eyepieces
- harlequin2902
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If you ignore Al Nagler's trademark for a while, the old Pentax XL's (about the same price as Radians) and new XW's (more expensive than Type 6 Naglers) are also more or less designed with Radian-like functions (high contrast, long eye relief, wide angle, adjustable eyecup etc..) and I think the new XW's have now gone even furthur into the Panoptics' territory with a slightly larger AFOV plus better eye relief. Hm, maybe one day we will have an even newer series by Pentax to compete against the Naglers in the 82 deg class !but wanted a good eyepiece with good contrast, high magnification performance,a reasonable wide view and bearing Al Nagler's trademark. I found that in the Radian series. most that have seen through it was impressed by its optics (for $430+, it better be !)
rich
But so far, honestly speaking - of all the eyepieces I've ever used till now, *performance PLUS comfort*-wise, the XL's are very hard to beat (with the exception of the newer XW's of course).
Samuel Ng
- harlequin2902
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- weixing
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Hi,
A 45 deg diagonal is not useful for astronomy observation, get a 90 deg diagonal...
Anyway, do you have any eyepiece at the moment to start with ?? I got two eyepiece, a SMA25mm and a SMA10mm, that I didn't use... I can loan it to you, so that you can start to use your telescope... To me the quality of a plossel and a SMA seem not much difference, may be you can compare it and see whether you can see any difference..
A 45 deg diagonal is not useful for astronomy observation, get a 90 deg diagonal...
Anyway, do you have any eyepiece at the moment to start with ?? I got two eyepiece, a SMA25mm and a SMA10mm, that I didn't use... I can loan it to you, so that you can start to use your telescope... To me the quality of a plossel and a SMA seem not much difference, may be you can compare it and see whether you can see any difference..
Yang Weixing
"The universe is composed mainly of hydrogen and ignorance."
"The universe is composed mainly of hydrogen and ignorance."
from my own experience, the televue 32mm plossl and the 25mm SMA gives us different views. A few months back, while i was at dempsey, chee chien was kind enough to lend me the 32mm plossl and image showed has a relatively large difference. the 32mm tv plossl gives an image with a darker background, and the stars appear to be brighter.
hope this helps ^.^
hope this helps ^.^
- Airconvent
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of course lah...:-)gwenyi wrote:from my own experience, the televue 32mm plossl and the 25mm SMA gives us different views. A few months back, while i was at dempsey, chee chien was kind enough to lend me the 32mm plossl and image showed has a relatively large difference. the 32mm tv plossl gives an image with a darker background, and the stars appear to be brighter.
hope this helps ^.^
one is a Televue Plossl while the other is a generic SMA!
But at 32mm, the TCV's magnification is also smaller, so logically should appear brighter also since more light into the scope.
rich
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- Airconvent
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harlequin2902 wrote: If you ignore Al Nagler's trademark for a while, the old Pentax XL's (about the same price as Radians) and new XW's (more expensive than Type 6 Naglers) are also more or less designed with Radian-like functions (high contrast, long eye relief, wide angle, adjustable eyecup etc..) and I think the new XW's have now gone even furthur into the Panoptics' territory with a slightly larger AFOV plus better eye relief. Hm, maybe one day we will have an even newer series by Pentax to compete against the Naglers in the 82 deg class !
But so far, honestly speaking - of all the eyepieces I've ever used till now, *performance PLUS comfort*-wise, the XL's are very hard to beat (with the exception of the newer XW's of course).
Let's use the car as an analogy. The new Kia Magentis is a 2.0 litre car that cost only $80K+ and you get all the luxuries of the other "big names" like Lexus, Mercedes and BMW. While the Magentis, winning a few awards in the US will perform admirably, people will "feel" they get more value for money paying $100K+ for a BMW or Lexus...I don't think I will get the kind of feel from a Pentax than with a Radian (actual performance aside).
I guess this is part of the dynamics of astro equipment where pure performance is not the only criteria....that's why so many people still buy TV scopes...
But now that I have a "premium" main eyepiece, if I ever need to buy a another EP (and get "suan" by CC,), then I will consider a Pentax..
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- Airconvent
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Hi Starfirez,
But getting back to the topic, Wei Xing's recommendation is good enough.
Why not just buy these "foundation" pieces first, use it for a while and once you are more familiar, you will be able to decide what gaps in your range you need to address...
rich
But getting back to the topic, Wei Xing's recommendation is good enough.
Why not just buy these "foundation" pieces first, use it for a while and once you are more familiar, you will be able to decide what gaps in your range you need to address...
rich
The Boldly Go Where No Meade Has Gone Before
Captain, RSS Enterprise NCC1701R
United Federation of the Planets
Captain, RSS Enterprise NCC1701R
United Federation of the Planets