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Pro Optics Ultra-Wide Eyepieces

Started by V man, 05/01/2003 01:11AM
Posted 05/01/2003 01:11AM Opening Post
I have several of the Pro-optics Ultra-Wide eyepieces and have compared them to Naglers of similiar sizes and guess? I cant see much difference in sharpness especially for planetary use. Are my eyes bad or are cetain eyepieces over-rated? Thanks..
Posted 05/01/2003 01:22AM #1
I haven't used enough eyepieces over time to develop a really strong understanding of this beyond a number of specific comparisons. A lot of eyepieces work relatively well in longer focal ratio scopes. Fast scopes are hard to design eyepieces for, especially widefield eyepieces. Televue eyepieces are all designed for excellent correction in scopes down to f/4. This makes them especially useful in fast refractors and dobs. (It also makes them expensive.) Their advantages are considerably less in longer focal ratio scopes.
Posted 05/01/2003 07:27PM #2
Vito,
I have the pro-optic 6mm widefield eyepiece and I feel it reveals very good color rendition in Saturn's globe in my astrosystems 16" F4.5 dob. The edges are soft but not terrible. I think the naglers would have a much better corrected edge and a wider field as well. I did compare my 6mm pro-optic widefield with my UO 6mm ortho and I think the ortho is a tad sharper but the color rendition was more accurate in the pro-optic eyepiece.Just a side note: I have a speers-waler 10mm eyepiece with a 75 degree or greater field of view and you can position Saturn at the extreme edge and visualize the divisions in the ring structure. Not too many eyepieces have that kind of edge sharpness with a wide field of view.
Posted 05/01/2003 08:05PM #3
I got a 20mm Ultra-wide of this type and thought it looked and acted like a $50 eyepiece. The coatings looked pretty, but as multi-coatings they were badly done with too much reflectivity. There were ghost images also (no surprise), and the exit pupil wasn't very cleanly formed. I disliked using it in my f/13.8 ETX as much as I disliked it in my f/6.7 and f/5 Newts. I'm no great fan of big Naglers myself, mostly because I refuse to use a Paracorr for convenience reasons in my 10" f/5 Newt, but from what I saw in the 20mm Ultra-wide, I wouldn't bet 25 cents that the 6mm Ultra-wide would stand up for 5 seconds against a 7mm or 5mm Nagler Type 6. Anybody wants to send me a 6mm Pro-optic, I'll be glad to do the comparison, but like I said, extrapolating from the 22mm, it doesn't make the cut on my list of things to do with $50.
--
Mike