I was lucky enough to secure a Carl Zeiss microscope eyepiece on E-bay to try in my telescope!
I had heard that it could be done, and I bidded up a staggering $12.00 on a 12.5x Zeiss eyepiece with a very scratched barrel, which was barely visible in the hazy pic, and I won!
What I recieved was a VERY heavy eyepiece, about as tall as a 25mm plossl, but very narrow, a loose fit in a .965 focuser!
The Markings show a neat "Carl Zeiss" emblem, which looks like 1/2 of a cheese wheel, and below that, the words, West Germany.
On the other side, it reads Kpl W 12.5x and a little picture of tiny eyeglasses!
I was surprised at the top lens, which is about as wide as a 25mm plossl (I was expecting a peep hole!), and the lens has a purple coating, and is concave!
A few round hose washers brought the barrel up to 1.25 inches, and I tried it out on my most eyepiece-picky telescope, a Starblast 4.5 inch f/4 reflector...
First, I tried to get it's actual magnification, which I figured at around 32x, making this eyepiece around 14mm focal length, if thats the right term...
Anyway, after looking at M44, Albiero, and M57, I found that this eyepiece compares almost exactly to my 15mm Orion Expanse!
The Expance gathers slightly more light (M57 was slightly more obvious in the expanse), and the colors of Albiero are nearly identical in both eyepieces, as are the nice round stars.
The Zeiss has a slightly wider FOV, maybe 68 degrees, but it is wasted, due to the coma evident at around 70% out, compared to the Orion, which doesn't bend the stars to at least 85-90% out of center! Surprisingly, eye relief is identical, but the eyepieces are not parafocal.
I'd like to try this eyepiece on my ETX-90, which can still produce a nice image with a plastic bottle cap for an eyepiece!
I never thought I would own a Zeiss anything, but it looks like it's gonna make a pretty good wide field eyepiece.
Anyone else try a microscope eyepiece in thier telescope?
Chris
I had heard that it could be done, and I bidded up a staggering $12.00 on a 12.5x Zeiss eyepiece with a very scratched barrel, which was barely visible in the hazy pic, and I won!
What I recieved was a VERY heavy eyepiece, about as tall as a 25mm plossl, but very narrow, a loose fit in a .965 focuser!
The Markings show a neat "Carl Zeiss" emblem, which looks like 1/2 of a cheese wheel, and below that, the words, West Germany.
On the other side, it reads Kpl W 12.5x and a little picture of tiny eyeglasses!
I was surprised at the top lens, which is about as wide as a 25mm plossl (I was expecting a peep hole!), and the lens has a purple coating, and is concave!
A few round hose washers brought the barrel up to 1.25 inches, and I tried it out on my most eyepiece-picky telescope, a Starblast 4.5 inch f/4 reflector...
First, I tried to get it's actual magnification, which I figured at around 32x, making this eyepiece around 14mm focal length, if thats the right term...
Anyway, after looking at M44, Albiero, and M57, I found that this eyepiece compares almost exactly to my 15mm Orion Expanse!
The Expance gathers slightly more light (M57 was slightly more obvious in the expanse), and the colors of Albiero are nearly identical in both eyepieces, as are the nice round stars.
The Zeiss has a slightly wider FOV, maybe 68 degrees, but it is wasted, due to the coma evident at around 70% out, compared to the Orion, which doesn't bend the stars to at least 85-90% out of center! Surprisingly, eye relief is identical, but the eyepieces are not parafocal.
I'd like to try this eyepiece on my ETX-90, which can still produce a nice image with a plastic bottle cap for an eyepiece!
I never thought I would own a Zeiss anything, but it looks like it's gonna make a pretty good wide field eyepiece.
Anyone else try a microscope eyepiece in thier telescope?
Chris
There's something on the Moon! 8O
