My quest for a 'perfect' eyepiece collection...

In the beginning, I started out with a collection of eight Meade series 4000 'super Plossl' eyepieces - 6.4mm, 9.7mm, 12.4mm, 15mm, 20mm, 26mm, 32mm and 40mm. These were a $99 set that came with my first telescope, a 105mm Meade ETX, and were great value at that price. Individually they're a good used buy at a typical price of around £20 (maybe £25 for the bigger 32mm and 40mm Plossls), although I think the list price of £50 for buying them new is a bit much. The only one that was something of a disappointment was the 40mm; this one should really have been a 2" eyepiece, and the field of view had to be reduced to fit it into the 1.25" format. However, if you think spending £50 - let alone five times that - on an eyepiece is madness then you could do a lot worse than pick these up used.

These eyepieces did me well for a year or so, until I made a mistake. I got my first Tele Vue Nagler. The Nagler was a 4.8mm from the original Nagler series (now sometimes called a 'type 1' Nagler, although Tele Vue don't call it that). It was cheap, $95 in Astronomics' close-out sale, but it was a mistake for several reasons. Firstly it was much too much power for the telescopes I had at that time - 416x power in my 8" LX200 - and it had too little eye relief for my tastes. But the real mistake came when I got my 80ED refractor. In that telescope the Nagler gave a reasonable 125x power, and was an awesome lunar and planetary eyepiece. It still had too little eye relief to really get the full 82 degree field of view, but optically it certainly lived up to the Nagler name. Suddenly I knew what a real quality eyepiece was ... and the 'super Plossls' didn't shape up any more.

Still, nothing much changed for a while. I didn't do much visual observing, most of my time was spent with a camera attached to the telescope, so there didn't seem to be much point in spending big money on eyepieces. All that changed when I sold my LX200 and got an Astro-Physics 130EDT StarFire refractor. I'm not a total believer in the mantra that says "$5000 telescope + $50 eyepiece = $50 view", but there's truth in it and the 130EDT exposed every flaw in the Meade eyepieces. They departed through the excellent UK Astro Buy & Sell website, and the search started.

My original plan was to buy three, maybe four quality eyepieces. The first used buy was a Tele Vue 24mm Panoptic and seemed to be a sure-fire hit. It is a great eyepiece, and is rightly regarded as a classic. Mine easily lived up to this reputation. I also learned a lesson by picking up a 13mm Tele Vue Plossl - this was also a good eyepiece, easily the best Plossl i've used, but I really didn't have any use for it: just because it's for sale doesn't mean you need it. However, it found a home as the bread and butter eyepiece for my PST, and I quietly discarded it from 'the plan'. A 'wanted' advert produced my second classic, a 14mm Meade Series 4000 'ultra-wide'. This is widely regarded as the best eyepiece Meade ever made, and delivered a stunning 'first light' view of M27. A 40mm Meade Series 4000 'super-wide' then reappeared on the used adverts; i'd passed on it first time round, but snapped it up when it was re-advertised at a lower price. 4.8mm Nagler, 14mm UWA, 24mm Panoptic and 40mm SWA - it looked like 'job done'?

Not quite. Firstly, I wanted something to span the gap between 4.8mm Nagler and 14mm UWA; the Nagler still had too little eye relief and was too powerful to use with the 130EDT, so it went on ebay along with the 13mm Plossl to help fund something else. Secondly, the jump from the 14mm UWA to 24mm Panoptic felt 'big'. In reality it isn't, and I think it's mainly an illusion caused by the switch from 82 degrees FOV to 67 degrees. But I fell into the "just because it's for sale" trap again and got a 19mm Panoptic. That's another great Tele Vue eyepiece, but it didn't do anything that the 14mm UWA didn't do better. But the ebay auctions went well, I had some money, and with perfect timing two Pentax eyepieces turned up in the used adverts, a 7mm XW and 10mm XW. These were snapped up too, along with a used Tele Vue 35mm Panoptic that i'd wanted for a long time and couldn't resist. Job done now, surely?

Well, two clear, calm nights with the telescope showed that it still wasn't done. There were some successes: the Pentax XWs were excellent, and the 35mm Panoptic performed very well too. However, there was duplication - 19mm Panoptic and 40mm Superwide didn't really serve any purpose when compared to the 14mm Ultrawide and 35mm Panoptic - and the 24mm didn't really satisfy me any more either, after the 14mm UWA I wanted that 'ultrawide' field of view, not the Panoptic's 67 degrees.

I started to formulate a plan: the 17mm type-4 Nagler could span the gap from the 10mm XW to the 35 Panoptic on its own, and would provide the wide, 'space-walk' field of view that I was after. An alternative was spanning the gap with the 14mm UWA (or maybe, maybe a 13mm Type-6 Nagler) and 20mm type-5 Nagler, but after some um'ing and ah'ing that was ruled out for now thanks to my eyesight - I have mild astigmatism, and the 20T5 doesn't have enough eye relief for glasses and can't use Tele Vue's Dioptrx astigmatism correction. The 17T4 could replace the 14mm UWA, good as it was, and the 19mm and 24mm Panoptics with a single eyepiece, and the 40mm SuperWide could go too. I also picked up a 5mm Pentax XW: the 7mm XW was a brilliant eyepiece, but I wanted more power than its 150x for lunar and planetary viewing. The Pentax eyepieces would provide 100x, 150x and 200x magnifications, the 17T4 would give medium-wide views and the 35mm Panoptic would give the huge, sweeping views of a wide expanse of sky.

Finding a 17T4 took a while, but a wanted advert eventually came up trumps. And then another used advert appeared for the 'holy hand-grenade' 26mm Type-5 Nagler. I couldn't resist. That eyepiece gives an awesome, immersive wide-field view. The 35mm Panoptic is an impressive performer, but it's not a match for the 26T5. So the 35mm Panoptic went after all. Like the 24mm Panoptic its only failing was that it wasn't a Nagler. I also decided that getting rid of the 14mm UWA was a big mistake; the chance came to buy it back, so I took it. Just then a 12mm type-4 Nagler appeared used, and so that was added to the line-up. It fills the gap between 10XW and 17T4 better than the 14mm UWA, so it looks that went again.

And so the line-up is 5mm, 7mm and 10mm Pentax XWs, 12 mm type-4 Nagler, 17mm type-4 Nagler and 26mm type-5 Nagler. Is that it? Maybe. Probably. Hopefully.

What have I learned from this so far? Well, you can read all the reviews you can find and they'll provide some guidance, but there's no substitute for trying out eyepieces for yourself. With the exception of the Meade Plossls all of the eyepieces i've sold on have been amongst the best-reviewed eyepieces available and were all but flawless optically, but they haven't quite worked for me in one way or another or were too close to another, better performer to keep (e.g. the 14mm UWA or 24mm Panoptic). But I had to try them to know. This is where the used market comes into its own. New eyepieces are expensive, very expensive, and when dealing with 'premium' eyepieces you'll lose £100 or more from buying a new eyepiece and selling it used. Used eyepieces are expensive too, but pick the deals well and you can try them, sell them again and be out very little - in fact, I turned a small profit on many eyepieces that I got and then sold again in my search.

Update, December 2006

I'm still very happy with the core collection of the 5mm, 7mm and 10mm Pentax XWs, 12 mm type-4 Nagler, 17mm type-4 Nagler and 26mm type-5 Nagler. They're pretty close to an 'ultimate' collection; maybe the only thing i'd change is swapping the 26T5 for the 31T5 uber-Nagler. There have still been a few additions though...

A cold, still morning looking at Saturn showed that I could sometimes use more power than the 200x offered by the 5mm Pentax XW (not often though - i'm usually limited to 150x - 200x by the local seeing conditions). I snapped up a used 4mm Burgess/TMB planetary eyepiece when one appeared used - they're not quite the quality of the XWs, but they're good performers and great value for money. Ideally i'd have a 3.5mm XW, but that's a lot of cash for a very occasional use eyepiece. I also have a pair of dedicated Solar-viewing eyepieces, 12mm and 18mm Coronado CeMax plossls. Now I really think that's it.

Real life strikes back, January 2007

Just when I thought I was done, I started working on my observatory project. This needed cash, and my expensive - and slightly under-used - collection of eyepieces got raided to fund it. It made sense, because I mostly use my 'scopes for CCD work (generally visual observing is a social thing when there's someone else to observe with). I couldn't sell the 7mm or 10mm XWs, they're too good, and the 17T4 and 26T5 are also excellent (and were really hard to find ... and would be equally hard to replace). So the two CeMax plossls and a CeMax barlow went, along with the recently-purchased 4mm Burgess/TMB planetary, the 5mm XW (a brilliant eyepiece in every way, but it was the least-used of the XWs) and the 12mm type-4 Nagler (another brilliant eyepiece). I've added an Astro-Physics 2" Convertible Photo-Visual Barlow to the collection to hopefully plug one or two of the gaps, but it's very sad to see these eyepieces go...

Dreams of replacements

There are currently two major holes in the collection. One was once perfectly filled by the 12mm type-4, and will hopefully be filled again one day by another 12T4 or a 13mm type-6 Nagler. The other is a high-powered planetary eyepiece. I'm tempted by the 3mm-6mm Tele Vue Nagler zoom, which should give me the ability to match magnification with the variable conditions here. However, they're both very expensive gaps to fill, so, for now, I think I'm left with the 7mm and 10mm XWs and the 17mm and 26mm Naglers.

Update, March 2007

The Astro-Physics Barcon has proved to be a good pick. On one clear, still night the 7mm XW and barcon (an effective 4.1mm, 250x magnification in the AP130) provided the finest view of Saturn I've ever seen. It has also provided an unexpected surprise; for deep-sky work the barcon'd 17mmT4 (10mm, 104x) is very close in performance to the 10mm Pentax XW. That's made me think the unthinkable and consider selling the 10mm XW. The only catch is that the XW is my main solar-viewing eyepiece as well. I've picked up a used 9mm Burgess/TMB planetary to see how that works for H-alpha, and if that's up to scratch then the 10mm XW may indeed go...

Update, April 2007

I tried a Tele Vue 11mm Plossl as a `10XW replacement'. No way. And a Burgess/TMB 9mm. No Way. So the 10XW is staying put. The 17T4 was sold, and, within days replaced with another one in part-exchange for a CCD.

Apart from that, much is changing. I have a Takahashi Mewlon 210 on the way; an f/11.5, 2415mm focal length Dall-Kirkham Cassegrain. My collection was designed for short focal length refractors, and is ill-suited to the Mewlon - the 10mm XW, for example, gives 241x magnification, which is at the limits of the conditions here. So the first step was to get something around 200x, and a 'wanted' advert turned up a 13mm type-6 Nagler, an eyepiece I've wanted for a while. A 31mm type-5 Nagler appeared on the UK Astro Buy & Sell, so I succumbed. That meant that I had four Naglers: the 13mm, 17mm, 26mm and 31mm. That is one more piece of expensive glass more than I can justify, so the 26mm was sold. The remaining three are a little imbalanced, and the 17mm might be better replaced with a 20mm type-5. They're rare as anything used, so it's a case of wait and see. Then, a 5mm type-6 Nagler was added for use with my new Takahashi FS-60C refractor. It should be a perfect pair with the 13mm type-6 for that 'scope, and will work at 208x in the 130EDT when the seeing is good enough. Finally I traded a TeleVue TRF-2008 focal reducer for a 3.5mm Nagler. Not too sure how that last one will work out, it's lot of power for the 130EDT.

Update, May 2007

The 3.5mm type-6 Nagler didn't work out; it was too much power. Even on a very still night it was overpowered, and on a typical night it was unusable. The 5mm type-6, on the other hand, is a great high power eyepiece. Eye relief is a little on the short side, but it was very impressive on Saturn and the Moon with the 130EDT. It would be interesting to try it side by side with a 5mm Pentax XW. The surprise disappointment was the 13mm type-6. It's hard to pin down why it didn't work for me, but the tight eye relief and small lens meant that it didn't have any of the immersion I'm used to in medium- to low-power Naglers. Oddly that doesn't bother me with the 5mm type-6. The 13mm type-6 was undoubtedly very good optically, but I greatly prefer the more immersive 12mm type-4 and Meade 14mm UWA. So it looks like I may look for one of those, or maybe a 14mm Pentax XW. However, the amazing new Tele Vue 13mm Ethos, with a 100-degree AFOV, is coming soon, so maybe I should wait. At least until I know the price...

Update, June 2007

Another major adjustment. The 130EDT is setup for imaging in the observatory, and the Mewlon is going to be my main visual telescope. However, I had lots of money tied up in the 5mm T6 and the 7mm and 10mm XWs, three eyepieces that are almost useless in the Mewlon and rather over the top for occasional portable use in the FS60C. So I took the decision to sell those three and replace them with four Baader Hyperion eyepieces - 3.5mm, 5mm, 8mm and 13mm. The last of those is a stop-gap and will be replaced with a Tele Vue 13mm Ethos when it comes out. That should be a brilliant medium-high power eyepiece in the Mewlon. The other three are mainly for the FS60C, and possibly the 130EDT from time to time. The Hyperions are not up to the standards of the XWs, but they're reasonably priced, comfortable, immersive, and reasonably good quality optically. It's sad to see the XWs go, but I think it's the right decision and hopefully the Hyperions will be fine.

The other development is that I've finally found a used 20mm Type-5 Nagler; my luck was in and I got an email off within seconds of it appearing on the used lists. I'll try it side by side with the 17mm Type-4, and, unless the T4 is much better, that'll go in due course. The plan is for a 13mm Ethos, 20mm T5 Nagler, 31mm T5 Nagler progression at the low-power end.

Update, August 2007

There was indeed little to chose between the 17mm type-4 Nagler and the 20mm type-5; both are almost flawless eyepieces. The 17mm has lots of eye relief and is consequently a little more comfortable, but the eye relief on the 20mm is acceptable and it is wonderfully sharp. In the end the 17mm went and the 20mm remained, but that is as much down to the mathematics of the 13mm Ethos as anything else.

My other plan is to look to replace the 8mm Hyperion with a 9mm type-6 Nagler at some point, if one turns up used at a reasonable price. Ideally i'd add an 11mm type-6 as well to give me a nice high-power progression with the Mewlon, but that would be something of a luxury purchase (and, as i've discovered, I tend to sell my luxury purchases again). The 3.5mm and 5mm Hyperions aren't really being used at all, so they may go or they may stay for occasional use with the 130EDT. I haven't really decided yet. Going is probably a bit more likely though, as they could part-fund that 11mm T6...

Update, September 2007

The TeleVue Ethos price has been announced, and, at $620, it's a bit much. So I'm going to look for a 9mm type-6 and 12mm type-4 Naglers to replace the 8mm and 13mm Hyperions. That should be a little less expensive. One day i'd like the Ethos, but it'll have to wait.

Update, December 2007

I found a used 12mm type-4 Nagler when people started selling them off to make way for an Ethos, so it was time to rearrange the collection again. The Hyperions have all gone; although they're probably the best of the budget eyepieces (at least, if you like eye relief and more than the standard Plossl field of view) they didn't quite do it for me. The 3.5mm and 5mm weren't being used, and the 12mm T4 meant that I didn't need the 13mm Hyperion any more. Hopefully i'll pick up a 9mm type-6 Nagler at some point, although i'm quite tempted by the old Meade 8.8mm series 4000 ultrawide. If one turns up at the right time I might be tempted. Finally, for high powers I like the idea of the 3-6mm Nagler zoom. I now have an 80mm f/6.8 apochromat, and the zoom would be good for planetary use in that.

(late December) Another change... I sold the 80mm apochromat, so a Nagler zoom would be too high power to be useful. I'm now thinking of either a 9mm T6 or another 10mm Pentax XW as a high power, good seeing eyepiece for the Mewlon. At the moment the Pentax is the front runner, although it might depend on what turns up first.

I also sold the 31mm type-5 Nagler. That was a tough decision as they're not easy to find, but it's really not a great eyepiece for a Mewlon as it shows up the coma that's inherent in the Dall-Kirkham design.

I give in, March 2008

I've given in and ordered an Ethos, and, unsurprisingly, the 12mm Nagler went to part-fund it. I've also decided to start rebuilding my past collection of Pentax XWs. After all of the buying and selling of last year, i've come to regard the split `Pentax at high power, TeleVue at low power' set as the best of them all. Another 5mm XW was purchased from UK Astro Buy & Sell, and i'll be on the lookout for 7mm and 10mm XWs as well.

I'm undecided about low-power eyepieces at the moment. Currently the 20mm type-5 Nagler is my lowest power eyepiece; that's probably ok for now. A possibility is William Optics' 28mm UWAN, or the 30mm Paragon, another 35mm Panoptic or the 26mm or 31mm type-5 Naglers. Time will tell. They're expensive luxuries though, far from ideal with the Mewlon and only for occasional (if breathtaking) use with the Astro-Physics 130EDT. We'll see. For now the 7mm and 10mm XWs are the priority.

(update, April)The Ethos order was cancelled ... again. Just too much money to spend. That leaves me with the rather depleted collection of a 5mm XW, 20mm type-5 Nagler and an Astro-Physics 1.7x BARCON to help span the gap.

Solar, June 2008

The Mewlon was traded for a Coronado Hydrogen-alpha solar filter, which changes priorities somewhat. I've picked up 15mm and 20mm TeleVue Plossls and a 2x Coronado CeMax barlow for that, simple high-quality eyepieces are the best for solar work and at medium focal lengths Plossls still have enough eye relief for me.

I've really given in, August 2008

I finally gave in and got both the 8mm and 13mm Ethos eyepieces. One word ... wow. Fantastic. Unless TeleVue raise the bar again these ones are keepers for a long time. Their arrival triggered yet another shake-up. Although the 20mm type-5 gives a larger field of view than the 13mm Ethos, it doesn't feel bigger, such is the immersion and panoramic view of the Ethos. Given the relatively low power of the 13mm Ethos of both in my refractors I couldn't see myself ever using the 20mm, so that went. Maybe one day I might want a 22mm type-4, which - on paper, at least - fits a bit better. For the widest fields i've added another 35mm Panoptic. I'd like the 31mm type-5 Nagler really, but that's a lot of money for only occasional use.

The 8mm Ethos also disrupted my plans for a high-power set of Pentax XWs - but no 7mm or 10mm XWs had appeared used anyway. I um'd and ah'd a lot over getting a 3.5mm XW to go with the 5mm. That's too much power for most of the time here (the 3.5mm type-6 Nagler I had didn't get much use), so I decided to sell the 5mm XW as well and get the Nagler 3-6 zoom that i've contemplated before. Hopefully that's a sensible choice. I'm a bit worried about the limited 50-degree apparent field of view being cramped, but i've heard many good things about the zoom and the flexibility to tune it to the variable seeing here will be very useful.

So is that it, at last? Probably not, but i'm getting much closer. I can't see the two Ethos eyepieces going, they're as perfect an eyepiece as i've ever used and will form the core of the collection. If the zoom works out for me it should be the perfect high-power planetary eyepiece, otherwise it'll be back to XWs. Maybe i'll replace the 35mm Panoptic with another 31mm type-5 Nagler at some point, or maybe TeleVue will release a long focal-length Ethos....

UWAN, October 2008

One unexpected discovery about the two (superb) Ethos eyepieces is that they're great for solar viewing too, against traditional wisdom that simple eyepiece designs are best for solar and lunar/planetary viewing. There seems to be nothing that the Ethos can't do well, so the TeleVue Plossls have departed. On another note, I've also swapped the 35mm Panoptic for a William Optics 28mm UWAN. For a variety of reasons I didn't like swapping between the 13mm Ethos and 35mm Panoptic - not least because dropping from 100 degrees AFOV to 67 degrees felt very constrained. The 28mm UWAN is an 82-degree AFOV eyepiece that has strong similarities with the 31mm Nagler, but at about half the price. I'm very pleased with it.

I've also acquired a 12" f/5 dobsonian reflector. The Nagler zoom is likely to be too high powered for this, but the remaining eyepieces should be excellent ... it does make the new 6mm Ethos rather tempting though...

130EDT

Eyepiece	AFOV	TFOV	Magnification	Exit Pupil
Nagler zoom (3mm)	50°	0.14°	347x	0.375mm
Nagler zoom (6mm)	50°	0.29°	173x	0.75mm
8mm Ethos	100°	0.77°	130x	1mm
13mm Ethos	100°	1.25°	80x	1.63mm
28mm UWAN	82°	2.21°	37x	3.5mm

305mm f/5 Dobsonian

Eyepiece	AFOV	TFOV	Magnification	Exit Pupil
Nagler zoom (3mm)	50°	0.10°	508x	0.6mm
Nagler zoom (6mm)	50°	0.20°	254x	1.2mm
8mm Ethos	100°	0.52°	190x	1.6mm
13mm Ethos	100°	0.85°	117x	2.6mm
28mm UWAN	82°	1.5°	54x	5.6mm

80ED

Eyepiece	AFOV	TFOV	Magnification	Exit Pupil
Nagler zoom (3mm)	50°	0.25°	200x	0.4mm
Nagler zoom (6mm)	50°	0.5°	100x	0.8mm
8mm Ethos	100°	1.33°	75x	1.1mm
13mm Ethos	100°	2.17°	46x	1.7mm
28mm UWAN	82°	3.83°	21x	3.7mm

• 3.5mm TeleVue Type-6 Nagler
• 3.5mm Baader Hyperion
• 4mm TMB/Burgess planetary
• 4.8mm Tele Vue Nagler
• 5mm Pentax XW
• 5mm TeleVue Type-6 Nagler
• 5mm Baader Hyperion
• 6.4mm Meade series 4000 Plossl
• 7mm Pentax XW
• 7mm TMB/Burgess planetary
• 8mm Baader Hyperion
• 9mm TMB/Burgess planetary
• 9.7mm Meade series 4000 Plossl
• 10mm Pentax XW
• 11mm TeleVue Plossl
• 12mm Coronado CeMax Plossl
• 12mm TeleVue Type-4 Nagler (1.25"/2") (x2)
• 12.4mm Meade series 4000 Plossl
• 13mm TeleVue Type-6 Nagler
• 13mm Baader Hyperion
• 13mm TeleVue Plossl
• 14mm Meade series 4000 Ultra Wide (1.25"/2")
• 15mm Meade series 4000 Plossl
• 15mm TeleVue Plossl
• 17mm TeleVue Plossl
• 17mm TeleVue Type-4 Nagler (2") (x2)
• 18mm Coronado CeMax Plossl
• 19mm TeleVue Panoptic
• 20mm TeleVue Type-5 Nagler (2")
• 20mm Coronado Kellner (supplied with PST)
• 20mm Meade series 4000 Plossl
• 20mm TeleVue Plossl
• 24mm TeleVue Panoptic
• 26mm Meade series 4000 Plossl
• 26mm TeleVue Type-5 Nagler (2")
• 31mm TeleVue Type-5 Nagler (2")
• 32mm Meade series 4000 Plossl
• 35mm TeleVue Panoptic (2") (x2)
• 40mm Meade series 4000 Plossl
• 40mm Meade series 4000 Super Wide (2")