Guest fondofchips Posted October 20, 2014 Share Posted October 20, 2014 I bought some new eyepieces over the weekend & I was itching to try them out. The weather forecast showed that it would clear around midnight & fully clear around 01.30am Monday morning. So I switched on the cooling fan on the newt in the afternoon & went for a kip. The sun was still on the obsy & it was still a bit warm in the viewing room. Because the Nirvana 28mm is quite heavy I checked the balance with it fitted before it got dark. Got up around 6pm & started to get the rest of the stuff ready. The weather didn't play ball, even when there were gaps in the cloud they weren't big enough to get the scope on target. Light cloud & drizzle so I shut the obsy roof for a while. My aim was to test eyepieces with the familiar targets of the Orion Nebula & Jupiter. Around 02.00am it all changed & there was Orion in a large gap in the cloud, still some thin high cloud about though. Orion is very special for me, its appearance tells me the peak stargazing season is back after the short nights of summer. I swung the scope around to the Orion nebula & wow, not only did the Nirvana give me a good view of it but it also showed more of the surrounding stars. I tried the William Optics UWAN 7mm on the nebula with no improvement, the seeing conditions were still relatively poor. I swung the scope around to the 7 Sisters and again the Nirvana gave a brilliant view. Jupiter was still quite low but I got a good view of that as well. Again a higher power eyepiece was not much use. The conditions didn't improve until around 03.30am but everything started dewing up so I decided to pack up & protect my equipment (Next project dew control). The Nirvana 28mm is special, it gave me an excellent view of the Orion Nebula & the 7 Sisters & it did it in poor conditions, it seems to extract the best view no matter what you are looking at. My higher power eyepieces were not much use so I was really pleased to be able to get the most out of a fairly grotty night. I have a Bresser fully coated 32mm Plossl eyepiece which I use for widefield & locating targets & have been very impressed with it, the Nirvana will now do that job but I'm planning to use the Bresser with a small scope, maybe ST80 as a finder. Clear Skies, Harry. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oldfruit Posted October 20, 2014 Share Posted October 20, 2014 I would have to agree, I have the 28mm Nirvana and love the views that it gives in my 12 inch Dob. It is probably my most used eyepiece to be honest. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest fondofchips Posted October 20, 2014 Share Posted October 20, 2014 Nirvana in a 12" Dob, that must be brilliant. I had my heart set on a Skywatcher 250 P-DS scope but settled for the 200P that Felix (Catman161) was selling for easier handling as I had not used a newt before. The 300P is theoretically possible in my 8 x 8ft obsy room, but I think it will involve too much ducking under the tube & faffing around with step ladders. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oldfruit Posted October 20, 2014 Share Posted October 20, 2014 The reason I opted for the Nirvana range of eyepieces was to compliment my Dob. The field of view at 82* is just right. I would imagine the views to be no less spectacular through your Newt. We are very lucky as we have a dark site in the Lincolnshire Wolds, the skies are beautifully dark and the views I get through the 28mm Nirvana are at times breath taking, especially when sweeping the richer areas of the Milky Way. Coupled with a UHC or O111 filter the 28mm performs very well on larger objects such as The Veil Nebula, North American Nebula, and as you have mentioned the Pleiades fit very well into the field of view. M31 looks especially good also with the dust lanes being obvious. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doc Posted October 20, 2014 Share Posted October 20, 2014 I have the 28mm UWAN and it is my most used eyepiece. I find it almost coma free with tight stars right to the edges, pretty awesome piece of kit, you will love it when the clouds move along of course Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daz Type-R Posted October 20, 2014 Share Posted October 20, 2014 Nice write up, glad your happy with your new purchase. Don't own one myself but have looked through it before and the views are good, like Mick says, tight stars right to the edge. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tweedledee Posted October 21, 2014 Share Posted October 21, 2014 Very nice eyepiece and write up Harry. You will have great time with them on a good night. I see you have nice range of focal lengths in that classy 82 degree series, and then a TV 2-4 mm zoom for really high power! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest fondofchips Posted October 22, 2014 Share Posted October 22, 2014 (edited) I was only going to buy the WO UWAN 4 & 7mm from a job lot that included the WO UWAN 16mm, Nirvana 28mm & the Nagler zoom. So I nearly didn't get the Nirvana as I was looking at a Maxvision instead. At the wide angle end of the eyepiece range there are plenty of good eyepieces though. Cheers, Harry. Edited October 22, 2014 by fondofchips Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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