Want opinions on lightweight, 2" wide field eypeic

I have an 8" f/6 reflector, an antique Meade. I'm upgrading to a 2" focuser, and plan to buy a few
2" eyepieces. I don't wear glasses. I'd like to hear about eyepeices *other than*
Televue, Meade, Celestron, William Optics. Lightweight is a key issue, no way will I consider a 48oz monster. Right now I'm considering Orion Q70's, and I just heard about Baader Hyperions. Any other suggestions?

In my 10" f/10 SCT I really enjoy the TMB Paragon 30mm.
Since your's is f/6 perhaqps the 40mm would be a better choice.

As a side note the Televue dioptrx will fit on the TMB 30mm.

Fred Dase

Daniel White said:

I have an 8" f/6 reflector, an antique Meade. I'm upgrading to a 2" focuser, and plan to buy a few
2" eyepieces. I don't wear glasses. I'd like to hear about eyepeices *other than*
Televue, Meade, Celestron, William Optics. Lightweight is a key issue, no way will I consider a 48oz monster. Right now I'm considering Orion Q70's, and I just heard about Baader Hyperions. Any other suggestions?

This is a recent discussion of 2 inch inexpensive widefield eyepieces ;

http://www.astromart.com/articles/article.asp?article_id=720

It's definitely worth a read. I have had several 2 inch widefields over the years. In general you pretty much get what you pay for. If you want an eyepiece that offers sharp stars right up to the edge of the field of view in your 8 inch F/6, then you will need to spend some serious money and select from the vendors you want to avoid.

I don't really have any suggestions, one really needs to discover these things for oneself. You maybe be happy with the views that the Q70's provide, only you can know that. It is really a process of discovery, finding out what works for you.

So my suggestion is to find a club or star party where you can look through some eyepieces, hopefully in your own scope. That way you will know what you are buying. But be careful. Eyepieces are very sensitive to focal ratio, one that might look quite good in an F/8 refractor may show distracting aberations off-axis in an F/6 scope.

My own travels have ended with a 35mm Panoptic. It provides quite good edge correction even at F/5 and under and weighs a very manageable 1.6 lbs. One part of me says that if I had just started out with a 35mm Panoptic, I would have saved myself real money but the other part says I would have missed out the process of learning about eyepieces.

Jon Isaacs

Daniel White said:

I have an 8" f/6 reflector, an antique Meade. I'm upgrading to a 2" focuser, and plan to buy a few
2" eyepieces. I don't wear glasses. I'd like to hear about eyepeices *other than*
Televue, Meade, Celestron, William Optics. Lightweight is a key issue, no way will I consider a 48oz monster. Right now I'm considering Orion Q70's, and I just heard about Baader Hyperions. Any other suggestions?

http://www.siebertoptics.com/

The Leitz 88 degree 30mm eyepieces is a nice two inch focuser that is comparatively light weight for what it does. It is expensive.

But it is a non-Meade, non-TV, non-Celestron, non-W.O. option and it isn't made in China.

regards
Greg N

I have an 8" f/6 reflector, an antique Meade. I'm upgrading to a 2" focuser, and plan to buy a few
2" eyepieces. I don't wear glasses. I'd like to hear about eyepeices *other than*
Televue, Meade, Celestron, William Optics.

A couple last comments... In my experience, a single 2 inch eyepiece in the 30mm-35mm range is suffient and it's better to have one very good one than a couple of so-so ones.

A used eyepiece to consider is the 32mm TeleVue Widefield, these typically go for around $150. The Widefields were the predecessors to the Panoptics, the 32mm Widefield is not as well corrected in a fast scope as the 35mm Panoptic but I had one for several years and it is significantly better than of the less expensive widefields. It is quite good at F/6...

It's also not as heavy as the 35mm Pan.

Jon