5 replies to this topic

[mloffland]

24mm EP Eyepiece Comparison

[Don Allen]

Thanks Mike....very entertaining and informative.

[rookie]

I really enjoyed this article. You can learn as much from Mike's thoughtful and entertaining analysis as you can from his conclusions.
Great read!

[Starman1]

That 24 Panoptic is a fine eyepiece for any telescope restricted to 1.25" eyepieces.
I use on in my 5" Maksutov, and I never fail to be impressed with the image quality.

[Russ S.]

Was hoping the Siebert Ultra would score better. Keep hoping my slow SCT will allow an EP to give Pan performance at bargain price. 24 Pan's are pretty much the gold standard with binoviewers, but as usual, you get what you pay for.

[Mike B]

24 Pan's are pretty much the gold standard

Yeah, that was pretty much the basis for my comparo. Aside from their tighter ER, they are awfully sweet EPs!

I have, & have used a fair amount of Siebert gear... quite good stuff, on the whole. In fairness to the 24mm Ultra, its a 3-element job that he clearly identifies as best for F7 & above. Another 3-element EP pair i acquired recently are the German-made 'Olympus' 12.5mm... and as with the Ultra, they are quite sharp on-axis, but soft as you approach the outer ~30%. Much of this is, i'm sure, exacerbated by the "faster" Newt optics.

Perhaps those using this Ultra with an SCT or "slow" refractor can chime in on their results?


There are (obviously) other EPs that could be considered for an application such as mine, "super-wides" approaching the performance of the Pans- but most would be well above the $100 pricepoint.

For anyone considering getting started with BVing, the "start-up" costs can be daunting... only beginning with the BVer itself! Collecting pair'd EPs can be a double-whammy! Perhaps another write-up can cover some excellent & "affordable" non-wifefield EP options up/down the FL spectrum?
mike b

p.s. Hoping the intended pix can soon be inserted into the article... helping make more sense of some of the comments therein.