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Skywatcher Explorer 130P SynScan AZ GOTO lense help


Bluetac

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Good evening guys n gals
 I have the above scope and would like to be able to see more with it so it’s time to upgrade the lenses, i am pretty much a noob when it comes to this sort of thing.
I was up and about in time to watch the geminids so got the scope out to view the moon and Jupiter, I must admit i was disappointed with the view of Jupiter with the scope as i could not make out any detail none of the bands were visible to me using the 2X barlow and the 10 mm all is moons i could be made out.
 We have a west facing garden in a relatively built up area, but with being a nightshift worker i am up and about during the weekends so would like to get more use out of the scope. I am a spectacle wearer and would appreciate a wide field of view and the larger eye piece . i was wondering what the pros’ and cons of using a barlow with a higher magnification say 3X or higher with an eye piece of say 20mm would give me ? as i say i am a noob with this , know the scope can take 2" eye pieces so would i be better of looking towards those?
 Ultimately i would like to see more than just the Moon and planets i have seen some of the double stars and M1 and am hooked, the wife is also interested but cannot close wink to view so the widest field of view and opening for the both of is a must.
 Any help from your good selves would be very much appreciated.

Many thanks
Kindest regards

    Bluetac

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Your scope has a focal length of 650 at f5 so a 10mm eyepiece will give you 65x magnification. You'll see Jupiters bands between 130x and 180x mag easily with a reasonable quality eyepiece. But you'll be looking at 4mm or 5mm eyepieces. Because it's a fast scope then budget circa £45 to £60 for a good quality eyepiece and the "better" views.

If you want to look at large nebulae and galaxies then a 2" eyepiece will give you the width of field to support that. But you'll be wanting lower powers (rather than the high magnification used on planets) like 40x or 50x. Ultimately for faint dos's the larger the aperture the more light you'll gather which would mean a bigger scope.

You can get cheaper but, I found the Baader Hyperions very nice with the 130P - mine were mostly second hand. To be economical the Baader Zoom, though initially expensive, will give you 5 eyepieces in 1 and great value for money. It worked wonders in my 130P and 150P starter scopes. Hth :)

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If it's the same telescope as I had (explorer 130p on EQ-2 mount), it will take only 1.25" eyepieces, you get max field of view with a 32mm (52degree) plössl or a 24mm 68 degree eyepiece, such as maxvision 24mm here:

http://www.explorescientific.de/maxvision-68deg-okular-24mm-p-25562.html

It's a very good EP, though much heavier (400gram) than the stock EPs you have.

HR planetary EPs are quite good in F5 scopes, my 5mm worked well, but will be too much to use with 2x barlow, a 6mm or 7mm should get better used with or without barlow, it cover the range between 100x to 200x as brantuk has mentioned.

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Tha aspheric is a. 72 degree field of view (fov ) and uses aspheric glass , which I presume costs more to manufacture . They come in 31mm and 36mm focal lengths. I had the 31 and it's a very good eyepiece.

The regular hyperions have a slightly less fov.

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I've not used the aspherics - but I've never heard a bad remark about them and all reports I've seen have been good. The Hyperions are 68deg fov compared to the 72degs aspheric as rory says. And I agree a 30mm-32mm would give very pleasing views.

The supplied eyepieces (typically 10mm, 20mm, and 25mm) are usually just enough to get the scope working, but they really don't show it's true capabilities at all. I was amazed the first time I popped a half decent medium quality eyepiece in my first scope (150P). It was suddenly transformed into a proper working instrument and the difference in clarity, crispness, and detail were just stunning.

I donated the supplied eyepieces to our club scope for free - I'd have felt guilty selling them on. lol. :)

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If i were to purchase the Baader Hyperion Zoom Eyepiece would this allow me to see things like the  storm on the surface  of Jupiter and the rings of Saturn weather permitting of course and what else would i be able to see with it ?

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You "might" bve able to pick out the GRS at 120x but the GRS is pretty small and is a long, very long, way away from the earth. If you spend the time to look at Jupiter images it is about 1/6 of an image diameter. Go look at Jupiter when it comes up and make a realistic guess of seeing it. Also it has to be on this side.

If you push the magnification up then the image still has to be sharp for the detail to stand out. A big brurry image is a blur. It might be a big blur but fundimentally it is a blur.

Saturn rings need 120x and again detail is a matter of sharpness. Fuzzy rings are no real use.

A 5mm eyepiece will give 130x on the scope, which should display Saturn and it's rings, when they are in a good position, not sure about the GRS. Which isn't red in a scope. Like nearly everything it will be a different shade of grey to the other shades of grey.

Will say I am a little surprised at the recommendation of the Baader's simply as I thought people had said that in a fast scope they didn't operate too well. The Hyperon zoom I have little recall of any information about it. Maybe that is OK at faster ratios.

Before you start make sure the scope is well collimated, this adds to loss of definition.

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I bought the laser collimator as the scope was purchased second hand and it was off but now as far as i can tell it is spot on , you can buy this eye piece with its own barlow, would that do what i want  if it was set to 8X to give me double? or  is it not as easy as that :(.

Thank you all for the information so far it is very much appreciated

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This May interest you regarding useful magnification.

" Highest useful magnification: Any telescope is theoretically capable of unlimited magnification. As power increases, however, image brightness decreases, as you’ll see below under "exit pupils." As you get to 50x or 60x per inch of aperture, most deep space objects become too dim to see. Thus, an 8" telescope is capable of a maximum useful deep space power of 480x (60 x 8). But that much power is mainly usable only for splitting close binary stars.

More than 60x per inch of aperture is sometimes possible for planetary observing with small aperture telescopes (under 4"-5"), since a small scope looks through less of our turbulent atmosphere than a large one and therefore is less affected by unsteady seeing. Unfortunately, the exceptionally good seeing that allows such high magnifications is very rare.

During average seeing conditions (the kind you find nine nights out of ten), 25x to 30x per inch of aperture is a more sensible power for binary star and planetary observing. It is at this power that the resolution of a scope matches the resolution of your eye and images are sharpest. This gives you a highest useful power of about 200x to 240x with an 8" scope on an average night, 100x to 120x with a 4" scope, etc. "

So if you base your useful mag at say 40 x aperture that would be around X200 .

Or a more practical. 30x aperture = x 150.

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"Will say I am a little surprised at the recommendation of the Baader's simply as I thought people had said that in a fast scope they didn't operate too well. The Hyperon zoom I have little recall of any information about it. Maybe that is OK at faster ratios"

Yes I heard this too - but I've never had a problem with them in my old 150P (f-5). I can only say that both the Baader Zoom and the Hyperion 8mm individual eyepiece worked extremely well with very sharp crisp views of Jupiter and M42 alike (two first objects that I remember very well). These are what transformed my scope from the supplied eyepieces performance.

I also had a 130P and though a bit smaller the views were still crisp and sharp with well defined features of both objects. Both pieces were used in very good seeing I must add - the experience in poor seeing isn't quite so good as you'd expect.

Maybe sometimes beginners ramp up the magnification too much leaving them the impression that a scope or eyepiece isn't so good - whereas it's actually fine if used right. :)

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I take it i would be better of in the long run by purchasing some individual eye pieces , if i was to set the budget at say £100-£150  to get a couple to cover both planets and nebula would the BST explorer's or similar be ok for them ?

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I take it i would be better of in the long run by purchasing some individual eye pieces , if i was to set the budget at say £100-£150 to get a couple to cover both planets and nebula would the BST explorer's or similar be ok for them ?

Best you can get for under £50 . Fantastic eyepieces. They only go up to 25 mm f/l , BUT about. 60 degrees fov compared to a 50 degree fov that the average plossl provides. You also get good eye relief compared to plossls.

I've not read one negative report on bst starguiders .

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is there a noticeable difference between the 8 mm BST and the baader Hyperion beside the the wider fov on the baader and the ability to use the 2" fitting, Does the 2" fitting make much of a difference ,I can see that the wider FOV would be better in tracking the planets .

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2" are normally associated with your low power eyepieces. You don't really need them for medium / high powers. The max fov available in a 1.25" format is 32mm ( or 24mm in a 68* eyepiece) above that your not seeing any more sky. That's when a 2" eyepiece comes into play . The Hyperion aspheric eyepieces are excellent . They come in f /l of 31mm and 36mm if I remember right . They are true 2" e /p's. I believe the normal hyperions are 1.25".

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  • 3 weeks later...

Thanks Rory , i decided to build up my collection with a couple of of second hand eye pieces, i picked up a few over the holidays  namely the ones in my sig , the Celestron-X-Cel-LX-18mm (ebay £ 45.50) and 7mm (ebay £60, along with there 2X Barlow (ebay £50), also got EF 1.25" 19mm ExtraFlat Wide-Angle (ebay £42.99) (not sure if this was a wise purchase)

 i am very pleased with the build quality you can clearly appreciate the difference from the the basic set they come with, not had chance to use any of them as yet due to the rain and viewing conditions. i do need to give them all a good clean so will be asking advice on that if i dont come across it via a search.

Thank you all once again for the information and recommendations it has been very much appreciated i have also figured out how to add the info to my sig :)
 

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  • 3 months later...

Hi Guys,

I've got a question for BrantUK or anyone else that could help me to decide the baest way forward.

I also have a SkyWatcher Explorer-130P SynScan AZ GOTO and noticed your reply to BlueTac's post on the other page regarding the Baader Hyperions and the economical Baader Zoom lenses.

After searching through eBay, which one of these would be best to use?

Baader Hyperions

Baader Zoom

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