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If you had a 4" refractor and could only have three eyepieces...

TonyD

By TonyD
in Discussions - Eyepieces

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TonyD

TonyD

Posted
Posted

.... which three would you have.

In other words, which three eyepieces do you feel are indispensable for your particular stargazing interests, and why?

Interesting to see what people up with on there "Desert Island Discs" of EPs!

Tony

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Brian Nordstrom

Brian Nordstrom

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Lets call it a 4 inch an f/10 .

3mm TV Radian , awsome eyepiece .

12.5mm circle T orthoscopic , 80x and perfect views of the moon /planets and deep space .

22mm TV Panoptic , my most used eyepiece , just perfect .

I dont have a 4 inch f/10 any more ( sadly sold her ) , but those 3 get the most use now ( as they did in my 4 inch ) in my new Istar/Saxon 127mm f/8 achro .

Same 1000mm f/l but a lot more light gathering .

Brian.

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TonyD

TonyD

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Thanks Brian,

Yes thanks for specifying the focal ratio!

Also, it was good to comment on EPs you have owned and loved, rather than just drool over hyperepensive EPs in some catalogue.

Feel free to include EPs that you have had that have been modestly priced but given astounding views in terms of what you would expect something within that price-range to deliver?

Cheers

Tony

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Brian Nordstrom

Brian Nordstrom

Posted
Posted

The 15mm GSO SWA's 1 1/4 inch is probably the best kept secret in astronomy today , these are really , really good , I grabbed one for a friend a while ago as I was buying other gear from Bintel here in OZ and I had a play with it , mate it blew me away on its fit/finish and views , better than my 14mm UWA series 5000 meade by a lot and only 1/4 the price :rolleyes: . I almost told Alan it did not arrive ..

...Nah .

But yes have a look for these Tony , awsome eyepieces , and a great price .. Hope you can find them up north , let me know if you cant and I will grab one of these for you here in Australia and post it to you .

Brian.

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Astro_Baby

Astro_Baby

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I do have a 4" F10 and the three eyepieces I would choose would be

5mm Pentax XW, ortho like sharpness but with decent eye relief

12.5mm Circle T Volcano Top, nice eye relief, sharp as a tack with lots of contrast

30mm Explore Scientific 82' massive wide field views, sharp to the edge.

If I couldnt afford the Pentax XW I'd settle for a Circle T ortho in 7mm and trade mag for ER and if the budget were tight I'd swap the 30mm ES for a 32mm Skywatcher Panaview.

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TonyD

TonyD

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The 15mm GSO SWA's 1 1/4 inch is probably the best kept secret in astronomy today , these are really , really good , I grabbed one for a friend a while ago as I was buying other gear from Bintel here in OZ and I had a play with it , mate it blew me away on its fit/finish and views , better than my 14mm UWA series 5000 meade by a lot and only 1/4 the price :rolleyes: . I almost told Alan it did not arrive ..

...Nah .

But yes have a look for these Tony , awsome eyepieces , and a great price .. Hope you can find them up north , let me know if you cant and I will grab one of these for you here in Australia and post it to you .

Brian.

Cheers Brian! That's really kind of you :grin:

Let me get all my gear set up in the coming weeks (I'm awaiting my TAL-100R and, hopefully RS with 2" focusser) and then I can start playing with these ideas.

All the best

Tony

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TonyD

TonyD

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I do have a 4" F10 and the three eyepieces I would choose would be

5mm Pentax XW, ortho like sharpness but with decent eye relief

12.5mm Circle T Volcano Top, nice eye relief, sharp as a tack with lots of contrast

30mm Explore Scientific 82' massive wide field views, sharp to the edge.

If I couldnt afford the Pentax XW I'd settle for a Circle T ortho in 7mm and trade mag for ER and if the budget were tight I'd swap the 30mm ES for a 32mm Skywatcher Panaview.

Cheers Astro_Baby

Would any of these struggle on the old TAL focusser?

Tony

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Brian Nordstrom

Brian Nordstrom

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We are agreed on the Circle T 12.5mm volcano top ortho ,awsome eyepiece ! , no worries there , the 3mm Radian is only a little heavier , but the ( no longer made 1 1/4 - 2 inch ) 22mm Panoptic is about 3x the weight so you have to look at either the new 19mm or 24mm ( that I have as well ) and these are about as heavy as the Radian's , the new Pan's are nice as well . Petite compared to the beautiful 22 mm .

We dont get the sweet Tal 4 inch f/10 refractors down here Tony ( never sold here ) so I cant really comment , whats wrong with their focusers ?

Interested to hear, thanks .

Brian.

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TonyD

TonyD

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whats wrong with their focusers ?

Interested to hear, thanks .

Brian.

The older TAL-100Rs were built with 1.25" focussers with very little focus travel (going by what Neil English mentions in his review), so not all EPs work with them.

With the newer TAL-100RS, the focusser was upgraded to a, by all accounts, very nice crayford. But there are still some reports (I know Astro_Baby has mentioned this in some of her posts) that there is sometimes limited travel so that some of her EPs don't come into focus.

Apart from that, the TAL reviews are, as you say, sweet!

Tony

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AndyH

AndyH

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higher power than below for nights of good seeing + double stars ---------- 5mm ortho = 200x

high power for planets, moon, globular clusters(& other stuff that likes high power) --------- 6mm ortho = 167x

medium power for many deep sky stuff + planets & moon ----------- 8, 9 or 10mm ortho/plossl/quality wide field ep = 125/111/100x

low/medium power for star clusters and much of the above ------------ 12mm plossl/wide field(konig) = 83x

lowest power/wide field for general surfing, etc. Probably the most used ep ------------- 20/25mm plossl/wide wield(erfle) = 50/40x

So that's 5 eyepieces. If I had to cut it to 3, I'd say

1/ 20 or 25mm(my 20mm meade RG erfle shows the same amount of sky as my excellent Tal 25mm plossl) = 50x

2/ 10mm Nikon WF, 9mm ortho or 8mm plossl. My volcano top ortho & Carton ortho(as good as my TeleVue 8mm) gave great sharp views. Note I've missed out the 12mm. I found that I more often than naught, I jumped from the 50x to 111/125x range. If I had had my Nikon 10mm at the time, it would have taken the place of any 8 or 9mm. Simply superb. Sharp, yet a wide field.

3/ 6mm ortho. sharp beautiful views.

Back in the day a Tal 25mm(40x) & 10mm(100x) plossl along with a 6mm(167x) ortho did me proud. Something with a wider field in the 8/9/10mm class is a nice improvement.

Nowadays I'd still have orthos for high power, but also use my Speers 5-8 zoom for a huge field of view for medium to high and finally my Meade RG Erfle or Tal 25mm Plossl for low power. If the scope took 2" eyepieces, I'd use my Tal UWA 24mm in place of the plossl/erfle, giving an extra 1 degree of fov. Not a perfect eyepiece but super sharp and somehow lets as much light through as a simpler design.

Andy.

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DirkSteele

DirkSteele

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I own two 4" class Apo refractors, one is a 105mm F/6.2 and the other is 115mm F/7. Not much between the scopes so the 3 desert island EPs (and these are the three I took with me to the desert in Oman when I took the 105mm back in October).

Televue 35mm Panoptic. It provides a field of view in excess of 3 degrees which makes it truly fantastic for sweeping up star clusters and just losing yourself in the Milky Way.

The second is the Televue 10mm Delos, providing 65x and 1.1 degree field. Really came into its own on objects like the Double Cluster and the Orion Nebula.

The third and final is the Televue 3-6mm Nagler Zoom. A fairly obvious choice given the limitations of travelling (or being stranded on a desert island). Magnification range is 108x to 216x and the performance matches that of pretty much any fixed focal length Plossl.

Clear skies,

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Qualia

Qualia

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To be honest, Tony, it's a tricky call because I feel your own interests and sky conditions may dictate what you can use. For the record, the Tal's 25mm is a decent plossl you can play around with for quite a while but you will want to replace the 6mm at quite an early stage.

If I was starting out with 3, I would have to agree with Nightfisher on magnitude EPs used. A 7mm is also my most used planetary, Lunar EP. A 25mm is great for star-hopping, sweeping and finding although there are time I wish I had just a little wider field of view than 60º. I find myself hopping between the 12mm and 18mm, but if I had to stick with one, in my own case it would be the 18mm only because it is fantastic for viewing the Sun each morning. On average, I can get about 10 hours a week of stargazing under my belt and another 30 minutes or so each morning with the Sun and a 5mm just doesn't get enough use to justify it as a first-time round buy. However, the 6mm certainly does get a lot of work, especially when Saturn's out for the night.

So, to sum: 25mm, 18mm or 12mm and a 7mm.

Regarding makes, Televue will always be keepers. BSTs are highly recommended and at the price they go for, really do sound the business. I love my LX X-Cels. They have fantastic image quality and contrast, and are 100% sharp across the 60º field of view. However, as you may be aware, there have been a number of concerns raised by their build quality (black bits inside some folk's EP, rubber band coming off etc).

Good luck with the hunt :icon_salut:

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Alma

Alma

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For a faster refractor, say f6 or f7 the Nagler 3-6mm zoom, 13mm Ethos and either the 31mm Nagler or 21mm Ethos. If I was limited to 1.25" I would substitute a 24mm Panoptic for the latter two.

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twotter

twotter

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I'm particularly looking forward to observing the planets and the Moon through my TAL100R. I enjoy viewing the Moon almost to the maximum field of view but I also like to move closer to view my favourite features such as Copernicus crater. Jupiter is another favourite of mine, as it was the first target I viewed through my first telescope, just a few years ago. So I'm looking for eyepieces that will give me 40x for searching, 125x for the Moon and 200x for Jupiter.

40x = 25mm, so I'll choose the 25mm TAL plossl that came with my telescope, as I've heard lots of good things about these, and to stick up for the TALurians :)

125x = 8mm, which is my 8mm Hyperion, one of my favourite EPs.

200x = 5mm, which is my 8mm Hyperion & 28mm fine tuning ring.

But that's really only 2 eyepieces so I'll also add a Televue Radian 3mm which will give me 333x for that chance of observing Mars on an exceptionally good night!

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GrahamJ

GrahamJ

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Lets call it a 4 inch an f/10 .

3mm TV Radian , awsome eyepiece .

12.5mm circle T orthoscopic , 80x and perfect views of the moon /planets and deep space .

22mm TV Panoptic , my most used eyepiece , just perfect .

I dont have a 4 inch f/10 any more ( sadly sold her ) , but those 3 get the most use now ( as they did in my 4 inch ) in my new Istar/Saxon 127mm f/8 achro .

Same 1000mm f/l but a lot more light gathering .

Brian.

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