TeleVue announced 8mm Ethos at NEAF 08

Post by **VinSnr** » Wed Apr 30, 2008 12:06 pm

ariefm71 wrote:Price is announced, it's indeed $585.00. No one wins, rlow the closest.

me kena conned by Tom T. During the livecast of NEAF, he says Nagler said he will sell for 620.

hahaha...

rlow · Post by **rlow** » Wed Apr 30, 2008 12:14 pm

Price is announced, it's indeed $585.00. No one wins, rlow the closest.

Just a lucky guess! Prize... a 8mm TMB Supermono?

Tachyon · Post by **Tachyon** » Wed Apr 30, 2008 1:48 pm

Actually, the list price was $730, but selling at $585. I wonder how true these 'List prices' are?

[smilie=confused.gif]

Anyway, it's cheaper than the 13mm...

ivanong · Post by **ivanong** » Thu May 01, 2008 1:24 am

I looked through both the 8mm and the 13mm Ethos at NEAF. The 8mm behaves the same as its older sibling. Same feel- you have the shove your eye all the way in, but the FOV is amazing. The final element is concave from your eye (I think), so even if you shove your eye in (and you can do so even if you wear glasses with thin lenses) there is little danger of your eye coming in contact with the lens surface. On the other hand, I tried the Dioptrix on it and I ended up rubbing my eye against the Dioptix lens. By the way, I ended up purchasing a 13mm Ethos at the show for 5% off, no taxes. Nice price.

If you'l let me ramble on about NEAF...I was impressed by Astro-Tech's Voyager Alt Az mount. Beats the pants off a Vixen Porta in terms of load and stability and it sells at a lower price! I purchased one at the show price of $249US, nice!

The A-P new Mak is impressive. Roland had it on the 3600GTO. Both were massive. The new carbon fiber body is a beauty. Roland told me he could rest his hands on the carbon fiber body and not have the heat from his hand disrupt the internal thermals. But seriously folks, this scope is massive. You get a hernia just looking at the thing. Not for portable use, only folks with an observatory.

Talking about observatories, the Skypod plastic dome looked really cool. The guy had a 5-bay Skypod tricked out with refrigerator, computer, stero. It was awesome.

The other high point was the solar viewing party outside. It was sunny on Saturday and I looked through Greg Piepol's AP 155mm with a H-alpha filter. Blew my socks away.

Ivan

Post by **acc** » Thu May 01, 2008 10:31 am

Wow so lucky you are!

With the dioptix on the ethos, were you able to get in the whole FOV?

Tachyon · Post by **Tachyon** » Thu May 01, 2008 11:15 am

Thanks Ivan for the commentary! Will try to make it for next year's NEAF!

ivanong · Post by **ivanong** » Thu May 01, 2008 9:30 pm

Hi, to answer the question about the dioptrx. Yes, with it on, you can get the FOV, but at least for me my eyeball is so close up to the flat lens of the dioptrx that it has touched the lens several times. And ocular moisture tends to stain and muddy the dioptrx lens.

The final outer lens element of the Ethos 13mm is concave. I have been able to view it with eye glasses without the dioptrx and see the entire FOV. But if your eye glass lens is thick, you might not be able to do it. I am lucky- I think I just managed to do it.

I was in the Blue Ridge Parkway last night and I got to test the Ethos out in detail. It was quite impressive. The only problem is after viewing it for a while and moving to a Radian is like what the folks say- it feels like viewing something through a drinking straw. Even my Nalger T6 9mm felt narrow!

I wonder why not Barlow an Ethos 13mm instead of buying the 8mm? When I get a chance I will check out my AP Barcon with the Ethos 13mm.

Post by **acc** » Thu May 01, 2008 11:03 pm

Thanks Ivan. Looks like the dioptix may not be necessary for some eye-glass wearers

Some users have reported that the Ethos barlows well, so it does look like a good option.

Canopus Lim · Post by **Canopus Lim** » Thu May 01, 2008 11:22 pm

CC,
What's your astig level? For 8mm with a f/5 scope it will give an exit pupil of 1.6mm.

From my own experiment based on my eye of astig 100 (diopter 1.0), 2mm exit pupil is the max that I can use without wearing glasses. Therefore if your astig is 100 or 125, you will not need to use Dioptrx for the 8mm Ethos.

Post by **Airconvent** » Thu May 01, 2008 11:42 pm

OFF TOPIC :
Hi Ivan,
I'm really curious about an alt-azi mount that is better than the porta-mount. Care to do a reviews and upload some pics in a new thread on mounts that challenge the porta-mount?
Thanks!

ps....I have a Radian...looks like as long as I am not spoilt by the Ethos view, I will not see it as a "straw!"...heh heh