22 replies to this topic

[lighttrap]

Eye relief on the 7mm ortho is pretty tight. My idea is to barlow below that size, rather than go smaller. Speaking of barlows, have you considered getting a high quality barlow and a good 15mm eyepiece? That gives plenty of eyerelief, and gets you where you want to be.

[F.Meiresonne]

Hello,

I am testing a 5mm Ultrasocpic now. I love the Lv for their long eyerelief but i think the Ultrascopic has enough eyerelief.Taking in consideration that your piece will be a 7,5 mm then eye relief would probably still be better.The Ulrascopic i am testing so far seems quite thrilling, very good contrast, very sharp.It is also extremely well coated, the reflections are even darker in color then the splendid 15 mm Lathanum I own.
In Belgium a bit expensive but in the US quite a bargain.
I suggest in trying it out!

Clear skies

[matt]

Eye relief is a matter of personal preference (if you don't like the eye relief of a 7.5mm plossl it's unlikely you will like that of a 7mm ortho) ; as for sharpness, the orthos (and good plossls) are sharper than lanthanums. But looking through an ortho more than 5 minutes is a torture for me, I can spend 20 minutes looking through a lanthanum with no fatigue. As you already have a 7mm ultra, you might want a 5-6mm lanthanum. The 4mm is not that good.

[Tim2723]

I'll agree with Matt there! For extended viewing I love my 5mm Lanthanum, even though I don't wear glasses to observe. When I'm sketching the moon, I'll go for a Plossl for better definition, but I'm not looking for long periods, just brief glances. I'm considering the U.O. orthos as replacements, and I'm nearly convinced, given all the good press here.

PS. steer clear of the Orion Epic II ED's in the really short FL's. I just tried out the 3.2mm, what a dog!

[rodrake]

I have UO Orthos (7mm ,9mm, and 12.5mm) and Orion Sirius Plossls (12.5mm and 9mm). The orthos do have slightly longer eye relief than plossls of the same size. I have no problems using the 7mm. Everyone has different tolerances for eye relief though. Also, I don't find the difference in AFOV to be a big issue. The difference in TFOV between a plossl and an ortho of the same focal length is small enough that I really don't notice. I think the increased contrast and detail along with the slightly longer eye relief make it a good trade off.

[erik]

actually, the eye relief is tighter on the 7.5mm ultrascopic than on the 5mm ultrascopic. the 5mm and 3.8mm ultrascopic ep's use an internal barlow to maintain the nice eye relief. but the 7.5mm still has nice eye relief, much, much better than orthos or plossls. some people have reported seeing a bit of lateral color with the 5mm and 3.8mm ultrascopics, due to the barlow design. i have the 5mm and i've never seen any abberations whatsoever. seeing permiting, i use it quite often. the 7.5mm is also very, very good. i'd recommend them over orthos. nothing wrong with orthos except their eye relief, but there are no compromises at all with the ultrascopics. they're literally perfect ep's...

[Dave Mitsky]

I don't care for the standard Lanthanums very much. I agree with what has been said about them in other forums concerning their performance. They produce dim images with noticeably poor color purity.

Dave Mitsky

[matt]

Well Dave, you are right, but a little harsh imho. And our point was that they are not the sharpes eyepieces but are very comfortable to use for someone who needs or likes long eye relief.

[F.Meiresonne]

I have a Lathanum 15 mm and a LV zoom. They outperform my Plössl easily in sharpness i can tell you that! Ok ,my Plössls are of chinese quality and their are probably better Plössls on the market then those but i consider the LV's as a great breed for a reasonable price!Televue radians, panoptics or nagles are too expensive for me!

[Mogster]

I have a Lathanum 15 mm and a LV zoom. They outperform my Plössl easily in sharpness i can tell you that! Ok ,my Plössls are of chinese quality and their are probably better Plössls on the market then those but i consider the LV's as a great breed for a reasonable price!Televue radians, panoptics or nagles are too expensive for me!

My 9mm is sharper than my Orion Sirius plossl's and has less internal reflections and flaring. Its way sharper than my Antare's W70's which are fuzzy by comparison. The 9mm LV gives about 170x in my Starmax 127, its given me great views of the moon and Jupiter over the last couple of months. I just haven't noticed the colour issues people complain about. The only thing they really lack is FOV especially in the shorter fl's

For the price its a really nice ep and very easy to use. For some reson people seem to have a downer on the LV line on this board. I intend to get an 8mm Radian for 200x, but I'll probably get a couple more LV's for my less used fl's. I observe sometimes with my glasses on, but like 15mm or more er anyhow.

[Dave Mitsky]

Well Dave, you are right, but a little harsh imho. And our point was that they are not the sharpes eyepieces but are very comfortable to use for someone who needs or likes long eye relief.

A little harsh? Should I sugar-coat the facts next time?

Dave Mitsky

[Mike Hosea]

A little harsh? Should I sugar-coat the facts next time?
Dave Mitsky

Dave, with all due respect, I don't think it is necessary to sugar-coat the facts, but the tone of your response reads like you are slapping down the poster, not the eyepiece.

Hmmm. Well, I didn't pick up on that as the tone, first or second reading, but I propose we stick to the original subject.

I'm not sure what feeds into the perceptions of dimness and lack of color purity of the LVs. Possibly the latter actually causes the former. I've owned several, and I was not unhappy with them in terms of sharpness, but they have some lateral color and good deal of scatter. I think now that we have Radians and Pentax XWs, not to mention some others, the LVs are most often a temporary diversion rather than a final destination for people needing 20mm of eye relief in short focal lengths. For people just not wanting to get poked in the eye, the number of competing possibilities now is very large, including, for example, the Nagler Zooms.

[jmoore]

I'm after a decent high power ep for plantary use with my 90mm Skywatcher f10 refractor - something around 7.5mm fl. I currently use a standard 7.5mm Plossl and I'm looking for something better. I've heard that many folks favour orthos and also the Orion Ultrascopics for planetary stuff. My concern is eye relief: I can just about cope with the 7.5mm Plossl (I don't wear spectacles for observing) but would an ortho/Ultrascopic have even less eye relief?

I'm currently considering either: A 7.5mm Ultrascopic, 7mm Ortho or (if eye relief is going to be a major issue with the others) a 7mm Lanthanum.

Your thoughts please!

Without having read other replies, here's my 2 cents. I have a 7mm ortho, and 7.5mm Ultrascopic. Both are great, and I'd recommend either. To my eyes, the view is very comparable through these. Eye relief is considerably better (for both) than you'll get in a 8mm plossl. Both pieces are comfortable in terms of eye relief. I'd recommend either/both over a Lanthanum, unless you really need the super long eye relief.

cheers,
jeff

[F.Meiresonne]

I have a Lathanum 15 mm and a LV zoom. They outperform my Plössl easily in sharpness i can tell you that! Ok ,my Plössls are of chinese quality and their are probably better Plössls on the market then those but i consider the LV's as a great breed for a reasonable price!Televue radians, panoptics or nagles are too expensive for me!

My 9mm is sharper than my Orion Sirius plossl's and has less internal reflections and flaring. Its way sharper than my Antare's W70's which are fuzzy by comparison. The 9mm LV gives about 170x in my Starmax 127, its given me great views of the moon and Jupiter over the last couple of months. I just haven't noticed the colour issues people complain about. The only thing they really lack is FOV especially in the shorter fl's

For the price its a really nice ep and very easy to use. For some reson people seem to have a downer on the LV line on this board. I intend to get an 8mm Radian for 200x, but I'll probably get a couple more LV's for my less used fl's. I observe sometimes with my glasses on, but like 15mm or more er anyhow.

Yep, probably a good decision!!

[Tim2723]

Oddly enough, the Vixen lanthanums, for being such a poor performers, get their own category in the eyepiece review section. Go figure. Most of those reviews compare them to orthoscopics and various Televues. The general trend as I read the reviews is that the Lanthanums have only a tiny bit less clarity, but that the long ER of the lanthanums more than compensates for it.

I like the Lanthanums for their generous ER, but I'm also planning on a few U.O. orthos. The 'volcano top' of the U.O.'s is said to reduce that claustrophobic feeling one gets with Plossls and Ultrascopics at short FL's. Once you've gotten used to the comfort level of a Lanthanum, it's hard to go back.

I have the whole C-Kit of Plossls, and the only one I still use is the 32mm. Not because the others are so very awful, they're not for the price, but because you practically poke your eye out with them.

What's that holiday movie with the line: "Hey kid, you'll shoot your eye out!"

[F.Meiresonne]

Eye relief is a matter of personal preference (if you don't like the eye relief of a 7.5mm plossl it's unlikely you will like that of a 7mm ortho) ; as for sharpness, the orthos (and good plossls) are sharper than lanthanums. But looking through an ortho more than 5 minutes is a torture for me, I can spend 20 minutes looking through a lanthanum with no fatigue. As you already have a 7mm ultra, you might want a 5-6mm lanthanum. The 4mm is not that good.

Are you sure that a lathanum is not as sharp as a Plössl, i own a 15 mm LV and the zoom, i can tell you that the lv's are sharper then my Plössls, especially to the edge.The only thing i noticed that the LV's are a bit dimmer expecially if the are used with a barlow but otherwise i can not see any drawbacks of the LV branch...

[erik]

what kind of plossl's are you using? there are plenty of cheaper plossls that i'm sure a lanthanum would outperform. but my meade superplossl's, highlight plossls, and even my sirius plossl's are sharper.

[Dave Mitsky]

Thanks for your reasoned reply, Mike. No "tone" was implied and I am really surprised to hear what I said to be interpreted in such a manner. I suppose you could call my opinion of the standard Lanthanum a warning, however. Caveat emptor.

Dave Mitsky

[F.Meiresonne]

Erik,
Cheaps ones,thats for sure. I obtained them with my telescopes, which are both synta telescopes.I have a 25 mm the worst, shows cleary aberations(coma) at the edge of the field. I used it frequenty but only because it has the biggest field of view.
A 10 mm also chinese quality. A bit better,a bit sharper at the egde but lacks contrast in comparison to the LV. A 20 mm , a go in between, still some aberations at the edge of the field, i used it rarely. And fine a totaly different one, looks very like a sirius Plössl,it is a 7,5 mm not made in China but states : Made in Taiwan. The views are much better though, it is another breed, is very sharp also towards the edge,M13 looks very nice in it. I use it often.I obtained it when i bought my 10 inch skywatcher together with the 20 mm. But when i compare the LV 15 with my plössls the latter is much better. Images are sharp over the whole field of view.The double cluster looks extremely good in the 15 mm wherin it fit just bearly.Same remark for my LV zoom. I thing that the Lv 15 mm is slightly sharper but only just.Now recently we have a dealer in Belgium that sells orion products, i find it to be a blessing.Before that there was ony one who sells Televue's, LV's and chinese brands. I find Televue much to expensive,LV are good and worth well the price. Well but now there's that other guy, so sirius, highlight, ultrascopics ,meade 4000 ep are now within our range at reasonable prices.Now we can test 'the merchandise' that was not possible until recently.
So we are progressing....

[jmoore]

I agree with Mike's post above. The couple of lanthanums I tried showed quite a bit of lateral color. I thought they were plenty sharp and bright, and super comfortable, but the lateral color was, well, nothing short of huge and horrible on Jupiter in my 8" Newtonian. That's why I recommended the orthos and ultrascopics above the lanthanums up above.

jeff