Carl Zeiss Abbe II

I tried out the new eyepieces last night on stars and the moon. Would like to see if anyone has opinions on this to. I used an A-P Traveler.

4mm Abbe II vs 4mm Radian: Initially I thought I would miss the bigger FOV of the Radian, but it really did not matter after a while. Switching between the two EPs on the moon, it was easier to notice the fine features on the terminator with the Abbe- they seemed slightly but still perceptibly sharper. I did not find the cutouts irritating at all. It's like sleeping with a clock ticking in a room- some don't hear it at all and some go nuts. I looked at a sun spot last weekend using a Baader visual filter and it was full of features and sharply defined (wow, finally, sunspots!!!). Looked at the double-double at Lyra and the 4mm Abbe did a great clean job (nothing earth shattering here, it's an easy split with any 4mm). I have pretty severe astigmatism (1.75) but was able to look through the EP with no eye glasses with no issues.

10mm and 16mm Abbe II: absolutely delightful on the moon and star fields from Cass to Per. The 16mm is a killer for day time bird watching.

Thanks for reading
Ivan

I would be curious about differences, actual not theoretical, between the new Abbe II and the previous 1.25” ZAO I eyepieces.

For a while I considered getting a pair of Abbe II’s but decided against it since I only needed a pair of 10mm. I do have a pair of ZAO 16mm and the 4mm and 6mm would not be of any use to me since all my scopes are long focus visuals.

Vahe