96 replies to this topic

[Starman1]

Is there a filter for eye relief as well? 

My spreadsheet is a standard Excel spreadsheet--you can sort by any column you wish, in either direction.

But note that a lot of companies don't bother to publish certain key pieces of information, like apparent field, or eye relief, so some of the eyepieces

with missing information may meet the requirements, but I have no way to tell.

[daslolo]

For those who want to buy from Aliexpress/eBay I put together the list of major eyepieces from from Aliexpress in the same format as Don's spreadsheet. It has additional field "clone" for reference. Hope that helps.

 

Don, please feel free to add it to your spreadsheet if you want.

If those prices are in us$ then it's much cheaper to buy them from TS directly

[sanbai]

It would be interesting to see how sales (in units and in $) are distributed among the different (types of) manufacturers. Anybody with figures and/or estimations?

For me is difficult to imagine how so many eyepieces can be sold for such a niche market! (And making profit!).

[Starman1]

It would be interesting to see how sales (in units and in $) are distributed among the different (types of) manufacturers. Anybody with figures and/or estimations?

For me is difficult to imagine how so many eyepieces can be sold for such a niche market! (And making profit!).

Such info would be hard to put together, given its proprietary nature.

 

But, don't forget that the average amateur has many more eyepieces than scopes and is almost constantly "rotating the crops", so to speak.

That's why there are always new products coming out and over 20 different used classified sites to buy from.

I've owned over 340 eyepieces over 57 years, but I only own 21 at the moment.  The rest were all sold used.

 

As to making profit, take it from me--I'd make a higher hourly wage delivering pizzas.

You have to love astronomy to stay in this business.

[25585]

115 at the moment, I don't sell as about 75% are older discontinued models that would be hard to find again and not get me much anyway. 65% of new price on a good day.

[aalmanni]

Such info would be hard to put together, given its proprietary nature.

 

But, don't forget that the average amateur has many more eyepieces than scopes and is almost constantly "rotating the crops", so to speak.

That's why there are always new products coming out and over 20 different used classified sites to buy from.

I've owned over 340 eyepieces over 57 years, but I only own 21 at the moment.  The rest were all sold used.

 

As to making profit, take it from me--I'd make a higher hourly wage delivering pizzas.

You have to love astronomy to stay in this business.

341 in 57 years, almost 6 eyepieces on average every year !! that's a lot, you must be living in an area with 365 nights of clear skies.

For sure you must love astronomy to stay in, without motivation toward astronomy you'll lose interest in few weeks not months !!!

Me since I upgraded a quality 2" 25mm eyepiece with a dielectric diagonal, I almost stopped  using the 1.25" entirely especially the 10mm plossl, now I am in the market for a quality 1.25" eyepieces 

[Starman1]

Things change.

I started with 40-50° eyepieces, and discovered 60-65°.  Wow, what an improvement.

Then I found 82°.  Man, was I in hog heaven.

But then the attraction for small highly accurate eyepieces meant collecting more 40-50° eyepieces on top of the 82° ones.

Then came 100° eyepieces and I sold all the narrower ones.

Till I got a scope where a narrow apparent field eyepiece resulted in a wide true field, then some narrow ones came back (but not too narrow) for that scope.

And then astigmatic vision, requiring glasses and long eye relief eyepieces longer than 11mm.

 

It's an evolution.

 

I'm not as hard core an observer as many here on CN.  I only average 8-10 hours a month under dark skies with a 12.5", and about the same with a 4" apo here in LA.

(until recently, of course).

I observed many more hours a month back in the late '80s/ early '90s, in between wives.  My wife collects shoes.  Every now and then, she feels guilty and says, 

"Honey, don't you need an eyepiece or two?"  I immediately say, "Why yes, honey, I do."  Never look a gift horse in the mouth.

[daslolo]

collect wives collect eyepieces swap, put wife in telescope, argue with eyepiece

[JeniSkunk]

Don, a minor bug fix for the next update.
brand: Saxon Australia
eyepiece name current: Cielo
should be: Cielo HD

[Starman1]

Done, and thanks!

[25585]

I always wore glasses & before telescopes, binoculars always needed long eye relief. Swift Osprey (7×42) were the answer. With telescopes it was Erfles & Barlows, cameras had to have large or diopter-friendly viewfinders.

 

A love-hate 13mm T1 Nagler was addictive for its 82° AFOV, & set me on a quest that only ended with the 12.5mm Morpheus & 12mm ES92, 30 years later. Expensive but interesting journey. Vixen LVs & LVWs were & are my friends, being made in Japan was the icing. Who would have thought back then China would so overwhelm, or even care about such a small market. Or be first to physically explore the Moon's dark side, with robots.

 

My tip of the hat to China that they made eyepieces which have transformed my viewing with eyepiece designs that prestigious US & Japanese makers were unwilling or unable to undertake for whatever reasons. Country of manufacture is largely irrelevent, brand loyalty the same. My collection is cosmopolitan, apolitical and as optically close to what I could only dream of 3 decades, half my lifetime ago. 

Edited by 25585, 18 May 2020 - 01:50 AM.

[RichA]

Can I ask why anyone would make an eyepiece with a 25mm exit pupil?  I can barely managed 5.  Are octopi using telescopes now?

[If this is not the place please ignore...]

There are those opera-glass style binoculars from Vixen ($300 or so) which have low power, 3x, and large exit pupils.  It may be quote-unquote "wasting" light-gathering power, but it's better than the unaided eye and facilitates really wide fields of view. 

[25585]

Don, could you include a Dioptrx compatible column. TV of course provide the info for their models, but compatibility with other makes interest people too.

 

I will be able to test my Dioptrx on all my eyepieces, current & discontinued, when it arrives, but other CN members & you already know a great many I expect, that could be added.

Edited by 25585, 21 May 2020 - 05:12 AM.

[Starman1]

I could only add that data for the brands I sell.  Otherwise, not.

So that would be only a small portion of the eyepieces on the list.

Better to just know that the DioptRx fits 41-44mm tops, with some 41mm and some 44mm a non-fit.

[Book66]

This is fantastic! Thanks for the work that went into this.

[MidniteCowboy]

Seeing the 2020 Eyepiece BG pop up made the intro to Beethoven's 5th pop into my head...

Wow. I'm humming Beethoven's 9th as I peruse the spreadsheet!  Lovely lovely Ludwig van!.

[rkstreet]

This is GREAT!

 

Thank you very much.

 

kevin

[Dr Barry]

What a fantastic resource. What's funny is I started a similar spreadsheet yesterday afternoon and made it all the way to 25 rows! Thank goodness I found your buying guide today. By the way, I noticed a few differences when comparing TFOV between my spreadsheet and yours. Did you intend to use the relationship:

 

TFOV = AFOV/Magnification

 

instead of:

 

TFOV = (Field Stop of Eyepiece/Focal Length of Scope) * 57.296

 

even when you had a manufacture's data for the field stop of the eyepiece?

[Starman1]

I would have used the more accurate formula but for the fact the majority of eyepieces do not have field stop data available.

So I calculated it but the calculations are no closer than 10% in many cases because the mfrs don't state actual apparent fields either.

So I used the less accurate formula because it was all I had that could be applied globally.

I could have used an if...then... formula for the field, but I figured just having the information would be handy for comparison purposes, which implied a commonality to the formulas for comparison.

Note that the most recent version, other than the one on my PC, is in post #28.

[Dr Barry]

Thanks. I had missed that the most recent version was linked in post 28. Again, I can only imagine the amount of work that went into producing the Buyer's Guide. Great work!

[jgbeall]

Here is the 2020 version of the Eyepiece Buyer's Guide.

Wow, just found this! What a great resource...now, just have to figure out how to use it!!! 
 

[Starman1]

Wow, just found this! What a great resource...now, just have to figure out how to use it!!! 
 

Remember to get the latest version linked in post #28.

[Mark1954]

I am a newby and just got a skywatcher 10" Dob.

It came with a 10mm and 25mm eyepiece. Feel sure they are of not the best quality but I saw Saturn for the first time, though it was small, I could se the detached rings from the planet.  Saw 4 of Jupiter's moons, maybe  one of Saturn's moons.

My question is, I see pictures of really great detail, colors, etc.  I am not getting that. Everyting I am reading seems to be the eyepiece.

I understand ( I think ) that dividing the focal length ( 1200 ) / the eyepiece  10mm I have a magnification of 100 times. Also read where about all I can expect is about 300 times. After that it may get weird.

Can someone help me choose, within a reasonable budget, a couple of eyepieces. I wear glasses and I'm 66. That may matter about eye relief.

I see eyepiece kits but I believe they would still contain a lot of cheap eyepieces.

HELP.

 

 

[sanbai]

I am a newby and just got a skywatcher 10" Dob.
It came with a 10mm and 25mm eyepiece. Feel sure they are of not the best quality but I saw Saturn for the first time, though it was small, I could se the detached rings from the planet. Saw 4 of Jupiter's moons, maybe one of Saturn's moons.
My question is, I see pictures of really great detail, colors, etc. I am not getting that. Everyting I am reading seems to be the eyepiece.
I understand ( I think ) that dividing the focal length ( 1200 ) / the eyepiece 10mm I have a magnification of 100 times. Also read where about all I can expect is about 300 times. After that it may get weird.
Can someone help me choose, within a reasonable budget, a couple of eyepieces. I wear glasses and I'm 66. That may matter about eye relief.
I see eyepiece kits but I believe they would still contain a lot of cheap eyepieces.
HELP.

Do you have astigmatism? If not, you don't need to wear glasses when observing. If yes, it depends on your astigmatism. More info in the "Dioptrx" product page of Televue's website. The higher the power, the lesser astigmatism is a concern.

Plössl are in general good eyepieces. At the center, there is little to be improved. Of course, there are different qualities for Plössl. But don't expect huge improvements on axis.

Astronomic's Paradigms or clones are good and cheap eyepieces, as per opinions here.
If you budget is higher, Pentax are now on sale and they are excellent eyepieces. Baader's hyperions are also on sale, but I don't now how good they are (not as good as the Morpheus, though). Both types have plenty of eye relief.

In general, you will get excellent quality with Pentax, APM, Baader, Televue or Explore Scietific.
Your next step should be a ~6-7 mm eyepiece, if you want more power now. If there is plenty of cash available, just start from scratch and plan your whole series starting by your lowest reasonable power (~30 mm).

Edited by sanbai, 20 December 2020 - 09:33 PM.

[YoungStargazer]

This list is AWESOME!

It made finding all the correct sizes and FOV sooooo much easier.

 

Thank you!

 

 

From that huge list, these are the ones I like the most.

 

TeleVue Ethos Hyperwidefield 6 1.25/2.00 100
TeleVue Ethos Hyperwidefield 8 1.25/2.00 100
TeleVue Ethos Hyperwidefield 10 1.25/2.00 100
TeleVue Ethos Hyperwidefield 13 1.25/2.00 100
TeleVue Ethos SX Hyperwidefield 3.7 1.25 110
TeleVue Ethos SX Hyperwidefield 4.7 1.25 110

Edited by YoungStargazer, 23 December 2020 - 02:47 AM.