Using my Sky 90 with the Tak Extender for f/8, Mars was fantastic with a lot of easy to see detail. Surprisingly, I turned it to M42 and was astounded at the amount of nebulosity I could see. BillP, our former eyepiece guru, rated the Pentaxes as the eyepieces with the best transparency:
https://www.cloudyni...omparison-r1865
Even when compared to the ZAOs, TMBs, etc..
Reading through BillP's article - for the nth time
- the only criterion that I saw where the 6mm Pentax SMC Ortho outperformed the ZAO's was for scatter control. For scatter, the Pentax received an A, the ZAO's received B's. The test targets for scatter were a bright star (Capella) and a dim star near a brighter star.
For planets, the Pentax received an overall score of B, the ZAO's an A.
That said, I wouldn't mind picking up a 6mm Pentax SMC Ortho. 
Mike
Edited by Sarkikos, 17 January 2025 - 09:32 PM.