One of my favortie "finders" is a home-made 70mm refractor built around a 320mm focal length lens purchased surplus from Apogee many years ago. Although a doublet, it exhibits almost no uncorrected color. I have used it with a 2" diagonal and 32mm eyepiece over the years, yielding a magnification of 10X and an exit pupil of 7mm, along with an incredible wide FOV. I've use my UO 32mm Widescan with it; more recently my Celestron E-Lux 32mm, since I like to use the Widescan in the main telescope...but just today I ordered the new UO illuminated X-hair 32mm eyepiece: http://www.universityoptics.com/2inch.html#ILLUM Has anyone else used this eyepiece? I love Illuminated X-hairs, especially when I use my Pulseguide illuminator. Most standard illuminators are too bright. The Pulseguide allows perfect customization of both illumination and pulse duration. TIA
Aw, Chuck! This is going to cost me. I have wanted a 2" illuminated reticle eyepiece since I bought my StellarVue F-80 Finder. It has an adapter to take off the diagonal and go straight through with a helical focuser to a two inch eyepiece but I could never find the right eyepiece and this looks like it is the one. I spent most of the budget for this month on lens covers and my new Correct Image diagonal that arrived today but I will keep an eye on this eyepiece and hope you will keep us posted if you hear more. Steve
Date: Fri, 25 Jun 2010 17:07:01 -0600 From: chuck.hards@gmail.com To: utah-astronomy@mailman.xmission.com Subject: [Utah-astronomy] 2" finder EP
One of my favortie "finders" is a home-made 70mm refractor built around a 320mm focal length lens purchased surplus from Apogee many years ago. Although a doublet, it exhibits almost no uncorrected color. I have used it with a 2" diagonal and 32mm eyepiece over the years, yielding a magnification of 10X and an exit pupil of 7mm, along with an incredible wide FOV.
I've use my UO 32mm Widescan with it; more recently my Celestron E-Lux 32mm, since I like to use the Widescan in the main telescope...but just today I ordered the new UO illuminated X-hair 32mm eyepiece:
http://www.universityoptics.com/2inch.html#ILLUM
Has anyone else used this eyepiece? I love Illuminated X-hairs, especially when I use my Pulseguide illuminator. Most standard illuminators are too bright. The Pulseguide allows perfect customization of both illumination and pulse duration.
TIA
_______________________________________________ Utah-Astronomy mailing list Utah-Astronomy@mailman.xmission.com http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/utah-astronomy Visit the Photo Gallery: http://www.slas.us/gallery2/main.php Visit the Wiki: http://www.utahastronomy.com
Steve, it's on the way. I ordered it already. I had a 2" illuminated reticle on the Ealing some years ago, with a circular reticle, but Bruce apparently pulled it off. If the club is no longer using it, I'd sure like my LED illuminator back! I'll post my impressions once the eyepiece arrives. Save some cash for dust covers, Steve. ;o) On 6/25/10, Steve FISHER <sfisher01@msn.com> wrote:
Aw, Chuck! This is going to cost me. I have wanted a 2" illuminated reticle eyepiece since I bought my StellarVue F-80 Finder. It has an adapter to take off the diagonal and go straight through with a helical focuser to a two inch eyepiece but I could never find the right eyepiece and this looks like it is the one.
I spent most of the budget for this month on lens covers and my new Correct Image diagonal that arrived today but I will keep an eye on this eyepiece and hope you will keep us posted if you hear more.
Wow, superfast shipping from University Optics, it arrived today! I am VERY impressed, so-far. The fit and finish is excellent, the reticle is focusable and the illuminator comes with a battery installed. It's also possibly the best-packaged eyepiece I have ever received. Not sure if Jan Seyfried did this, or the Asian manufacturer, but it was very well protected in-transit. The price of $129.95 is entirely reasonable- and actually on the low side, IMO. I haven't had a chance to try it out under the stars yet, but on daytime objects it's very sharp and well-corrected. Of course, at these very low powers its very hard to pick out any but the most gross abberations. I intend to use it primarily in 70mm and 80mm finders. I may get a second one before the price goes up, to avoid having to swap it out between scopes. Stay tuned.
Chuck: Some of the small companies are amazing aren't they? Like you, I ordered my new diagonal form Agena Astro after 5:00 pm on Tuesday and had it in Friday mornings mail. Two day Priority Mail and no one had to send it by memo to the shipping department who in turn will get to it soon. I need to get out the 80mm finder and see if I can live with it with a 32mm eyepiece. That will be the only deciding factor now that you have posted your initial findings. Keep us posted. Steve
Date: Mon, 28 Jun 2010 17:46:12 -0600 From: chuck.hards@gmail.com To: utah-astronomy@mailman.xmission.com Subject: Re: [Utah-astronomy] 2" finder EP
Wow, superfast shipping from University Optics, it arrived today!
I am VERY impressed, so-far. The fit and finish is excellent, the reticle is focusable and the illuminator comes with a battery installed. It's also possibly the best-packaged eyepiece I have ever received. Not sure if Jan Seyfried did this, or the Asian manufacturer, but it was very well protected in-transit. The price of $129.95 is entirely reasonable- and actually on the low side, IMO.
I haven't had a chance to try it out under the stars yet, but on daytime objects it's very sharp and well-corrected. Of course, at these very low powers its very hard to pick out any but the most gross abberations. I intend to use it primarily in 70mm and 80mm finders. I may get a second one before the price goes up, to avoid having to swap it out between scopes.
Stay tuned.
_______________________________________________ Utah-Astronomy mailing list Utah-Astronomy@mailman.xmission.com http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/utah-astronomy Visit the Photo Gallery: http://www.slas.us/gallery2/main.php Visit the Wiki: http://www.utahastronomy.com
I LOVE Agena Astro, too! :o) Now, I also ordered a 99% reflectivity dielectric diagonal from Astronomics (Cloudy Nights Thought Police Overlords) and am still waiting, even though they had several days' jump on UO. Great products, but the little guys beat them to death on customer service, every time. One of my favorite old refractors is an Orion 80mm doublet with 2" R&P focuser from at least 20 years ago. F/5, 400mm focal length. It's a lens cell and focuser with a few inches of tube in-between, lol. But as a finder or small RFT, it just excells. I used it as a guidescope when I shot Hale-Bopp, with a 5mm guiding eyepiece and 2.8X Barlow (can it be 13 years, already? Wow.) I can't wait to see how it performs as a large finder with this eyepiece. I should just run over to your place with it one of these nights. On 6/28/10, Steve FISHER <sfisher01@msn.com> wrote:
Chuck:
Some of the small companies are amazing aren't they? Like you, I ordered my new diagonal form Agena Astro after 5:00 pm on Tuesday and had it in Friday mornings mail. Two day Priority Mail and no one had to send it by memo to the shipping department who in turn will get to it soon.
I need to get out the 80mm finder and see if I can live with it with a 32mm eyepiece. That will be the only deciding factor now that you have posted your initial findings.
Keep us posted.
participants (2)
-
Chuck Hards -
Steve FISHER