WO UWAN OR TV PANOPTIC?

After very sound advice on choosing a 2" EP for DSO I've narrowed my choice to the Televue Panoptic 2" 27mm with a 68ºFOV and the William Optics UWAN 2" 28mm with a 82ºFOV. I chose this magnification because it's at the limit of my exit pupil - between 5.5 and 5.9 -(49 years old). THis value is for a 1200mm 10" Newtonian that I'm buying.
I like the WO UWAN FOV better but I'm not sure that its quality matches the Panoptic's.

So, asking the pros... which is best?

Thanks for your help... once again

Cheers

Paulo Mesquita

Hi Paulo

I don't have experience with either of those EP's, but wonder-- If 27mm is 'long enough', would a Pan 24 be unacceptably short?

Pan 27 and Pan 24 are awfully close to the same F.L., and the 1.25" Pan 24 might be more 'adaptable' in more scopes and situations, present and future? Also it is a little less expensive, not much.

Am sure Pan 27 is great, and I really like my Pan 24. There are places I use the Pan 24 in little refractors that don't have 2" focusers. If I had a Pan 27 there are more situations it couldn't get used.

Talkin about wide-field, the Pan 24 gives point-focused wall-to-wall stars at > 5 degree FOV (6.4mm exit pupil) in the SV F80 Finder. Pan 24 gives equal great performance at ~8 degrees FOV (6 mm exit pupil) in a 'hot-rodded' 50mm finder. Now thats-a wide field, but 2" eyepieces will not fit the 1.25" helical focusers .

Paulo Mesquita said:

After very sound advice on choosing a 2" EP for DSO I've narrowed my choice to the Televue Panoptic 2" 27mm with a 68ºFOV and the William Optics UWAN 2" 28mm with a 82ºFOV. I chose this magnification because it's at the limit of my exit pupil - between 5.5 and 5.9 -(49 years old). THis value is for a 1200mm 10" Newtonian that I'm buying.
I like the WO UWAN FOV better but I'm not sure that its quality matches the Panoptic's.

So, asking the pros... which is best?

Thanks for your help... once again

Cheers

Paulo Mesquita

Paulo: My collection includes both the 28mm Uwan and the 35mm Panoptic as well as the 22mm Panoptic but no 27mm. The thing about the 28 mm Uwan is that it is quite a bit bigger and heavier than the 35mm Panoptic and diameter of the eyecup is quite large as well.

I use the Uwan quite regularly in my 12.5 inch F/4.06 = F4.7 with the Paracorr and it is quite well corrected though it seems more sensitive to eye position than the Panoptics. The field stop seems to be essentially identical to the 35mm Pan so there is also the temptation to give up a bit of aperture (exit pupil) and go with the 35mm Pan. I think the Uwan's edge correction without the Paracorr in your 10 inch F/4.7 will be less than perfect, probably mostly coma.

A few weeks ago we tried the Uwan in my buddies 10 inch F/4.7 and as I recall it was pretty fine but that was with the Paracorr, we should be viewing together this week end so I will make a point of inspecting the view of the Uwan in his scope.

jon

Hi Paulo!

I use a 1160 mm focal length scope a lot, so the fields of view are similar to your 1200, although it is an 8" scope. My widest field eyepiece is a Siebert 36mm 2 inch (I prefer it to the 35mm Panoptic). In that scope I next go to a 20mm Nagler type 5 (more expensive than the Panoptics); but my point is that I observe more deep sky with tghe 20 mm Panoptic and the 13 and 9 mm eyepieces because I get better contrast, and there is very little apart from the veil and the NA nebula that doesn't fit the 20mm Nagler (the double cluster looks just great, and against a much darker field). The 24mm Panoptic is so close the 20 mm Nagler in true field of view that you can't tell the difference (except on paper).

So I respectfully suggest that you will gradually find that you want a slightly shorter focal length eyepiece than theory dictates.

Do they have star parties in Opporto,
or is it Opporto at star parties.
In the states people at star parties would let you try some eyepieces in your scope. That is, by far, the best way to find out what works (especially with transatlantic shipping and exchange rates).

Best of luck!

Paulo Mesquita said:

After very sound advice on choosing a 2" EP for DSO I've narrowed my choice to the Televue Panoptic 2" 27mm with a 68ºFOV and the William Optics UWAN 2" 28mm with a 82ºFOV. I chose this magnification because it's at the limit of my exit pupil - between 5.5 and 5.9 -(49 years old). THis value is for a 1200mm 10" Newtonian that I'm buying.
I like the WO UWAN FOV better but I'm not sure that its quality matches the Panoptic's.

So, asking the pros... which is best?

Thanks for your help... once again

Cheers

Paulo Mesquita

30mm Pentax XW. Greg N

...and the totally underestimated Edmund RKE 28 which is probably the most interesting of the RKE series; the "dissolving field" has to be experi3enced to be believed. Greg N