Vixen HR, new Ultra-High Magnification Eyepieces

[pgc hunter]

Available in 1.6, 2 and 2.4mm focal lengths :eyepop:

http://www.vixenoptics.com/category-s/169.htm

AFOV is only 42* though which would make tracking a hassle in a non-driven scope and price is pretty steep. Still, an interesting development.

Hopefully this begins a new breed of ultra short eyepieces. If it weren't for the small field of view I would making room in the eyepiece case for these.

[Atmos]

They actually have a half decent eye relief too which is good.

[ab1963]

10mm er ,3lbs weight and 42 deg fov and the cost , the amount of times seeing would be good enough to use them ? would not be a practical proposition for most IMO but that's just my 10 cents worth

[brian nordstrom]

:thumbsup: looks like being an awesome planetary eyepiece set , :question: , who is going to be first ?
Brian.

[pgc hunter]

I'm half tempted to get the 1.6 and a 5x powermate and try it on the moon for schitz n giggles. 4150x in my dob :D

Someone with a C14 must do this :lol:

[N1]

I got the 2mm.

[Don Pensack]

They've gotten decent reviews as well.
I suspect their greatest appeal will be in short refractors of <600mm focal length.

[Wavytone]

You can't get high magnification with fast refractors.

If you are after high magnification wide field of view is not a priority so 40-45 degrees is not an issue.

These eyepieces are for fast newtonians - I had one once - 315mm f/3.7. Coma and image quality of high power eyepieces was a major issue.

My guess is we will see these come up rapidly secondhand after twits try to clean them or worse, disassemble one - they'll never be the same afterwards.

On the positive side they did state they have coma correction, ie negative coma to suit newtonians. Probably designed or f/3 or 3.5.

[brian nordstrom]

:thumbsup: Nice , the etching looks to be very well done , really looking forward to a review .

Brian.

[pgc hunter]

There is an interesting user report here http://www.cloudynights.com/topic/543793-hello-vixen-are-you-listening-hr-24mm-mini-review/#entry7328799

It's whet my appetite but the small fov might be an issue for manually tracking at these powers. Agena has them for USD279, add on the exchange rate and shipping and they are not cheap for something that the seeing will allow 2-3 times a year if that. I'm getting the 3 shortest FL delites and will use them with my 2.5x powermate, that is a better use of my money IMO. There is one magnification gap in that regime which the 2.4 HR would fill nicely though and would find use more often than the 2 and 1.6.

[N1]

I use an XO2.5 in my 8" f/6 dob occasionally, notably on Saturn and for splitting Antares and other doubles. It's beyond highest practical power for that scope, but such theoretical considerations become just that when enjoying what this unit delivers. Saturn takes about 25 seconds to march arcross the Abbe like AFOV of the XO (if I remember correctly), so the 2.4 HR in your 8" would give similar results, except with better eye relief. The XOs are outstanding eyepieces, so I'm confident the HR2.0 will be a keeper for me as well, though will be used even less than anything else, obviously.

So not surprisingly, I haven't been able to test it in the field yet.

[janoskiss]

These are specialist EPs. Splitting doubles is the only application I can think of where going beyond the diffraction limit can pay off. And maybe star testing. In any case, I prefer my barlows and Pentax XF for crazy high powers.

[pgc hunter]

279USD is a bit too much to swallow just for double stars!!!! I've had my 8" at 100x/inch on small planetaries with results, but that happened exactly twice in the 3 years I had the scope, so paying that much for the 2 and 1.6 would not make sense. I am getting the 5, 7 and 9mm Delites which I'll use with my powermate, should the rare occasion present itself. I do need something around 2.5mm to fill in a big gap.

[N1]

You could consider a 2.5mm TMB Planetary (original if such was ever made, or a clone). The one I had came cheaply via AliExpress and allowed me to decide that an XO2.5 would work.

[Don Pensack]

2.5mm in the TMB-II and other private labels are readily available.