Tele Vue Delite 18.2mm 1.25" Eyepiece

When it comes to eyepieces, "to each, his/her own" is the rule. Telescope aperture and focal length are important factors, but so, too, are your targets. There is no one eyepiece for everybody. But for me, this is the one.I use a CPC-1100 (11-inch f/10, 2800 mm focal length) telescope. Ninety-nine percent of the time, I'm using it for imaging with a HyperStar. But every now and then, I want to look through it. I'm somewhat of a casual observer. Sometimes I like to see what things look like to the eye, instead of in pictures.Where I live, the seeing is not very good for high-power viewing. This eyepiece yields 154X, which is perfect for just about everything I want to look at. Fantastic views of the moon, planets, double stars, nebulae, and star clusters. Views through the DeLite are exceptionally sharp and have very good contrast. Compared to my prior "best eyepiece" of equivalent focal length, stars in the 18.2 mm DeLite are smaller and brighter.As an example, while looking at Saturn, its moon Tethys was barely visible with my old eyepiece. Sometimes while staring into the eyepiece, Tethys would disappear and I'd have to use averted vision to bring it back. When I put in the 18.2 mm DeLite, Tethys was sharper and brighter and I could hold it solidly, without averted vision. Testing the two eyepieces only seconds apart was all the convincing I needed that the DeLite is appreciably better.Looking at our own moon through the DeLite is mesmerizing. I've looked at the moon a lot through my CPC-1100 and it always gave good views. But the DeLite made all the fine details sharper. No color fringes at the edges. And when your target fills up the eyepiece, it's easy to judge overall field sharpness. The DeLite is sharp all the way to the field stop. I found that if I focused on the moon's limb at the edge of the field of view, craters at the center of the field were also sharp.We expect sharp views from an expensive eyepiece, though. The other factors I was interested in were physical size of the eyepiece itself, and the apparent field of view. I don't want to put a softball-sized eyepiece on the back end of my scope. I wanted something lightweight and easy to manage. The Ethos and Naglers are just too much bulk, in my opinion. Along the same lines, and with all due respect to Al Nagler, I don't want a 100-degree field of view! I'm accustomed to a telescopic view and I expect it to be narrower than the view in, say, a pair of binoculars. If I want a bigger field of view, I'll buy a lower-power eyepiece. The DeLite is just as good in optical quality, contrast, and sharpness, as the other Tele Vue eyepieces. But it's a 1-1/4-inch diameter (i.e., small) eyepiece and the field of view is just the right size for looking at almost every celestial target (okay, maybe the Pleiades needs a larger field of view).But I think the icing on the cake is the eye relief. The DeLite is so comfortable. You put your eye down there and look in and you see everything right out to the well-defined field stop. No black-outs. So easy a caveman could look through it.I also purchased the 9 mm DeLite, but nights are rarely steady enough to view at 300X. So even when I want to use another eyepiece, I end up putting the 18.2 mm back in there!The DeLites are a perfect fit for me. Not too expensive, not too bulky, and the field of view is not too wide. All the best of Tele Vue in a smaller, manageable package. Worth every penny, and the DeLites are about half the number of pennies you need to spend to get one of those softball-size eyepieces!

I purchased for use with a 65mm Pentax spotting scope (21X) and a C-5 (69X). Works excellent for both applications. This is my main ocular for the Pentax, @ 1,000-2,000'.Also one can purchase astigmatism correcting filters for DeLites and most Tele Vue occulars.cheers

I liked the crystal view of the planets and the moon that this lens provides