Tak 5mm LE

Anyone have one of these ep's? I posted the question on a yahoo group and only got 2 replies so maybe I'll get more here. I am particularly interested in the 5mm fl. At 9-10mm er shouldn't be a problem as I've used ep's with much less. This ep will be used for planetary views. This will be used in an 8" f/6 dob for about 243x. Considering 5mm radian and t/6 nagler as well, but I hear just as much negative on the later two as I hear positive. ie. blackouts false/lateral color, eye placement critcal.etc.
With the exception of my 24mm pan all my other ep's are TV plossls and one UO ortho. So the fov shouldn't be too bad either. I barlow all my ep's with TV 2x for my planetary viewing at present.So how does this ep stack up to others or my present set-up? Also nudging a dob isn't a problem for me either.I'd like to add that my 4 year old daughter likes to come out and view with me so ease of use is critcal. Thanks for any replies.
Jason

Jason, I had a 5mm Tak LE a few years back and liked it. I'm sure you would, too, but I don't think it would be any better than an 11mm Tele Vue Plossl with the 2x Tele Vue Barlow. In fact, I suspect that combo will be tough to beat in terms of sharpness and contrast. Not everybody agrees, of course, but if 9-10mm of eye relief is okay, I think the 3-6mm Nagler zoom would be worth considering. It will take you from an exit pupil of 1mm down to 0.5mm, which is ideal. I'm not a zoom kinda guy, myself, but you might be.
--
Mike

My 5mm Tak LE is my favorite short f-l eyepiece. Its casemates include a 6mm UO ortho, 6mm Vixen LV, and 8mm TV Plossl. To my eye, the Tak is the best of that admittedly small group, in terms of contrast, brightness, and sharpness. (The TV Plossl is a close second.) I also find it a very comfortable eypiece to use in terms of eye relief and sensitivity to eye position.

In my 130mm f/6.2 AP refractor, the 5 gives me about 160x, and I barlow it to 320X in good seeing.

I've had some limited experience with Radians and Naglers, but not enough to tell you how they stack up versus the LE. But many people like them as planetary eyepieces.

David

Jason--I've tested the Tak 5LE against a U.O. 5 ortho, and Pentax 5.2 XL. All the eypieces were tested in a 12.5" f/6 reflector, and a 4" f/10 achromat. Seemed to me that the U.O. Ortho was the sharpest of the lot, but the eye relief and field of view made me go with the 5 Le. Haven't really regretted the decision, I find that the extra time I can spend just looking without nudging the scope makes up for the lost sharpness. I did have a 6mm Radian for a while but I thought that it just didn't have the sharpness and contrast of the others. One DOES hear a lot of back and forth on the Radians, must be that elements of the viewing experience with that particular ocular will just turn some on and some off. Best of skies to you. Larry Seguin.

Jason,

My criteria for a good ep is (in order):

1) image sharpness
2) eye relief
3) field of view (less so with high power eps)

The Tak 5mm LE is the first Takahashi ep I've owned. I have owned others in this range, and compared it with others (especially TeleVue eps). The 5mm has remained one of my favorites. I was so impressed with it that I bought the Tak 3.6mm LE, and plan to buy the Tak 2.8mm in a couple of months. I use them with my FS-128 refractor. The image sharpness surpassed my expectations. I figured with the generous eye relief, image would suffer. Not so. The field of view is perfect for planetary viewing.

-Phil