63 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.