Posts Made By: Larry Stedman

Just heard of them! Someone will have to take the plunge and write a mini-review.

Dave, try a 30mm Ultima. You'll get a nice wide fov and crisp stars. It's also possible that your collimation is off somewhat contributing to what you're seeing.

Or a 21mm Denk for darker sky background, better exit pupil, and a flat fov.

Both eyepieces are small, lighter weight.

How far out does the problem begin? half way from center to edge? 3/4? How noticeable or irritating is it?

I share your feeling about extra weight and balance--and there's also the $$ involved in the ParaCorr. If you're going that route, try before you buy, or buy used and then resell if you don't like it!

As the old saw goes, you'll have to buy it and let us know!

Larry, I had the exact same reaction to the Vixen LVW 8-24mm zoom I own. It's truly wonderful.

It rapidly became my favorite planetary eyepiece, combined with, of all things, a long, cheap Orion 2x deluxe baffled barlow! My best views of Jupiter and Saturn have come with that! (Well, slight fib there, an 8mm RKE barlowed with a 3x Televue turned in a better Saturn view one evening.)

The zoom is so good that is displaced all sorts of eyepieces for planetary viewing, including Pentaxes, U.O. orthos, Konigs, etc.

One great feature is being able to dial in the magnification for the seeing conditions.

The other, unheralded, and truly impressive feature of the zoom is its ability to ZOOM in on DSOs. Go out on some transparent night, in a mid-sized dob, and start at the low power end and zoom in on anything. The effect is Star Trek like and unlike anything else one experiences in observing! The Ring Nebula expands as if you were flying into it; M13's or M22's stars come at you as if you were entering the globular for real. And the Moon? Well, you're in the LEM and you'll feel like saying "Houston, we've begun our descent to the surface!"

I'll never sell mine!

Great first name by the way! 8)

Hear, hear! That's great news. Does anyone know who's behind it now?

I've always been tempted by them... so like the ergonomics on the Astroscan that a Port-a-ball always struck me as the next logical step!

It would be real icing on the cake, though, to have DSCs!

Thanks for the news!

I realize this is an old thread, but what was curious what scope you took the photos with...

I've updated the web page address that I originally gave here. My page devoted to the Bennett Catalog is now at

http://home.roadrunner.com/~lstedman/

Enjoy!

Do you still have your 2x and 3x barlows? If so, you're all set!

If not, the advice above that it depends on your eyepiece collection is spot on. OTOH, I've found it helpful to have both a 2x and a 3x (and even a 2.5x) so that you get to any mag you wish to!

The TV 2x 1.25" barlow is highly recommended, as are the Celestron Ultima and the Orion Shorty Plus.

I like the TV, found the Ultima a bit dark (it's more like 2.2x-2.4x), and preferred the Shorty to the Plus because it's threaded.

With your 10", you'll want to have four magnifications for sure--a very low power from a wide field eyepiece; then low, medium, and high. That combo will serve you well. The barlow can fill in between a couple and get you really high mags for planets or those exceptional nights.

Yes, I do! He's a really good guy. :-)

Larry

P.S. I've emailed you directly.