Peter, thanks for your detailed and fair report on this eyepiece.
Overall, though, the BCO 10mm was the Cateye's equal, while being less fussy to deal with. If a wider field is important, along with a bit more eye relief, then get it. The only real flaw is a reflection off the eyeball, something shared with its stablemates. It's a very nice, reasonably priced eyepiece. Should you get it (or the Meade or APM versions)? Sure. In the end the winner that night was the 20 and the 17mm WA with Barlow.īack to the 10mm. Stupendous! The 15mm started to lose contrast with the slightest seeing ripple, but I suspect I was over 400x at the time. My closest fixed eyepiece in magnification was the 8mm.
MAKE UP CATEYE PLUS
The first thing I noticed was that the 20mm plus Barlow offered significantly higher magnification than either 10mm. Eyepieces used were the FF 27, the WAs 20 and 17, and the UFF 15mm. I went in and retrieved my 2x Celestron X-Cel LX Barlow, slapped the M&S filter on it, and used my longer eyepieces. The Tak prism diagonal also doesn't accept filters. I didn't use the Brandon much, although its views were quite good, largely because it could not accept filters (it won't even accept Brandon filters, it's so old). Aside from that, it was a toss up between it and the BCO. Again, the Cateye showed the same refection issues on Mars that it showed on Jupiter. My wife pointed out a bright spot just south and east of the Aurorea Sinus, a possible dust storm. Much of the viewing was done with a Baader M&S filter. Why, some even managed a groan while doing it! Son and father enjoyed superb, subtle acting performances turned in by the stars, but most especially by the countless extras who fell off of just about anything as they got shot.
MAKE UP CATEYE MOVIE
He discovered a complete version of the mid-80s movie Commando on Youtube. Then I went inside to find my son improving his mind. I spend a fair bit of time looking at features that weren't all that familiar to me, like Pythagorus, Hevelius, and the Mare Humorum. Here, I preferred the wider field of the Cateye. Yes it was a good night.īoth BCO and Cateye showed no flooding on the moon (just over a day from full. That said, I liked the view in my TAO 9mm and Brandon 8mm even better. There were a variety of different shades in the northern hemisphere, and the Crepe Ring was obvious all the way around. The seeing was settling, and wow! Color was the same, glare matched, the number of faint moons matched, the Encke Minimum just sat there. Saturn was still at the meridian and about 50° up. It's easy to move the spot out of the way, or eliminate it by folding down the eye cup and moving closer to the eye lens, but then eye placement becomes a bit trickier. The one difference between them is the BCO lacked the eyeball reflection spot of Jupiter that the Cateye (and its cousin, the 15mm UFF) shows. About the best I could say is that the view through the BCO 10mm didn't look any better. Cloud details stood out better at the lower powers. Jupiter looked better that night in my WA 12, and UFF 15. Then I looked at Jupiter, Saturn, the moon, and Mars, all at a nominal 270x. I tweaked the Maksutov's collimation with the Cateye. The Cateye has better eye relief, but it's still too short for glasses wearers. Illumination ended just before the field stop. The Cateye has a wider field, but a narrow, brown ring just before the field stop. Neither is perfectly sharp at the edge of the field, though both came close. Overall appearance is "uneven," meaning it features a relatively large eye lens, while the other end is more typically "10mm narrow."ĭaytime testing involved focusing on an object close enough to minimize heat shimmer, checking overall contrast, sharpness and color saturation, along with taking a gander at the edge of the field. I made the mistake of asking Agenastro if the eyepiece was a twin of those mentioned, and I received a "no idea," and "guessing it's not" reply (they always answer those sorts of questions that way - I never learn). The Cateye sells for $10 less than the Meade, and about $40 less than the APM when you factor in shipping to Hawaii. It costs $100, and bears a striking resemblance to the APM UFF and Meade UHD 10mm eyepieces. William Optics markets this eyepiece as a companion to their Red and Space Cat telephoto lenses. As it stayed clear, night testing was at f15 in a 180mm Maksutov.
Daytime testing involved an 80mm, f7.5 ED refractor. Then, as it remained clear, I tested it at night. I took delivery yesterday afternoon while the sun shown, so I tested it for terrestrial viewing.
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