Denkmeier eyepieces

Started by Brian Goodman, 11/01/2004 03:29PM
Posted 11/01/2004 03:29PM Opening Post
Was checking out Denkmeiers ad on their new eyepiece line. They sound pretty sweet. Certainly in the premium eyepiece price range. 21mm and 14mm were what my Pentax XL's were. Using my 8" SCT and the duel power switch; even with the starsweeper, I found that the 14mm gave a magnification range that was much to high for my conditions and preferences. Way to high. The 21mm fit the power switch range alittle bit better, but still to high. Wouldn't something in the 30mm range give a more usable magnification range with power switches for a more variety of scopes?. I have to deal with jet streams where I am at, so I do get the best results with lower power, but I have read alot of posts from other people who deal with the same thing. Anyway; shouldn't Denkmeier make a sweet 30mm eyepiece set?. Or do you guy's really pump up the power in the way that I can not.
Posted 11/01/2004 10:46PM #1
I saw the Denkmeier EP ad, too. They sound very similar to the Pentax EP in AFOV, price, and hopefully performance.

I don't think a 30mm 65 degree AFOV EP is possible in the 1.25" format. The 24mm Panoptic (68* field) is a maximum field, so maybe Denk could make a 25mm EP. The 14mm appealed to me. I have a pair of 25mm Pans that I use for "low power", which is about 150x. Using the power switch, I can go up to a little less than 300x. I'm pretty new to binoviewing, and have only used them on the moon, globulars and some of the brighter nebulas (nebulae?). But usually when I look at the moon, I want even more power before too long. I've been trying out some UO orthos. I like them, but the small FOV makes me feel a little restricted. They don't give me that "hovering over the moon" feeling as much as the Pans or Naglers.

Be interesting to hear the reviews of the 20mm EPs soon.

Kevin
Posted 11/07/2004 01:51AM #2
Brian,

I've bought the following to use with a 16" F4 dob and Denk with PowerxSwitch: 32mm plossls, 20mm 67 deg fov GSO Superviews, 15mm 65 deg fov GSO Superviews and a pair of 18mm Ultimas. The 15mm Superviews rarely get used as they give too high of power on most nights (poor seeing). The 32 plossls and 20mm GSOs get the most use. I kept the 18mm Ultimas for a set of good planetary eyepieces, but I am so happy with the performance of the 20mm GSOs I find myself using them 75% of the time. The 32 plossls are 25% of the time. I would love to try a pair of 24 Pans agains the 20mm GSOs. I am so satisfied with the GSOs the Pans would really have to knock my socks off so to speak.

DBA Astronomy sells the GSOs for around $40 each and doing a side by side with the 18mm Ultimas, I am really impressed.

Another interesting offering are the new Meades, 24mm 68 FOV, coming end of this year.

Clear skies,
Mark Hansen

Mark Hansen
http://public.fotki.com/mhansen/