8 replies to this topic

[Philip Pugh]

I checked the Sun last night and this morning and its gone quiet with no prominences and only granulation visible on the disc.

[Philip Pugh]

There was a large prom visible but its now gone quiet again.

[coyote]

You can use any eye piece and although the cemax are nice eyepieces it is debatable whether they are any better than other plossel eyepieces. tuning into , looking at different positions in the eyepiece,focusing,and of course atmosphere conditions are important, also your eyes become in tune with the more you look. keep on and you will see the treasures. I actually just bought a cemax 18mm and i dont like it much.I tested it against my meade 4000 25mm and 9.7mm and I liked the 4000 series better.but I like the cemax barlow which i used in the test as well. I hope this helps

[Philip Pugh]

The supplied eyepiece is a waste of time and I wonder why Coronado supply it. You won't see much when its quiet, unfortunately. I check it today (08:30 BST) and it was quiet again and I'm doubtful if there's even any surface detail when I process the photos later.

I'd recommend the CEMAX 12mm eyepiece over the 18mm and 25mm models, as you can see the full disc in a PST. In fact, I wish Coronado would make an 8mm CEMAX.

I'm not suggesting either Coyote or I are wrong but my experience differs in that I prefer the CEMAX eyepiece to the 4000 series Plossls. It could be that our eyes are different and its not the first time observers have had different results. Perhaps you need to go to a telescope shop and try some eyepieces out. If they won't let you, they're not "serious" and you should take your custom elsewhere.

[coyote]

I probably shouldn't be so quick to judge the cemax 18mm as the sun is so shy lately but i was dissapointed when I got it. I was first going to get the 12mm and went for the 18mm instead. For the money though it is not going to perform miracles. I just dont want to see someone new to the hobby spend alot of money thinking they are missing something. For the record I love the cemax barlow. I will keep trying the 18mm and post again if the viewing improves. thanks to all ,love this site.

[Philip Pugh]

I tested a lot of eyepieces with the PST. I'm based in England where kit costs a lot more money. At the time of writing, the CEMAX eyepieces cost less than the 4000 Series Plossls. I didn't test any eyepieces that cost more than £100, as I thought they'd be disproportionally expensive in relation to the cost of the PST. The full results are in a book I wrote with a cast of thousands but I don't know if I can advertise here.

However, when I tested some zoom eyepieces, another observer saw more detail with one eyepiece and less with the one that I preferred.

[coyote]

This morning I went out and watched the sun rise and tried out the cemax18mm and I am beginning to like it more and more with each use. I think my initial response had more to do with a featureless sun than with eyepiece performance. As I have not been doing much observing in the recent year I was used to more action with old sol. Thanks phil

[Philip Pugh]

This morning I went out and watched the sun rise and tried out the cemax18mm and I am beginning to like it more and more with each use. I think my initial response had more to do with a featureless sun than with eyepiece performance. As I have not been doing much observing in the recent year I was used to more action with old sol. Thanks phil

Sounds good, Coyote. I think you'll prefer the CEMAX 18mm with the Barlow lens. The Sun has been frustratingly quiet this year, so quiet that I don't plan to show it to schools.