Richard Sent me the following really helpful message, then asked me to
post it so that "Attilla can rag" him. Looks like it's open season,
Attilla! ;-)
And thanks very much for the advice Richard!
Richard Wrote:...
Hi Roland!!
Your question is complex. I will try and sort out the various
elements.
Price...I paid $378.00 Can at my door (cost of eyepiece+ shipping
+taxes). A good eyepiece (pentax, televue, tak etc.) should be about
80% of new ie. .8 x 378 = $302. So no, $350 is not a good price.
Offer $320 delivered. However, the eyepiece is overpriced if bought
in Canada - $475 new, so I assume the sellor paid the high Canadian
price.
If you are looking for an excellent planetary eyepiece only (and this
is important...we are talking about planetary only) the contenders
are ALL orthos and Taks (a modified ortho). The argument is usually
between Pentax orthos (.965 format only and discontinued), Zeiss
orthos (I think discontinued) and Tak LEs (Mike has two of these and
they are sharp, but eye relief and field are small). These are all
premium eyepieces in the same price range as the Pentax XLs (a Tak
will run you $30 US less). But remember, the wide field you have in
the Speers will not be there.
Speers-Waler vs. Pentax. I must admit that since eye-relief is so
important to me, that the tight relief of the Speers cause me not to
enjoy the full field. As to contrast, I think that the speers is
good but not in the class of the Pentax which uses ED glass and I
think that this is the reason for the incredible contrast and colour
rendering for these multiple lens eyepieces. Apparently, the Pentax
have a far superior edge correction compared to the Speers. While
this is important for fast scopes, I don't have a fast telescope. I
think we should go to Mike's and compare our 2 eyepieces in his
scopes...you WILL see the difference. Howvever this is a moot point
since the used eyepiece will be gone (they sell quickly used). I
think when you are paying this kind of money, you will want an
eyepiece that:
1. has good edge correction should you ever get a fast scope ;o)
2. holds its value (such as the pentax)
3. has the maximum field for the magnification.
In conclusion, I presently have the following eyepieces:
35 Panoptic
25 Plossel (came with scope...not used)
24 Speers-Waler
21 Pentax LX
20 Ultima (would sell but my daughter Catherine loves it)
18 Speers-Waler FOR SALE
17 Vixen LV wide angle (nice 65 deg. eyepiece but not a Nagler!)
14 Speers-Waler (for sale, I ordered a 14 mm. Pentax!!)
10.5 Pentax
7.5 Orion LV (sale pending to Jean Dorais...the image is not as good
as the image of the 14 speers with barlow)
This is a lot of eyepieces. I could view very well with the 35, 21,
14, and 10.5 along with my 2 x Ultima barlow. What I mean to say is
a few HIGH QUALITY eyepieces are worth a stack of lessor eyepieces.
BTW...one place where the Speers are superior to the Pentaxes (other
than price) is in stray light. The large primary glass of the
Pentaxes picks up the light from surrounding bright lights when
viewing at Chapters. Your eye glued to the Speers prevents this.
My two cents worth!!
Ricardo
