are Naglers still good buys?

orly_andico · Post by **orly_andico** » Thu Apr 15, 2010 1:27 pm

I am looking for a high-mag eyepiece.. something in the 6-9mm range.

I know the Naglers used to be the top-of-the-line wide fields, but the Ethos has depressed their prices (particularly used) to the level where I don't feel horrible about buying some.

I saw this 7mm Type-4 for about $150 US (used) which seems reasonable considering the Baader Hyperion is $100 US new.

But are Naglers still that desirable? or have the lower-cost alternatives closed the gap?

Post by **acc** » Thu Apr 15, 2010 9:12 pm

not sure about the Type 4s, but the 7mm Type 6 is a sweet eyepiece that I love to use as its comfortable to use and sharp.

Post by **Airconvent** » Sun Apr 18, 2010 11:03 am

I personally think unless you are an aficianado, the pentax eyepieces offers best bang for buck. They are discontinued but continue to be available on the second hand market. I know of 2 members here who have a delicious collection of these beauties..one has the same name as me and the other has the same name as a singer...heh heh

Post by **weixing** » Sun Apr 18, 2010 11:34 am

Hi,
Pentax astronomical scopes are discontinued, but not their eyepieces... the XW eyepieces can be use on their spotting scopes.

Anyway, not everyone can afford an Ethos, so Nagler and others wide angle eyepieces are still a good buy.

Have a nice day.

Canopus Lim · Post by **Canopus Lim** » Sun Apr 18, 2010 9:03 pm

Airconvent wrote:I personally think unless you are an aficianado, the pentax eyepieces offers best bang for buck. They are discontinued but continue to be available on the second hand market. I know of 2 members here who have a delicious collection of these beauties..one has the same name as me and the other has the same name as a singer...heh heh

Hmm.. not really though. They tend to cost more than a Type 6 Nagler unless you got the Pentax on sale.

Post by **weixing** » Sun Apr 18, 2010 10:37 pm

Hi,

croys wrote:I was surprised how much the Hyperions cost compared to the Pentaxes and decided to go with them instead.

Hmm... I thought Hyperions cost less than half the price of Pentax XW?? How much you paid for a Pentax XW??

Have a nice day.

orly_andico · Post by **orly_andico** » Sun Apr 18, 2010 10:40 pm

Yeah my understanding is that Baader Hyperions only cost $120 US.. besides they are more Panoptic class than Nagler class in terms of FOV. The Pentax XW's seem to cost about 2X as much as Baaders and the same as Panoptic's..

Anyway I've gone cheap for now and am waiting for my 6mm Burgess/TMB Planetary :-P (55-degree AFOV)

edit. I must add, I will consider a wide-field eyepiece only after my dob is complete again... and then, at that point, I will have to evaluate whether I want to have my mass-produced mirror refigured or buy a Royce mirror first. Because an UW eyepiece on a consumer-grade mirror with no Paracorr doesn't sound so hot..

Canopus Lim · Post by **Canopus Lim** » Mon Apr 19, 2010 11:14 am

So you bought your Pentax XWs in Japan? How much did you pay for them? Again, if one were to buy locally or from USA websites, they cost more than a Nagler. So it can be pretty inaccurate to say that the Pentax XW is more 'bang for the buck' because it depends on where you buy them and if you have the opportunity (like going to Japan). I recently bought a Pentax XP3.8 from Japan (but through mail order), and I would say it was not that cheap too; I needed it anyway and have waited for years for 2nd hand ones but none appeared. Probably price has risen for Pentax or it was not on sale.

I do not own an Ethos as it is way too expensive but I have looked through it twice. My impression is that it is really a very immersive eyepiece. The AFOV is so large that literally the scope disappears and you feel like you are very close to a window looking at a scenery. The AFOV is so large that I found my 82 degree eyepieces look 'narrow'!

About it being a gimmick, I do not think so. The immersiveness is not a gimmick and the eyepiece does have little aberrations. The field is flat and has very low amounts of astigmatism at the corners. Also, the concept of going higher magnification and yet maintaining the same TFOV as other eyepieces is a real plus point in Singapore. I do observe globular clusters at least 260x and it really does give a pleasing view and good resolving off the stars. Having a wide AFOV will help in framing the objects and enabling a higher magnification.