine. I want to compliment you on your communicating with the people. I only had to stop a couple times and look up some of the words on a Google search. You really did well and communicated very well. Thank you for your time. And for your patience of the little ones eating your lense cups. I could deal with that. But I definitely could not deal with a thief. It's amazing your donating your time which is so valuable, for people to learn. Best of times to you on those you love
I have a SW 8” f/6 dob. When I was ready to upgrade the eyepieces, I read the forums. What I saw was “as good as a TV” or “TV killer” and so on. So it was obvious that TV is the standard, and I shouldn’t waste my time with other brands. I know from my behavior in other hobbies I will end up there eventually. So I bought a 24mm Pan. When I looked through it the first time, my reaction was “oh, so this is what all the fuss is about.” The view was sharp and clear. I followed that up with the 13mm type 6, and eventually a 9 and 7. But the 24 and 13 get the most time in the scope.
Thanks for the insight. Yes, I find people who write "xxx is just as good" are usually engaging in a form of confirmation bias to justify their purchase of the less expensive product.
Another great video by Ed! My Televue 35mm Pan and 22mm Nagler4 are used the most for sky surfing/ Milky Way watching @ 600mm refractor scope. I have the entire set of Delos EP's that I use for planetary and everything I want a closer view. Though Televue cost more, it makes no sense to go big on the telescope and then cheap out on the EP- especially when the EP is at least 50% of your tool power. In addition to Televue being benchmark quality they also can provide you with a big viewing lens area that gives you a true "porthole" window into the skies.... PS- The 24mm Pan is a good piece if you want lightweight and are Ok with a smaller lens area...
Likewise, the rest of us hope your comment is not overvalued as IT's range has definitely been more than equalled and bettered previously... . @@Astronurd
I'm in my 70's and been doing this since I was 12. I remember when the rage in eyepieces was the Orthoscopic and I'd never heard of a Plossl. I've never used the premium eyepieces, but now you make me want to get a TeleVue or Naglar. Personally, I've never seen any difference in eyepieces of different brands and always thought they were made by the same maker. Over the years I gained a collection of the Paul Rini surplus glass eyepieces, and if you can get by without field stops they work as well as anything I've seen.
Thanks for a very good post on eyepieces. I have a good selection of TV eyepieces I use on my fast Dobs. On my slower telescopes, and for planetary views, I like to use my University Orthoscopics.
I have the SVBony 6,9,15,20 set under the brand of AngelEyes.. they are great. Then of course the SVBony zoom 7-21mm is pretty good for reaching optimum magnification on various DSOs. My favorite are probably the 2" 32mm and 40mm, AngelEyes brand.. 70 degree view. Maybe I will also get the 26mm to complete the set.
Hi Ed... thanks for taking up this challenge. I used a 27 mm my 10in f4.7 Dob for years... agreed great ep. But, now for me the Pentax 30mm XW is preferred. Cheers -Greg W
I would probably take a 30xw over a 27 pan as well, but in the case of the 40mm XW, there is field curvature, so a 41 pan or 40 es68/5k SWA is the way I would go, after owning both the 40xw and 40SWA (and older 4k SWA) at the same time. The high value of the 40xw, and minimal on axis improvement over the japanese 4k swa, and the refocusing required to bring the edge in focus, had me decide to part with the XW when I needed money. IIRC the 30 didn't have thar issue. But I never owned one, just the 20 and the 40, although a friend really liked his 30
@@k.h.1587 I will buy a 10 inch dob, do you think I should trust APM 30 mm 70 degree eye piece, is it a great quality optics? I don't plan to get a Coma corrector anytime soon. Is it so bad the astigmatism on these type of wide field eyepieces? Could I get decent sharp views at least in the middle? Or what else would you recommend for DSO's? high quality eyepiece?
I’m finally getting around to filming my eyepiece review for All-Star Telescope. 3D printing custom iPhone adapters for 2 inch barrel eyepieces, and making an artificial sky out of a giant sign and a black tablecloth so we can film during the day. Giant moon map and printed images of deep sky objects. And an excel file to get the image scale correct, and a giant tent to block the Sun and wind….
I have a Zeiss 25mm widefield long eye relief microscope eyepiece with a 1.25” barrel conversion which is my favorite. I use my classic TV Plossls and a few Circle T orthos for planets. For star parties I go to the Celestron 25 mm Plossl or a TMB or Zhumell long eye relief 9-13mm 127mm Orion Makstov 155mm AP Star 155ED
I go by exit pupil. Focal length of eyepiece divided by the f number of the scope. 1mm exit for high power planets/lunar, 2mm exit for bad seeing days for planets/lunar and small DSO (clusters and galaxies), and then 4-5mm exit for low power under suburban skies (Bortle 4 and worse). If I had darker sky available, I'd go to 6 or 7mm max, but that's just not available to me. I own dozens of eyepieces, partly because I have telescopes as fast as f/4 and as slow as f/15 and several in between. I don't have a C14 but I have a 12" LX200, and that's close enough. In an 8" f/6, that comes to a 6mm, 12mm, 24-30mm. Close enough is fine, so Ed's 13mm Nagler and 27mm Pan are still very much in line with how I do it in an 8" f/6. But, I'd also add something shorter for a truly close look at say Jupiter. As for brands? I'm happy with Explore Scientific 82 degree eyepieces for the bulk of my viewing. Their 30mm is my favorite by far. For star parties and knock around (I've often left equipment in my car, which makes it likely to be stolen), I go with Orion Stratus (discontinued) and Baader Hyperion for lengths 24mm and shorter, plus GSO SuperView for 30mm and longer. The Stratus, Hyperion and SuperView lines are all available for sub $100 especially used. They have a 68 degree field of view and I feel provide a better view than a Plossl while still not being so expensive as to worry a ton about theft or smudging. To my eyes, a Plossl is a Plossl, and I don't like Plossls shorter than 15mm in focal length. So, they don't get much use. I don't see much reason to go to TeleVue for a Plossl. The exception is 32mm. Those give me a 4mm exit in my often used f/8 Orion XT4.5 mini Dob. I built a riser platform for it that makes it no different to use than an 8" Dob, except that it fits in my life a lot better when camping. A 32mm Plossl and an 8-24mm Zoom are my eyepiece kit for camping with the XT4.5. Covers the 1,2,4mm exit pupil scheme, with a built in 3mm intermediate step at 24mm in the Zoom. I used to feel like I HAD to upgrade eyepieces until I got the ES82s. After those, I've had very few moments that made me say "I NEED THAT, NOW." They may be "everything else" to Ed, but they're fine by me. I also got them used pre pandemc, The pricing of ES82s has changed a bit since then. When I was buying eyepieces, I described the experience as 95-98% of TeleVue at 1/3 the cost. If I only ever used my 8" f/6, I could sell everything, get 3 Naglers and be happy, but that's not how I roll. After ES's price increases, if I was buying today, I'd consider TeleVue a lot more, but I'd still skip all but the 32mm in consideration if Plossl shopping.
Don't forget the 1.5mm exit pupil trick for globular clusters. As for superviews, I have to say that the best in the line is the lone 4 element 15mm. The 30mm is second best, and the 42 and 50 are very disappointing, the 42 is considerably field stopped, not using the whole 2" field, and barely 60 degrees if even that, with a fuzzy field stop to boot. The 50 is even worse, a cheap meade or celestron 56mm plossl is a better option. The 30mm is not that bad though, at least in slow scopes. The 15mm beat my 15mm meade QX on contrast and transmission, and when paired with a gso barlow lens threaded directly to the barrel it becomes a poor man's pentax, sharp to the edge even at f5. It was my ultimate outreach eyepiece for m13 in my c11, always the best view on the field And to further throw the 42mm superview under the bus, the also GSO made 3 element 2" 40mm e-lux , also sold as the meade 2" eyepieces kit and several other brands, has a wider apparent AND true field of view, with a cleaner field stop and much better contast and transmission than the superview. Both are erroneously miss advertised, the superview over advertised as having a 65deg field like the 15 and 30, when it is actually much less, probably 58deg, and the 3 element ones are always advertised as 56deg, which the 26mm is, but both the 32 and 40mm are actually wider. A look at the tiny lenses in the 26mm makes that clear, they could fit in 1.25". I now am again stuck with a 42 superview as a stop gap until I can replace my stolen 4k 40mm SWA for my f10 scopes, then I got my hands on an older astrola branded gso 40mm 3 element, and yep, wider afov, sharper field stop, and if you look down the bottom of both you can see the field stop is bigger than the 42mm superview. I previously used the e-lux version that lived in my 8"ota case in my car trunk, since I was always doing outreaches, and sometimes impromptu sessions, so I kept a set of it and other cheap 3 element widefields (plastic body 65 deg 20mm and 10mm widened out to 70+) and a 25mm plossl, so I could always be able to show a range of objects. And that cheap 10mm had a bigger lens than a 10mm plossl. Many times, the 3 element cheapies would out perform my 5 and 6 element outreach widefields, superviews and QX/ES70. and one last thing about the superviews, the 20mm was not so great and the briefly offered 10mm was a rainbow of chromatic garbage. Someone on astromart offered me a fossil watch for my 20mm superview and a took it in a heart beat. The 15 and the 30 are the only keepers in the set. Too bad mine was stolen, it had the earlier heavy brass barrel, the newer ones with aluminum barrels feel cheap, even though I would probably grab a 15 again, no need for the 30, but since I now have the plastic cheapie 3 element 15, which is the widest in the line at about 70, I probably won't even hunt down another 15 superview. But it does hold a big place in my heart, and had better coatings than the plastic bodied cheapies. Cheap eyepieces can be obsessed over just as much as premium ones. All it takes is a touch of aspergers and alot of public and private outreach experience. I even got paid for it for a while.
Great video. I got hooked on the 82 degree eyepieces and prefer the Explore Scientific series. They just work well for me and my amateur eyesight finds them very sharp. I also recommend the 8 inch Dobs to anybody that asks. I use that one the most. Thank you for your brutal honesty about the star party stuff - I'd heard that thefts do happen which is why I always whip out the generic eyepieces then.
Great Video Ed Back in the late 90’s I was gifted a small Meade ETX and it came with the Meade 4000 series (made in Japan). I did side by side comparisons with Televue and didn’t see much of a difference, so I stayed with Meade’s with the Plossls, and the Naglar counter part the UWA 14 with 82° FOV. I since have had bought two 19 Panoptics and the 32 plossl. Very addictive hobby. The last few years I’ve moved the addiction to binoculars.
Yeah the older japanese plossls are great. The best ones are the smoothside, as they are the early 5 element design. 5 element versions also exist with rubber grips and cups, they have japan engraved on the black body. The 4 element ones have japan engraved on the silver barrel. The series 4000 UWA 84 degrees are exceptional, though older ones are a little on the dim side, but so are older naglers from the same time period. Some of the later rubber versions of the 4k UWA have better coatings, and no optical design changes from the early versions, unlike the plossls. I only like the older SWA from that series, mainly the 40mm, as a max field superwide for SCTs and f10 refractors, because being just copies of the televue widefield, they aren't good in fast scopes. I am on my second round of collecting those plossls, having the whole set again, including the 56mm smoothie, but my 40, 15 and 9.7 are 4 elements this time, and my 32mm being a rubber 5 element version, I find it a little narrower than the smoothie 32 I used to have, which actually had wider lenses and a wider body. This 32mm is narrower than the others other than the 40 of course, and even a chinese 32mm is wider. It is odd that they made such a narrow bodied 32mm. I also have a 32mm televue smoothside plossl and a 35mm ultima, which is a sweet eyepiece, splitting the difference between soda straw 40s and standard 32s, at 49deg. I'm rocking rubber 4k UWAs this time around, 6.7, 8.8 and 14. And the 5k 4.7
i mainly use orion plossl eyepieces in the 32mm, 25mm and 20mm with their 2x shorty barlow. suits my needs well. i also have a orion 120 short tube refractor as my scope of choice along with a celestron 70mm travel scope if i dont want to drag the 120 out.
Hi there Ed Thank you for so many years of reviews and help with astronomy and way back to before the Internet.. excellent video on two eyepieces ,, question for you , on your far left side what is that orion deepview ? ,, Thank you .
Great presentation Ed. Totally agree with eyepieces being a very personal experience. I used to have a 13T6, but get this, I found it’s fov too narrow. ER was also too short. Replaced it with Nikon 14/17 which I mostly use as a 14mm. I would also say I agree with “TV & everything else” with Nikon eyepieces being the exception that proves the rule. But you ain’t saving any money on the Nikons and can be hard to find. Additional benefit of TV eyepieces: if they don’t work out for you, e.g. 13T6 in my case, you can sell them for minimal loss, sometimes actually gain. 😊
![BLACK BAG - Official Trailer [HD] - Only in Theaters March 14](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/Du0Xp8WX_7I/mqdefault.jpg)
![Blox Fruits Dragon Rework Update [Full Stream]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/EqDAp8udhm0/mqdefault.jpg)
I'm only a little interested in astronomy but can't get enough of Ed's presentation, he truly is the standard for this kind of content. I love how Ed presents the reasoning and experience behind his opinion rather than just the opinions themselves.
Right?! I wish every news anchor and professor were more like him. This dude could make trig cool.
Thats why I just subbed after watching a few of his videos. Its not just opinion, its opinion with reasoning demonstrated which is great for understanding.
I started this hobby following Ed's advice and will be forever grateful. It was the right advice, time tested.
You fancy him
The story of the kid eating the eyepiece rubber... Priceless....
BHAHAHA great one
Is Ed responsible for the medical bills?
Thank you. At 66 yeara old i finally have time to really check out astronomy. I just got my first telescope since childhood and am trying to understand eyepieces.
You video is very helpful.
I’m too just starting out, are you still interested in astronomy? Never too late to start!!
Hello Ed, I've just recently found your channel a few weeks ago, and binge-watched probably all your videos. I just wanted to say I really appreciate all the thoughts and work you have put in the making of these highly educational and valuable videos, and for sharing all the wisdom and experience! Thank you, Sir! :)
That was all of us when we discovered it too. Welcome 😊
From the nearly 10 articles that I read when I was a beginner, one stood clearly over the others, and that was Ed's. That's why I started in this on the right foot.
Completely agree with using cheap eyepieces for star parties. Inexperienced viewers won't appreciate the quality of an expensive eyepiece, and cleaning sticky fingermarks off the cheap ones is fine. I always take 2 or 3 and keep the spares in my jacket pocket in case a kid pokes the one on the scope.
Totally
About two years ago, I got my first scope, a 102 mm Mak, with a 1300 mm FL. It came with one eyepiece, a decent but not great 25 mm Plossl. So I found this video reviewer, Ed Ting, who told me to get a better eyepiece at the same FL. But he also said, if anything else, to consider going to a longer FL, thus picking up more angle and brightness. So I got a 32 mm TeleVue Plossl, and you guessed it, I use it almost exclusively. Such a solidly built optic with a great feel, nicely coated lenses with zero reflections visible, a very comfortable eye relief, and not too expensive (a little under $150 then), and miraculously it was in stock during the pandemic shutdown and supply shortages.
You are spot-on about TeleVue's quality, and yeah, I get nervous when I let kids look through (the first thing they do is grab the eyepiece).
Ed is right IMHO, the Tele Vue eyepieces are top of the class (there are Nikon, Noblex, Pentax, Zeiss that rate just as high or higher but they are either more expensive, limited focal lengths or just plain near impossible to get). That said, not everyone can afford Tele Vue, in the little bit cheaper category but 90%+ as good IMO are the Explore Scientific series...and I have heard great things regarding the Morpheus series from Baader, but have never looked through any. If you are on a very limited budget and do not have a very fast scope (F5 or faster) the Dual-ED eyepieces are a nice, discernible upgrade from the eyepieces that come with most scopes, these are sold by many under different names ...StarGuider Dual ED from Agena are the ones I have tried (people seem to like the very inexpensive Svbony eyepieces as well...but again I have never tried them and also it sounds like their various lines and FL's are not always consistent). In the end you get what you pay for. Buy once, cry once is very applicable to Telescopes and Eyepieces.
My favorite eyepiece for my 12" F5 dob is a 31mm Nagler. It's simply fantastic, and worth every penny I paid for it.
Similar situation here with me, an amateur astronomer for 40+ years. I've had many eyepieces but quickly realized that most didn't get used and were just trophy pieces and not utilitarion. My set includes All TeleVue:
13 Nagler Type 5: Great all around for highest usedful power in my Missouri atmosphere. Paired with a 2X barlow when possible.
24mm Panoptic: Great for globulars and galaxies in many scopes.
32mm Plossl: First eyepiece to use for everything.
35mm Panoptic: For when super wide and bright is necessary (Veil). Not always used due to weight
Great video, Ed!
Hello Ed. I completely agree and am in your camp. I had what I thought were higher end ED eyepieces for years and was very happy....until I bought my first Televue Delite just two years ago. The difference was literally night and day. So much more clarity, detail on planets and brighter too. Andromeda and the Orion Nebula suddenly became larger than life. Never knew what I was missing. My kit now contains just 3 Televue Delites and one 26mm 2" eyepiece which will also soon become a Televue (when I save up the money). All of my "old" eyepieces have gone into a box that is collecting dust in the corner of my room. As you said, "buy it once". Highly recommended.
Nice story. If you can find the discontinued 26mm Nagler Type 5, that is my favorite in that line. If you can't find one, you might have to "settle" for the 31mm Nagler.
@edting looking to purchase my first telescope. Looking to stay around $1,200-1,500 any suggestions?
@@edting hello I have a StarSense explorer DX 102 AZ telescope. Supposing my budget limit is $300. What is the optimal eyepiece to get?
Two years ago I took Ed's advice and bought the Panoptic 27mm for my 8" f/6 Newtonian. I am a happy camper! Thanks Ed!
For an f/6 8" Orion Intelliscope (unfortunately no longer made), I use three eye pieces: Panoptic 24mm, Nagler 13T6, and either a Orion Expanse 9mm or the Nagler 7T6 depending on seeing conditions and for targets like globular clusters. Why the Orion Expanse 9mm? It's a 66 degree eyepiece which is affordable ($40-$50 USD), but known for its quality. I base this eyepiece set on exit pupil as many others have posted.
Another more affordable set is the based on the Agena Starguider Dual ED eyepieces (60 degree field of view): 25mm, 12mm, and 8mm (about $70 USD each) and they're good and a step up from the 25mm Plossl eyepieces that come with many telescopes. I have a set of Starguider eyepieces which I use in smaller scopes like the Orion ST80.
I love watching Ed Ting’s RUclips channel and hope that he keeps them coming:) Always something😂. A kid eating an eyepiece cup. 😮. Maybe he will be a future stargazer who can say that he once ate Ed Tings eyepiece cup. How many of us can say that?:))😂
Hi Ed, I really like your philosophy of keeping things simple. It really adds to the depth of the viewing experience.
Thanks for being such an accessible resource for folks making their foray into astronomy. I've been enjoying using my good ol' binoculars to look at the moon and the stars; looking forward to making a telescope purchase sometime soon. Keep up the great work!
Just made the move from a large binocular used for many years to a 12.5" Dob and loving the change.
Thank you Ed. I got an XT8 after watching almost all your videos, it came with a 25mm plossl and I bought a 10mm. Loved them. Later I got a set from SVBony , 6mm, 9mm, 15mm and 20mm, 68 degree, they made my scope pop. I am a happy camper. Keep up the videos.
Those Svbony 68° eyepieces are great. I love mine.
Ah the gold/red lines. They were also sold as "Orion Expanse" for a while.
If you like them, no reason to toss them, but I'd look into adding a GSO SuperView 30mm for a lowest widest while keeping with the budget theme.
@@BlueTrane2028 I am thinking about a 30mm, but it will have to wait a while, I’m having major surgery the end of the month so it will have to wait. I’ll check it out, thanks.
@@stevemyers7698 …best of luck to you with your upcoming surgery.
One of your best videos yet. I've been agonizing over getting a new eyepiece, so this was perfect. Extremely informative and helpful. Thank you!
Thanks Ed Been trying to decide if purchasing a Televue eyepiece was worth it. SOLD!! can't wait to view them through my various scopes. Keep the videos coming I learn so much everytime!
Frank Rich
My favorite eyepieces are my 13mm Nagler, and my Svbony 26mm SWA 2” and lastly my Explore Scientific 34mm that my wife bought me for Christmas. I also own a Celestron X-Cell 9mm, but I find I struggle to keep my eye centered and my view gets cut off. I use these in my 8” Orion SkyQuest 1200mm focal length telescope. I wish I would have held out for a 10” Dobsonian, but the 8” was all I could afford used at the time. Now cash is even tighter and my dream of a 10” or 12” is on hold indefinitely. It’s more important to fix the broken things in my house first. Lol
My grandson got to look through my telescope just two days ago and was blown away by the Bee Hive Cluster. I thought he would have been more into the moon, but he really loved the Bee Hive. This is why I hope to win the 10” dob giveaway so I can donate the 8” dob to a local children’s program in my area. To see that excitement in their little eyes is so worth it.
I have three eyepieces that I use pretty much exclusively now. My 13mm Nagler gets the most use by far. The 3-6mm Nagler zoom is for planets and the Nagler 22 is wonderful for wide. On my Meade LX90 I now use the 41mm Panoptic for wide field. I have a Celestron 26mm Plossl in my eyepiece projection setup for my mirrorless camera.
If you can use the 3-6 Nagler on an LX90 you must have superb seeing conditions. No way could I do that here.
@@edting I use it more with my Televue 85 but I have used it with the LX90 under good seeing conditions.
Ed I took you advice from the beginning. I have a 10" dobs and 3 Teleview eyepieces. actually the exact ones you showed. You are correct the difference between what came with my scope and the teleview are night and day. Thanks
Hi Ed. This was the video I've been waiting for. I have my collection of Plossl eyepieces, but once I got my first Televue eyepiece, I now have 12 Televue eyepieces. Delites, Delos, and one Nagler. There definitely is a difference. I was hoping to see you at N.E.A.F. a few weeks ago. Maybe next year. We traveled from California.
There's better out there and cheaper as well.
@@Astronurdcheaper maybe, better no. With a few exceptions where the cheaper option matches the televue in a focal length or 2, such as 14mm es100 and meade 5.5uwa, as well as the 28 uwan/PWA. I also found the 20mm XWA/HDC 100deg offered by several brands to be remarkably close to the 21 ethos where the 20mm es100 fell short.
The only cases where cheaper eyepieces outperform naglers is really old ones, type1 and 2, that had shorter eye relief with decades aged, very old technology coatings, that can be beaten by modern Chinese clones of nagler type 5 and 6, which is what the es82 is.
Some of the best eyepieces I' have owned are University Optics. The contrast on their orthoscopic eyepieces are exceptional. I also have a UO 20mm Erfle and a 17mm Konig and never appreciated them until I started going to darker sites. Using those eyepieces is like doubling the aperture of your scope compared to generics. Since UO is defunct I have bought Kokusai Kohki Fujiyama HD-OR Orthoscopics. I think it may be the same manufacturer.
Remember Pretoria distributed by UO?
@@randallrogers6350 I have to say I don't recall that one. It's been so long I think I first bought from UO around early to mid 2000s.
I cherish my old University Optics 25mm Ortho. Used it for 40 years.
I believe the manufacturer for both is/was Ohi in Japan. I had some of the Fujiyamas for a while - 7mm, 9mm, two 12.5mm for binoviewing, and 18mm. The 7 and 9 were exceptional. Both 12.5s were very, very dirty. Aim at the Moon and they lit up like a Christmas tree. It was like someone had been doing drywall construction in the room where the lenses for the 12.5s were waiting for assembly. Contrast was noticeably poor on the Moon because of it. The 18, like the 7 and 9, was exceptional.
I always wanted the MK70 and 80, but settled for 30mm widescan II and III, and 4k 40mm SWA.
I did have some UO HD orthos, the whole set except for my 7mm being an Antares branded one. Dumbest thing I ever did was sell the set too cheaply. Not that it mattered in the long run because they would have been stolen anyway
I own both of those eyepieces, and I 100% agree with your choices!
Your statement, "there is Televue and there is everything else" rings true to my ears. Due to wearing eyeglasses and being on a budget, I started with 32mm and 25mm TV Plossels and then added the Delite series, 24mm Pan and a 2X Barlow. I was talked into another brand for a 30mm wide angle and was sorely disappointed and learned my lesson the hard way. I find 62deg to 68deg nice and am trying to decide on what long FL to get for my 10" f5 Dob.
31 nagler, but that isn't budget. Budget options would be used 30mm meade UWA, 31mm celestron axiom LX, and 30mm es82, which are all actually the same eyepiece, but used celestrons and meades can be found for way less.
An even better performer that is closer in performance to the 26 and 31 naglers is the 28mm william optics UWAN, also available as orion megaview and meade PWA (the current offering, around 300 new). I got my 28 megaview used for less than $200.
The 23mm axiom LX and 24mm meade UWA and 24mm es82 is also a top performer, very nagler like, better than the 30/31 of the same lines.
The celestron luminos versions are made by someone else, and are not as good.
Another surprisingly budget option is the 20mm 100deg XWA/HDC offered by William optics, stellarvue, APM, lunt and others. That one blows the more expensive 20mm es100 out of the water, and comes extremely close to the 21 ethos. I was able to score my WO 20mm XWA for less than $200
I have personally owned the 31 nagler, 14 and 20 es100s, and 23mm axiom LX. And used them in 10" f5 dobs.
They were all stolen, and I now own 28mm megaview and 20mm XWA, and highly recommend them. A used visual paracorr is also something to consider. The current type 2 paracorr is even better but super expensive.
Avoid the photo/visual version as it's design, in order to be used in photo mode, will vignette a 31 nagler, and possibly the 28mm uwan as well. The 20mm xwa would not be affected since it does not use the full 2" field stop. The 23/24mm 82s would probably also not be affected if a photo visual is all you can find.
@@msroper5287 type 3 nagler?
I'm a casual, visual backyard observer. Your videos have helped me avoid some equipment mistakes. Thanks ED
Good discussion Ed and I tend to use just 2 EP for a typical night of viewing as well. My scopes included a C8 for general observing, C90 travel scope, and a low power AT72ED mostly for imaging. Due to the longer native focal lengths I use a simple 32mm Plossl for wide field and a 12.5 Plossl for high Magnification. On very rare nights of excellent seeing I might use a 10mm to push these folded scopes close to their limit on Mars, Jupiter, or Saturn but most nights favor the 12.5.
For outreach especially involving kids I may bring an 8x24 Zoom and just leave it in the scope so hopefully nothing disappears or becomes damaged during a swap. So far that has been my experience but kids really want to touch the instrument.
Cheers!
I started out on simple Baader Classics (32mm Plössl and Classic Ortho 18, 10, 6) and still use those. They're simple, light and offer very good views. But sooner or later I'll try out TV, and probably get hooked…
Hi Ed, I am still pretty new to astronomy, but I bought a Celestron Starsense Explorer 10 inch dobsonian telescope with the Televue 27mm Panoptic eyepiece that you showed in this video and love them both. It is very easy to find targets in the night sky with the StarSense and the views through this eyepiece are wonderful. I bought this eyepiece on your recommendation on an earlier video that you made talking about it. Thanks for recommending it.
Does it really make sense to spend 1/3 of your budget on a single eyepiece?
@@higgs1913 Does it really make sense to question his equipment purchase? It what way, did it affect you?
P.S. It didn't...start your petty argument elsewhere...
I was wavering about buying myself a 13 mm nagler because having a wide angle at 13 milimeters while having a clear image sounds like magic to me. You made the decision a little easier for me, so thank you mate
Nice video. I tend to agree: You don't need a lot of eyepieces, TeleVue is the gold standard, and viewing the sky through a 82°+ makes you addicted and you never wanna go back! I got a 12" Dob and I mainly use the Nagler 7mm for planets and the moon when the conditions allow it, a 12mm Nagler for most smaller deesky objects and a 34mm Explore Scientific Maxvision 2", 68°. The latter is a little cheaper but still a great piece of gear. I might wanna add something in between the 34 and 12, but so far those eyepieces were just a great choice.
Excellent presentation yet again. I took your advice and got an XT8 in November. It came with a 2" 28mm and 1.25" something. The 28mm is okay. I don't use it often however. What I use for wide views is an Orion Q70 38mm. Cheap enough at under $100 on sale, and it offers a crystal clear wider field of view. For more magnification, I use a cheap SVBony 1.25" super wide (they call it an Ultra wide) 68 degree 9mm. It gives pretty amazing and clear views for a thirty something dollar item, and it brought M104 right to my eye the other night (I couldn't make out the dust ring, but that might have been seeing). Eye relief is vastly superior to any Plossl near the range. I initially "upgraded" to a set of Plossl eyepieces with some colored filters, but really don't care for shorter Plossls at all, mostly because of the eye relief and tiny eye opening. I used any under 12.5mm only once each, and consider the protective caps more valuable. I'm retired and on a fixed budget, so TeleVue is out of my range at this point. My next purchase will be a 12" Dob, instead of eyepieces.That's just me. Viewing in Bortle 2-3 skies is right outside of my door, so transport isn't an issue. I can swing the $1300 right now, but don't want to pay interest on a card or take funds from my retirement accounts. The XT8 is a great tool for now as I learn to navigate the sky. Thanks again, and clear skies.
Great intro. I agree that less is more! It’s also definitely worth favoring a parfocal set so you don’t have to rack in and out the focuser (possibly disturbing balance while you’re at it) when changing magnification.
I'm pretty new to amateur astronomy, but what I do when changing to a higher powered but 1.25" (vs 2") eyepiece is just have it fixed in the adapter before dusk. No fumbling in the dark, but changing focus is still necessary. Just my experience, and thanks for your input. Clear skies!
Hi Ed, wow Kid's really are the essence of chaos aren't they! Taking an 8" f/6 Dob as an example I would recommend a 6mm giving 200x, as its a good compromise between image scale and what the seeing conditions can handle, also whilst not dropping below a 1mm exit pupil which can evoke eye floaters. If they already have a 25mm I would recommend a 12-15mm giving a 2mm exit pupil for good contrast on DSO's, but upgrading the 25mm is also a good shout IMO. If they need glasses for astigmatism I recommend an eyepiece with 20mm eye relief. It's all personal as you say, and we can only do our best to advice. Thanks for the interesting video as always.
If you used a 40mm eyepiece or longer, do you think you'd be ok without a finder scope on that Dob? Does it work that way? Would the image be brighter with a longer eyepiece? I'm trying to plan my 1st scope. So far I've had fun finding objects on my camera with a cheap zoom lens. I want to point and hunt.
Ed Made a great point in that there are very personal factors when choosing an eyepiece. One important factor for me is eye relief. I vastly prefer 20 mm, may tolerate 15mm in some cases. Si, That narrows my choices considerably. Another thing to mention is that everybody needs to have a barlow lens. It effectively doubles your number of eyepieces.
The Panoptic is a scaled design, so if you like one of the focal lengths, you will probably like all the others. The 2" barrel just allows the use of a longer focal length whilst being able to see more sky, otherwise the 1.25" barrel would, as you say, vignette the view. I tried the local club's 35mm Panoptic in my C11 and hated it, it turned the Moon into a strong egg shape even 60 per cent of the way out from the centre of the field of view, and I asked a club member to test for that back to back with his own 35mm Pan, as I suspected that someone had disassembled the club's 35mm Pan and put it back together wrong, but they performed the same. However, strangely, when I tested another club member's 41mm Panoptic recently at a Starcamp in his 16" F5, the Moon was awesome looking at the centre of the FOV and I really loved the comfortable view, so I may end up getting one to go with my 40mm Pentax XW lol. What can I say, I am an eyepiece junky. I have actually held off buying any of the Panoptics for one more reason, the design is very old and I was feeling that TeleVue will probably revisit and upgrade the design soon?
Execpt that the eye relief is also scaled, the 19 is tight, and the 15 was so tight it was discontinued
The reason for the distortion is because that was needed in order to get pinpoint stars to the edge. Naglers have a bit as well but not as much as the panoptic.
With the 40XW, there is field curvature requiring a slight refocus to be sharp at the edge or the center. So beware In that regard
I am new to astronomy and very beginner astrophotography. I found you by accident and I enjoy and am learning a lot from your videos. Thank you
Ed, could you make a video about 'exit pupil' and your opinion on its uses. I know, its esoteric, but it appears to be the most important factor as everyone has different scopes. I don't consider magnification as a useful metric anymore. I always calculate the exit pupil on a sheet per eyepiece per telescope. Anything less than 1 I consider to be high power and anything over 3.5 is low power, and everything else is mid-power. Thats my opinion but I'd like to hear yours.
Interesting, a couple of people have brought this up. The original draft of this video had a ~2 minute discussion on exit pupil but I cut it because I didn't think people would be interested.
+1 on an exit pupil video.
Exit pupil video would be great
A crucial topic to understand an master, as there are some tricks that are counter intuitive based on the things beginners are taught, and they apply to dsos that benefit from smaller than you would think exit pupils, as well as when using nebula filters, which are good at small exit pupils for small but bright planetaries, and the larger 4-7mm pupils for getting the most out of filters on targets like the veil.
One trick I will share is the 1.3-1.6mm exit pupil range on globulars, even in light pollution, coupled with 3 and 4 element outreach options on f10 telescopes like the 4 element 15mm superview, the best in the line and the only 4 element one, and the little known 3 element 15mm plastic body "celestron 15" which has about a 70 degree field, and the slightly more known 20mm that has a 65deg field, and came with several cheap scopes. The 25mm that came with many more scopes, is not as good having bad internal reflections.
My 15mm superview on my c11 and 8"R(acf) was my go to eyepiece for showing m13 at outreaches, even from very light polluted skies, and after telling viewers to let their eye adjust for a few seconds, fully in the eyecup, I had a greater than 90% wow response, including children and elderly. And over the years, my knowledge of the many tricks, got me many comments along the line of my view in a smaller scope was better than the big scts, which many users tend to frequently have the wrong ep and filter for the target.
Where they would need a 55-56mm plossl to get the most out of their OIII, most would be using something like a 31 nagler, 27pan or even a 26mm plossl.
And I would be with an f5 newtonian and a 30mm 2" like a superview or UW80, and have a killer OIII or uhc view of a nebula. Or later on when I had my 8 and 11 cats, I would be using a 40mm or 50mm eyepiece when they were still stuck on their 31 naglers. Yes, many people in the local club did not have the concept of "outreach eyepieces " but thankfully for that, I got some of my earliest views through nagler and panoptic eyepieces when I would attend with my 60mm spotter and 15x70 binoculars, and later with my 5"mak and 8"f4, I could try out some eyepieces in my own scopes and that helped me know what I was getting into in my early days.
The first thing I remember being blown away by was m22 in a 16mm type 2 nagler in a c11, and his 2nd most used ep was the 27mm panoptic.
My first used premium eyepieces I got for my 8"f4 that needed them, were the 16mm type2, 8.8mm smoothie UWA, 4.8mm nagler smoothie, and 7mm nagler. Before that I was using a 13.8mm swa and 18mm WA (etx kit cheapie) with barlows since they were useless at f4 without it.
It is a rabbit hole I never got out of, along with older japanese widefields for my slow scopes, like widescan III, 4k SWA, and original axiom, not to mention 5 element super plossls and ultima types.
And of course, tons of very low, to low to mid level outreach eyepieces, superview, QX/es70, e-lux, SMA wides etc...
Great thoughts about eyepieces, Ed! I learned the "Tele Vue vs. everything else" lesson the (VERY) hard way. I bought some great TV eyepieces over the years to use with my 6" dob and I thought the eyepieces weren't a big deal since I just couldn't see much with the 6" dob. It was the dob and not the eyepieces, of course. Long story short, I sold most of my TV eyepieces and I now regret it immensely, having used other brands that, well, just aren't Tele Vue. Never thought I'd 'feel' such a difference looking through less expensive eyepieces vs. my TVs. Anyway, thanks so much for the great overview! Terrific stuff. You gave the absolute best advice for eyepieces - buy them once.
For what it's worth, there are definitely good non-TV eyepieces out there. Explore Scientific 92s are incredible and not just second fiddle copies of Tele Vue eyepieces, Pentax XWs are wonderfully comfortable with excellent performance, Nikon NAV-SWs are similar, Nikon NAV-HWs are better than Ethos, and Baader Morpheus are very close to Delos in performance as long as focal ratio stays above 4.5, but have wider fields and feel more immersive. BUT, nobody offers the combination of choices and quality that Tele Vue does. Nobody is even close. From Plossls, to DeLites, to Panoptics, to Delos, to Naglers to Ethos. So many choices, and no compromise on quality.
@@vbikcl Thanks, Jon. Haven't tried Nikon yet, but I have a Baader Morpheus 4.5 and it's okay, but I think it's too much power for the seeing conditions I have here in VT. I'm surprised there's something better than an Ethos! Not sure why, but I've never considered Nikon eyepieces. Like TV eyepieces, I see they're expensive puppies, too! I'll have to do a little more research. Thanks again for the info.
100% agree
The 2 eyepieces I use all the time are SuperView 30mm 68° and ES 8.8mm 82°.
The 8.8mm replaced the cheap 9mm provided with the telescope. The 30mm is the one provided, it is enough good to stay with it for the moment. It allowed me to buy an ES14mm 82°, instead of replacing it.
I use a good 3 lenses barlow to double the 8.8 and that's all...
Great video Ed! For those who do have a C14 or C11, the Televue Panoptic 41mm, Nagler 26mm, and Nagler 17mm are the eyepieces I use. In a C14 they yield 95x, 150x, and 230x, respectively, and in the C11 they yield 68x, 108x, and 165x, respectively.
Those seem like sound choices!
You also need a 55mm plossl, or 56mm super plossl, but a Japanese one, as the current Chinese ones are a little sloppy.
Other options would be the 50mm axiom and Tak LE 50mm. I can vouch for both the axiom which I used to own and love in my c11, and the smoothside 56mm meade super plossl, which I now own and love in the vintage 10" meade I had to settle for after being robbed blind out of my storage unit. Since tweaker storage theives don't know what a g11 tripod is when it is dissambled, what counterweights are and why they are needed, nor what dovetails, saddles and 3 point rings are, they left those parts and I was able to trade them straight across for the meade.
Why a 50, 55 or 56 when the 41 pan has the same true field you ask? The answer, exit pupil, especially when using filters to look at faint nebulae, or just when in really dark skies in general and you want to make something brighter. There were even larger than 2" 60 and 70mm kellners for the old C14s back in the day, but you can just order up a televue 55mm plossl and get it right away. Personally I prefer the older 5 element meade super plossl over the televue, and the 7 element 50mm axiom with 56 degree field was nice, but the televue 55 is the best one currently available (I haven't used the 50mm takahashi but I assume it is great, but it has to have at least a 45mm field stop for me to be interested). Also the 55 plossl fits your green lettered theme.
Hi Ed, as always another great episode of your show. One thing to note though, especially for beginners: If you are wearing eyeglasses due to astigmatism, those short Naglers and Ploessls may not work well for you! Maybe some suggestion for long eye relief eyepiece would be welcome as well. I know this very well as I am one of those people myself! I have a whole set of Vixen LVs for that purpose. I did not get on with the ultrawides... Cheers!
I use 31mm nagler type 5 and 13mm ethos .
Meade 14" lx200.
Yes, I re-watch some of your great videos. Primarily an astrophotographer, most of my eyepieces came with telescopes I bought. The exceptions include a Meade 2" 21mm wide field, Meade 8-24mm zoom, and an Orion 40mm Plossl. The Meade 21mm is a bargain with great optics comparable to much more expensive eyepieces and gives fabulous views through my 10" Orion Dobsonian. The Orion 40mm is theoretically a misfit for the 10" Dob but the views are wide and bright. The zoom is just handy for quickly checking out objects before selecting a single focal length eyepiece. Now you got me want to take a peek through a Televue Panoptic.
I am very similar. WIth my 130mn f/9.2 triplet, my two most used are the 21mm Ethos and 10mm Delos.
My two personal go-tos are a TeleVue 24mm Panoptic and a 9mm Nagler. The view of M13 through the 9mm in my 10" Dob is breathtaking. I use that view as a star party showpiece object. Yes, I do bring the good stuff with me but I actually carry them on my person if I step away from the scope. I have star party eyepieces I leave in the scope. My public set of eyepieces, beyond cheap 25mm and 10mm Plossls is a set of Astro-Tech ED Paradigms. They fit into a nice small case and they work well in my 400mm to 1200mm focal length scopes I tend to bring out for such things.
I have a TeleVue 55mm Plossl for two purposes. One, it is a conversation piece. It is a monster eyepiece comparable to the 31mm Nagler "grenade". The second is actually for purpose. It is for very long focal length telescopes. One of my bucket list items is to take it to Mount Wilson and use it in their 100 inch scope when I rent it for a evening. It has already been to Lowell Observatory and spent time in a 24 inch Planewave available for evening rentals there. They wouldn't let me put it in the Clark refractor but, true to form, they had a TeleVue eyepiece in it!
I use a 22mm Nagler type 4 almost exclusively. I use it on everything from my 72mm 420mm refractor and 6" Newtonian, to my C8 and 10" dobsonian. It's just a pleasure to look through. The other eyepieces I enjoy are my set of Meade 5000 HD-60 series eyepieces which range from 4.5 to 25mm. They're quite versatile for the price I paid for the set ($350). The ones that get occasional use are the 12 and 18mm pieces. On rare occasion I will pull out the 6.5mm for lower power scopes when the seeing is good. The others largely go unused. In the end, I generally agree with Ed. I only use a few eyepieces. I have gotten rid of pretty much everything else and I don't miss them.
I really like my Pentax XL eyepieces. I started with the 21, 10.5 & 5.2 for my 16"f4.5 dob. I like how the plastic cups unscrew and put my eye in a perfect position for a great, relaxing view. The 21mm gets the most use followed by the 5.2 for Saturn & Jupiter at 350x.
Those Pentax eyepieces are excellent and have a cult following.
Over the years (I am 76 now) I had several TeleVues in Radian, Plossel, Panoptic and even the "Terminagler"....the 31 which I hated. Now I have all the Pentax XLs, I kept one of the TeleVues....the 32mm Plossl....and one TMB planetary and an old UO Ortho. I sold all the other Tele Vue. I use a variety of APO refractors.... 80mm and 152mm from Officina Stellare, a TV 85 APO, and Celestron SCTs in 8" and 11" HD. I am mainly an astrophotographer but now my main eyepieces are Pentax because they are so easy to use unlike others that may be OK but not comfortable to use for long periods of time due to artifacts, kidney bean shadows, eye relief (I often wear glasses). I like the gas sealing of the Pentax so they won't get internally dewed up. With the refractors my most used eyepiece is a Pentax 8-24 zoom. It is optically excellent despite a narrower FOV and like the other Pentax's is gas sealed. With a refractor the zoom allows me to "adjust" the background brightness which can reveal a lot of detail often missed if you stick to one focal length. It is almost like a variable contrast feature. Others that have used mine also got one and found the same feature that many people don't realize is a benefit. I have a friend that has a Tak 150 TOA and he found that he liked my zoom Pentax so much he bought one and found it his most used eyepiece also. I would say that it is less useful with my SCTs...mainly due to the the SCT longer focal lengths. I don't have a DOB anymore but if I did the 31 "Terminagler" and similar ultra wide FOV eyepieces is nice to avoid the constant moving the scope over to keep the object in the FOV....but they give unacceptable artifacts in the image with a fine refractor and centering of the objects is not an issue with my tracking mounts.
So in short the real answer is to match the eyepiece type and focal length to the type of scope and mount you have AND how you will use it....planets, lunar, deep sky, Ha solar, etc. If you have a factory diagonal with a mid to low end refractor or SCT in most cases they are the limiting factor....not the eyepiece. I always tell people that before getting another eyepiece they would be better off with a much better diagonal from TV, AP, BAADER, etc.
You are right on the money I think. I have a 30 mm 2" barrel Apertura combined with an Apertura 2x barlow. The barlow gives me the extra magnification I like sometimes, plus the barlow gives the focal range I need to couple my Nikon DSLR to the 8 inch Dobsonian.
Just a note for owners of Maksutov- and Schmidt-Cassegrains with apertures less than 9.25": Compare your Baffle Tube's inner diameter with the Eyepiece's Field stop before buying. Most 2" EPs will vignette the image. Cats 6" and under will only safely utilize 1.25" EPs without vignetting, except the C90 Mak, which is limited to EPs w/FS=
Great video, Ed! I’m pretty much in line with you… my two (90%) workhorse eyepieces are TV 24mm Panoptic and TV 9mm Nagler Type 6. They are both 1.25” and that just makes it easy regardless of the scope.
It’s really nice to see you doing videos after all the years of reading your reviews in writing. Thanks for giving us great advice and honest reviews of of the myriad of telescopes available (and NOT available!) to us amateurs.
I too use a 12.5 and 32 Plossil 90% of the time. Star fields to planets. Occasionally I use a 25mm for relaxed viewing of nebula or galaxy smuges and sometimes for Saturn I use a 6mm.
I ended up with two boxes 4mm to 25mm that came with second hand scope buys. They mostly stay in the box.
I just have smaller 5" SC 900mmFL and 4.5" 1000mmFL true classic Newtonian. Small house, and they take up less room. We have the university observatory only 20mi away with open house nights on Friday for my big scope fix. Living on a very remote mountain in a national forest gives me excellent views with smaller scopes. I just have a LOT of trees so I only get 100degrees of the sky any leafy month.
I've recently got a 20mm "100° AFOV" eyepiece (Sky Rover, APM, W.O., etc.), and now I don't want anything with a narrower field. It's not perfect, but it costed less than a quarter of the price of a televue ethos, so I think it's good enough for me.
I like to see the field stop. So I have Panoptics and Delos. 68 and 72 degrees is perfect.
Yes, the 27mm Panoptic is a personal top choice of mine. I picked up a set of TV Radians when that series was being phased out and on sale. Great eyepieces in my refractors for viewing the Moon, planets and splitting doubles. Your videos are always well produced and have interesting content. Thanks!
Those Radians are going to become collector's items. Hang on to those.
I was never a huge radian fan, they are a tad on the dim side, and the cheaper tmb/burgess planetary eyepieces performed almost just as well.
When televue discontinues a line and replaces it with something else, like the delite, there is usually a reason.
Except in the case of the 26mm nagler, that reason was stupidity, but in all reality, it was probably due to low sales as many considered the 31mm and the 26mm redundant, and opted to go for the 31mm. There weren't many requests for the 26mm when I worked at opt.
2 less expensive, but near equally performing options straddle the 26mm focal length. The 24mm es82 (or used 23mm axiom LX/meade 24mm UWA, all 3 the same optics), and the 28mm WO Uwan/orion megaview/meade PWA).
Note, the 30mm ES82 has noticeably worse edge performance than the 31 nagler, the 23/24 is the star in the 2" line of 82s.
The 28 is made by the same company that make the 20mm XWA/HDC 100deg eyepieces, that is surprisingly close to the 21mm ethos.
@@edtingbut yeah, they might become collectors items that is for sure. But delite is a huge improvement, with ethos genetics, as I am sure all DE prefixed eyepieces refer to Paul Delachaie, the designer of the ethos, which was morphed into the Delos and Delite to cover the long eye relief market
@@k.h.1587 I've since picked up a set of flat top Brandon's to pair with my 100mm f/8 Takahashi apo and 6" f/12 ISTAR achromatic refractors. (The 48mm Brandon was getting lonely!) 😄
Ed, I always enjoy your videos, reviews and advice. I may not always agree with your recommendations but I can certainly see the logic in what you suggest. No one will go wrong following your advice.
When I started in this hobby 8 years ago, I was told the same thing you said. There is Tele Vue and there is everything else.In my hobbies I rarely buy the top of the line of anything because I know that it costs a LOT to get that extra 5% of whatever it is that makes one product better than another.
So I standardized on Explore Scientific 82 degree eyepieces. I have compared them to comparable Naglers. There is a difference but not enough for me to pay the significant premium for the TV. I have them from 14 mm to to 4.7 mm.
But my most used 1.24" is my Baader Hyperion 8-24 zoom.
I purchased an Ultra-Wide 14mm Meade 2" eyepiece back in 1992 and boy did it make a huge difference in my viewing times and overall experience viewing deep sky objects as well as the planets. I still have and use this 14mm exclusively. It runs the middle ground between a 27 or 32mm and a high power 10 or 6.5mm. Great eyepiece... optics were made in Japan. Another informative video Ed...thanks!
Those early Meade UW series are quite good (they should be; they cloned the TeleVues!) and have their fans.
@@edtingI'm one of them, but not exclusively. I find the 14mm and 8.8 to be better than the type1 13 and 9, but not better than the type6 versions. Plus the meades tend to cost a little less used, and a lot less than the type 6. And nobody can touch the 31mm, the closest being the 28mm uwan/megaview/PWA.
1.25 to 2" adapters are cheap enough to get multiples and dedicate them your type 6s. The type 6 has more comfortable and forging eye relief, better edges and most importantly, contrast and brightness.
I have TeleVue and Pentax eyepieces. 20mm and below are Pentax. I just cannot comfortably use 15mm and below TeleVue.
So, most used are 35mm Panoptic, 20 and 10mm Pentax. 20mm Pentax is champion!
Love your distilled version of the advice. You have all the options in the world. But which one do You use? "Ting's choice" of course
For myself, I make use of an f/14 100mm EQ Mak, and a 10" f/5 Newtonian dob. And, the two best I use are a 40mm & 20mm Plossl. The planetary scope can make use of a 12.5mm on clock drive, and one can also daringly use a 4.5mm on the 10" - however, I've found the 40mm and 20mm (with occasional use of a 12.5mm) seem to be the best and most used eyepieces for me.
As an ameteur night skygazer, I've learned enough from Ed over the years to qualify as a bonafide expert! He's saved me countless hours and dollars. Love this channel. Cheers.
Nice explanation of your choices. I agree about the ~ 13mm eyepiece being one of the most used, but for a slightly different reason: I prefer to think in terms of exit pupils. An exit pupil of 2mm is easy for the eye to use, while nicely darkening the background sky. With my scopes in the f/6 and f/7 ballpark, that would mean a 13mm eyepiece. I had a 13 Nagler Type 6, but the eye positioning is not as easy. I got a 14 Delos, love that (super comfortable and with an expansive ocular) and sold the Nagler; they're both close in price. I've extensively tried the Ethos line and I just do not see (ha ha) the hype, especially for the price - so as you said, it's very personal. After the 13mm, either go up to an exit pupil of 4mm or down to 1mm: so, ~ 26mm or ~ 6.5mm. Here, the resultant magnification becomes a bigger factor and what your local conditions most often allow. For my f/7 TV85, it's between the 31 Nagler and the 8 Delos. Thank you!
2mm exit pupil is definitely a sweet spot for general purpose DSO observing. It's consistent no matter what scope I use. In my F/5.4 scope, my 10mm eyepiece is my most used focal length. It can live in the focuser most of the night. Yes, "only" 1.85mm exit pupil, but close enough. In my F/13 Mak, the 24 Pan is a match made in heaven. In my F/7 refractor, my 14mm eyepiece is perfect for cruising through most DSOs until I need either more magnification, a wider view, or a brighter view (when using nebula filters).
EVERYONE should have an eyepiece that produces close to a 2mm exit pupil for their scope. Perfect balance of view brightness and magnification for general purpose deep sky observing.
Multiply the telescope's focal ratio by 2 and that's the eyepiece focal length you need for a 2mm exit pupil.
@@vbikcl I was out last night until the wee hours with my Tele Vue 85 (f/7) - I used the 14 Delos easily 80% of the time.
@@dandurkin9735that sounds perfect @ 2mm exit and 72 degree field!
Thank you very much for your amazing videos. You've helped me explore the universe tremendously. Much love
I also have my share of Televue eyepieces but having to select only two, neither would be a TV. For wide field, it would be the 28mm UWA 82-degree Astro-Tech which is also sold under other brands and based on the old UWAN design with better ergonomics. This is a good substitute for the 26mm Nagler which is no longer made and fetches a high price on the used market. For everything else, I'd choose the 7.7-15.4mm APM Super Zoom to dial-in on the right power for the object being viewed.
My other eyepieces are more specialized in nature like the 21mm-10mm-6mm Ethos for big dobs, 25mm ES100 for SCTs wide field, 20mm 84-degree Widescan IIIs for SCT binoviewing, 17mm ES92 for outreach, etc. For general purpose, I've found the UWA and Super Zoom to be the most useful.
Good to hear your praise for the AT 28mm UWA 82°, I just ordered one a few days ago. I’ll be using it with a 13 Ethos though because I rather have that large AFOV. If the seeing is good I turn the 13 Ethos to a 6.5mm or 5.2mm with 2x and 2.5x Powermates for up to 230x Magnification in my 8” Dobsonian.
For my homemade 131mm refractor at 700mm seems to work quite well with a 10mm and a 40mm eyepiece, I know they are wildly different but it does function well.
Ed....Nice article. One thing many people miss.... if your scope came with a factory diagonal such as the ones on SCTs.... a better first investment would be a much better diagonal from TV, Astro Physics, BAADER, etc. A stock diagonal is just a choke on the performance of a higher end eyepiece. Of course that isn't an issue with a DOB (no diagonal used) but is on a SCT or medium to low end refractor.
Hello Ed, Great advice on eyepieces! I took your recommendation on the Televue 27mm Panoptic, and you are correct--I take it wherever I go with my Celestron 9.25 SCT. I would mention one other eyepiece you briefly mentioned--the TeleVue 55mm Plossl. I use StarSense to align my Celestron SCT, often requiring a second-step calibration. I have NEVER failed to get my reference star in the FOV using the 55mm. It is a significant way to acquire alignment without searching outside the FOV.
I also want you to know that I caution your viewers about zoom eyepieces. I am down to only one--the Baader Mark IV. I keep it primarily for terrestrial views using my Orion ED80CF. It is a big disappointment for planetary use--I have had some success with lunar observing with the Mark IV. For planetary views with my 9.25 SCT, nothing beats the 18.5mm and 9mm DeLite eyepieces by TeleVue. Less expensive than the Delos but still spectacular for Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn.
EJN
That 55 also excells at getting the veil and other faint nebulae to show up with a filter
Many years ago when I first got into the hobby I got to try out a 19mm Panoptic and it blew me away (NexStar 11). At least on the first couple nights. After that....meh. Naglers never did capture my attention like most of my buddies. You mentioned the 19mm panoptic a video or two ago and decided to finally buy one (I need another eye piece like a need another motorcycle but life is shorter now :^) ). A few years go by and I discovered Pentax and just loved the adjustable eye cup design (optics were nothing to complain about either) so of all the eye pieces I have they get the most use.
For some reason I like the older Celestron orange labeled eye pieces - I suppose they just work well in my scopes. I have a couple full sets of "cheaper" eye pieces that work well in slow scopes, not so much in fast refractors. Kinda too good for public outreach but they do get pressed into work for that as they are "cheap" to replace. Which has not happened yet.
People have asked me the same question; I tell 'em to get to a star party and check things out with their eyes. What happens if they are not impressed with the $500 eye pieces but click with the $100 one?
Great video Ed. I’m in Australia. My main eyepiece is a Badger HyperionMK4 Zoom. I love it. I use it in my Ed120 and edge Hd and my Nadirus Dob. 24mm-8mm gives a wide range of magnification. But it has its sweet spot @ the 16 or 12 mm. I hate changing out eyepieces during the night. So I love this baader. Yes one day I will by a televue. 😮
Ed, Thanks for the video. I agree with Televiews being superior. For those of us that can’t swing that amount of coin for those Naglers; I did a side by side at a start party between a Nagler and a Williams Optic swan series. I saw very little differences in the center FOV, and slightly more on the edges. Also-my 2 EP’s for most star parties are a Speers-Whaler 10mm and my Williams 26mm. And for public star parties with a bunch of kids,I agree with plossls 9-25mm , but i keep a few top shelf EP’s in my hoody pocket for a quick swap for someone who really shows an interest. I am amazed that there are those who will go to a free event, use our equipment, and then steal an eyepiece. Keep up the great work. Good video and audio on these.
Do the same with a william optics UWAN (now available as meade PWA), and you will see it hold up surprisingly well against the nagler. Definitely in the big 28mm, as I never really looked through the 4, 7, and 16mm ones, since I always had naglers or meade UWAs in those focal ranges already, I can't personally vouch for them, but that 28 holds up well next to the 31 and 26mm naglers
It’s always a good day when Ed posts a new video. Today is no exception. This is one of the best videos I’ve seen on eyepieces. I need to compare Eds recommended eyepieces to my personal collection and seriously think about making some modifications to my collection. Thanks Ed for sharing your knowledge with the community. Very much appreciated. Hope all is well. Ed.
Nice intro to eyepiece collecting. I have more than I need, but cool to have them. Televue are the standard.have several eyepieces from their different lineups, panoptic, nagler, radian, all great eyepieces
Ed, I have both the 27mm PanOptic and the 24mm PanOptic and use both about equally. My 13mm and 16mm Naglers are better for magnification, but I use the for planetary viewing. Oh, I both most all of my eyepieces directly from Al’s shop. I don’t share these only with my closest friends and family.🎉
Oh, l almost forgot to say that I have been following you for a long while, even before the RUclips channel was a dream. Do you still have the Meade ETX scopes and do you use them?
I settled on ES 17, 12 92 degrees, ES 30 82 degrees and Baader Morpheus 6mm on 8” Edge HD and 8” dob.
Of course, any Televue you recommended is backordered! Great information. Thank you.
I bought a cheap beginner set, and it was on sale, too. Haven't found one I like yet...but then haven't been able to use them much because either weather wasn't cooperating, wind, rain, clouds, haze, etc. I do appreciate your experience in such matters, and wrote a few of them down. Thank you for the advice.
Update: I just checked my set of eyepieces and they are in the ballpark of your recommendations. All I need is a clear sky with no wind! 🌧☁🌌
Great video Ed! It's always a Great day when a NEW eyepiece shows up too!!!!! Clear skys
Thanks for the video. In the past I had an 8 inch Dob and used the 27 Panoptic & 12 Nagler T4 with Antares 1.6 Barlow. Getting back into the hobby and this time getting the 10 inch. Planning on using the same eyepieces!
Thank you for sharing this instructive video. I just subscribed to your channel after watching a couple of your videos.
I have a few years experience with telescopes. My current telescope is the Orion 10" Newtonian on a German equatorial mount I purchased in 2000. Unfortunately because of unforseen events in life I haven't viewed through it since 2007. I hope to change that before I get too old. I'm almost 63.
After purchasing my telescope I purchased much higher quality oculars, or eyepieces.
I have advised people for years that even if you purchase a low price telescope that disappoints your expectations to not give up. Spend a little more and replace the low quality oculars with high quality oculars.
Your video is an inspiration for me to get back into astronomy. To say I have missed it is an understatement.
I own a 10 inches dobsonian that I use under a slight polluated urban sky.
My top picks are from the Explore Scientific brand : 30mm 82°, 12mm 92°.
Honorable mentions to the 17mm 92° (for some designated targets), and 4.5mm 82° LER (for planetary, when the sky allows it)
They are quite cheaper than Televue's, but not quite neutral, but since I wear glasses, I enjoy how comfortable they are. Yet, again, very personal feeling.
Do you use a Coma corrector with those eye pieces?
@@mylogify No, the only one that could need it would be the 30mm and it's not necessary with by F/D ratio of 4.7 of the telescope.
For newer observers, I'd recommend the less expensive (but quality) alternatives. That 10% improvement that a Televue offers over some competitors is notices only when you're deep into the hobby, like any hobby. It takes a while to become a connoisseur, and, because it's such a personal taste issue, it's good to own a bunch of eyepieces over time. Because they're comparatively easy to buy and sell, they can work their way up to the Big Investment items. I won't notice any flaws in my ES 100s until I start spending a lot of time with Ethos's - which I won't do (call it "Vice Management" (same reason I'm choosing not to develop a taste for Scotch)). Great video, of course. Keep them coming!
10% 😂 more like 2% at best compared to a cheaper good quality eyepiece.
like which ones?@@Astronurd
Yeah, need to say which ones, than just commenting
First of all hello and I hope you're doing well. I have no clue about anything astronomy or telescopes. Your video just popped up on a search engine.
I want to compliment you on your communicating with the people. I only had to stop a couple times and look up some of the words on a Google search. You really did well and communicated very well. Thank you for your time. And for your patience of the little ones eating your lense cups. I could deal with that. But I definitely could not deal with a thief. It's amazing your donating your time which is so valuable, for people to learn.
Best of times to you on those you love
I have a SW 8” f/6 dob. When I was ready to upgrade the eyepieces, I read the forums. What I saw was “as good as a TV” or “TV killer” and so on. So it was obvious that TV is the standard, and I shouldn’t waste my time with other brands. I know from my behavior in other hobbies I will end up there eventually.
So I bought a 24mm Pan. When I looked through it the first time, my reaction was “oh, so this is what all the fuss is about.” The view was sharp and clear. I followed that up with the 13mm type 6, and eventually a 9 and 7. But the 24 and 13 get the most time in the scope.
Thanks for the insight. Yes, I find people who write "xxx is just as good" are usually engaging in a form of confirmation bias to justify their purchase of the less expensive product.
Another great video by Ed! My Televue 35mm Pan and 22mm Nagler4 are used the most for sky surfing/ Milky Way watching @ 600mm refractor scope. I have the entire set of Delos EP's that I use for planetary and everything I want a closer view. Though Televue cost more, it makes no sense to go big on the telescope and then cheap out on the EP- especially when the EP is at least 50% of your tool power. In addition to Televue being benchmark quality they also can provide you with a big viewing lens area that gives you a true "porthole" window into the skies.... PS- The 24mm Pan is a good piece if you want lightweight and are Ok with a smaller lens area...
They are overpriced and a lot of the range has been equalled or bettered . Cheaper as well.
Likewise, the rest of us hope your comment is not overvalued as IT's range has definitely been more than equalled and bettered previously... . @@Astronurd
I'm in my 70's and been doing this since I was 12. I remember when the rage in eyepieces was the Orthoscopic and I'd never heard of a Plossl. I've never used the premium eyepieces, but now you make me want to get a TeleVue or Naglar. Personally, I've never seen any difference in eyepieces of different brands and always thought they were made by the same maker. Over the years I gained a collection of the Paul Rini surplus glass eyepieces, and if you can get by without field stops they work as well as anything I've seen.
Thanks for a very good post on eyepieces. I have a good selection of TV eyepieces I use on my fast Dobs. On my slower telescopes, and for planetary views, I like to use my University Orthoscopics.
This is the exact recommendation I was hoping for and I just so happen to own an 8” Dobsonian. Thank you!
I have the SVBony 6,9,15,20 set under the brand of AngelEyes.. they are great. Then of course the SVBony zoom 7-21mm is pretty good for reaching optimum magnification on various DSOs. My favorite are probably the 2" 32mm and 40mm, AngelEyes brand.. 70 degree view. Maybe I will also get the 26mm to complete the set.
Hi Ed... thanks for taking up this challenge. I used a 27 mm my 10in f4.7 Dob for years... agreed great ep. But, now for me the Pentax 30mm XW is preferred. Cheers -Greg W
I would probably take a 30xw over a 27 pan as well, but in the case of the 40mm XW, there is field curvature, so a 41 pan or 40 es68/5k SWA is the way I would go, after owning both the 40xw and 40SWA (and older 4k SWA) at the same time.
The high value of the 40xw, and minimal on axis improvement over the japanese 4k swa, and the refocusing required to bring the edge in focus, had me decide to part with the XW when I needed money.
IIRC the 30 didn't have thar issue. But I never owned one, just the 20 and the 40, although a friend really liked his 30
@@k.h.1587 I will buy a 10 inch dob, do you think I should trust APM 30 mm 70 degree eye piece, is it a great quality optics? I don't plan to get a Coma corrector anytime soon. Is it so bad the astigmatism on these type of wide field eyepieces? Could I get decent sharp views at least in the middle? Or what else would you recommend for DSO's? high quality eyepiece?
I’m finally getting around to filming my eyepiece review for All-Star Telescope. 3D printing custom iPhone adapters for 2 inch barrel eyepieces, and making an artificial sky out of a giant sign and a black tablecloth so we can film during the day. Giant moon map and printed images of deep sky objects. And an excel file to get the image scale correct, and a giant tent to block the Sun and wind….
I use three. 10,17, and 25mm for my 6in Dobsonion. I have two each for the binocular setup I got from Orion.
I have a Zeiss 25mm widefield long eye relief microscope eyepiece with a 1.25” barrel conversion which is my favorite.
I use my classic TV Plossls and a few Circle T orthos for planets.
For star parties I go to the Celestron 25 mm Plossl or a TMB or Zhumell long eye relief 9-13mm
127mm Orion Makstov
155mm AP Star 155ED
I go by exit pupil. Focal length of eyepiece divided by the f number of the scope. 1mm exit for high power planets/lunar, 2mm exit for bad seeing days for planets/lunar and small DSO (clusters and galaxies), and then 4-5mm exit for low power under suburban skies (Bortle 4 and worse). If I had darker sky available, I'd go to 6 or 7mm max, but that's just not available to me. I own dozens of eyepieces, partly because I have telescopes as fast as f/4 and as slow as f/15 and several in between. I don't have a C14 but I have a 12" LX200, and that's close enough.
In an 8" f/6, that comes to a 6mm, 12mm, 24-30mm. Close enough is fine, so Ed's 13mm Nagler and 27mm Pan are still very much in line with how I do it in an 8" f/6.
But, I'd also add something shorter for a truly close look at say Jupiter.
As for brands? I'm happy with Explore Scientific 82 degree eyepieces for the bulk of my viewing. Their 30mm is my favorite by far. For star parties and knock around (I've often left equipment in my car, which makes it likely to be stolen), I go with Orion Stratus (discontinued) and Baader Hyperion for lengths 24mm and shorter, plus GSO SuperView for 30mm and longer. The Stratus, Hyperion and SuperView lines are all available for sub $100 especially used. They have a 68 degree field of view and I feel provide a better view than a Plossl while still not being so expensive as to worry a ton about theft or smudging.
To my eyes, a Plossl is a Plossl, and I don't like Plossls shorter than 15mm in focal length. So, they don't get much use. I don't see much reason to go to TeleVue for a Plossl. The exception is 32mm. Those give me a 4mm exit in my often used f/8 Orion XT4.5 mini Dob. I built a riser platform for it that makes it no different to use than an 8" Dob, except that it fits in my life a lot better when camping.
A 32mm Plossl and an 8-24mm Zoom are my eyepiece kit for camping with the XT4.5. Covers the 1,2,4mm exit pupil scheme, with a built in 3mm intermediate step at 24mm in the Zoom.
I used to feel like I HAD to upgrade eyepieces until I got the ES82s. After those, I've had very few moments that made me say "I NEED THAT, NOW."
They may be "everything else" to Ed, but they're fine by me.
I also got them used pre pandemc, The pricing of ES82s has changed a bit since then. When I was buying eyepieces, I described the experience as 95-98% of TeleVue at 1/3 the cost. If I only ever used my 8" f/6, I could sell everything, get 3 Naglers and be happy, but that's not how I roll.
After ES's price increases, if I was buying today, I'd consider TeleVue a lot more, but I'd still skip all but the 32mm in consideration if Plossl shopping.
Thanks for the comments. The first draft of this video had a ~2 minute segment on sizing via exit pupil but I cut it because I thought it was boring.
Don't forget the 1.5mm exit pupil trick for globular clusters.
As for superviews, I have to say that the best in the line is the lone 4 element 15mm. The 30mm is second best, and the 42 and 50 are very disappointing, the 42 is considerably field stopped, not using the whole 2" field, and barely 60 degrees if even that, with a fuzzy field stop to boot. The 50 is even worse, a cheap meade or celestron 56mm plossl is a better option. The 30mm is not that bad though, at least in slow scopes.
The 15mm beat my 15mm meade QX on contrast and transmission, and when paired with a gso barlow lens threaded directly to the barrel it becomes a poor man's pentax, sharp to the edge even at f5. It was my ultimate outreach eyepiece for m13 in my c11, always the best view on the field
And to further throw the 42mm superview under the bus, the also GSO made 3 element 2" 40mm e-lux , also sold as the meade 2" eyepieces kit and several other brands, has a wider apparent AND true field of view, with a cleaner field stop and much better contast and transmission than the superview. Both are erroneously miss advertised, the superview over advertised as having a 65deg field like the 15 and 30, when it is actually much less, probably 58deg, and the 3 element ones are always advertised as 56deg, which the 26mm is, but both the 32 and 40mm are actually wider. A look at the tiny lenses in the 26mm makes that clear, they could fit in 1.25". I now am again stuck with a 42 superview as a stop gap until I can replace my stolen 4k 40mm SWA for my f10 scopes, then I got my hands on an older astrola branded gso 40mm 3 element, and yep, wider afov, sharper field stop, and if you look down the bottom of both you can see the field stop is bigger than the 42mm superview. I previously used the e-lux version that lived in my 8"ota case in my car trunk, since I was always doing outreaches, and sometimes impromptu sessions, so I kept a set of it and other cheap 3 element widefields (plastic body 65 deg 20mm and 10mm widened out to 70+) and a 25mm plossl, so I could always be able to show a range of objects. And that cheap 10mm had a bigger lens than a 10mm plossl.
Many times, the 3 element cheapies would out perform my 5 and 6 element outreach widefields, superviews and QX/ES70.
and one last thing about the superviews, the 20mm was not so great and the briefly offered 10mm was a rainbow of chromatic garbage. Someone on astromart offered me a fossil watch for my 20mm superview and a took it in a heart beat. The 15 and the 30 are the only keepers in the set. Too bad mine was stolen, it had the earlier heavy brass barrel, the newer ones with aluminum barrels feel cheap, even though I would probably grab a 15 again, no need for the 30, but since I now have the plastic cheapie 3 element 15, which is the widest in the line at about 70, I probably won't even hunt down another 15 superview. But it does hold a big place in my heart, and had better coatings than the plastic bodied cheapies.
Cheap eyepieces can be obsessed over just as much as premium ones. All it takes is a touch of aspergers and alot of public and private outreach experience. I even got paid for it for a while.
Great video. I got hooked on the 82 degree eyepieces and prefer the Explore Scientific series. They just work well for me and my amateur eyesight finds them very sharp. I also recommend the 8 inch Dobs to anybody that asks. I use that one the most. Thank you for your brutal honesty about the star party stuff - I'd heard that thefts do happen which is why I always whip out the generic eyepieces then.
Great Video Ed Back in the late 90’s I was gifted a small Meade ETX and it came with the Meade 4000 series (made in Japan). I did side by side comparisons with Televue and didn’t see much of a difference, so I stayed with Meade’s with the Plossls, and the Naglar counter part the UWA 14 with 82° FOV. I since have had bought two 19 Panoptics and the 32 plossl. Very addictive hobby. The last few years I’ve moved the addiction to binoculars.
Yeah the older japanese plossls are great. The best ones are the smoothside, as they are the early 5 element design. 5 element versions also exist with rubber grips and cups, they have japan engraved on the black body. The 4 element ones have japan engraved on the silver barrel.
The series 4000 UWA 84 degrees are exceptional, though older ones are a little on the dim side, but so are older naglers from the same time period. Some of the later rubber versions of the 4k UWA have better coatings, and no optical design changes from the early versions, unlike the plossls.
I only like the older SWA from that series, mainly the 40mm, as a max field superwide for SCTs and f10 refractors, because being just copies of the televue widefield, they aren't good in fast scopes.
I am on my second round of collecting those plossls, having the whole set again, including the 56mm smoothie, but my 40, 15 and 9.7 are 4 elements this time, and my 32mm being a rubber 5 element version, I find it a little narrower than the smoothie 32 I used to have, which actually had wider lenses and a wider body. This 32mm is narrower than the others other than the 40 of course, and even a chinese 32mm is wider. It is odd that they made such a narrow bodied 32mm. I also have a 32mm televue smoothside plossl and a 35mm ultima, which is a sweet eyepiece, splitting the difference between soda straw 40s and standard 32s, at 49deg.
I'm rocking rubber 4k UWAs this time around, 6.7, 8.8 and 14. And the 5k 4.7
I tend to go to for the panoptic 35mm and nagler type 4 17mm
i mainly use orion plossl eyepieces in the 32mm, 25mm and 20mm with their 2x shorty barlow. suits my needs well. i also have a orion 120 short tube refractor as my scope of choice along with a celestron 70mm travel scope if i dont want to drag the 120 out.
Hi there Ed
Thank you for so many years of reviews and help with astronomy and way back to before the Internet.. excellent video on two eyepieces ,, question for you , on your far left side what is that orion deepview ? ,,
Thank you .
Yeah, there are a couple of Deep View eyepieces on the table.
@@edting lol yes but what size is the giant orion one ,,
Great presentation Ed.
Totally agree with eyepieces being a very personal experience. I used to have a 13T6, but get this, I found it’s fov too narrow. ER was also too short. Replaced it with Nikon 14/17 which I mostly use as a 14mm.
I would also say I agree with “TV & everything else” with Nikon eyepieces being the exception that proves the rule. But you ain’t saving any money on the Nikons and can be hard to find.
Additional benefit of TV eyepieces: if they don’t work out for you, e.g. 13T6 in my case, you can sell them for minimal loss, sometimes actually gain. 😊