Baader Classic Ortho 18mm Eyepiece - 1.25"

Baader Classic Ortho/Plössl (Q-Turret) 1¼" Eyepieces

Even before the disappearance of the famed Baader Genuine Orthoscopics, Baader Planetarium sought to develop a true Planetary eyepiece set that was accessible for any amateur - without breaking their bank. Introducing the new Baader Planetarium Classic Eyepieces and Q-Turret Eyepiece sets.

Foregoing fancy (and costly) cosmetics, the new Classic Eyepieces deliver where it counts - performance. Their sharpness and contrast rival other 'planetary' eyepieces costing much more. To achieve this performance and value, Baader drew upon their extensive in-house knowledge and experience, combined with optical designs and processes leveraged from Zeiss.

Features of the new Classic Eyepieces:

• Optical design and manufacturing specs based on the highly regarded Zeiss Jena .965 orthoscopics (not any Japanese or Chinese makes).
• Fully Multi-Coated: All air-to-glass surfaces coated with Baader's HT MultiCoatings, specifically matched to each substrate.
• Excellent Ergonomics: The innovative recessed volcano top provides clearance for eyelashes and enables a comfortably located eyepoint without the stray light problems of a full volcano top.
• Integrated winged folding rubber eyecup: Eliminates distracting stray side-light, enabling full concentration on the object, as well as providing a thermally insulating and soft non-scratching top surface (ie, for eyeglass wearers). Also outstanding for BinoViewing. May be folded down or removed, if needed .
• 50degree apparent field (6/10/18mm Ortho): Makes finding and centering objects at high powers easier than typical 40-45deg eyepieces.
• Threaded for 1.25" Astro Filters.

NOTE: The 32mm Classic Plossl also includes a slip-on eyeguard extension tube to permit positioning the eyeguard farther back, for use with the barlow lens, or if the user prefers a shorter eye relief.

HT-MC-coated

Parfocal eyepieces with a very high transmission, very good contrast and thus a very clear field of view, free of distortions. The multi-coating eliminates almost all internal reflections. The eyepieces provide 50° apparent field (6/10/18mm Ortho), sharp field stops and excellent ergonomics for comfortable observing.

Classic optical design of orthoscopic eyepieces

The lens assembly consists of a triplet-element and one plano-convex eye lens, so there are only four glass-air-surfaces. The interior has been blackened for a very good suppression of stray light. Of course, the hard anodised barrel has got a filter thread.

Looking into the eyepieces, youll see the effect of the anti-relex-coating and the blackened lens edges. The coating is so good that it seems like there are no lenses at all! On our optical bench, we couldnt find any disadvantages compared to so-called "planetary eyepieces" which cost five times more.

The eyepieces use the same glasses and the same optical design as the old orthoscopic Zeiss Jena eyepieces.

The 32mm-Plössl-eyepiece is the perfect eyepiece for a large field of view at telescopes with 1,25"-focuser; eyepieces with longer focal lengths dont provide a larger field of view (but a smaller apparent field).

Technical data of the Baader Classic (Q-Turret) eyepieces

Baader Classic Ortho/Plössl-eyepieces for projection photography

Standard Barlow elements often can not provide enough magnification for taking images of the planets. Classical eyepiece projection is the solution if you want to increase the focal length by 4x or more. The Classic Orthos provide the necessary high magnifications in combination with an OPFA (Eyepiece Projection adapter). Orthoscopic eyepieces are well-known for high sharpness on the axis and very good transmission – perfect for planetary observations. So, it is possible to get sharp views of the planets even at very high magnifications.

Using an OPFA, you can set the magnification almost without limits by changing the distance between eyepiece and camera sensor. You can find information on calculating the resulting focal length in the description of the OPFA-system. For best results and highest resolution, you should use the Fluorit Flatfield Converter (FFC / 3x-8x) instead, which was designed especially for projection photography.

The Classic Plössl is perfectly suited for afocal projection with the ADPS (Afocal Digital Projection System) and a compact camera with fixed lens – the eyepieces large lens on the camera side reduces vignetting, so that you can use a larger part of the camera sensor. The lower magnification and the resulting larger field of view make this combination very interesting for images of the surface of moon or sun (the latter only with a suitable solar filter).

The lean housings of the Classic-eyepieces with diameters of less than 35mm fit without any problems into all common projection adapters and can also be used without problems for visual use at any binoviewer.

Reviews

Click on the link for a Review of the Classic Q-set by Astronomy Technology Today

link for a Review of the Test review from Sky&Telescope Magazine October 2003 - The Baader Q-Turret Eyepiece Set - S. Walker

Astronomy and Living Blog.

Click on the link for a complete table of Classic Eyepiece Specifications