Skywatcher 130P newbie (eyepiece advice)

[Asholay]

Hi all,

I recently received my first telescope, the Skywatcher 130P with 25mm & 10mm eyepieces. I'm enjoying using this but am looking for some upgrades which will allow better lunar/planetary viewing.

I've done some research and seen that Barlow lenses are quite useful for a quick win (the TAL x2 on FLO seems to be highly recommended). However, I'd also like some smaller eyepieces - I'm happy to spend a bit on getting something moderately decent on the basis they'll be usable on my next scope - but I'd also like to ensure they still work brilliantly on my current scope, as there's no point buying a top-spec eyepiece if it will look terrible on my entry-level scope.

What would people suggest? I've seen that there's a range of well-priced Skywatcher Planetary eyepieces on FLO in 2.5mm, 4mm and 5mm - are these any good for the above purpose and scope?

Also, is there a particularly good group of stargazers in Bedford, UK? I'm aware that Bedford school has a planetarium, so surely I'm not alone. Anyone in Bedford, please step forward and introduce yourself

Many thanks, and here's looking forward to my new hobby!

Ash

[paulf]

I've got a Celestron 7mm X-cel to go with my 130p and can highly recommend. Otherwise take a look at BST starguider 5mm or 8mm. Also williams optics 6mm

[Russty]

I think 2.5mm and 4mm might be pushing the limits of you scope a bit, if you take into account the highest practical power of the scope and the general seeing conditions we get. but hey I am no expert with a capital "no expert".

[nightfisher]

my advice would be to look out for a 6 or 7mm circle T orthoscopic secondhand, keep an eye on uk astro buy sell, lovely ep for sensible money and maybe a 12mm bst

[Asholay]

Thanks chaps, I'm certainly liking the look of the Celestron X-Cels!

[northwalesparry]

I have the same scope ive just bought my first EP upgrade with revelation visual photo eyepiece kit. The are good value and a big improvement to the stock ep the scope came with. There is a review on the sky at night magazine website.

[Schorhr]

I have the Skywatcher Heritage 130p 650mm focal length, and though the quality of the mirrors seem to vary, I might been lucky because I get nice views with a 33-45eur/28-38gbp hr 2.5mm and 3.2mm planetary when the conditions are good.

With the 1.25" focuser the largest wide-view eyepice possible would be something like a 24mm hyperion.

I use a 20mm Erfle and a 40mm Plössl to star-hop if the red dot finder won't do. Cheaper solution.

A DIY eyepiece is planned.

IF I had no eyepieces and had to get a set for the 130p, it would be either

CHEAPO

The included eyepieces plus a 4mm Plössl for 10€/8gbp, BUT it's tough to view through it (eye relieve), I barely use mine anymore. better a 6.5mm or a 9mm as the eye relieve is much better (still critical) AND a 2x/3x barlow lens...

BUDGET

20mm 66deg wide angle eyepiece 32€/27gbp

6mm 66deg wide angle eyepiece 32€/27gbp

achromatic barlow (Giving a range of 20, 10, 6, 3mm eyepieces) 13-20€/10-17gbp

ENTRY LEVEL DELUXE ;-)

2.5 and/or 3.2mm HR Planetary (perhaps 5mm instead if you suffer of a location with bad conditions)

8mm Planetary (performs well on the 130p, I use it a lot, M81+M82 just fit into the view)

15mm Planetary (58deg) or 66deg erfle eyepiece

20mm wide angle eyepiece

24mm eyepiece as 30mm wide angle is not possible in 1.25", and it gives you roughly the same field as a 30mm Plössl.

40mm Plössl for overview or a small finder scope when a rdf/telrad won't do due to light polution

This is for 650mm focal length. SO roughly

-30x overview

-60-80x deepsky

-100-150x planets and deepsky

-200-260x for planets under good conditions

I'm not a fan of barlows as a decent one costs as much as a decent eyepiece that will perform better... Though the cheaper achromatic barlows are okey for their price.

I have not used a 24mm hyperion, but use Plösl, Erfle and Planetaries regulary.

Erfle-Designs won't be sharp across the whole apparent field of view at f/5, but are cheap and it's nicer to view then a narrow field eyepiece. Even if the outer field is blurry, it helps finding things and it's still not as bad as on faster telescopes (tried it on f/4...). Together with a barlow they are no trouble at all.

I hardly use the cheap kit eyepieces and Plössl anymore, it's much more fun to have a wide angle eyepiece for space-walk/apollo-feeling type of views. But it really depends on your budget.

[brucen]

I have the same scope ive just bought my first EP upgrade with revelation visual photo eyepiece kit. The are good value and a big improvement to the stock ep the scope came with. There is a review on the sky at night magazine website.

I have this set as well - the Barlow is pretty good as are the eyepieces. The star of the kit is the 32mm which gives really great views. The kit does include things you may not use yet but they last a lifetime, so, who knows! The case is also good quality and has room to cut more holes for other items.

[Schorhr]

I just took a look at the revelation set, it's all Plössl eyepieces (so 45-50deg afov depending on the focal length) and most filters probably just lay around (at least I use just one of my 4 filters 99% the time, if I use one at all)...and it costs more then three good eyepieces.

As most of these eyepieces with barlow just reach a magnification that can be reached with one of the other eyepieces, it only makes sense for the 9mm eyepiece. With barlow it equals ~4.5mm, giving 144x, but something around 200x is still missing with this set.

Especially when magnifying this high, the narrow AFOV of the Plössl and is a problem.

Not that Plössl are bad or anything, but they are barely an improvement to the included kit eyepieces, but perhaps have better coating, contrast.

[AlexB67]

I found a useful writeup with some formula and cut off points for various scopes, It seemed concisely written, but the bookmark I have for it is on a different PC and cannot find it right now. I'll see if I can find it this evening.

Do not take my word for this as I am totally new to this, but in the case of the 130p Flextube F/5 scope, the one I have, the advice given was around 3.5 mmm typically for that scope as a cut off for the high power eyepiece ( I presume without referring to the article it would depend on a lot on how much you are willing to pay out as well ).

An additional point made in that article was that for fast scopes such f/5 and under of this type, a decent barlow was in fact a recommended way to gain power, instead of going for a 2.5 mm.

I stress don't take my word for it, I am sure someone else with experience will give a better write up. I'd be interested hearing about it in case I am just being wrong/naïve about this.

[Mattscar]

+1 for BST's,I also have the same scope and can recommend them. Look for them on eBay from Skies the Limit, great service and slightly cheaper than most places sell them for. Iv got them 18 and 8 which are great for DSO's and planetary respectively.

did you scope not come with the standard skywatcher Barlow?

[Schorhr]

Nice, so many 130p users! :-)

The planetary eyepieces - and others, too - already have a barlow element in their lens setup that has been calculated to fit the specific eyepiece. It's also a reason it makes them very usable on f/5 and faster telescopes.

In fact, by removing the bottom element and increasing the distance, they can be used as higher zoom eyepieces.

Adding another barlow works, but usually overall decreases contrast, so usually a good eyepiece for high magnification is the better choice, at least if budget and seeing conditions allow it. Else a barlow can be a good budget solution :-)

Thanks to the vendor I bought my 130p at I have one with good optics, I suppose on some 2,5mm will not even produce a sharp image on good conditions. Best would be to borrow someone's eyepiece to make sure it works, before buying one.

With a 6mm wide angle EP and a barlow there's little risk, it's only ~217x and not 260x so should work on optics that are at least decent, and ~108x without the barlow, good for larger objects or under bad seeing conditions. Should be a great magnification on the ring nebula, some galaxies, and moon, too.

[Asholay]

Very useful advice coming through, so thanks everyone. Unfortunately my 130 did not come supplied with a Barlow, so I'll certainly invest in one of those straight away.

A kit would be very nice (and I'm a sucker for anything neatly arranged in a case) but it seems I'd find myself with lots of relatively redundant eyepieces with only a few I'd use, so that's something to consider. I'd prefer 3 great eyepieces I use regularly than 6 average ones I don't.

The BSTs seem to be cropping up a lot, as do Planterarys, so I'll give Sky's the Limit a call tomorrow and see what they can do.

[Schorhr]

Great, if you can, try to compare a few eyepieces (in store or at a meetup).

Looking through one explains much more then ,any technical data.

Also set them up in Stellarium or something like sternfreunde-muenster.de/orechner.php to narrow down what magnifications you find useful (depending on the focus , DSO, Planets...)

.

After getting my 20mm wide angle I leave the 25mm and the 30mm Plössl with narrow afov at home ever since. It's definitely worth to get a few good and individually chosen 25-40gbp eyepieces instead of a kit.

Happy shopping! :-)

[brantuk]

"I'm a sucker for anything neatly arranged in a case"

As you build your collection of eyepieces you can arrange them yourself in a Maplins flight case - recently on offer for £25. It's got pick 'n' pluck foam so you can fit everything neatly in the right size compartments, very sturdy and protective, and it looks dead smart.

[DMA]

Hello

You don't say if the 130p is the Explorer or the Heritage flexitube.

Just in case it's the flexitube when using a barlow you will have to collapse the tube

about 1cm to get it to focus as the barlow moves the focal point inside the tube.

hope this helps.

Dave

[Schorhr]

Hi Dave,

as I don't use a barlow anymore, do you happen to know if that's the case with the short barlows as well?

All I tried with the h130p so far was using a loose barlow element of one of the planetaries with another eyepiece, so I thought it might work with the short barlow versions.

:-)

[Asholay]

You don't say if the 130p is the Explorer or the Heritage flexitube.

It's the explorer, thanks for the heads up though.

[DMA]

Marcus

Not sure but simple rule of thumb is that if you run out of inward focus travel you need to collapse the telescope a small amount. Its because of the limited inward travel of the helical focuser compared to a rack and pinion one, a barlow throws you to far from the focal point that the secondary is creating.

Dave

[Lenny147]

I replaced the 25mm with a Vixen NPL 25mm , made a massive difference. I use all Celestron Xcell Lx now and they work a treat. Goodluck with getting hold of a Tal x 2 mind

Enjoy the scope

[inedible_hulk]

+1 for the BSTs. The Revelation Astro 2.5x Barlow isn't bad either

[Asholay]

Goodluck with getting hold of a Tal x 2 mind

Yes, I've started to realise this might be quite a challenge!

[Asholay]

I went for a 7mm BST wide angle in the end, along with a 2x achromatic barlow.

Just got back from a test and the views of the moon were amazing, but I'm still learning how to find anything else of interest. One thing which caught my eye was a bright looking star which was moving faster than other stars and was moderately low against the horizon. Looking through the eyepiece it had all the colours of the spectrum glazing from it, but couldn't identify it. To be fair, I'm only just starting to learn where various constellations are, but progress feels rewarding.

[Mattscar]

Just got back from a test and the views of the moon were amazing, but I'm still learning how to find anything else of interest. One thing which caught my eye was a bright looking star which was moving faster than other stars and was moderately low against the horizon. Looking through the eyepiece it had all the colours of the spectrum glazing from it, but couldn't identify it. To be fair, I'm only just starting to learn where various constellations are, but progress feels rewarding.

Could have been the ISS, a satellite, space junk, a while host of options. As for finding things, if you havn't already get yourself http://www.stellarium.org/ as its a really good free piece of kit that can show you the night sky from the past, now, many years to come and has a huge database of objects plus quite easy to use at the same time

I didn't know the constellations either when I started and I didn't notice myself learning them but now with no laptop/app/map etc when my friends say 'whats that' and point to one I can usually tell them what it is and whats there thats interesting, just comes with time and practice.