Re: Review of TMB Super Monos with Valery on board

From: Clif (WA2GUF_at_netscape.net)
Date: 06/28/04 

Date: 28 Jun 2004 10:49:34 -0700

"Edward" <reply@thegropup.thx> wrote in message news:
>According to Baader,
> the designers at Zeiss did look at a modern version of the monocentric, but
> even with the highest index and most modern glasses, they were not able to
> achieve equal performance to the Abbe Orthos.

If the eyepiece reviewed in S&T is in fact the "modern version of a monocentric"
I wonder why they are called monocentrics at all, other than for marketing
purposes?
The original monocentric eyepiece, like the diagram given in the S&T review
did truly have one center. Regardless of the angle you look through the
old monocentric, the view is the same.
It is a lot like a Schmidt camera in that respect.
The modern "monocentric" seemsto be very much like a Hastings triplet.
Maybe it has some modern glass andhas the curves tweaked to optimum,
but it is not monocentric. This kind of cemented triplet is just too
darnded thin to get all the radii of curvature to have a common center.
                                                                Clif