40mm Orion Sirius Plossl

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Date: NA
Price: $50.00
Design: Multi-coated 4-element Plossl
Description: Fairly large and heavy eyepiece. Very nice looking construction with built in rubber eyeguard and grip. It is also threaded for standard 1¼ filters. Somewhere around a 45 degree FOV.

Review

I ordered this from Orion Telescopes about the time I purchased my newest telescope. I was initially drawn by the attractive price and the wide field of view that the ad claimed. It was promptly shipped and received without any damage. Orion tends to do a good job in this area. This was my first real eyepiece as I was upgrading telescopes from a junk Bushnell and I was amazed by the size and weight of the eyepiece. I could not wait for a clear night to use it.

Finally the night came and luckily for me Orion was rising in the East within clear view of my observing location. While I am located within a fairly large city with mag 3.5 skies I have traditionally been able to get quite good views of the Great Nebula. What a target for a new eyepiece. After setting up I quickly pointed the telescope (Orion Skywatcher 120mm refractor) at the nebula for a wide field view (over 2.0 degrees) at 20x. The eyepiece performed extremely well and has since become one of my favorites for general observations of large targets and the full lunar disk.

To be fair I must report the negatives associated with this eyepiece also. It is large and heavy and it is questionable how well a small telescope or mount would handle it. The most annoying of the problems is the relatively small field of view. It really looks like you are observing through a porthole into space. It also tends to be prone to blacking out when you don't look at it straight on. Sure I have seen this on other eyepieces but this one does it much more often. With that in mind it also does not perform that well when barlowed for the same reason.

All in all this eyepiece was a decent value and shows sharp images right up to the edge of the field. And for $50.00 I have more than gotten my moneys worth. On a scale of 1-10 I would happily rank this an 8 or 8.5.

Submitted by Curt Irwin - irwincur@excite.com - Grand Rapids, Michigan

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