Astromania 1.25" 6mm Plossl Telescope Eyepiece - 4-Element Plossl Design - Threaded for Standard 1.25inch Astronomy Filters

I have been quite impressed with the eyepieces in this lineup. I've seen what appear to be the same eyepieces sold under several different brands, and all of them appear to be very high quality. This is the first one I've purchased through Amazon, so I thought I'd go ahead and share my impressions.Quick summary for those who don't like to read:Pros:-Sharp images with a wide field of view-Safety undercuts in barrel keep it from accidently falling out of focuser/diagonal-Lens is less recessed than others making it easier to get to when it needs cleaning-Excellent value for the priceCons:-Doesn't appear to have the best anti-reflective coatings-No rubberized gripMy obvious comparison is with my set of older Meade 4000 Super Plossl eyepieces. I've put the Astromania 32mm side by side with the equivalent Meade 32mm for comparison. Using them both at night it's hard to tell much difference between them, at least to my amateur eye. The Astromania eyepiece is nice and sharp, with a nice field of view and comfortable eye relief. It has a nice heft to it and feels like it's made of quality materials. It doesn't have the grippy rubber surface on the sides the old Meade does, but then again neither does the current generation Meade 32mm eyepiece. In fact, these may be identical to the current generation Meade eyepieces. I see that Astromania has an eyepiece set with case that appears to be remarkably similar to the Meade set.The Meade does seem to have better anti-reflective coatings, perhaps as evident by the "Fully Multicoated" on the label as opposed to the "Fully Coated" label on the Astromania eyepiece. In the side-by-side shot you'll see more light reflected from the Astromania. It's obvious in the photo the Meade has a greenish sheen to it but the faint purplish sheen on the Astromania eyepiece doesn't show up. In practice though I don't notice much difference, at least in my light-polluted yard. There may be more internal reflection when looking at bright objects but if so it's not enough to bother me.One thing I liked was that the top lens was less recessed than the Meade, which seemed to make eye placement easier for me and also makes it easier to get to the lens when you need to brush dust off. Both have enough eye relief that I don't have the trouble with getting eyelash oil all over the lens like I do with some of the shorter focal length models.I've purchased quite a few of these eyepieces: 32mm (3), 25mm (3), 20mm (2), 12.5mm (6), 10mm (2), 6mm (4). Mostly they were bought as relatively inexpensive upgrades for the crummy "stock" eyepieces that came with entry-level telescopes I purchased as gifts for friend/family. In that regard these are a match made in heaven. The price is similar to the "Series 500" Plossl eyepieces I've seen sold under different brands as well, but these have noticeably wider fields of view than the Series 500 eyepieces I've tried (30mm, 15mm, and 10mm).I spend more time than probably just about anyone fooling around with small, inexpensive telescopes. I have found that most budget entry-level telescopes, even name brand ones (Celestron Powerseeker line), have decent main optics but come with low quality Huygens and Ramsden eyepieces to keep the price down. Perhaps worse, they often come with focal lengths chosen only to advertise unrealistic (and unusable) magnification powers. It's no wonder so many people buy telescopes and never use them more than once or twice. I can't stress enough what a difference it makes to have decent quality eyepieces in sensible focal lengths: one to provide 20-30x magnification, one to provide max magnification (the main lens/mirror diameter in mm times 2), and one or to two fill in the gap in between low and high. These Astromania Plossl eyepieces provide a good way to do exactly that without breaking the bank, and this is what I love about them: they're an affordable way to significantly upgrade your telescopes. Even if the scope comes with the more acceptable Kelner or Modified Achromat (MA) eyepieces (like Meade's entry-level scopes do) you'll still see a noticeable difference when upgrading to Plossl eyepieces. Best of all, if you eventually upgrade to a bigger and better telescope these eyepieces will still be useful, making them an investment in the future.All things considered I've been very pleased with every one of these eyepieces I've purchased. As an upgrade for entry-level telescopes they're an unbeatable value. I recommend them without hesitation.

Well made. In daytime with an f/4.7 apochromatic telescope this eyepiece is like a panoramic window. At night, stars are sharp, there is perhaps a barely visible distortion at the edges but truly minor. Frankly my eyeglasses cause more distortion than this eyepiece. I didn't notice reflections even looking at bright objects. This is an excellent value if you like wide field views.It appears to me that not all the lens elements are multicoated. Also you need a telescope capable of a very long back focus distance to use this eyepiece. You might need a right angle mirror or prism to get images into focus because of the long distance required. For the price, it's a lot of fun.

6mm. Was able to see Orion's nebula. Really cool. Jupiter still looked like a big star but you could see the roundness of it. Venus was cool to see as well

I have several old 16-17 mm inexpensive PL types that were used with old scopes, and tried using them in a newly built 60 mm finderscope; most had sharp but DIM star images. They lacked modern anti-reflection light loss coatings that have now become available even in CHEAP Oriental optical products; so based on several prior Amazon purchases of quite satisfactory Astro Mania products, I tried one. It is definitely the best of the half-dozen older oculars in the same general FL, AFOV, and type...and even NEARLY as good as a fine modern 17 mm Omegon (discontinued) super-wide. I can see about one magnitude fainter stars in the 60 mm finder; contrast is MUCH improved; and I could not be more pleased. I generally prefer a wider AFOV ocular for my main scope viewing but after limited tests in my 8 and 11 inch f/10 SCTs, I can rate this Astro Mania 17 PL as an *excellent* bargain.

This review is for the AstroMania 20mm Plossl eyepiece. Testing of this eyepiece was done under the extremely dark skies of Black Mesa State Park in the Oklahoma pan handle with my Orion XT12G scope. Packaging/Shipping:I was very impressed with the care that was spent packaging this eyepiece. I've included some pictures from the unpacking process showing how securely it was packaged. Shipping information was sent to me by AstroMania and the package came in within the timeframe given. The eyepiece itself comes in a very nice plastic case that I wish I had for all of my eyepieces. Performance: For the performance of this eyepiece, I'll be comparing to an Orion Sirius Plossl 17mm eyepiece, the closest in their set to the 20mm. I started my test with Jupiter, high and bright in the sky. Both eyepieces were able to resolve at least four cloud bands with great clarity at 75x for the 20mm and 88x for the Orion. Both eyepieces appeared to generally have the same field of view. Swapping back and forth between the two I lost track of which one was which, having to turn on my red light at times to check. I then turned to an open cluster, M67, very high in the sky. Comparing the fields, star brightness, quality of focus, I discerned no differences between the two, both giving wonderful views. Next I focused on several very bright stars in the sky, including Sirius and Procyon. Both eyepieces focused stars to a very clear point with no discernable differences. The moon wasn't out when I did my testing so I wasn't able to compare the two but I have observed with my Orion 17mm with great results. From the results of my test, I would expect the AstroMania eyepiece to perform equally against the Orion on the moon. Considering the AstroMania is currently less than half the price of the Orion, the value in this eyepiece is unbeatable in this class.

This affordable low power eyepiece does what I bought it for, to view Pleades all in the field of view.