Ebay 30mm/80deg / 2" eyepiece

Any good, seems very cheap?

Julius

As others have said, it depends on the scope you are using it with. I have one
of these eyepieces, for the $95 it is a pretty decent deal.

I use it in my Pronto for terestrial viewing (birds) and digiscoping because
the edge distortion is not so noticeable because most often it is out of focus
because of depth of field issues. The foreground and the background will be
out of focus anyway. I like it because I am not afraid of damaging the
eyepiece by holding the camera lens to the glass.


Astronomy wise, I the Pronto at F6.9, the edge distortion is distracting. In
an F5, things are significantly worse. It is usable if you can stand the edge
distortion which starts fairly close to the center, it certainly provides a
nice wide FOV but it can get ugly at times, especially if there is something
bright near the edge.

I found a used TV Widefield 32 mm on Astromart for $140. It has a 66 degree
FOV. Not as wide as the eyepiece in question but much sharper overall, in the
Pronto, the entire FOV seems sharp, in my F5 Asian DOB, the edge distortion is
there but the overall view is much superior to the 30mm 80 degree eyepiece. It
is even useful at F4.

Bottomline: Its a reasonable deal for $95 but it is only a marginal eyepiece
IMHO.

Got some decent bird images with it though....

jon

Any good, seems very cheap?

Julius

As others have said, it depends on the scope you are using it with. I have one
of these eyepieces, for the $95 it is a pretty decent deal.

I use it in my Pronto for terestrial viewing (birds) and digiscoping because
the edge distortion is not so noticeable because most often it is out of focus
because of depth of field issues. The foreground and the background will be
out of focus anyway. I like it because I am not afraid of damaging the
eyepiece by holding the camera lens to the glass.


Astronomy wise, I the Pronto at F6.9, the edge distortion is distracting. In
an F5, things are significantly worse. It is usable if you can stand the edge
distortion which starts fairly close to the center, it certainly provides a
nice wide FOV but it can get ugly at times, especially if there is something
bright near the edge.

I found a used TV Widefield 32 mm on Astromart for $140. It has a 66 degree
FOV. Not as wide as the eyepiece in question but much sharper overall, in the
Pronto, the entire FOV seems sharp, in my F5 Asian DOB, the edge distortion is
there but the overall view is much superior to the 30mm 80 degree eyepiece. It
is even useful at F4.

Bottomline: Its a reasonable deal for $95 but it is only a marginal eyepiece
IMHO.

Got some decent bird images with it though....

jon

Any good, seems very cheap?

Julius

As others have said, it depends on the scope you are using it with. I have one
of these eyepieces, for the $95 it is a pretty decent deal.

I use it in my Pronto for terestrial viewing (birds) and digiscoping because
the edge distortion is not so noticeable because most often it is out of focus
because of depth of field issues. The foreground and the background will be
out of focus anyway. I like it because I am not afraid of damaging the
eyepiece by holding the camera lens to the glass.


Astronomy wise, I the Pronto at F6.9, the edge distortion is distracting. In
an F5, things are significantly worse. It is usable if you can stand the edge
distortion which starts fairly close to the center, it certainly provides a
nice wide FOV but it can get ugly at times, especially if there is something
bright near the edge.

I found a used TV Widefield 32 mm on Astromart for $140. It has a 66 degree
FOV. Not as wide as the eyepiece in question but much sharper overall, in the
Pronto, the entire FOV seems sharp, in my F5 Asian DOB, the edge distortion is
there but the overall view is much superior to the 30mm 80 degree eyepiece. It
is even useful at F4.

Bottomline: Its a reasonable deal for $95 but it is only a marginal eyepiece
IMHO.

Got some decent bird images with it though....

jon

"Szaki" wrote in message news:Yh1Nb.48900$8H.101776@attbi_s03...
Thaks for the info. As I read more about it, seems it works well with higher
f/ ratio telescopes, down to f/6. It gets very mushi at the edge at f/4.5.
This is where the Naglers shine, in large DOBs.

Julius

"Dennis Woos" wrote in message
...
"Szaki" wrote in message
news:KZ_Mb.48511$xy6.117505@attbi_s02...
So, you mean the edge is not as sharp as the UO's? Maybe, the quality
not
as
consistant than other, more expensie brands, that's why it's cheap.

Julius


That isn't what I mean. Mine is as sharp and bright as the Kong up to the
point where the fov exceeds the fov of the Konig, and then it gets pretty
bad. Also, I have looked through a couple of them, and I have no reason
to
believe that they are not of consistent quality. There is a long story
about why it is so cheap - do a google search, and look at the 1rpd
website.

Dennis



You still need a Paracorr for the 31mm and 26mm Naglers at f/4.5 and below.
Clear skies,
Shneor Sherman

"Szaki" wrote in message news:Yh1Nb.48900$8H.101776@attbi_s03...
Thaks for the info. As I read more about it, seems it works well with higher
f/ ratio telescopes, down to f/6. It gets very mushi at the edge at f/4.5.
This is where the Naglers shine, in large DOBs.

Julius

"Dennis Woos" wrote in message
...
"Szaki" wrote in message
news:KZ_Mb.48511$xy6.117505@attbi_s02...
So, you mean the edge is not as sharp as the UO's? Maybe, the quality
not
as
consistant than other, more expensie brands, that's why it's cheap.

Julius


That isn't what I mean. Mine is as sharp and bright as the Kong up to the
point where the fov exceeds the fov of the Konig, and then it gets pretty
bad. Also, I have looked through a couple of them, and I have no reason
to
believe that they are not of consistent quality. There is a long story
about why it is so cheap - do a google search, and look at the 1rpd
website.

Dennis



You still need a Paracorr for the 31mm and 26mm Naglers at f/4.5 and below.
Clear skies,
Shneor Sherman

"Szaki" wrote in message news:Yh1Nb.48900$8H.101776@attbi_s03...
Thaks for the info. As I read more about it, seems it works well with higher
f/ ratio telescopes, down to f/6. It gets very mushi at the edge at f/4.5.
This is where the Naglers shine, in large DOBs.

Julius

"Dennis Woos" wrote in message
...
"Szaki" wrote in message
news:KZ_Mb.48511$xy6.117505@attbi_s02...
So, you mean the edge is not as sharp as the UO's? Maybe, the quality
not
as
consistant than other, more expensie brands, that's why it's cheap.

Julius


That isn't what I mean. Mine is as sharp and bright as the Kong up to the
point where the fov exceeds the fov of the Konig, and then it gets pretty
bad. Also, I have looked through a couple of them, and I have no reason
to
believe that they are not of consistent quality. There is a long story
about why it is so cheap - do a google search, and look at the 1rpd
website.

Dennis



You still need a Paracorr for the 31mm and 26mm Naglers at f/4.5 and below.
Clear skies,
Shneor Sherman

"Szaki" wrote in message news:Yh1Nb.48900$8H.101776@attbi_s03...
Thaks for the info. As I read more about it, seems it works well with higher
f/ ratio telescopes, down to f/6. It gets very mushi at the edge at f/4.5.
This is where the Naglers shine, in large DOBs.

Julius

"Dennis Woos" wrote in message
...
"Szaki" wrote in message
news:KZ_Mb.48511$xy6.117505@attbi_s02...
So, you mean the edge is not as sharp as the UO's? Maybe, the quality
not
as
consistant than other, more expensie brands, that's why it's cheap.

Julius


That isn't what I mean. Mine is as sharp and bright as the Kong up to the
point where the fov exceeds the fov of the Konig, and then it gets pretty
bad. Also, I have looked through a couple of them, and I have no reason
to
believe that they are not of consistent quality. There is a long story
about why it is so cheap - do a google search, and look at the 1rpd
website.

Dennis



You still need a Paracorr for the 31mm and 26mm Naglers at f/4.5 and below.
Clear skies,
Shneor Sherman

On Wed, 14 Jan 2004 13:02:25 GMT, Engineer Scott
wrote:

On Tue, 13 Jan 2004 22:45:50 GMT, "Szaki" wrote:

Any one try this 2" 30mm eyepiece, selling on ebay, for $95? It has 80 deg
field.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...tegory=29 954
Item number: 2979229461

Any good, seems very cheap?

Julius

I've got a BW Optik 30/80 which is the same eyepiece. In my F7.5 scope
it's pretty sharp in the center but the outer 1/3 of the field is very
fuzzy. All the stars around the edge look like Globulars. I guess this
is OK if you like Globs The coating seems a little heavy in a few
places though it doesn't seem to have any affect on the view. The eye
relief is pretty nice. It's not hard to look through.

It's not a Nagler, but for the price it's OK.

scotty
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

If the outer third is that bad then is it really worth it? I would
choose one with a little less AFOV and had good views to the edge.

james

On Wed, 14 Jan 2004 13:02:25 GMT, Engineer Scott
wrote:

On Tue, 13 Jan 2004 22:45:50 GMT, "Szaki" wrote:

Any one try this 2" 30mm eyepiece, selling on ebay, for $95? It has 80 deg
field.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...tegory=29 954
Item number: 2979229461

Any good, seems very cheap?

Julius

I've got a BW Optik 30/80 which is the same eyepiece. In my F7.5 scope
it's pretty sharp in the center but the outer 1/3 of the field is very
fuzzy. All the stars around the edge look like Globulars. I guess this
is OK if you like Globs The coating seems a little heavy in a few
places though it doesn't seem to have any affect on the view. The eye
relief is pretty nice. It's not hard to look through.

It's not a Nagler, but for the price it's OK.

scotty
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

If the outer third is that bad then is it really worth it? I would
choose one with a little less AFOV and had good views to the edge.

james

On Wed, 14 Jan 2004 13:02:25 GMT, Engineer Scott
wrote:

On Tue, 13 Jan 2004 22:45:50 GMT, "Szaki" wrote:

Any one try this 2" 30mm eyepiece, selling on ebay, for $95? It has 80 deg
field.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...tegory=29 954
Item number: 2979229461

Any good, seems very cheap?

Julius

I've got a BW Optik 30/80 which is the same eyepiece. In my F7.5 scope
it's pretty sharp in the center but the outer 1/3 of the field is very
fuzzy. All the stars around the edge look like Globulars. I guess this
is OK if you like Globs The coating seems a little heavy in a few
places though it doesn't seem to have any affect on the view. The eye
relief is pretty nice. It's not hard to look through.

It's not a Nagler, but for the price it's OK.

scotty
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

If the outer third is that bad then is it really worth it? I would
choose one with a little less AFOV and had good views to the edge.

james