Pentax XW 5mm - Premium planetary eyepiece

[@clivefinlay3901]

I bought the Pentax 5mm a couple of weeks ago to use in my Takahashi FS-Q 60 and the lunar views are fantastic sharp all the way to the edge. 120x mag is max for this scope and that’s exactly what I get. Jupiter and Saturn are wonderful for such a small scope.

[@alexsoma3720]

Thank you Bogdan! Stellar review of this Pentax XW. Very very interesting. And very well done, detailed description of its features. Looking forward to what comes next 😊 Clear skies!

[@CONDUCTORE77]

Great video! I have the entire set used with a C14 and 3 Takahashi APO refractors. They are SUPERB and my go to planetary eyepieces in my observatory. I also have the older XL eyepieces which are optically just as nice.

[@namewitheld]

Love these eyepiece reviews. Hopefully you can get your hands on some of the 100° eyepieces from ES, Televue and APM.

[@k.h.1587]

5mm is pushing it on f9 slower scopes. I never had a problem with pentax eye placement because the twist up eye guard can easily be set to the perfect distance, and then you don't have to worry about it. Not all of the focal lengths are perfect though, the 20 and 40 do have some field curvature, and althogh the 20xw was more comfortable to look through, a 20mm type5 nagler I compared it to beat it in every area except eye relief, i was surprised to see the nagler put up more contast and brightness, where the smaller focal length pentax usually excells. I was similarly surprised that the 40XW needed slight focus adjustments for the center and edge of the field in a c11. Compared to a meade series 5000 SWA (es68 equivalent), the pentax had more snap in the center, but the entire field of the big meade SWA was sharp to the edge with no focusing adjustments required. When compared to the older japanese meade series 4000 SWA, the center sharpness was better than the 5000 by a tad, and almost as good as the pentax, closer to the pentax than the 5000. But there was astigmatism at the extreme edge that could not be focused out in the older design which was a copy of the televue widefield, where the 5k version is a copy of the panoptic. This made the series 4000 SWA, like the televue widefield, not great performers in fast scopes. For use on SCTs, while the massive 5k SWA has better edge performance, i preferred to use the 4k for the center snap, and the outer astigmatism was still acceptable at f10, along with being not nearly as massive and heavy as the pentax, which is still lighter and less massive than the meade5k. The ES68 version is slightly less massive due to the deletion of the twist up outer housing, but it is still pretty heavy, heavier than the 41 pan IIRC. I ended up selling the 40XW because it was worth the most of the 3, and needing to refocus for the edges or the center was what made the decision to part with it easier. I also had the 10.5XL, both 8.5 and 12 XF (compact 60deg versions intended for spotting scopes). XW use was common in the circles I ran in, so i got to look through many of the other focal lengths, most commonly the 5 7 and 10. The common war was type6 nagler vs xw, and they both came in 3.5, 5, and7, and were close with 10/11 and 13/14. I always found the optical performance in those sizes to be pretty comparable, and all use japanese glass with excellent coatings, so it was usually the choice between 70deg and long eye relief, or 82deg and moderate eye relief, definitely better than the 4.8, 7, and 9mm type 1, but no where near as long as the 20mm eye relief designs. IIRC type 6 had about 13mm of eye relief and it was fairly consistent among the whole line. The only t6s I owned were 3.5 and 7, and i regretfully couldnt resist the urge to sell the 3.5 because it was too strong to use in most of my scopes, and i could still get by with my 3.2mm and 4mm TMB planetary eyepieces. I of course kept the 7mm along with the 10.5xl and the XFs and 5.5uwa till the end when they got stolen. Now I have an old 7mm type 1 again (I had 7mm type 1 before i got the type 6 in the past, always have to have some form of nagler 7), 4.7mm 5kUWA, and 4k UWAs in 6.7, 8.8 and the massive 14mm. The current big boys are the 28mm megaview and 20mm WO XWA, with 17 and 22 LVWs and a 24mm ES68 filling in the gaps with 1.25" capability. The only gaping whole in my set is a maxfield 40 like my previous 2 40SWAs and the 40XW filled, for use in my F10 SCTs and refractor. Would like another 4kSWA, or UO MK70, 42mm LVW or 40mm TV widefield, all japanese. But a WO 40 SWAN would probably do in a pinch. (Not mentioned were my 30mm widescan II and 56mm smoothside super plossl, which were 30mm 84deg widescan III and 50mm 56deg axiom in my pre robbery set)

[@Megawatt]

There’s no issue holding your eye at the correct position if you extend the eyecup far enough. It has a lot of travel and stays in position.

[@MatthieusStuff]

Great review Bogdan. I have several of the x-cells and the 7mm is my strongest performing and gets used irrespective of telescope (70mm, 5” and 16”) in spite of having the 9 (also great) and the 5 (for perfect nights only as it almost always struggles). So your comparison is giving me the motivation to upgrade, I have my eyes on the Morpheus.

[@williammitchell3586]

Pentax XW eyepieces are superb.

[@k.h.1587]

Until you look through the nikon 70deg equivalent. Same applies when comparing pentax camera lenses to nikon lenses. The nikon HW100 also tops the televue ethos in the same way.

[@palmereldrich]

I'd love for you to compare 4.5Morpheus Bogdan. Its actually 4.8mm focal length and is razor Cutting sharp. Clear skies

[@exif6839]

Pentax XW, TeleVue Nagler and of course, Orthos from Masuyama, Japan. All what you need.

[@PauI__]

Looks really nice with the large diameter lens, also good performance for Delite if it manages to offer better comfort even if it looks like it has way less lens diameter. Morpheus looks like is gonna be my buy sice I plan to introduce my 6year old kid to stars and I need something very forgiving with pe eye placement. Ps I do however regret not getting the 9mm Delite one month ago for 219$ but the lens diameter made me consider Morpheus as an SvBony gold line upgrade

[@BogdanDamian]

@PauI__ A DeLite for 219$ is a very good deal indeed. I think it's a good choice to go with the Morpheus. It is a great eyepiece that is very easy to use.

[@shadowwind18]

Thank you for all the great content! Eager for you to review the Pentax XW16.5! Also kind of nervous lol. It's one of my favorites I own; along with my 20mm/100 Stellarvue. Another line I'd like to see you review. For context, I also have the ES 8.8, 11, 14 and 30x82. There just seems to be something special about the color and contrast on the 16.5; and the 20x100 is just so cool to look through. (Celestron CPC 9.25"). With the amount of astigmatism I have, the 16.5 is about as large an exit pupil as I can look at without glasses - one of the main reasons I tried to buy such a nice one at that size.

[@BogdanDamian]

@shadowwind18 Thanks for sharing! Now I'm intrigued by the 16.5. I'll try to get my hands on one for a review. The Stellarvue is already on the list of eyepieces to review. Nice eyepiece selection you have there btw 🙂 Clear skies!

[@shadowwind18]

@@BogdanDamian cool to get a reply from you. Sure thing! I look forward to the future content. Ty and same to you!

[@k.h.1587]

16.5? Nice to hear they finally filled the gap in the line between 14 and 20.

[@k.h.1587]

I have a WO XWA in 20mm, same OEM as the stellarvue and APM. Blows the 20mm es100 out of the water, very close to the 21 ethos in comparison. And costs way less than the ES100. Win win.

[@k.h.1587]

Pentax has always been a benchmark for eyepieces, until you try a nikon eyepiece

[@ronm6585]

Thank you.

[@3dfxvoodoocards6]

Interesting video, like!

[@Youtuber-ku4nk]

You often mention the DeLite 9mm. Is it better than Delos 10mm? I’m interested in the Delos because they have bigger AFOV.

[@BogdanDamian]

I believe that the image quality is the same on both the DeLite and the Delos, but the DeLite costs considerably less. The added benefit of the larger AFOV of the Delos is diminished when only taking high power planetary observations into consideration. So overall I believe that the DeLite is the better choice when it comes to observing planets.

[@Youtuber-ku4nk]

@@BogdanDamian Okay thanks for the explanation :) I'm new at this hobby, but I like to go with the best from the beginning instead of buying a lot semi good stuff that I later need to sell. If I don't sell those money are just "lost" and I would end up spending more in total. Since I also want to use it for the moon, sun and the bright nebulas I do want hight AFOV. I ordered to Delos 10mm because I heard so much good about it. At some point I would like one for wider FOV like the 24mm Panoptic.

[@Youtuber-ku4nk]

@@BogdanDamian Hi Bogdan. So I did buy the Delos 10mm and the views are very sharp, but I think it is very difficult to use regarding eye positioning both in distance and in position right on the center. Even when I am positioned correctly and rotate my eye to look at another part of the image circle I get black spots. I find it very annoying and distracting. I don't understand why people don't mention this when they write so many good things about it, even saying it's the best in the Delos serie. (My telescope is an 8" f/5 newt) Do you have any suggestion to which eyepieces I should check out at around 3 to 5 mm range? Not zooms. Eyepieces that also offers good viewing experience as well as good image quality :)

[@BogdanDamian]

@KZbinr-ku4nk Sorry to hear that your experience so far with the 10mm Delos is underwhelming. I believe that part of this phenomenon is the combination with a fast telescope. Fast telescopes are always more demanding for eyepieces. For high power observations I can recommend the 4.5mm Baader Morpheus, the 5mm Hyperion or the 5mm Tele Vue DeLite. You could also consider a good 2x Barlow like the one from Tele Vue to double the focal length of the telescope. This will ease the strain on the eyepiece reducing black spots considerably.

[@Youtuber-ku4nk]

@@BogdanDamian Actually the last couple of times I used the Delos 10mm it was not so bad. I really enjoyed. I think I learned that I cannot hold the head still and only turn the eyes, but instead I should countermove the head to the opposite side a little bid. I even took a chance and went ahead and ordered a Delos 3.5mm :) I have a 2x focal extender which from what I have read is a better design principle, but I haven’t really experimented with it yet. Later I might be looking for something in the 5-6mm range and will definitely consider those two 👍🏼