University Optics Orthoscopic 12.5mm

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University Optics Orthoscopic 12.5mm
I don't think this eyepiece can be beat for sharpness and contrast. I have many high end eyepieces, but this one is right up with the best of them in terms of the quality of the view, and is my preferred eyepiece for binoviewing on planets. The Orthos are not superwide eyepieces, nor do they have extreme eye relief. Still I find this focal length ortho to be quite comfortable to use. A great deal for the price. I've tried UO Orthos in at least five focal lengths, and I generally liked them, but the 12.5mm is the best of all for my taste.

Overall Rating: 9
Weight: 1 (Unreliable Vote)
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Link to this vote: http://www.excelsis.com/1.0/displayvote.php?voteid=43301

University Optics Orthoscopic 12.5mm
Clearly a "Best Buy". Superior detail, contrast, and brightness compared to my Televue Plossls and Meade "Superplossls". On the Moon, Saturn and Jupiter I have never seen such excellent views thru my 8" F7 Dob in a decade of use. Example: I saw 7 belts on Jupiter clearly. Saturn: Cassini's Division seen while the planet body was on the field stop.

Eye relief OK but insufficient for eyeglasses. Field of view: truly 45 degrees

Count me a "believer" in the orthoscopic design.

crewsr27@aol.com

Overall Rating: 9
Weight: 1 (Unreliable Vote)
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Link to this vote: http://www.excelsis.com/1.0/displayvote.php?voteid=43302

University Optics Orthoscopic 12.5mm
Picked up the 12.5mm on Astromart and used it for the first time tonight with my ETX90EC. Checked it out on Jupiter and Saturn. Found it to be crisp and clear to the edge with no noticable distortion. Light transmission was excellent (Orion Nebula was very well resolved for this telescope) and split all four stars in the Trapesium very well. Banding on Jupiter was very clear with excellent contrast. This is one eyepiece I will keep for the rest of my life.

Overall Rating: 10
Weight: 1 (Unreliable Vote)
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Link to this vote: http://www.excelsis.com/1.0/displayvote.php?voteid=43303

University Optics Orthoscopic 12.5mm
Sharp, contrasty, sharp, did I say sharp. If the rest of the line are like this, I'll start trading my Meade UWA's for UO ortho's......

Overall Rating: 10
Optics:10 Value:10
Weight: 1 (Unreliable Vote)
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Link to this vote: http://www.excelsis.com/1.0/displayvote.php?voteid=47102

University Optics Orthoscopic 12.5mm
I rate all my UO orthos a "10" based on performance vs. cost. I have the 7,9,and 12.5mm. The 12.5mm is absolutely outstanding on planets when coupled with my Orion shorty barlow. With the barlow you get the mag of a 6.25mm with the eye relief of the 12.5mm. If you don't have hundreds of dollars to spend on one eyepiece, the orthos are the way to go IMHO.

Overall Rating: 10
Optics:10 Value:10
Weight: 1 (Unreliable Vote)
Date:
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Link to this vote: http://www.excelsis.com/1.0/displayvote.php?voteid=53830

University Optics Orthoscopic 12.5mm
This is one nice eyepiece! With the ultima barlow it is great! Buy one if you can, you will not regret it.

Overall Rating: 10
Optics:10 Value:10
Weight: 1 (Unreliable Vote)
Date:
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Link to this vote: http://www.excelsis.com/1.0/displayvote.php?voteid=60103

University Optics Orthoscopic 12.5mm
Crisp. Good color contrast on planets. Longer eye releif would be nice though.

Overall Rating: 8
Optics:7 Value:8
Weight: 1 (Unreliable Vote)
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Link to this vote: http://www.excelsis.com/1.0/displayvote.php?voteid=67423

University Optics Orthoscopic 12.5mm
Wonderfully sharp BRIGHT images with nice black background. Brings out more color and detail on planets than any e.p. I use. (Vixen/Panoptic et al) Superb resolution of globs and galaxies in my 10" f/4.5 dob.
Pulls faint PN's out of the inky blackness when not using filters. Double star splitters will rejoice at this one! My most used e.p. next to my 22 mm Panoptic.

Overall Rating: 10
Optics:9 Value:10
Weight: 10 (Trustworthy Vote)
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Link to this vote: http://www.excelsis.com/1.0/displayvote.php?voteid=95771

University Optics Orthoscopic 12.5mm
I bought the UO 12.5mm ortho as part of a set of four, including 25mm, 7mm, and 4mm (each reviewed respectively). I use these eyepieces with a small, off-axis dob (4" F/10).

Clean, simple, and lightweight, I use the UO 12.5mm ortho on a DGM Optics OA-4 for medium power. At F/10, the field of view is flat to the field stop and sharp. On a 1010mm focal length scope, I find the 12.5mm useful for compact deep sky, as a lower power planetary magnification, and for a full moon overview. While presenting a narrow field of view, what is there is sharp. To ease tracking on my small dob, I don't hesitate to start viewing an object well off axis and let it drift through the entire field of view.

I give the optics a 9 only because I've heard that Zeiss and Pentax orthos are even better. Frankly, these no-nonsense, solid little eyepieces strike me as flawless. Value is obviously a 10 and overall 9, only because I think it would be nice if they had integral eyecups. (The Orion full eyepiece cups work well.)

Overall Rating: 9
Optics:9 Value:10
Weight: 1 (Unreliable Vote)
Date:
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Link to this vote: http://www.excelsis.com/1.0/displayvote.php?voteid=131088

University Optics Orthoscopic 12.5mm
I don't leave home with out this EP. Its my planetary ep for sure. It's brighter than my 12mm Radian and sharper and has more contrast too. The FoV is not what the Radian is but
hey nothings perfect. Its seems to bring out a few more stars on clusters than my other Eps too. No it does not have the eye relief of the Radian. That said though the eye relief is
not as bad as some would lead you to think.Its a simple
eyepice thats time proven and works very well. It can hold its own against any and for the money can not be beat.

Overall Rating: 9
Optics:9 Value:10
Weight: 5 (Veritable Vote)
Date:
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Link to this vote: http://www.excelsis.com/1.0/displayvote.php?voteid=135601

University Optics Orthoscopic 12.5mm
I recently compared the view from this EP to a Nagler 13mm Type 6 in an AT1010. I thought this EP gave a more crisp, brighter view that had great contrast. I would've lost money on that bet!

Overall Rating: 10
Optics:10 Value:10
Weight: 10 (Trustworthy Vote)
Date:
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Link to this vote: http://www.excelsis.com/1.0/displayvote.php?voteid=343730

University Optics Orthoscopic 12.5mm
This eyepiece as well as my TV plossls and Siebert standards are my absolute favorite eyepieces for the planets.The Ortho barlows well,(Orion shorty plus), and shows super crisp images.This is the lowest FL that I will go with these however due to eye relief issues .Highly recommended and a great deal for around $60.

Overall Rating: 10
Optics:10 Value:9
Weight: 1 (Unreliable Vote)
Date:
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Link to this vote: http://www.excelsis.com/1.0/displayvote.php?voteid=353330

University Optics Orthoscopic 12.5mm
I have had this eyepiece for about 30 years. I have only one other eyepiece that has stayed with me that long.

I have used it in every type of telescope, Macs, Newts, refractors. It has performed well in every scope I have owned. It is crisp out to the edge of the fov, in fact, I can position it to pick up only 1/2 of the rings of Saturn [the rest out of the field of view] and they remain sharp.

Cassini's division is only .5 arc second, resolving this at the edge of the field says a great deal about high contrast all the way to the edge.

Overall Rating: 9
Optics:9 Value:9
Weight: 3 (Unreliable Vote)
Date:
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Link to this vote: http://www.excelsis.com/1.0/displayvote.php?voteid=394566

University Optics Orthoscopic 12.5mm
I purchased my UO Ortho about 30 years ago or so. I don't think the company has been around more than 35 years.

I only have two eyepieces that have stayed with me that long and it is obvious that UO is still providing great eyepieces.

This eyepiece has been in every scope design and has performed well. It even has enough eye relief for fast telescopes. Detail stays crisp until an object goes out of the field of view.

There is nothing I can say bad about the eyepiece, and I think I paid about $15 or $20 for it new, but that was a long time ago, when gas prices were first on the rise [about 30 cents a gallon].

If an eyepiece is in my collection this long, there is a good reason.

Overall Rating: 9
Optics:9 Value:9
Weight: 3 (Unreliable Vote)
Date:
By:
Link to this vote: http://www.excelsis.com/1.0/displayvote.php?voteid=394592

University Optics Orthoscopic 12.5mm
Very good eyepiece, but not quite as good as the 5mm, 6mm and 7mm UO ortho's. Those are simply excellent and give very little ground to the much more expensive and hard to find Pentax ortho's. The differences between the Pentax and UO is a little easier to see in the 9mm and 12mm ortho's. The views are more washed out and softer.

Please note that these are still great eyepieces. Astronomer's sometimes fixate on very subtle differences and I am no exception. In a side by side with the 7mm I had to switch back and forth countless times to see any difference. With the 9mm and 12.5mm I only had to switch back and forth maybe 3 times ;-)

Oh, go ahead and pick one up. It could be a long time before another Pentax comes up for sale.

Overall Rating: 8
Optics:8 Value:9
Weight: 1 (Unreliable Vote)
Date:
By:
Link to this vote: http://www.excelsis.com/1.0/displayvote.php?voteid=409516

University Optics Orthoscopic 12.5mm
One of my favorite eyepieces. For the price the optics are excellent and it barlows very well, allowing you to get the eye relief of a 12.5mm orthoscopic with the magnification of a shorter focal length model, depending on which barlow you use.

Overall Rating: 9
Optics:9 Value:10
Weight: 5 (Veritable Vote)
Date:
By:
Link to this vote: http://www.excelsis.com/1.0/displayvote.php?voteid=577027

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