Telescope Reviews: Vixen NPL Plossl series

Thanks Carol and Jeff. I was able to view Jupiter with all of them last night in various scopes, a 66ED, a 102 Apo, and a Vixen 95L Mak. All eyepieces produced a nice, clean image that was very sharp on axis, a good performance off-axis. I can't see much of Jupiter with the long focal lengths of course. But one of my prettiest views was with the 25mm in my SV102ABV. Jupiter was a sharp, tiny bright disc with 2 bands visible, surrounded by his moons and a number of stars in the background. Using higher powers in these three telescopes, I could see the two equatorial bands, the NTeB, and darkening at the poles. No barges or ovals, but I could see some knotting in the main cloud bands. Well, that's about as good as I've seen of Jupiter this year, it being so low in my southern sky.

One little issue though, with the 6mm. I could detect a dim ghost image of Jupiter off-axis. It was a very dim, fuzzy disc about the size of Jupiter at the edge of the field. I could not get it to focus though, I'm thinking it may not be in the eyepiece. Possibly Jupiter reflecting off my eyeball onto the top lens? In any event, it's not distracting, and Jovian detail at 132x in the SV102ABV was very pleasing.

Eye relief in the shorter focal lengths is of course, tight, being plossls. I could move my head around and see most of the field of view in the 6mm. I like getting my eye in close to help me block out local lights in my suburban neighborhood.

I'm looking forward to lunar viewing later on. But I have used some of them on the Moon before, the 30mm, 20mm, 15mm, 10mm all have an excellent and clean image, with no off-axis flaring.

They all work well with barlows or a Powermate. In fact a few nights ago I went crazy and put my 5x Meade TeleXtender in my 80mm achromat with the 6mm for a whoppin' 466x, and aimed it at the Double-Double in Lyra. Everything worked well together to give me well defined airy discs (albeit a bit fuzzy for a 3" scope!) and believe it or not I could squeeze both pairs in the field at the same time!

I havn't done any head-to-heads yet with my other eyepieces; other brands of plossls, orthos, Naglers etc. But I can tell you I'm not at all dissatisfied with the images I'm getting for this price point. Other than the puzzling ghost image in the 6mm I find the fit and finish and image quality to be consistant throughout the focal range.

One little factoid: all seven eyepieces fit very nicely in an Orion eyepiece fanny pack. They are lightweight and easy to cary and work with.

David E

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David E

So when at times the mob is swayed
To carry praise or blame too far,
We may choose something like a star
To stay our minds on and be staid.

-Robert Frost