Kip Peterson wrote:
> I received from my spouse a Tele Vue 35 mm Panoptic
> eyepiece. I was wondering if other LX200 10"
> f/10 owners with this eyepiece could comment on its edge-to-edge
> sharpness. I seem to note a slight edge coma, though not objectionable.

Kip, I have one of the first 35mm Panoptics sold in the US and wrote a review
article on it that I submitted to Al Nagler for review first. I noted the
curved field so noticeable when you pan--looks like the stars are following a
path like stream water over a sunken boulder--and the lack of sharpness to the
edge. His comment back was a page and a half technical justification of the
curvature vs. the wide field, smaller size than the Nagler series, etc. I
didn't submit the article for publication, since I didn't want to take him on
in print.

> Overall, the performance is breathtaking, but I was wondering if others
> noted the same lack of perfect focus edge-to-edge. If so, does their
> "Paracorr" product help, or is this for Newtonian scopes only, and not SCTs?

I know that the Paracorr coma corrector was designed for f/5 to f/4 (believe
optimized for f/4.5). I have tested it on a SCT 8" f/6.3 (that Emery
Hildebrand has now) and on three Meade Mak f/15s. And ALL benefited from the
Paracorr in flattening the field and improving sharpness at the edge with
widefield eps, specifically the 35mm Panoptic and the 20mm Nagler. The
improvement was not as great as on my 12.5" f/4.8 Dobsonian, but the
improvement was noticeable to me and other observers. If you have a chance to
try one, you can decide if it's worth the price. Since I already had one, it
wasn't an issue, but on the 8" I used it all the time. On the Maks, I'm using
1.25" eps for lunar, planets, and dbl. stars so it's not needed for these
narrow fields of view.

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AstroDesigns link: <http://www.austin.cc.tx.us/astro-ES/AstroDesigns/>
Mapug (Meade Adv. Products Users Group) Topical Archive site.
Accessory designs and information for the Meade LX200 and Dobsonian telescopes.

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