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Excellent report, David.

Aside from noticing a warm tone on the Moon, did you notice any loss of detail when observing globs, other DSOs, and the Moon, as compared to the 13mm Ethos?

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No, the eyepiece was a great performer on both planetary views and Deep-sky. In fact, because the field of view is so wide, the minor aberrations the eyepiece showed during testing generally are not much of a factor in the overall view. Under dark skies, I tended not to notice them nearly as much as when I was bench-testing the unit and deliberately looking for even the slightest problems. The aberrations were confined to the very outermost regions near the field stop, and to be frank, they didn't really detract from the overall view very much. As I said in the review, it isn't quite an Ethos, but it is a very worthy competitor. Clear skies to you.

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David W. Knisely
Hyde Memorial Observatory
http://www.hydeobservatory.info
Prairie Astronomy Club
http://www.prairieastronomyclub.org

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Great overview David, it looks like a viable option. I don't recall you dwelling on the performance in the 8" f/6 Newtonian. Did you feel the ES may be any more or less suited to different optical systems?

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It worked pretty well in the 8 inch f/5 Newtonian, although because of the coma issue in the scope (fairly visible in a 1.38 degree true field of view), much of the time, we used it with the Tele Vue Paracorr in place, extending things to f/5.75 (1.2 degree true field). The view in my 100mm f/6 refractor was what really caught my eye, as it sort of had the same effect of "pulling you into the eyepiece" that I first saw with the 17mm Ethos, although perhaps not quite as strong as with the Ethos. Clear skies to you.

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David W. Knisely
Hyde Memorial Observatory
http://www.hydeobservatory.info
Prairie Astronomy Club
http://www.prairieastronomyclub.org

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David:

Very nice report. I really liked the criteria you chose to evaluate and the grading system (A, B, etc.) you chose to employ. It made for a very user-friendly review.

One thing that might help with context would be for you to provide your report card for other similar focal length superwides, ultrawides and megawides.

I would love to see Knisley "report card" for the 14mm Pentax XW, 13mm Nagler Type 6, 14mm Meade Series 4000 UWA, 13mm Ethos, 14mm Meade Series 5000 UWA, 16mm WO UWAN, etc. This would be a beutiful review format to serialize and then do a magnum opus "wrap up" report comparing all of the individually rated eyepieces.

Thanks for the excellent work,

Jim

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Thank you very much. I first used the letter grading on my review of the 8.5-12mm Speers Waler as an experiment, and it appears that it was successful. I don't have some of the eyepieces you mention, but I do have the "original" 1990's vintage Meade 14mm Ultrawide (flat-top and not volcano top) which is no longer made. At the time I received it, it would probably have graded-out as follows:

Construction: A

Field of View: A

Astigmatism correction: B+

Lateral Color correction: B+

Distortion Correction: B

Curvature of Field Correction: A+

Eye Relief: B+

Cost/Benefit Ratio: A

Overall Optical Performance: B+

My next eyepiece review will probably be the Hyperion 36mm Aspheric, so stay tuned! Clear skies to you.

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David W. Knisely
Hyde Memorial Observatory
http://www.hydeobservatory.info
Prairie Astronomy Club
http://www.prairieastronomyclub.org

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Looks very nice but 500$ for one eyepiece is insane I get my rent paid for less.

/Jake

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The 14mm ES is selling for $400 (with the rebate) while the 13mm Ethos runs around $540 or so. Yes, price is a problem, but if you want that extreme field of view with halfway decent image quality, you do have to pay for it. Clear skies to you.

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David W. Knisely
Hyde Memorial Observatory
http://www.hydeobservatory.info
Prairie Astronomy Club
http://www.prairieastronomyclub.org

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Looks very nice but 500$ for one eyepiece is insane I get my rent paid for less.

/Jake

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Yes, but you pay rent every month. A good eyepiece lasts as long as you want. Isn't rationalization wonderful?

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I think I'm still going to stick with my Celestron Omni $40 each

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Yes, but you pay rent every month. A good eyepiece lasts as long as you want. Isn't rationalization wonderful?

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I think I'm still going to stick with my Celestron Omni $40 each

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They are kind of a "generic" Plossl of the symmetrical variation, and offer farily decent performance, although they can hardly be considered to be "wide field" by any stretch of the imagination (apparent fields in the 43 degree to 52 degree range). They aren't too bad for the money however. Clear skies to you.

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David W. Knisely
Hyde Memorial Observatory
http://www.hydeobservatory.info
Prairie Astronomy Club
http://www.prairieastronomyclub.org

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Looks very nice but 500$ for one eyepiece is insane I get my rent paid for less.

/Jake

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LOL! Not where I live you don't! Double that at least. (More like 1100).

Great write up David. The biggest disadvantage is the ES14 is 2 inch only. Anyway I have the 14 and will try it next weekend at CalStar. My friend has a 13mm Ethos so we can A/B on his 25 inch f/5

Cheers
Jeff

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Jeff Gortatowsky
Fullerton, California

Teleport 18cm f/5.7 Truss Newt
Starsplitter 20cm f/6 4 Pole Newt
Litebox 45cm f/4.5 Truss Newt
Televue TV-101 10cm f/5.4 APO
Cave Astrola Deluxe 25cm F/6 Newtonian
Vixen/Celestron CP-80 / f/11.7 Archro
Coronado SolarMax 60 f/6.6 H-Alpha
Orion 100mm f/6 archomat w/ Lunt B600 CaK Module
Starmaster 11 ELT 28cm f/4.5 -sold
TMB-180 18cm F/9 - sold
AP130EDT 13cm F/8 - sold

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I pulled the trigger on the ES14! I ordered it through OPT, so I not only received the Explore Alliance $100 discount, but also the OPT member discount and another OPT temporary discount on top of that!

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I pulled the trigger on the ES14! I ordered it through OPT, so I not only received the Explore Alliance $100 discount, but also the OPT member discount and another OPT temporary discount on top of that! I justified it to the wife as an early Christmas present for myself. (Also, once I described the eyepiece to her, she wanted to observe through it herself.) The estimated delivery date is this coming Tuesday, Oct. 6th.

I will use it in my 10" Newt and probably in my ST80 as well. The ES14 will provide a 1.2 degree TFOV in the 10" at its native magnification of 86x, 43x and 2.3 degrees with a 0.5x focal reducer, 129x and 0.8 degrees at 1.5x (the Owl barlow lens screwed directly onto the EP), and 171x and 0.6 degrees with my Owl 2x Barlow. If I want to use it at 2.5x or 3x, I could use extensions on the Barlow, but that will substantially add to the already considerable weight of the ES14 and a 2" Barlow. There are 2" 3x Barlows out there, and I'm considering that possibility. A 3x Barlow would yield 257X, 0.4 degrees, and a 1mm exit pupil. That's not bad, considering my other eyepieces that have about that magnification have only a 0.2 degree field!
But even the Orion model is about $200, and that is a little steep right after I just bought a multi-hundred dollar eyepiece.

The ES14 will yield a 7 degree TFOV in the ST80, a full degree wider than the 6 degrees through my 2" Owl 30mm! That will be great for observing large nebulae at dark sites, especially if I screw on an OIII or other DSO filter.

I'm not really concerned that the ES14 will only fit in 2" focusers. I would have liked to use it in my other RFTs, but that's OK. I thought I might like to use it on my 150mm Mak, but the ES14 is not really a good eyepiece for that scope, IMHO. The Mak is good for lunar, planetary and double stars, but it is not really the best scope I have for DSO work, and I accept that. I would not like to spend several hundred dollars more to buy the Ethos equivalent just to be able to insert it in 1.25" focusers.

Clear Skies,
Mike

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I don't know if a 0.5 focal reducer will work visually with short focal length systems like an f/5 Newtonian or an ST80. There may be significant focus problems, as these reducers are mainly designed for longer focal length systems like SCTs which have a generous focal range (or for CCD systems). With an unmodified ST80, you can only get around 3.87 degrees of field without a reducer (6.6 degrees with a 2" focuser and the largest 2" field stop of 46mm). You would probably have to go to a 2" focuser to get more from using a ES 14 (it is 2" only), but even if you got a 2" 0.5x reducer to focus, running at f/2.5 is *really* hard on eyepiece performance. Good luck and clear skies to you.

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David W. Knisely
Hyde Memorial Observatory
http://www.hydeobservatory.info
Prairie Astronomy Club
http://www.prairieastronomyclub.org

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I don't know if a 0.5 focal reducer will work visually with short focal length systems like an f/5 Newtonian or an ST80. There may be significant focus problems, as these reducers are mainly designed for longer focal length systems like SCTs which have a generous focal range (or for CCD systems). With an unmodified ST80, you can only get around 3.87 degrees of field without a reducer (6.6 degrees with a 2" focuser and the largest 2" field stop of 46mm). You would probably have to go to a 2" focuser to get more from using a ES 14 (it is 2" only), but even if you got a 2" 0.5x reducer to focus, running at f/2.5 is *really* hard on eyepiece performance. Good luck and clear skies to you.

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