First off let me state this is a $70 eyepiece. Now for the specifics. Out of the box you get a decent plastic "Bolt" style case and dust caps for both ends of the eyepiece. The rubber eyecup and grip ring are well done. Overall the fit and finish are OK but looking around the barrel end shows some rough spots and so so machining. I compared the eyepiece to a Tele Vue 14mm Radian (not really a fair comparison) and a 13mm Tele Vue Plossl. The Epic worked well in my f/10 refractor with stars sharp to the edges. A drift test showed the true FOV to be a coupld precent wider then the 55 degree AFOV would predict so that rating is accurate. When I tried the eyepiece in my f/5 Newtonian I found that stars in the outer 10% of the FOV lost sharpness a bit. Both the Plossl and the Radian were sharp to the edge in comparison. Another issue I noticed was some blackout problems based on the position of my eye. This was only really annoying in the daytime when my pupil was small. After my eye was dark adapted I didn't have any trouble. Image sharpness and contrast were slightly worse then both the Radian and the Plossl but only noticable during side by side comparison. All in all this is a decent eyepiece with huge eye relief. I can't think of any other eyepiece that will beat it for the price! If you own a fast scope and you expect sharp edges you should consider something else though.

Overall Rating: 8
Optics:8 Value:10
Weight: 10
Date: 07/09/2002 07:01:50 pm PST

Replies: 0

These are my first impression comments, I have yet to get the scope out under a dark sky..... The overall package is very impressive looking. The mount looks very nice but if you really look closely it is definitely Chinese. The hardware is very soft and appears to be low quality. Be careful with the internal hex screws as the sockets round easily! The optical tube weight 25 lbs which is more then the tripod can carry in my opinion. There will be a booming aftermarket for improved tripod legs for this mount. The damping times at at 30x seemed to be around 3 seconds, I can't imagine them at 200x.... Most of the problems were in the tripod wich can be swapped for a nice wood one though. My other issues are with the f/4 optics, be sure to collimate everytime you use it and buy ONLY the best eyepieces! The central obstruction is huge (39%) with the 3.1" secondary mirror. It appears that Meade sized the secondary mirror to fully illuminate a 35mm film frame. Pity the stock mount won't be very suitable for photography through the scope. Another little niggle is that swapping from 1 1/4" to 2" eyepieces requires screwing an adapter ring ooff and on the focuser draw tube. There should be a simple adapter included to make this task faster.

Overall Rating: 5
Mount:6 Ease of Use:9 Value:6
Weight: 10
Date: 06/19/2002 08:09:08 am PST

Replies: 1

The perfect choice for a first quality eyepiece for an 8" f/10 SCT! In a 2000mm scope it runs just over 100X with a eye friendly 2mm exit pupil (8" scope). With a true FOV of .63 degrees it perfectally frames the full moon and works well for most of the common deep sky objects. Best of all it works well with the Barlow without getting into obscene high magnifications! The eye relief is perfect and still works well with glasses on. It will also serve you well if you ever buy an f/6 or faster scope where it will still have excellent edge sharpness. It is more expensive then a Meade 18mm SWA or a Celestron 19mm Axiom but try those in an f/5 scope sometime! Also Tele Vue stands behind their products better then the rest! Try one, you'll LOVE it!

Overall Rating: 10
Optics:10 Value:10
Weight: 10
Date: 06/19/2002 07:40:35 am PST

Replies: 0

An excellent 2" medium low power eyepiece for any scope that accepts 2" eyepieces! I chose this eyepiece over the 35mm Panoptic for my f/5 Newtonian because the 35mm had too large an exit pupil leaving my less then perfect skies a little washed out. The eyepiece is sharp edge-to-edge and the eye relief is just right. I have yet to notice pincushion distortion when viewing astronomical targets. It is noticable when looking as a daytime target that has straight lines in it. I believe this minor problem is blown way out of proportion. In any case you are buying top quality optics and excellent customer support. Unlike most other eyepieces Tele Vue eyepieces are 100% quality checked and if you drop one it can be repared by the manufacturer. Try that with a Meade SWA sometime!

Overall Rating: 10
Optics:10 Value:10
Weight: 10
Date: 06/19/2002 07:32:13 am PST

Replies: 0

A decent Barlow at a great price. Fit and finish are top notch. Be sure not to pay more then $70 for it though (3/2002). Also available as the same Barlow as the Orion Shorty + for a few dollars less.

Overall this is about as good as a Barlow gets except on long focal length eyepieces. You will notice the eye relief on longer eyepieces being extended too much causing blackouts and trouble positioning your eye. This is common for all short Barlow models. Not a major issue on eyepieces 26mm and shorter.

Overall Rating: 9
Optics:8 Value:10
Weight: 10
Date: 03/25/2002 07:16:43 am PST

Replies: 0