Telescope Reviews: thoughts on a premium 13-14 mm EP

I have and have extensively used both the 13mm LVW and 13mm Nagler Type 6. I also own and have extensively use both the 8mm LVW and the 7mm Nagler Type 6. I've also read the British comparison review of the 8mm LVW and several other eyepieces you mention. I have also done more controlled testing of the 7mm Nagler Type 6 and 8mm LVW in last year's World Cup effort.

Here's how I'd sort out all of those things. First, the comparison review from Sky at Night includes comparison of a couple of non-performance criteria along with several performance-related criteria. In reading any commercial article that includes weighted factors that go beyond performance, I think you have to do some filtering to get to the "useful" information. That said, I think that if you cull the fluff from the review, you end up with pretty fair rankings among the eyepieces. That is, price dependent the 8mm LVW won, and price independent, it lost to the 7mm XW and matched the 7mm Nagler Type 6.

In the World Cup, our 8mm LVW was a quarter-finalist. Our 7mm Nagler Type 6 and 7mm XW were not, BUT we didn't exactly eliminate the XW "scientifically" and the eyepiece that ultimately won was an eyepiece that tied the XW in group testing. Net-net, the 8mm LVW is somewhere up there with the bets of the best 7mm and 8mm eyepieces.

Moving on to 13mm units, I haven't done the same kind of formal compaison (same night, same target, multiple observers, formal scoring system, etc.) with the 13mm Type 6 and 13mm LVW. I find that it us VERY difficult to extrapolate comparative performance based on observations on different nights, or of different targets. Many times I've formed such "seat of the pants" impressions, only to find them contradicted when I made the effort to compare apples and apples. With that caveat, SOTP I would say that the LVW is more comfortable than the Nagler, both due to eye relief and ease of taking the whole field in without walking the eye around. The Nagler, on the other hand, will show you a bigger slice of sky which may be important with an extended target, and to my eye is noticeably brighter. To confirm the latter, I would need to pick a cluster and do star counts, but in casual observing swapping between the LVW and Nagler I feel that the Nagler shows fainter stars on open clusters.

The beauty of buying a used Nagler Type 6 is that it is a no-risk proposition. The money isn't gone; it's just temporarily transformed into an eyepiece. You will likely get every penny back out of the Type 6 if you resell it. Rightly or wrongly the LVWs do not hold their value as well or as consistently on the used market. Partially this is because the manufacturer and one of its former resellers periodically discount the units. Orion had them for $189 at one point. This retail discounting impacts the used market as well. Still, if you check sales data for several years you can come up with a target price on the LVW that should be easy to hit on resale, and patiently wait to find a seller that will meet your price. That way, if you try it and don't like it, you can convert it back to cash without loss and try again.

I would probably pick one and try it. Resell it. Buy the other. Try it. Keep it if I preferred it or sell it and re-buy the first if not.

I really like them both, but I probably use the Nagler Type 6 more often. That doesn't mean that I think it's better. Rather, I prefer narrow field of view simple eyepieces. I am much more likely to be using a 12mm Brandon, 12mm Pentax SMC Orthoscopic, 11mm Televue Plossl, etc., than I am either the LVW or Nagler. When I reach for a complex, compound eyepiece, it's usually because I want a much wider field of view at the same magnification. The Nagler gives more context.

I use the LVW for public outreach. It is easy to use for anyone, and if you're sharing the views with others often, the LVW is more attractive than the Nagler or the simple, tight eye relief units.

Good luck!

- Jim

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"I do not know what I may appear to the world; but to myself I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the seashore, and diverting myself in now and then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me."

- Sir Issac Newton