Orion Ultrascopic 30mm

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Orion Ultrascopic 30mm
This one is probably the best of the Ultrascopics. It has generous eye relief and nice fairly wide-field performance. However, contrary to the descriptive "blurb" here, the Ultrascopics are NOT parfocal!

Overall Rating: 8
Optics:7 Value:8
Weight: 2 (Unreliable Vote)
Date:
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Link to this vote: http://excelsis.com/1.0/displayvote.php?voteid=57734

Orion Ultrascopic 30mm
This (or the identical Celestron Ultima 30mm) may be the best 1.25" wide-field eyepiece available. If not, it's a close second to the 35mm version of the same eyepiece.

I've used this eyepiece in all manner of scopes, from our f/5 Dob and f/11 refractor through f/10 SCTs and f/5 short-tube refractors. In all of them, it provides a very high quality image, with a nearly flat field. Star images are pinpoints out to almost the edge of the field in all scopes I've used with this eyepiece, and the contrast and brightness are excellent.

At 20mm or so, the eye relief is very comfortable, and the large eye lens adds to viewing comfort. Eye positioning is not critical, and this eyepiece does not suffer at all from seagulls or blackouts.

I thought about buying the identical Celstron Ultima, which is a bit cheaper, but ended up buying the Orion Ultrascopic because of Orion's superb customer service.

If you're limited to a 1.25" focuser, you can't do much better than the 30mm Ultrascopic as a wide-field eyepiece.

I think one of the most useful metrics for an eyepiece is the multiple of the focal length and apparent field of view. On that basis, the Ultrascopic 30mm gets a 1,560, just short of the 1,715 of the 35mm Ultrascopic, which has the widest true field possible in a 1.25" focuser. That's if you accept the stated 52* true field. When I drift-tested my 30mm Ultrascopic against Alnitak, I got a calculated true field that was closer to 54*, assuming the focal lengths of my scope and eyepiece were stated accurately. If so, the 30mm Ultrascopic gives up very little true field relative to the 35mm, while providing higher magnification and a darker sky background.

Overall Rating: 10
Optics:10 Value:9
Weight: 10 (Trustworthy Vote)
Date:
By:
Link to this vote: http://excelsis.com/1.0/displayvote.php?voteid=57833

Orion Ultrascopic 30mm
This is the best along with the celestron & parks 30mm on the market for mid priced eyepieces. great contrast & decent eyerelief!

Overall Rating: 10
Optics:10 Value:10
Weight: 10 (Trustworthy Vote)
Date:
By:
Link to this vote: http://excelsis.com/1.0/displayvote.php?voteid=109116

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