27 replies to this topic

[Cometeer]

I thought this thread might be better suited here than the Eyepiece Forum.

 

I've always used my C90 Astro with 1.25" eyepieces. I have always considered them superior to the old 0.965" eyepieces. But as of recently, I noticed that I do not use my C90 for the views it provides, but rather for the pleasure of simply using it. There's something special about that cute little cat that's older than me.

 

Given that, I decided to return to 0.965" eyepieces. At the moment all I own is a 0.965" diagonal and a cheap 20mm Huygens from my Vixen 9VR. I don't know much about 0.965" eyepieces, so I was wondering if there are any particularly good ones out there on Ebay/CN Classifieds I should lookout for. I don't need any $200 Zeiss, but just some decent and inexpensive Kellners/Orthos to make my viewing experience a bit more enjoyable and vintage.

 

If anyone reading this has some they aren't using, let me know.

Edited by Cometeer, 30 June 2018 - 09:52 PM.

[DMala]

Hi, one place to start is this currently active thread, just look at the .965" data.

 

https://www.cloudyni...-you-like-best/

[Cometeer]

Hi, one place to start is this currently active thread, just look at the .965" data.

 

https://www.cloudyni...-you-like-best/

 

Yep, I saw that thread. There definitely a good number of recommendations in there, but I was hoping to see more 0.965's.

Edited by Cometeer, 30 June 2018 - 10:21 PM.

[Bomber Bob]

Okay... the Celestron / Vixen .965" eyepieces bundled with the C5 & C90 are good, and show up fairly often.  Just about any of the volcano top Tani eyepieces (sold in a bunch of brands) are good.  Antares Plossls are good.  The 1980s Orion branded (Japan-made) eyepieces are good.  Generally, the eyepieces bundled with 1960s-1980s scopes are hit & miss.  I have found exceptions with Mizar & Pentax eyepieces of the 1970s/1980s -- and the Bushnell Banner Series scopes of the 1980s (probably made by the same company as the Pentax versions).  All of the above are at decent prices.

 

The Zeiss are very nice, but pricey.  Our CN vendor Xavier is a source for CZJ and other high quality .965" eyepieces -- I got my complete set of spectros eyepieces & filters from him, and they are fantastic.

[Cometeer]

Okay... the Celestron / Vixen .965" eyepieces bundled with the C5 & C90 are good, and show up fairly often.  Just about any of the volcano top Tani eyepieces (sold in a bunch of brands) are good.  Antares Plossls are good.  The 1980s Orion branded (Japan-made) eyepieces are good.  Generally, the eyepieces bundled with 1960s-1980s scopes are hit & miss.  I have found exceptions with Mizar & Pentax eyepieces of the 1970s/1980s -- and the Bushnell Banner Series scopes of the 1980s (probably made by the same company as the Pentax versions).  All of the above are at decent prices.

 

The Zeiss are very nice, but pricey.  Our CN vendor Xavier is a source for CZJ and other high quality .965" eyepieces -- I got my complete set of spectros eyepieces & filters from him, and they are fantastic.

Thanks Bob, I’ll keep an eye out for those that you mentioned. 

[roscoe]

To follow BB's info, I've found that the older Celestrons seem better than the more modern ones...the general identifier is that the old ones have engraved lettering, the middle-age have the lettering printed on, but it is block letters, the newer ones have printed lettering that is italic/slanted.

Every Tani (circle T) ortho I have encountered has been a good performer.

[Sky Muse]

These are the .965" oculars I've collected over the decades; not many really...

 

 

...and with a 1.25" 32mm lurking in the background on the left.

 

You have to be attentive, diligent and quick to land the better specimens, here within the Cloudy Nights classifieds, and on eBay.  Incidentally, I just got the last new old-stock Celestron/Vixen 6mm orthoscopic within a listing on eBay earlier.  There were a total of four available, but no more...

 

 

OPT sells .965" Plossls, two of which I have, the 12.5mm and 17mm, and illustrated within the group above...

 

https://optcorp.com/...0-965-eyepieces

 

...but they're not true to form, as the upper portions are of the 1.25" format.

 

Good hunting.  

[Astrojensen]

The Tani VT orthos (same as UO VT orthos and also sold under a myriad other names) the Kasai HD orthos, the Baader Genuine Orthos, the Takahashi Abbe Orthos, the GSO Superplössls (except the 32mm and 40mm; sold under a myriad names) plus perhaps a few I've forgotten, can all be changed into 0.965" eyepieces via this adapter:

 

https://www.teleskop...nengewinde.html

 

So if someone is really keen on using 0.965" eyepieces on their scope, it's entirely possible to do so with modern, off the shelf eyepieces. It's easy to check whether the adapter fits or not. Just unscrew the 1.25" barrel from your eyepiece and turn it around. If you can reattach it with the filter threads effortlessly, the adapter will fit and you can change the eyepiece into a 0.965".

 

 

Clear skies!
Thomas, Denmark

[Bomber Bob]

Thomas, thanks for the link!  My Meade Series 2 .965" Orthos are actually just the 1.25" Tani VTs with that thread on adapter.

[Esso2112]

The Goto .965 eyepieces are excellent. They come up for sale occasionally. I compared a few of mine to the eyepieces that came with a Royal Astro scope. The Royal's had some color, but the Goto's were perfect.  

[Don W]

What, no .965" Naglers?

 

My guess is that for so many years eyepieces of this size were used in long focal length instruments and the simpler designs worked just fine. As we all got more sophisticated in our telescope designs and needs, the market for better eyepieces came about. The few available in Ortho or Plossl design were a big step above the Huygens and other simple types.

[Richard Whalen]

I use .965 eyepieces a lot for lunar and planetary viewing, along with planetary nebula. My weapons of choice are the Pentax SMC ortho's and XP's. Have not used any better.....

[Sky Muse]

The Vorce 8mm "Konig" is about the closest one can get to a wide-field in .965", when they were still available not too long ago; and with a wide, spacious 55° AFOV...

 

 

This view of the Moon was taken afocally through same, and via a C90 Mak...

 

 

...breathtaking.

 

It certainly gives one of Unk Al's gaga-glassies a run for the money, and for only $13 at the time it had garnered sufficient interest.

 

The eyepieces were actually gleaned from pairs of binoculars, the nature of which remains unknown, but we all know how wide a view we get from those.

[memento]

These are my current .965s. I think there are not really "gems" amongst them, that would be more the case if I had something like Takahashis maybe. But most are really good nonetheless:

 

 

The front row are what I am using right now if I want to do some "classic" observing with old .965s. From left to right – Celestron Kellner 25mm, Vixen Kellner 20mm, Vixen Ortho 18mm, then the three small ones I do not know the makers: HM 12.5mm, HM 8mm and Ortho 4mm. They are all nice eyepieces but still I'd guess that if I would find Orthos at 12.5mm or around 8mm, they will beat the simpler HMs.

 

Middle row, I have that AH 40mm and a Kellner 22mm (the latter came with my Bresser circle T 80 refractor but is not necessarily circle T itself); these two have very small fields of view and so are inferior to the eyepieces in the front row, so I'm not really using them. Though the AH 40mm has the advantage of giving the biggest exit pupil possible in .965".

 

The back row are my new Antares Plössl .965s, 25mm, 12.5mm and 7.5mm. They also give good views and offer a bigger field of view than the old Kellners or Orthos, but it's not that dramatic a difference. The 25mm's field of view gets vignetted in a lot of older diagonals. Thomas

[Sky Muse]

The more-common .965" orthoscopics can be gems in their own right.  I'd want orthos from 4mm or 5mm up to 12.5mm, and Kellners on up from there, and all in the .965" format.  I could kick myself for not getting a full set when Kokusai Kohki was still carrying them new, and not that many years ago.  They were made by Mr. Tani, and who made them for decades in his optical house in Japan.

[memento]

I'd want orthos from 4mm or 5mm up to 12.5mm, and Kellners on up from there, and all in the .965" format.  I could kick myself for not getting a full set when Kokusai Kohki was still carrying them new, and not that many years ago.

My Vixen 18mm Ortho (pictured above) is a gem. But you are right, a well-made Kellner is just as good in that focal length. As my good Kellners are 20mm and 25mm, there's some redundancy and I tend to rather select either the 18mm Ortho and 25mm Kellner.

 

I got two brand-new Circle T Kellners, but in 1 1/4" barrel, maybe 9 years or so ago. Like you, I feel now a bit sorry I did not get some new .965s as well at that time ...

 

One thing is that I find it basically impossible to really tell who made which .965" eyepiece back then. Some are marked Circle T or Circle V so that is easy. But often the Circle-whatever marking was not engraved, but printed on a tiny sticker and when that got lost ... then no way you'll ever find out.

Also these eyepieces all look suspiciously similar in the way how the barrels were designed etc. – for example all those Orthos and HMs have those characteristic barrels. I start to wonder if the Circle-whatever marking really always refers to the actual maker, or if it was more just a "brand" ...

Edited by memento, 02 July 2018 - 01:51 PM.

[Astrojensen]

The more-common .965" orthoscopics can be gems in their own right.  I'd want orthos from 4mm or 5mm up to 12.5mm, and Kellners on up from there, and all in the .965" format.  I could kick myself for not getting a full set when Kokusai Kohki was still carrying them new, and not that many years ago.  They were made by Mr. Tani, and who made them for decades in his optical house in Japan.

You mean these? 

 

 

 

Clear skies!
Thomas, Denmark

[Astrojensen]

The Vorce 8mm "Konig" is about the closest one can get to a wide-field in .965", when they were still available not too long ago; and with a wide, spacious 55° AFOV...

 

Vorce 8mm 'Konig'.jpg

 

This view of the Moon was taken afocally through same, and via a C90 Mak...

 

Vorce 8mm.jpg

 

...breathtaking.

 

It certainly gives one of Unk Al's gaga-glassies a run for the money, and for only $13 at the time it had garnered sufficient interest.

 

The eyepieces were actually gleaned from pairs of binoculars, the nature of which remains unknown, but we all know how wide a view we get from those.

It's strikingly similar to the ~10.5mm eyepiece I made from an eyepiece from an 8x21 binocular. VERY good performance in my long refractors. Semi-wide 55°-60° AFOV. 

 

 

Optically, it's just a kellner, but with rather thick lenses. I wonder if there's some aspherizing going on, but it's pure speculation. 

 

 

Clear skies!
Thomas, Denmark

[memento]

You mean these? 

Great collection Are those all Circle T ?

 

My Circle V 18mm Ortho looks completely different, regarding the barrel. Whereas the shorter f/l Orthos seem to look identical, no matter if Circle V or Circle T ...

[Astrojensen]

Great collection Are those all Circle T ?

 

My Circle V 18mm Ortho looks completely different, regarding the barrel. Whereas the shorter f/l Orthos seem to look identical, no matter if Circle V or Circle T ...

They are the very last run of the 0.965" orthos from Kokusai Kohki and yes, they're Circle T's. And they're multicoated! I ordered them all shortly before production stopped forever. I just kick myself for not getting another set for binoviewing, at least in the longer focal lengths. Oh well. 

 

The Vixen orthos looked a little different, but I wonder if not the optics came from Tani as well. 

 

 

Clear skies!
Thomas, Denmark

[CharlieB]

My workhorses.  Still looking for a nice 18mm ortho.

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[CharlieB]

These work very well, too.

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[CharlieB]

A few others with some duplicates & microscope eyepieces.

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[CharlieB]

One I let go, but probably should have kept.  It's in much better hands, now.

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[jcricket]

I thought this thread might be better suited here than the Eyepiece Forum.

 

I've always used my C90 Astro with 1.25" eyepieces. I have always considered them superior to the old 0.965" eyepieces. But as of recently, I noticed that I do not use my C90 for the views it provides, but rather for the pleasure of simply using it. There's something special about that cute little cat that's older than me.

 

Given that, I decided to return to 0.965" eyepieces. At the moment all I own is a 0.965" diagonal and a cheap 20mm Huygens from my Vixen 9VR. I don't know much about 0.965" eyepieces, so I was wondering if there are any particularly good ones out there on Ebay/CN Classifieds I should lookout for. I don't need any $200 Zeiss, but just some decent and inexpensive Kellners/Orthos to make my viewing experience a bit more enjoyable and vintage.

 

If anyone reading this has some they aren't using, let me know.

That 9vr came with a 5mm ortho. I was once able to do an a-b comparison with the 5mm orther from that tasco and a pentax 5mm ortho from a 100x1200 pentax achromat system. I could not tell the difference between the two. The tasco(vixen) was every bit as good as the pentax ortho. This was NOT the smc version but the older version.

Edited by jcricket, 03 July 2018 - 11:41 AM.