USER OBSERVATIONS Last updated: 26 December 2002

ETX-90 Eyepieces Report

Subject:	My eyepiece experiences
Sent:	Monday, December 23, 2002 10:28:43
From:	danielh85@juno.com
Here are some observations I recently made. Thanks for providing such a
wonderful resource for us etx users.

Telescope; ETX-90 Ra

One eyepiece that used to be a favorite planetary ep of my small
collection was a 7mm easy view eyepiece (I believe the older line of the
current super easy view line). The eyepiece just like the current line,
has a 50 degree field of view as is as sharp to the edge as my uo
orthos. The eyepiece has stunning contrast on lunar craters and I used
the ep with the Meade shorty barlow, when the seeing ultra steady, for
an incredible 356x (of course, with the etx apeture, the image starts to
break down, but several high contrast features were still very evident).
With te easy view, of course the entire disk of the moon does not fit
into the fov, but I have always thought it fun to sometimes cruise
aimlessly along the lunar surface, as my window to space. Next comes the
newly aquired Nagler type I, 7mm, and suddenly instead of moving the
scope around, I just move my eye around and explore the entire disk.
Very nice. I do a quick comparison between the two eyepieces to see the
pros and cons of each ep. I try to find one thing the ortho-like easy
view eyepieces has an advantage over the nagler, but find nothing. The
nagler is providing ortho-like images in a huge field of view - a keeper
:-) - I then point the scope at the classic alcor and mizar. At 178x in
the easy view 7mm, it becomes though very evident the even closer double
of alcor and the scope barely but does split them (however, the seeing
conditions were starting to deteriorate). The nagler of course, shows
basically the same image with a wider field of view. The next target is
Saturn. The rings are stunning, but suddendly the moments of great
seeing are gone, and I can't make the split in either of the eps. I
swing over towards Jupiter and easily see both equatorial belts and
possibly another one. What I can see, both eps are of extremely high
quality, and if the targets were only the planets and double stars, I
would have to give the go to the 7mm easy view eyepiece (as money is a
factor, although finding this ep might be more difficult). However, the
main goal of the nagler was viewing the moon and having the extra field
does make a huge difference in the way to encounter earth's satelite
(also the extra fov helps, as it's very easy to switch from a low power
ep to the nagler then refocus and still keep the object near the
center). The Nagler is the keeper, and the 7mm easy view eyepiece is
ready to be sold (though it is a great ep)

Telescope: ETX-90 (same night as previous observation)

Another eyepiece in my small colleciton is the 12.4 super plossl Meade
ep. As my nagler didn't provide crisp views of the gass giants due to
degrading seeing condtions, I switch to the dependable 12.4 plossl on
Saturn. The Cassini division was not evident, but still the view of the
planet was pretty stable. It's still a marvel to watch the rings and
play with a couple color filters. I move the telescope towards Jupiter
and the disk appears crisp and clean. The two equatorial belts are very
evident and steady. Next, I point my scope at Orion. I only have the
standard finder that Meade provides (I hadn't yet installed my new
finder). I basically give up on the finder and decide to sort of star
hop around to get to my destination, the Orion nebula. The ep provides a
nice half degree actual field of view and soon, the nebula is centered.
The Orion nebula had sharp contrast to the background of dark space.
Placing the lumicon Deep Sky filter really helped contrast, and I just
stared in awe of the great beauty I can see through the small etx and a
simple Meade plossl. A quick swing to the Pleaides and again the view is
great. This ep will definately be one of the first I reach for.

---Daniel Huang

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