SonnyE Loc: Communist California, USA

Not to be a reviewer, but I ordered an Orion Illuminated Eyepiece to replace my cheapie one that failed on me.
When I requested the contact email address for the vendor, I got an email from Amazon saying they were refunding the entire purchase price of the first one.
So since that went into my points account, I took a look at that and ordered the #8239.

First impressions:
The box got here in one day (next day). And it was surprisingly heavy.
I opened it and got out the box with the eyepiece in it. Wow, nice! One of my concerns was would it have the black anodized illumination, or the silver old style? It's black, the later version.
I tried the switch/adjustment control. Buttery smooth! Not rough like the other eyepiece.
Looking through it the adjustment is very fine and I could see it was going to be very welcome in the dark to look at.
And seemed to be very clear. I was very impressed over all.
And the rubber eye-cup was nice against my face.

In use:
I was so excited to actually use the new eyepiece, I mounted to my eyepiece holder on my flip mirror imaging box and waited for the stars to appear.
During alignment, I could see I was going to like this eyepiece.
One concern was the singular cross hairs it has. I thought it odd that Orion would do that when everybody else it seemed has quad cross hairs. Box the target star and there you go.
But in use, those single cross hairs in dim illumination actually seem to split the image and allow the targeted star to be seen through the lighted cross hairs. To my eye it was an aid.
The 70 degree FOV was a welcome find. I did not find myself bobbing back and forth to my dot targeting sight, and back to an eyepiece.
Once I found the star with my dot sight I could see the targeted star in the FOV and easily bring it to the cross hairs.
(It will be the brightest star in the eyepiece, Matthew had told me.)
So I found that the lower magnification, and the wider FOV was a greater aid in finding and aligning on a star.
In short order I realized the clarity the eyepiece was bringing to the alignment procedure, all the stars bright or dim were sharp. Very sharp. From edge to edge sharp.
And the alignment procedure over all was going faster than before.

End results:
Of course doing an alignment is just the beginning of the night's fun. The tracking and results is the main course.
For every object I targeted, I was in the cameras view, which on my rig is pretty tight, too tight sometimes. :? But I'm not complaining.
So I fired off a 600s exposure at the Helix Nebula, a favorite of mine. I've since realized I wasted the best time for it in my learning curves.
Finally, after 10 minutes I was rewarded with something more along the line of my first telescope in the 1950's as a boy. A real What IS That? :hunf:
In my excitement to get started, I forgot that changing eyepieces also puts you back to adjusting Par-focal with my rig-a-ma-jig. Humm, back to square two... :x
Oh, Vega....
After getting the camera in focus, flip the mirror and dial in the new eyepiece, all with the Bahtinov mask on the telescope.
Wow, the clarity of the eyepiece really shown through there!
Hooray! Back to viewing.....

Back to the Nebula. Back to exposures and images. Sort of....
There was the faint fuzzy, but what was the matter with the stars? They looked weird. I kept trying and watching the tracking. It was tight!
After a while I decided the Helix was not coming out in current conditions, not even with 1000 second exposures, it was getting worse even. And my programs got screwed up. Which took me back out to the telescope to fiddle with the laptop out there. Pretty much a shutdown and restart of them all. Still getting odd looking stars in the pictures.
It finally dawned on me I had been trying to image with the mask still on the front of my telescope.... AH-Haaaa!
Who needs enemies with a mind like mine? :oops:
Pretty soon I realized I need to do some research to stop my hit and miss nebula hunting. :?

Tuesday clouded up, and I pulled in the mount in case of rain.
But I did do a total of 3 alignments on Monday night with the new eyepiece. Every one of them was spot on with the targeting on objects I tried. And my tracking is finally something I can sit back and enjoy.

I'll tell you, I wish we lived close enough for me to come over and share with you so you could see for yourselves through your own telescope.
I don't see me changing eyepieces much, if at all. Yep, it is that good. Most of my telescope use is through my computers anyway. In fact, I packed away even my Celestron 8mm-24mm eyepiece that I really like for it's zooming capabilities.
THAT is how good the new Orion Illuminated Eyepiece is for me. ;)

I spent the cloudy night finding targets in Stellarium and have a post-it list on my laptop for my next clear night. (Tonight?)

If you happen to find yourself looking for an illuminated eyepiece, I'd recommend the Orion #8239 to you.

Clear Skies! :roll:

JimH123 Loc: Morgan Hill, CA

I can certainly see you enjoying that 70 degree apparent field of view. I have that Celestron 8 to 24 and I find that its narrower apparent field of view (I think is is perhaps only 40 degrees) makes me not want to use it at all. When you put your eye up to the eyepiece and the field of view is so wide, compared to when it is so narrow, it really, really makes a difference.

Tom--K4TTA Loc: Near Memphis. TN

I have the Orion Illuminated Reticle and have enjoyed similarly good experiences (CPC1100 scope). I have found myself using it more and more frequently because of the clarity of views. I also use a 2X Barlow with it, just not when using it for alignment purposes. One caveat, be SURE to turn it off and feel/hear the click of the switch. The batteries are expensive!

SonnyE Loc: Communist California, USA

I do do that Tom. Mostly because it is so easy to do.
What I seem to forget a lot is the sighting piece. My great old Tasco Red Dot sight burned out because I left it on one night too many. I had hoped it was a dead battery, not so.
It had click-stop settings and I liked the dimmest one. (Either 1 or 11). It was this faint tiny red dot that would disappear on a star. Now I have a cheepo from Walmart that has a big, bright ugly green dot. It really needs a resistor put in it to dim it down a bunch. :twisted:

SonnyE Loc: Communist California, USA

One thing about the Celestron was how the FOV seemed to blank out on one side or the other of the adjustment. It got what Stellarium refers to as an Ocular View, for an example.
I guess I like zoom from my camera lenses. I did enough "human zoomin" with my first digital to not like a fixed camera lens.
But I sure like this Orion lens. Hopefully I can play again tonight.

Oknoder Loc: Western North Dakota

I too loved my illuminated eyepiece, before learning plate solving, I believe mine was the Meade model though. Only thing I did not like was the the hearing aid battery requirement. Those types of batteries must be mail ordered from my neck of the woods. I simply converted mine to a single cr123 battery which I have plenty rechargables for.

Great write up and review,
Matthew

SonnyE Loc: Communist California, USA

Thanks, Matthew.
I've got batteries coming in the mail. A lifetime supply, most likely. :lol: A card supply of 20.
You may not be able to get them locally, but you do have a dark site to gaze from. ;)

Oknoder Loc: Western North Dakota

Lmmfao @ my dark site. This morning it was only -12 which did turn into a balmy 15 by noon. All joking aside though despite the fact that being so far north limits many of the targets I do love the fact but in the winter I am provided with almost 14 hours in which of absolute darkness.

It may be a bitterly cold darkness which is why my eyepieces get rarely used, but it is darkness none the less

JimH123 Loc: Morgan Hill, CA

And to think I think its freezing when it gets down to 35 degrees!

SonnyE Loc: Communist California, USA

I would probably be reluctant to put my eye up to something it would freeze to, too...

I remember when my younger sister pulled an aluminum ice tray out of our deep freezer in the garage. She thought how nice it would be to lick that aluminum tray....
Yep, her tongue stuck. And in her panic she pulled herself loose.
Leaving tiny chunks of her tongue frozen to the tray, and bleeding pits in her tongue.

http://www.dropbox.com/s/g6yb8ubeufm117n/2015-11-29%2014.16.10.jpg?dl=0

AHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!! :shock:

SonnyE Loc: Communist California, USA

It's not. That 3 degrees above freezing.
:lol:

2-3 days ago, after I pulled in the scope and laptop I saw where it was 37 degrees here.
Not freezing, but the aluminum Vixen rail was sure cold in my hand. :lol:

I haven't been cold since I moved back from Wyoming. ;)

Oknoder Loc: Western North Dakota

Speaking of cold aluminum last year simply grabbing the scope and carrying it five feet into the house, which took all of 25 seconds was enough to render two fingers with frostbite. I use two 100w light bulbs in my grill to keep my laptop from freezing. This weather is my sole determining factor in going remote with my setup. Being able to stay indoors while being able to control all the aspects of my scope is the only reason I remain in this hobby.

Matthew

JimH123 Loc: Morgan Hill, CA

At least it wasn't the school flag pole like someone I knew!

JimH123 Loc: Morgan Hill, CA

I think the bears have the right approach and to just hibernate all winter.

CraigFair Loc: Santa Maria, CA.

That is just too cute Sonny, you One Eyed Pirate.
Craig