Excelsis - Display Vote

University Optics Konig MK-70 25mm

I have read comments that run the gammout on this EP and I bought it thinking I was getting a EP of great value and great performance. Here's what I found.

I have a MN-71 f/6 in a carbon fiber tube on a GM 8 mount. Thats a 7" Mak Newt with a pyrex main that is 1/8 wave and a strehl of .96. The Secondary is astrocital ("zero" expansion ceramic substrate) and was hand tested and certified by Mike Paleramiti. Not bragging but just letting you know its not a $400.00 Orion reflector. (of which I also own.)

This was my first 2" occular and I was very impressed. It has great resolution and contrast in the center FOV and the stars are truely pinpoints...in the center FOV. Towards the edge its really starts to suffer. Its at about the 30% of the outer edge the stars have little tails...which at the time was tolerable. Barely..I did pay $180 plus shipping.

Then I put in a Nagler......oh my..... 80 degree FOV and tack sharp to the VERY EDGE. I split the double double and let it track out of the FOV....the double was a clean split right off the edge out of view. Bought a Pentax smc XL and same thing. Perfect split at 110 X and watched it track out of view and the split was perfect until out of view. Truely tack sharp across the entire FOV.

The point of all of this yacking.... The mk-70 is a good/OK Ep, but a TV or Pentax wide FOV its not. It appears from the other postings that if you have a slow scope, say f/10 or greater, then it might be OK. Bottom line is, use one in your scope to make sure it works for you. At nearly $200 its not cheap EP. (for me anyways). You can get brand new Pentax's for just about the same price and the performance is night and day. The Panoptics by TV are about twice that and their performance is flawless as well in my scope. Not plugging for Pentax or TV, just giving you my honest opinion and hopefully some good info. Id give it a true 8.5 if possible.

Clear skies,
erich

Overall Rating: 8
Optics:8 Value:8
Weight: 1 (Unreliable Vote)
Date: 10/29/2002 02:12:14 pm PST
By: Anonymous (xxx.xxx.253.27)
Link to this vote: http://www.excelsis.com/1.0/displayvote.php?voteid=143027

p.s. I have a 6mm UO orthoscopic and its a killer EP. Delivers wonderful views and competes with any EP of this focal length at any price. UO does make some really great EP's that are worth 2-3 times what they charge.

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