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ED82 and Astro eps? (1 Viewer)

A

aussiewatcher

Active member
Hi all--just a quicky if anyone would care to comment?

I have just been reading some posts on here about adapting Astro eye pieces to spotting scopes and am actually quite shocked its possible?
I have a 10"and 12"Dob astronomy telescopes, and it just so happens I can see nestled in the ep case:
Naglers 7/9/13
Delos 10
Panoptic 24
Pentax xf8.5

So would any of these be viable for use with a Nikon ED82 and if yes,would they compare to the fantastic views of the Nikon 30x ds?

I guess what I am trying to ask is----is this really a worthwhile option to consider?

Thanks in advance people.
Cheers-Eric
 
Hi Eric,

it's certainly worthwile as it will give you lots of EP options for free. It's quite possible that your Nikon will not be able to come to focus terrestially or at infinity if you want to use it for astro too, but it might work with some. The ED82 body should have a focal length of 540mm or so.

Just remove your Nikon EP and hold an astro EP inside the opening while making sure you don't touch any optical surface inside the Nikon body (either prism or a protection glass). Then you look through the EP as usual and try to focus on some target. If you don't come to focus right away, you might try holding the EP a bit further out and see if it works then - further in is not so easy - on some astro EPs the barrel can be unscrewed safely, but some others will have the front element in the barrel or even have lenses fall out when this is done (Televue Panoptic and Ethos series are known to do this - the manual has a warning).

If you find an EP which comes to focus while having some extra focus travel available and you like the view, you can think about mounting it. Nikon used to sell an astro EP adapter for fieldscopes, but it is rare, so DIY or bespoke is the way to go.

Here's a thread with some info on this:

http://www.birdforum.net/showthread.php?t=260667

Joachim
 
Erik, in order to come to focus in the Nikon spotting scopes (I have the ED50), astro eyepieces need to have a removable 1.25 inch lower barrel that contains no lenses. This allows an adapter to be made that holds the eyepiece optics close enough to focus the scope's image plane. Your listing of astro eyepieces contains some excellent ones, but I believe most of yours are more expensive oculars that do have lenses in the 1.25" barrel and so would not be adaptable for Nikon spotters without drastic modification of the scope. See the thread about astro eyepieces in the Nikon ED50 in the Nikon forum for a listing of several less expensive eyepieces (well under $100 US) that work with a simple adapter. The Nikon brand fixed focus eyepieces likely work very nicely, but, at least in the USA, are hard to find and very expensive. The eyepieces listed in the above thread provide good widefield views at much lower cost. Since Nikon brand eyepieces are sold for use in the ED50 AND ED82, I believe the eyepieces adaptable to the ED50 would also work in your ED82, but I do not have a Nikon ED82 scope to confirm that. HTH -Bill
 
Hi Bill,

thanks for the info about the removable lower barrel, so the Nikon folks have the same problems as I have with my old Kowa.
I can confirm that Naglers tend to have the front element in the barel, at least my 5mm Type 6 has it :-(

Do you know of a 5 or 6mm EP with removable barrel - I would like to try a bit more than the 54x my zoom allows and 70-80x should be possible.

Joachim
 
Hi there,Thanks to all for the replies--and you know you are truly such a helpful bunch :)
Just had a look at what I already have, and bummer--yep---they do all have glass in the lower barrel.
Oh well---
At least there are other ep options for the older model fieldscope out there, and its good to know exactly what to look for.
All the best
Cheers Eric
 
Hey Eric

your best bet would be plossl eyepieces because of the short focus issues. Your Delos, Panoptic and Pentax will likely be out of the question. MAYBE the Naglers might work.

I have Vixen LVW's and Pentax XW's and in my Zeiss 85mm Diascope, none of them will focus farther than around 150-200m because of the short focus on the spotter.

The Zeiss ocular (20-75x zoom) on the other hand is probably one of the best eyepieces I got for my 11" SCT scope. It probably edges out the Pentax XW's for contrast and sharpness. Great magnification range in a single premium eyepiece.

cheers
Jeelan
 
Joachim, sorry I haven't used any higher power eyepieces than the BST 8 mm Flat Field in the Nikon ED50 (35 x). It has a nice 60˚ Afov and the removable lower barrel.

As Jeelan suggests, there may be Plossl eyepieces with the 5 or 6 mm focal lengths you desire. Hopefully they have removable lower barrels for easy adaptation.

My Pentax PF80 takes 1.25" diameter eyepieces and gives 100x with a Pentax XL 5.2 mm eyepiece. Unfortunately, I can't use this much in daytime where I view because of atmospheric refraction from non-uniformly heated air near the ground (AKA, "heat waves"). My more common usage is lower power with wide field of view. - Bill
 
Hi Bill,

thanks for the answer - at 8mm my zoom has 70 degree AFOV and is sharp to the edge, so no need to look at sth else there. I have asked in an astro forum and Plossls were given as a low cost and AFOV solution there too. I'll see if some wide angle results comes through and post it here.

@Eric: I once again tried my Explore Scientific 16mm 68 deg EP with the barrel removed on the Kowa - nice view over the river at 26x and over two revolutions of focusser travel to infinity. Maybe there's going to be some clear skies tonight for testing infinity. This would give 33x on the Nikon...

Joachim
 
Has anyone successfully managed to pair the baader Hyperion zoom with an ED82? Is this possible? I like the zoom as it is super sharp, but a wider view is of more importance than 75x magnification personally.
 
Oh--forgot to mention that I thought I read somewhere my Pentax xf-8.5 smc 70531 is actually a spotting scope ep?
Its an excellent performer for astro too ,but I find the wider fov of the Naglers and Delos a little easier using non driven mounts (on the dobsonian scopes).
 
Hi,

Mars conveniently looked through the clouds and I thus can confirm that my Kowa focuses to infinity with the ES 16mm 68 deg EP and has about 2 out of 8 turns of focuser travel left beyond infinity.

The Baader zoom has a diameter of 28.0mm at the front element barrel with the 1.25" barrel and a thin plastic tube removed. This barrel protrudes 20.5mm or so over the knurled ring.

Joachim
 
aussiewatcher said:
Oh--forgot to mention that I thought I read somewhere my Pentax xf-8.5 smc 70531 is actually a spotting scope ep?
Its an excellent performer for astro too ,but I find the wider fov of the Naglers and Delos a little easier using non driven mounts (on the dobsonian scopes).
Click to expand...

The XF series are indeed supposed to be used with Pentax spotting scopes but it has to be said, that Pentax is one of the companies who design their spotting scopes to be compatible with standard 1.25" astro EPs.
So on those there is no need to remove the 1.25" barrel, although focuser travel is also limited.

I think the XF8.5mm has a negative element in the barrel too - see picture from below in here:

http://www.cloudynights.com/page/ar...-of-at-paradigm-8mm-and-pentax-xf-85-mm-r2737

and the drawing in here:

https://astrogarten-shop.de/en/accessories/eypieces/pentax/eyepiece-pentax-xf-8-5mm.html?action_ms=1

Joachim
 
Last edited:
hey Joachim,

Those Kowa's are great scopes. I'm curious if you've attempted to push the magnification on this scope beyond the limit of its eyepiece? i.e. around 100-150x magnification mark?

There's an interesting discussion going on a Cloudy Nights at the moment, where one of the very well respected posters has pushed this to 250x and noted it delivers a sharp, clean image.

The comments were that at higher mags its out-resolving their Swaro ATX 95.

Looks like the test was done with a barlowed 6mm Ethos eyepiece onto the spotter.

http://www.cloudynights.com/topic/539202-anyone-used-a-spotting-scope-for-astronomy/page-2

Be interesting to hear your thoughts on this..

cheers
Jeelan
 
Hi,

I'm working on it. My Kowa is a 30 year old TSN-3 which has a narrower eyepiece bayonet than the current top model 883, so plugging in a 1.25" EP or barlow like shown in the CN thread is out.
I'm currently trying to find some short focal length EPs with a removable barrel and will let you know the results.

Joachim
 
dwatsonbirder said:
Has anyone successfully managed to pair the baader Hyperion zoom with an ED82? Is this possible? I like the zoom as it is super sharp, but a wider view is of more importance than 75x magnification personally.
Click to expand...
Anyone ever tried this, maybe with the earlier in this thread mentioned Nikon astro eyepiece adapter, I think it's the EMA -1?
Would be a more affordable upgrade from the uncomfortable Nikon zoom than buying another scope with comparable optical quality...
 
ok, I found out the EMA-1 is to put DS fieldscope eyepieces on the EDG scopes... Was there ever a adapter to put 1.25" astro ep's on the old fieldscopes? I can't find it online, any hints on product name/code or something?

I still get headaches from the MCII zoom eyepiece, and just don't swap ep's all the time (but have them all, mc's). Can't afford an other scope with comparable optical quality (ie. Meostar s2 or Kowa 883, or Swaro), so if I can put a Baader hyperion zoom on it...that would be an awesome upgrade...
 
Ries said:
...Was there ever a adapter to put 1.25" astro ep's on the old fieldscopes?...
Click to expand...
No. The eyepiece socket of the old Fieldscopes is too small for astro eyepieces to fit inside it (which would be necessary for most designs of interest to reach focus), so no such adapter could be offered.

--AP
 
Thanks for filling the gap in my logical thinking o_O that ends the search and maybe starts the saving? (in these times...?)
 
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