Last night I was with two friends at a moderately dark site for some casual observing. One of the main targets was comet 168P Hergenrother, now in Pegasus. I used my 18" Obsession dob with my 31mm nagler to readily locate the bright comet at its predicted position, then did observe it with my 13mm Ethos. In the same field I could readily locate the galaxy NGC 7775 (given by Megastar as mag 14.0). One of the friends who were with (owner of a 16" Lightbridge) brought with him his eyepieces in order to play both with my telescope and NicosCy 4" Stellarvue. After observing and sketching the comet, he asked me if he could use my Obsession for a comparison of my Nagler 31 and his newly purchased Scientific Explorer 30mm (82 degrees). I agreed, provided I could have a look first!
Well.... With both eyepieces stars looked pretty similar and so did the overall appearance of the comet. But the amazing difference came upn NGC 7775. With the 31mm Nagler, although very faint, it just popped into view with direct vision. Not so with the 30mm Scientific Explorer. It COULD BE DETECTED but only after a careful study of the field and even then it was held steadily only at times with direct vision. The test was performed even by my getting down the stair and not knowing which eyepiece was in the focuser (they look pretty similar in the dark). NGC 7775 was always readily seen direct vision with my 31mm Nagler, but even knowing it was there, it remained barely detectable with the SE 30mm. This was also the conclusion of my friend who owned the 30mm SE.
I have read many comments in various forums about the "revolution" that the SE 82-degree 30mm eyepiece would bring, finally giving the venerable Nagler 31 a real run for practically half the cost. But, for serious deep sky observers, and especially those who prefer the VERY DEEP like me, this ability of the Nagler 31 to bring out the faintest details in the field with such clarity, more than justifies the extra cost...
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