Inexpensive But Decent EP's?

[Nightspore]

Here are some of my contenders:

 

 

A 28mm Sky-Watcher (possibly Synta) LET that may or may not be a reversed Kellner. It has a 56° FOV with a 31mm field stop. These EP's are often included with some Evostars and the larger Sky-Watcher Mak's. LET (Long Eye relief Twist up eyeguard) eyepieces are about 30 quid to buy separately. That's basically giving them away lol.

 

 

I've got better 2" 28mm eyepieces but they are also heavy. I've seen three comets with my 2" LET. It gives a bright image and is fairly sharp up to the edge of field with an f/7.5 refractor. A bit of edge of field astigmatism with faster scopes but nothing drastic in my experience. The rubber 'mock Pentax' twist up eyeguard is quite comfortable. Honestly, these are better than they look.

 

 

Sky-Watcher UWA Planetary Eyepieces. I'm pretty convinced these are Barsta/BST. Sky-Watcher often refer to them as Plossls but they're more like TMB lookalikes and the TS Optics/BST Planetary eyepieces. They have twist up eyeguards, a 58° FOV and feature Smyth-type drawtubes. I find these very much like orthoscopics with bright, sharp, and highly contrasted views. They can sometimes suffer from odd reflections at the edge of field on a bright Moon but are also superb as deep sky EP's. I believe these were often included with some Sky-Watcher refractors. Sometimes marketed under different names, principally Olivon in the US I think. Pretty good for between 30 and 40 quid though.

 

 

Not sure who makes this 4.5mm 'SW' Planetary II as I got it from the pic'n'mix basket from 365Astronomy. It is very similar to the Sky-Watcher UWA Planetary Eyepieces.

 

 

It was about the same price as the UWA's but just as sharp and contrasted as the much more expensive TS Optics Planetary HR's in use. If anyone knows any more about who manufacture these I'd be grateful for the information.

 

Has anybody else got any inexpensive but decent EP's?

Edited May 19, 2019 by Nightspore

[+RonC]

Try Alan at Sky's the Limit, I still use a couple of his EP's after 5 years!!

http://www.skysthelimit.org.uk/

BST Starguiders, I know he uses an Ebay store now.

 

Ron

[Nightspore]

I have a couple of StarGuiders.

 

 

The 3.2mm works pretty decently in my 150mm Newtonian for about 281x. I can often get this on the Moon. The 25mm was a bit of a disappointment in fast refractors though as it exhibited a fair bit of astigmatism (we're talking a flock of seagulls lol). It's pretty good in my Mak's though.

 

 

[Guest]

I don't use eyepieces much these days. It sounds like these Skywatchers sound good but they weren't around a few years ago. I also like the Moonfish Group (GSO??) eyepieces.

[Doc]

The original 25mm TAL eyepiece with the purple glass was very good and a few years back still reasonable in price.

[Nightspore]

15 hours ago, Sunny Phil said:

I don't use eyepieces much these days. It sounds like these Skywatchers sound good but they weren't around a few years ago. I also like the Moonfish Group (GSO??) eyepieces.

The Moonfish look familiar to me. I've never owned one, they might be GSO, although they are reminiscent of some of the old Barsta wide angle EP's that University Optics used to sell.

 

 

http://www.moonfishgroup.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=87

 

I think the 'mock-Pentax' Sky-Watcher 2" EP's are actually made by Synta.

 

http://skywatcher.com/product/let-2-28mm/

 

 

I've only really seen the 28mm's on sale. Retailers tend to claim that they have been separated from an Evostar package. I have a pair of them; I bought one a couple of years ago and one was included with my ED80. Oddly, I was looking at Cassiopeia last night with it in my ED80. They're pretty good for the money and look fairly indestructible.

Edited May 22, 2019 by Nightspore

[Nightspore]

5 hours ago, Doc said:

The original 25mm TAL eyepiece with the purple glass was very good and a few years back still reasonable in price.

http://www.talteleoptics.com/eyepieces.html

 

 

I've always wanted to try one of these.