33 replies to this topic

[MaximusStarHunter]

I have a 8 inch Dob, and I have been in the process of replacing my Plossl eyepieces. Like some of the other folks who have posted, the on-axis views were fine, but the limited FOV and edge effects were a distraction. I have found that Astro Tech Paradigm and the Ultra Wide Angle eyepieces produce good to great AFOV, good edge correction, excellent contrast, and star and planet colors are quite good. The cost for these are very competitive, too. I have a modest astronomy budget, so I made these purchases over a period of time.

 

These are the eyepieces that I have purchased:

 

2-inch 34 mm SVBony (72 degree AFOV): This provides almost 2 degrees of field, which enables me to see M45, M8 entirely. Good for larger galaxies, when skies are dark, especially galaxy clusters (M81 and M82, for instance). This is also a good eyepiece to use just to scan the night sky. I works well with a HC nebula filter. 

 

25mm Paradigm (60 degrees AFOV): This works well for Nebula and large star clusters. Stars are a little soft at the edge, but not a distraction. Good for lunar and solar (with filters!) when I want to see the entire sphere, with breathing space around it.

 

15mm Paradigm (60 degrees AFOV): This is my go-to eyepiece for globular clusters and smaller galaxies. Works well with planetary nebula (with HC nebula filter). Great contrast and color integrity for stars and planets.

 

19mml Astro Tech PF (65 degrees AFOV): This one fills the void between my 25 and 15mm Paradigms. The image is not as good as my 15mm Paradigm, but it is a good value at $40. Fairly wide field.

 

10mm AT UWA (82 degrees AFOV): Nice wide field and stars and planets are sharp to the edge. Great medium high power eyepiece (120X). Great on smaller DSO. Globular and open star clusters look great. These also have good contrast. Can see Saturn's larger moons, when they are sufficiently far away from the planet (Including Titan, Rhea, Dione, Tethys, Iapetus, and sometime Enceladus. Great eyepices for Jupiter. I use a Celestron Ultima barlow with this when seeing permits to give me 264X, which works well with Mars and Saturn. The star colors seem to be more evident with the AT UWA eyepieces than the Paradigms.

 

7mm (really 7.5mm) AT UWA (82 degrees AFOV): Nice wide field and stars and planets are sharp to the edge. Great medium high power eyepiece (160X). My go-to eyepiece for Jupiter. Great eyepiece for Saturn (can see major moons). Works well for smaller planetary nebula (Ring and Little dumbell). I use a Celestron Ultima barlow with this when seeing permits to give me 351X, which works well with Mars and Saturn. This morning I was able to see 4 dark albedo features on Mars, and see the north polar cap when the planet was still less than 10 arcseconds in diameter.

 

I am receiving a Astro Tech 13mm UWA today, to fill the gap between my 15mm Paradigm and my 10mm UWA. The reviews on this eyepiece have been generally positive.

Thank you, this helped alot.

[CollinofAlabama]

I have an 8” classic dobsonian. I still have the plastic plossl eyepieces that the telescope came with, I was wondering if upgrading it would really make a big difference when viewing nebula and galaxies? If so, how much?

Yes, definitely.  I remember noticing how much sharper my old University Optics orthoscopics were back at the beginning of the century, when I was getting back into astronomy and starting to buy such things.  Although not rich by any stretch of the imagination, I now own most of the Televue Nagler T6's ever made, the 16mm TV Nagler T5, and the TV Pan 24 in the 1.25" size.  Would I buy them today?  Not so sure.  Honestly, the competition has gotten a lot better, and although I think the 1.25" Televues I have are among the best, if not the best, performance-wise, and definitely very nice for parfocal and weight considerations, they cost a lot.  Parfocal means that I can put my Pan 24 eyepiece in, say, to find Saturn in the sky, then plop in my Nagler 5mm T6 and won't have to refocus very much, they're pretty close to parfocal.  All of the TV eyepieces I listed above are like this.  And the clarity, compared to your plossls, is outstanding, but tracking in an 8" dob, no question that the larger field (these have an 82º AFOV vs. the plossl 52º) will make tracking Saturn a whole lot easier, with a more enjoyable and rewarding experience.  That's something I'm sure you'd appreciate.

 

If money is no object, do what I've done.  But for many people, me included, money is definitely an option.  I'm kind of cheap, even for things for myself, but add a wife and kids into the mix, and I have to be very deliberate in what I buy, when, etc.  I do not know your circumstances.  Also, as SeattleScott points out above, a lot of these decisions come down to each individual's unique optical train.  I don't wear glasses (at least not yet) and don't have a lot of trouble with low eye relief eyepieces.  People with astigmatism who wear glasses usually require somewhere north of 18mm worth of eye relief.  I am bothered by the über short focal length Televue plossls (below the 20mm size), but otherwise, I'm fine with tight-ish eye relief, and absolutely love my lower eye relief Televue 16mm T5 eyepiece, one often decried amongst the glasses crowd as having too little eye relief.  Would this matter to you?  Only you could answer that question.  This could be a deal breaker for you.

 

So what to do?  If you are happy enough with the eye relief of the 10mm plossl that came with your dob, then you are probably okay with tighter eye relief, like me.   If that feels cramped and straining to your eye, or you can't use it at all because of your glasses, then you have to keep this in mind going forward.

To my mind, there are two absolutely fantastic deals in eyepieces right now, and with possible coming tariffs on imports, jumping on these sooner rather than later could be a very cost-effective thing.  First, the ES 11mm 82º eyepiece is on sale and a lot of eyepiece for less money.  If you need the extra eye relief, I'm fond of the Pentax 10mm XW, but it is more money, weighs more, and doesn't have as wide a field of view, though a lot better than a plossl.

 

Assuming your telescope has a 2" focuser, the AT28mm UWA is the best deal in wide angle eyepieces today.  If you require more eye relief, the Celestron Ultima Edge 30mm is a good choice.  More expensive, and less true field of view, but plenty of eye relief and a very nice eyepiece.  Might be able to pick up the APM 30mm UFF in Cloudynights classifieds, too, which is the same OEM eyepiece and even more lightweight.

 

Good luck

Edited by CollinofAlabama, 08 November 2024 - 11:55 AM.

[CollinofAlabama]

MaximusStarHunter,

 

What fjjoachim writes is true, but it's actually more complicated than that.  A lot of people think, because this particular eyepiece is good, that the entire line of that eyepiece is good.  This is NOT true.  The best example is the Pentax XW series of eyepieces.  I think they're absolutely top quality view, and competitive, if not better on axis, to Televue, BUT, that's for the 3.5, 5, 7 and 10mm focal lengths.  The 14mm XW has serious field curvature issues.  The 20mm and 30mm models have the same.  And this same kind of inconsistency can plague many, many other eyepiece varieties.  Another example, the AstroTech Paradigms have some very, very good models, the 5mm and 12mm in particular.  But the other models in the line suffer from edge of field softness, from either field curvature or simple astigmatism within the optics of the eyepiece.  The 25mm suffers from some of the worst edge of field softness in the line.  OTOH, the Meade 25mm HD-60 or Celestron 25mm X-Cel LX (same OEM), do not, and should be able to be found for about the same price as the Paradigm 25mm.  So which eyepiece to buy in a particular line can be more problematic than it appears.  All focal lengths in a line may or may not be equal.  With Televue, this is true, but with most other lines, not so much.  Even within Televue, I found the rectilinear distortion of the Pan 19 nauseating when panning through the sky, which someone might do with a Panoptic eyepiece.  I do not suffer from this using the Pan 24.  So even Televue, great as they are, can have issues within a line.  The Explore Scientific 14mm 82º eyepiece also suffers from field curvature, like the Pentax XW 14mm, so I cannot recommend that one (the 11mm does not, btw).  Good luck.

[MaximusStarHunter]

MaximusStarHunter,

 

What fjjoachim writes is true, but it's actually more complicated than that.  A lot of people think, because this particular eyepiece is good, that the entire line of that eyepiece is good.  This is NOT true.  The best example is the Pentax XW series of eyepieces.  I think they're absolutely top quality view, and competitive, if not better on axis, to Televue, BUT, that's for the 3.5, 5, 7 and 10mm focal lengths.  The 14mm XW has serious field curvature issues.  The 20mm and 30mm models have the same.  And this same kind of inconsistency can plague many, many other eyepiece varieties.  Another example, the AstroTech Paradigms have some very, very good models, the 5mm and 12mm in particular.  But the other models in the line suffer from edge of field softness, from either field curvature or simple astigmatism within the optics of the eyepiece.  The 25mm suffers from some of the worst edge of field softness in the line.  OTOH, the Meade 25mm HD-60 or Celestron 25mm X-Cel LX (same OEM), do not, and should be able to be found for about the same price as the Paradigm 25mm.  So which eyepiece to buy in a particular line can be more problematic than it appears.  All focal lengths in a line may or may not be equal.  With Televue, this is true, but with most other lines, not so much.  Even within Televue, I found the rectilinear distortion of the Pan 19 nauseating when panning through the sky, which someone might do with a Panoptic eyepiece.  I do not suffer from this using the Pan 24.  So even Televue, great as they are, can have issues within a line.  The Explore Scientific 14mm 82º eyepiece also suffers from field curvature, like the Pentax XW 14mm, so I cannot recommend that one (the 11mm does not, btw).  Good luck.

The Celestron X Cel is on sale right now, for about the same price as the Paradigm. Is the 12mm X Cel worse than the Paradigm, but the 25mm is better?

[SeattleScott]

The Celestron X Cel is on sale right now, for about the same price as the Paradigm. Is the 12mm X Cel worse than the Paradigm, but the 25mm is better?

That is my understanding.

[MaximusStarHunter]

That is my understanding.

Thanks, because I was planning on getting those two sizes.

[azure1961p]

That is my understanding.

I don't have the 12 Xcel but the Paradigms in my longer FL systems are never better than the Xcel and that includes fit and finish.  I'd be surprised to see any Paradigm outdo one. 

 

Pete

[SeattleScott]

I don't have the 12 Xcel but the Paradigms in my longer FL systems are never better than the Xcel and that includes fit and finish. I'd be surprised to see any Paradigm outdo one.

Pete

The 25 Xcel LX is better optically than the 25 Paradigm. I would also consider the Xcel LX a bit better in terms of build quality, fit/finish.

[CollinofAlabama]

I owned the 12mm Paradigm, and only sold it to purchase the Explore Scientific 11mm 82º.  It is, without a doubt, an excellent eyepiece.  It has better eye relief than the ES 11mm 82º, but as I have written, that's not as much of an issue with my vision.  I prefer the HUGE field of view the 11mm ES 82º provides, but I understand your hesitancy about spending $180 on a single eyepiece.  I wouldn't have done that, either, my first year in hobby so can't blame you at all.  And as a former owner of the eyepiece, you won't be unhappy with its performance.  I can also strongly recommend the 5mm Paradigm.  You won't be able to use it as often, because the skies have to be steady at the 240 power it will produce in your scope, but when they're clear, the image is clear as a bell, with good eye relief (especially for such a short focal length), and Saturn will look GREAT on those night when it will work.  Make sure your scope is well collimated, cause you'll need that at 240 power, but when the heavens open up, like they inevitably do, you'll be impressed.  Still own that one, btw.

 

I know the AT28mm UWA probably seems a bit too rich, at $199, but I assure you, you'll never regret spending the money for it.  Assuming you have a two-inch focuser in your dob, it will produce the most fantastically wide field you can imagine -- a LOT more than any 25mm Paradigm or X-Cel LX.  The 25mm X-Cel LX is a good eyepiece, yes, but the AT28 UWA is in a different class -- a better class.  It's more than worth the extra dinero.  I own the Meade 25 HD-60 (X-Cel LX equivalent), and I like it a lot, but since only one scope I own doesn't have a 2" focuser, the AT28UWA sees a lot more focuser time -- actually, every time I take any of my scopes that can use it out.

Edited by CollinofAlabama, 08 November 2024 - 04:53 PM.