Reviewer: Fernando Marty

We have enjoyed beautiful, super sharp views of Saturn, its rings and up to four of it moons with this eyepiece in our Orion Space Probe 130ST, we have also enjoyed views of Venus, Mars, Jupiter is just fantastic!, but the most surprising of all was the view of Uranus, imposible to observe with any other eyepiece we have up to this point. This eyepiece was recommended by one of Orion's staff when I called over the phone, great advice! Great Eyepiece!

Reviewer: Rick Towns

I got fast delivery of my 5mm Planetary eyepiece and it came well packaged. It's quite a bit bigger than I thought it would be, but it looks fine in the focuser of my test scope - an Orion Short Tube 80. My target that night was Saturn, and using the 5mm plus an Orion Shorty Plus Barlow (2x) I was viewing at 160x which historically has been well beyond what I could reasonably get out of my ST80 (usually it maxed out at around 100x). But on this night, the seeing was steady, and the view of Saturn was breathtaking. The narrow rings were very sharp and crisp on either side of the disk. The cloud bands were very evident, and the the thin shadow of the rings on the planet's surface were also very evident. I was surprised and pleased how well the eyepiece came to focus. It had no ghosting or reflections in the image - nice and tight just like you'd expect from a refractor! For the money, this is a very good value!

Reviewer: Ron Smith

The "edge on" eyepieces bear an appropriate name. They feature a perfectly flat field with virtually no edge distortions. Added to that, all the edge on series have a large "sweet spot" in which you get no annoying blackout, kidney bean effect. Their long eye relief is ideal for eyeglass wearers. You can pay twice as much for competing "high end" oculars, but you won't get better performance than offered by the "edge on" series.

Reviewer: Justin

It's a shame, because I was expecting great performance from this eyepiece. I did my research: called technical support about the decision, compared product specs and quality, thought long and hard over whether it was going to be a good choice, and still I was let down. I have an Orion Dobsonian XT10 Classic, which is a straight 6 star rating if that was available, an excellent optical instrument for a bargain price, beyond expectations, monster light bucket. I have the 25 and 10 mm. Orion Plossl eyepieces, which came w/the telescope. I never really use the 25, extremely pleased w/the 10 mm. plossl, great performance and quality. I then bought a 35 mm. Ultrascopic eyepiece. Absolutely speechless!! It is indescribable: so crisp, sharp, and focused. It's like you're out in space, peering out the window of a space ship, immaculate quality and performance. It was worth every penny. Superb views of the moon, stars, clusters, nebula, and planets (except low power). Then I bought the 3mm. Orion Edge-On planetary eyepiece for more magnification of planets. Big mistake. From the start I should have gone with another Ultrascopic eyepiece, but I made a mistake. I thought it would work great, but it didn't. I thought it was just too much power. I called up Orion and asked if I could exchange and I did for the 5mm. Edge-On eyepiece (because I had to exchange for the same brand, would have gone with the 5mm. Ultrascopic). Once again, no good. I am very disappointed with this product. There are decent views of the moon, with a steady hand to focus to the exact point of focus, which is very difficult. It's just not crisp. I was expecting great things from an eyepiece costing over $100, but I was unfortunately wrong. So now I'm stuck. I so badly want the Ultrascopic 5mm. eyepiece, because I know they are exceptional quality and will not disappoint, but i messed up and got the Edge-On. Planetary? Hmmm. I don't know about that. It's just too soft. Just tonight I was looking at Mars and couldn't make out any detail, just a reddish, orange blob. That's it. Pretty pathetic. It's just a shame.

Reviewer: Jerry K. Hatfield

This ocular is everything I was hoping and more. I used it last night to get some great views of the moon and have been pleased with its views of double stars. Under light polluted skies I was still able to make out stars E AND F in Orion's Trapezium cluster.

Reviewer: Wing Eng

Under steady "seeing" I viewed 6 belts and the Great Red Spot on Jupiter....plus a Galilean moon, black-dot, transit. This was accomplished using an 8 inch f/6 dobsonian telescope at 244X. It was an "Edge-On" delight to have found such a nice eyepiece!

Reviewer: Brian Braye

5mm Edge-On Planetary Eyepiece, 1.25" I am disappointed with the performance of this item. It seems very soft in imaging. I have used it more satisfactorily looking at the moon, but stars and planets are very soft.

Reviewer: Jeffrey Corder

The Edge-On eyepiece has an attractive fit with glossy black finish. The tapered 1.25" barrel is a welcome feature that makes it easy to withdraw the EP without catching on an edge. The 55 degree AFOV is also an improvement over similar EPs like Orthos. The 20mm eye relief is a big bonus over a comparable Plossl in this focal length. Performance is similar to Orthoscopics but with a 55 degree field. In a 6"SCT and a 102mm F/5 Refractor the FOV is sharp and flat until about the the last 20%. I did not find this a problem as most objects are viewed near the center of the FOV at high powers anyway. But it is nice to have the extra field. Very good value for the price. A keeper.

Reviewer: John Cachel

Very nice eyepiece for the price! Useful high power to look at Jupiter, Saturn, Mars and greenish tiny Uranus! Also useful for splitting double stars!