Posts Made By: Peter Bilotta

This situation is not as bizarre as the thread in the equipment forum by the guy who had an owl drop a rat on him several nights ago while observing Mars, but it is almost as weird Mike.

I too must confess that I have been unfaithful to my Vixen LVs an Ultimas and am two-timing with the 6mm and 9mm Expanses. I'll be darned if the Expanses don't seem a little sharper on Mars much of the time and they are also brighter, particularly on the margin of the SPC and darker features, even though they ghost slightly. However, I have noticed that the Expanses are actually producing less magnification than the equivalent focal length plossls and LVs, which might account for them 'seeming' sharper. They are mighty comfortable to use, though not as comfortable as the LVs.

I actually got the LVs to replace the Expanses, but I'm hanging on to both now to see which perform better on Saturn and Jupiter later this year.

The two I would recommend are the Televue 3x barlow and the Antares 3x Apochromatic barlow (3 lenses like the Ultima). Both offer very sharp and bright high magnification with little loss in image quality. The Televue runs a little over $105 new and $80 used, the Antares is about $75 from a number of online stores including Scope Stuff, Hands on Optics and O'Neill Optical.

I have not used the Epics, but I have tried Celestron's X-Cels, which are the same eyepieces in slightly different focal lengths. My impressions are that these are very nice - not great, but nice. Eye relief, contrast, light throughput and field of view at 55 degrees are very good. Coatings are adequate but the cheaper multicoatings discussed in this forum the past few days. Sharpness is average, but softer than a standard plossl. My impressions are based on an f/5 scope, so they may be a little sharper in your f/8.

IMHOP, if you are on a budget and need the eye relief, they are a good deal. However, I actually like Orion's 6mm and 9mm Expanses more. If you can spend $15-$20 more, your best option with longer eye relief might be trying to pick up a used Vixen or Orion lanthanum on Astromart.

I have used both the 10mm and 12.5mm Ultimas/Ultras and the 12.5mm and 9mm UO orthos in side-by-side comparisons. All are excellent - very sharp with excellent contrast for both planetary and high power deep sky observing.

From an eye relief perspective, the two lines are very similar. It is easier to take in the full FOV on the orthos because they have a narrower 45 degree FOV. This can be a little bit challenging on the Ultrascopic line not because their eye relief is significantly shorter, but because their FOV is a wider 52 degrees. In reality, what I can see in the Ultrascopic with glasses is the equivalent of the Ortho's FOV, and the Ultras beat the orthos without glasses.

At 9-12mm, you can't go wrong with either one, and it doesn't hurt to mix. However, at 15-20mm, I think the Ultrascopic wins hands-down, particularly with its wider FOV. My 18mm Ultima (same as the Ultrascopic) is my favorite eyepiece in my case and has wonderful sharpness, contrast and eye relief.

There is absolutely no reason why you can't mix and match as you mention. I did so and like both eyepiece lines. Personally, I prefer the Ultimas/Ultrascopics over the orthos for its wider FOV and the fact that they are parfocal, making a great set for planetary work.

Here's a suggestion to solve your dilemma. Pick up one of each at the 12.5mm or 9-10mm focal length without your binoviewer ($45-$55 for each used on Astromart). See which you like better on Saturn and Jupiter this winter, not just in the view, but the comfort factor for your eye. Then, you can be certain which type you like better before investing more in pairs of either line.

Don't fret over the differences too much, however. You really can't go wrong with either eyepiece line. Both are exceptional.

Amazing Dominique - that's one you have to send to Sky & Telescope and Astronomy!

At our transit party this morning, we had a wide variety of equipment ranging from a masked 10" Dob and an 8" SCT to ETX 105's and several high-end APO refractors. The verdict of much of the crowd assembled? The best and sharpest view was in my sub-$200 Nikon Field Scope. I brought my smallest and cheapest instrument because I know other better scopes would be present, and even I was surprised that it bested them all. I never would have thought that such an inexpensive scope could deliver so much.

I'm no expert Walter, but I do know that the Masuyama is a pretty basic "modified plossl" design. It consists of a standard four element plossl with a fifth element added to flatten the field and increase edge sharpness. The 5mm and 3.8mm models add two additional elements as a barlow to achieve higher powers.

While not at this short of a focal length, I have compared several short focal length Vixen/Orion Lanthanums and Celestron X-Cels/Orion Epics side-by-side. The X-cels are lovely to look through, but their sharpness and contrast simply does not match the Vixens in my f/5 Newtonian or f/10 SCT. I had high hopes for lowering my eyepiece investment with the X-cels but was disappointed. I sold them and kept my Vixens.

I have had good experiences with two zooms Mark. The rest were junk with excessive ghosting or reflections.

The Vixen/Televue/Meade 8-24mm zoom (all essentially the same eyepiece) is an excellent performer. Very sharp, good contrast and 20mm eye relief. The most notable drawbacks are its narrow field of view at 18-24mm and it goes a little soft at 8mm.

Surpisingly, I have found the $60 GTO/Apogee/Scopetronix 7-22mm zoom (again, all the same) to be equal in performance with slightly shorter eye relief.

Both of these zooms equal or best my Vixen LV's for both planetary and deep sky and I can recommend them. My Ultimas and orthos are better, but that's to be expected from a quality fixed eyepiece.

I have the identical scope (my favorite portable one) and use a 30mm Celestron Ultima - a fabulous performer in this scope at around $65 used on Astromart. It gives you 25x and an actual field of view of 2 degrees in this scope, and also barlows beautifully with minimal vignetting. I have also tried the 35mm Ultima but found the eye relief a little too long and the FOV not appreciably larger than the 30mm.

If you are looking for a wider field of view, you are going to be rather challenged because virtually all 60 and 70 degree FOV eyepieces that are in this price range (Swans, Epics used Axioms and the like) are not sharp in the outer 20-30% of the FOV in an f/5 scope. However, early reports on AM indicate that Orion's new Stratus eyepieces perform quite well. If you are willing to spend a $20 more, these might be a good solution.