If you were me. (1 Viewer)

Cactusdave said:

Very interesting. What is your current "small astronomical refractor" preferred for birdwatching? It is an alternative I have been thinking about.

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Dave,

I can't recommend anything. I just haven't kept up with all the new small Chinese Refractors and my scopes are too large and heavy for much birder appeal. My blanket advice to anybody thinking of buying a scope is to learn to star test. The quality of individual specimens varies more than the difference between brands.

Henry

Just one thing to add. If you plan digiscoping at some point...I have not done well, it takes too much time...then the zoom eye pieces are a bit more trouble. For instance they can rotate. So at that point, if you have a zoom, you may wish a second fixed EP.

But you can digiscope with zooms too.

RAH said:

Having said all this, however, I had thought about trying a fixed EP that gives about 30x (my Pentax 65 has a focal length of 390). Can you recommend any that cost less than $250, have a 70 degree angle and an eye-relief of at least 16? I might spring for one. I see Vixen makes some that meet that criteria, but there are so many brands and varieties that it is hard to figure.

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I have quoted a question I asked earlier. Can no one recommend anything that meets these criteria??

RAH said:

I have quoted a question I asked earlier. Can no one recommend anything that meets these criteria??

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I don't keep up with the latest in inexpensive (but optically excellent) astro eyepieces but I'll get the ball rolling by suggesting the Baader Hyperion 14 mm. It is 68 degrees, $120, and has 20 mm eye relief. You might have better luck posting to an astro oriented forum where there are many more users of these sort of eyepieces than the limited number of Pentax scope users here.

--AP

For buying new, I think the Hyperion (or one of it's clones) might be OK. I have the 8mm that yields 63x on a PF80 and I rarely use it. From memory I will say it isn't as contrasty as a Pentax and stray light affects it. I don't like the eyecup much and it's not waterproof but it is cheap, pretty well made, and maybe the closest in specs to an XW. It's a bruiser, much like the Pentax' in size.
BTW it's available in 13mm, not 14mm which will yield 30x.



You might want to keep an eye on this:
http://cgi.ebay.com/Pentax-XW-14mm-...4|66:2|65:12|39:1|240:1318|301:0|293:1|294:50

Thanks for the feedback, guys. I'll check them out...

fixed vs. zoom eyepieces on birding vs. astro telescope

On the discussion of the advantages/preferences of the 2 types of eyepieces for birding or astro viewing, this time, wasn't mentioned an issue: - birds move fast and astro-objects don't (at least from Earth...). So birders like to spot a bird at lower power of the zoom and go for higher powers (for having better detail), without loosing the bird. Also, the question of not usable high powers result from bad atmospheric conditions but also, as discussed already in other messages, from bad scope specimens - the lemons...
As I told before, I use a 30-90x Optolyth zoom and a Pentax XW5, resulting in 126x on the Optolyth 100mm. But I do cr-birding, have usually good light conditions and my Optolyth is not a bad sample...
I'm testing an intermediate solution since already some time - the Siebert PMW - but, as a zoom dependent, the solution I prefer is to combine the PMW with a zoom... Is not a solution that works for birding scopes, only using astro-telescopes. Will see if I will manage to put a review on this until the end of the month.
All the best,
David
http://pt-ducks.naturlink.pt/