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[dewayne]

My Orion 6mm Expanse EP and eyepatch arrived yesterday.
I'm in love with my new EP.
I got to spend about 20 minutes with it before the clouds took over.
I looked at the Moon.
Wow!
Compared to my 10mm EP - which was the highest power decent EP I had - the craters at the terminator were huge. With this 6mm EP I have 200x in my XT8.
With a 66 degree FOV a great deal of the Moon was in my EP even looking at the terminator.
The amount of glass to look into I'd compare with my 25mm EP, offering great eye relief.
This EP is going to be great on the Moon. I was looking at it low in the sky so I expect it will only get better.
I swung over to Jupiter.
It was a disappointment in terms of focus. The planet, of course, was low in the western sky, so I don't know if it was a fair test. The scope, in addition, had not had more than 10 minutes to cool down. The seeing with all the clouds was poor.
I swung over to look at The Summer Triangle and Mizar.
They were all much, much more than pinpoints.
I tried to take a peek at M29 in Cygnus. It was not dark enough when the clouds overtook Cygnus.
Overall, I give this EP a thumbs up.
Under good conditions in really dark skies this EP, I suspect, will be an excellent one.
It will be fun to put this one on those rich star fields of the Milky Way out at our dark sky observatory.
The eyepatch is another story.
It drove me crazy, especially when using my Telrad. I usually have both eyes open to use it. The jury is still out on the eyepatch.

[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

It's always fun to get a new piece of equipment and use it for the first time. You new eyepiece sounds great and the wide FOV is welcomed. Too often we get quite narrow views of objects...and with it brightness.

Tonight should be good for lunar scanning, but I often find the full moon less than appealing, considering the washed out appearance. See if you can catch the moon nearer the horizon for color variations and interesting effects.

Can you you send a pic of your new ep? I would like see what you got.

[dewayne]

Joe,
If you go to telescope.com and click under accessories you'll find the Expanse line.
I took my scope out to our Northmoor Observatory, last nite, which is our observatory for the public. (As an aside you should go to astronomical.org and check out our website for the Peoria Astronomical Scoiety, and read about our two observatories.)
We had quite a crowd.
While folks waited for their turn to go in the observatory and look at our big scope I let folks look through mine.
We looked at the Moon Jupiter, M29, M13, and some binary stars.
The new EP worked well.
I agree the full Moon is the least interesting time to look at the Moon, but I found some craters right on the edge of ther surface that looked good. At 200X magnification I got a lot wows from the folks.
I can't wait for a the phases of the Moon.
This EP will definately make the Moon a "must-see" item for me.

[ripps1]

That eyepiece - scope combo should be good for seeking out the craterlets in Plato. I've found them to be quite elusive.

As for the eyepatch, I keep mine flipped up on my forehead until I'm ready to look through the EP. Otherwise it could drive you crazy ;D

[timothy]

Hi
I also have two of the expanse EP's. First I got the 15mm and I liked it so much I got the 6mm. The six puts me at 150x in my 5" newt. Great views, I recomend the expanse line highly. I put the six on the 3x barlow that came with the scope ( I will be getting a good barlow soon ) , This put me at 450x. I did'nt know if this would even work, What with the high power and the cheap barlow. What came into focus on the moon was one crater and a little of the surrounding area. It was so cool! It was'nt the greatest clarity, but it was'nt too bad either. I could see smaller craters in the big crater and the central peak pretty good.
Have you looked at the double cluster with this EP? It fits very nicely, what a beautifull sight!

Tim