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Posts Made By: Rod Kaufman

September 14, 2003 05:39 PM Forum: Eyepieces

UO HD Orthoscopic

Posted By Rod Kaufman
Gregg, I would also expect the 18mm ortho to out-perform the Meade eyepieces. I also have a 18mm UO ortho with normal multi-coatings and my impression is that it is clearly better than the meade eyepieces in my collection. I have used the aforementioned eyepieces in a variety of scopes including my 12.5" Discovery dob and a 16" dob. I also used it in a meade 10" schmidt-cass I used to own. It's possible you got a dud and I would return it and try another one.

September 25, 2003 02:03 AM Forum: Eyepieces

Nagler or Pentax

Posted By Rod Kaufman
Gregg, I don't think you can go wrong with either eyepiece at F-10. If you had a faster scope such as my 16" F4.5, I would recommend the pentax eyepieces as they have no discernable aberrations at the edge of the field at moderate focal lengths. For example, my pentax 10.5 eyepiece shows a star at the extreme edge as a point with no pincushion,barrel or lateral color aberrations, coma or astigmatism at F4.5. Most amateurs don't believe this until I show them the image of a star at the center and then at the edge of the pentax unit and there's no distortion at all. At F-10, you might enjoy the larger field of the nagler but the 65 degree apparent field of view of the pentax is still quite nice to see most objects.

October 10, 2003 06:41 PM Forum: Eyepieces

cleaning ep help

Posted By Rod Kaufman
Brian, the safest method I've used is to apply the Zeiss cleaning fluid for muti-coated lenses. It comes in a small pump-spray bottle, costs about five bucks and is available from Astronomics or Anacortes. Simply spray it on and pad off the excess with a cotton ball. One bottle seems to last forever and it works quite well.

January 25, 2004 06:33 PM Forum: Eyepieces

Celestron Ultima and Antares W70 EP's

Posted By Rod Kaufman
John,
I have the 8.6mm antares eyepiece and I am pleased with it's performance on DSOs and on Saturn. However, there may be quality control issues on the antares widefield line, as reported in posts in this forum. The problem appears to be with the coatings in that some have a green, apparantly ineffective coating while others have the more common blue coating which effectively reduces reflections and ghosting of images. I think the ultima line generally has a high level of quality control although the AFOV will be significantly less than the antares widefield design. If you do decide on the antares eyepiece, I would recommend contacting Jim at Scopestuff and ask him for the blue-coated units. Scopestuff is also an Astromart sponsor and includes shipping on their items. You may also consider the antares line of high quality plossls that apppear to be identical to the ultrascopic line and are sold by scopestuff and other dealers.

January 30, 2004 05:49 AM Forum: Eyepieces

Opinions - Antares UltraWide's & Antares W70's

Posted By Rod Kaufman
John,
The ultrawides appear to be identical with the orion expanse and adorama pro-optic eyepieces. You can read a review of the expanse eyepieces on the cloudy nights reviews which has a thorough discussion of these eyepieces. Some amateurs complain about ghosting in the expanse-pro-optic-ultrawide series. My 6mm pro-optic eyepiece reveals nice color on Saturn in my 16" dob but will ghost on the edges but is ok on-axis. I like my 8.6mm 70 degree antares eyepiece which has better coatings than my 6mm pro-optic ultrawide but it appears there's variation in these coatings--don't want to re-start that discussion again!

February 2, 2004 08:14 PM Forum: Eyepieces

Re: Nagler 16 T-2

Posted By Rod Kaufman
Floyd,
It seems quite odd that the nagler doesn't have a coating, are you seeing significant reflections from the eyelens if the bottom lens is capped? It should look dark and without reflections.Don't know quite to what to make of this one! As far as the orion eyepiece is concerned, I am assuming it's not the wideangle version so $35.00 would be fair for this focal length and condition. The 4mm version(vixen) goes for around $70.00 used but the longer focal lengths seem to go for less. I will say the 4mm vixen is an underated planetary/double star eyepiece and everytime I want to buy it used, it's been sold!

February 8, 2004 07:37 PM Forum: Eyepieces

Scopetronix 2" Barlow

Posted By Rod Kaufman
Jeffrey,
I have the same barlow which I bought for less at Owl Services for $59.00. It's an excellent barlow and cleans-up the edges on my TAL 24mm 2" eyepiece in my fast F4.5 16" dob. It comes with a 1.25" adapter and is threaded for filters. It's a shinning star in a world of dim barlows. PS If you do buy one from Owl Services, you need to call them and ask for it as it's not on their website.

February 23, 2004 08:26 PM Forum: Eyepieces

Meade Series 4000 datas needed

Posted By Rod Kaufman
Levente,
The meade super plossls have five elements as opposed to four in the conventional plossl design so the field is corrected for aberrations to a better degree. I personally prefer the antares ultima/ orion ultrascopic plossls and the televues. I think the antares ultimas represent the best values and you can get them for about $66.00 new at Meridian Telescopes or less used on AM. The eye relief is high on the long focal length plossls and short below 12mm but useable. If you need high eye relief in a premium ocular, the pentax Xls or XWs are the ones to get.

March 5, 2004 08:03 PM Forum: Eyepieces

UO Orthos vs. Orion Ultrascopics.

Posted By Rod Kaufman
Floyd,
Your 12.5" dob is really looking good. I am glad to know it's meeting your expectations. I looked at the trapezium with my 16" dob at Pinos in January and the 10mm ultra and my pentax 10.5mm xl gave nearly identical views with the components being well-resolved. I will have to test them with my 12.5" if I get the opportunity to do so.

March 5, 2004 06:32 PM Forum: Eyepieces

Scopetronix 2" Barlow

Posted By Rod Kaufman
Jeff,
I am glad to know you like the barlow. I recommended it from Owl Services as it priced at least $20.00 less than the equivalent barlow at scopetronix. It has very good light-throughput and appears to be a bit brighter than my orion 1.25" apo barlow. All barlows dim the image but this seems to be less of a problem with this particular 2" barlow. It also clean-up the edges in my 2" TAL 24mm widefield eyepiece.

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