eyepieces

[Perseus_m45]

what is your favorite eyepiece for double star observing ??

                                                                                             mike h

[jabeoo1]

I was wondering this the other day........Naive maybe but is it not the one that you have that gives the highest magnification ?

[Moonshane]

mine is the not cheap but excellent Televue 3-6mm nagler zoom. it allows me great variety in focal lengths and provides max power on my various scopes. the eye relief is not too bad at 10mm and the field of 50 degrees is plenty wide enough.

I got mine for about £200 used.

[chiltonstar]

An 8mm BST, which works for me at x190, and a 12mm BST for x125. These give nice views, and eye relief

Chris

[nightfisher]

Orthoscopics for me, you dont need widefield views for doubles, the 25mm VT is a good finder ep and nice to use on easy doubles like Alcor/Mizar, then a 9mm works well on tighter ones

[Mr Spock]

7mm Ortho for me, x336

[Perseus_m45]

I'm using for my sketches a 5.1mm Orion Epic ED-2 . Not that this is my favorite but I have the whole set so I use them. I would have to say my meade research grade 12.5 mm along with a 3x barlow gives the prettiest view . I bought and old scope at the goodwill store near me and that research grade came with it. 35$ u.s. for everything.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                     mike h

[John]

mine is the not cheap but excellent Televue 3-6mm nagler zoom. it allows me great variety in focal lengths and provides max power on my various scopes. the eye relief is not too bad at 10mm and the field of 50 degrees is plenty wide enough.

I got mine for about £200 used.

Having recently acquired another of these (I've owned a couple in the past) I'd agree I think Shane. Instantly variable but very sharp and with remarkably little light scatter. It's such fun to twist the top and watch the double stars jump apart   

[Perseus_m45]

I was wondering this the other day........Naive maybe but is it not the one that you have that gives the highest magnification ?

Its not always the case .There are many times you will find less is more.Alot has to do with the seeing that night etc. etc..

                                                                                                                                    mike h

[avtaram]

I use the Baader Zoom with the 2.25 Barlow, really good at splitting doubles, no problem with eye relief and nice clean image.

I also have tried The Skywatcher SWA 70* 3.5 and the BST Explorer 5 also good at splitting doubles in my ED120 but these show some light scatter so now I use the Baader Zoom exclusively for doubles.

Hope to get some Televue eyepieces at some point and see how these compare.

Avtar

[ely_ellis]

For me, same as Chris, an 8mm and 12mm BST Explorers.

Although I must admit that I tend to have the DSLR on the end of the scope most nights.

Martin

[lunator]

For ease of use I have started using my 8-24mm Baader Zoom. It is ideal for those quick sessions with the dob.

If I am having a more intensive session then I use my orthoscopic eyepieces, They are ideal for splitting doubles.

Cheers

Ian

[ely_ellis]

I also have the Baader zoom, don't use it much though.

One problem I have is that I made a pier in the garden and because I use a refractor, I made it quite high so that I don't have to bend down all the time. Unfortunatly I think I made it a little too high and I have to stand on a small step to reach the EP for anything below 45 degrees in elevation!   Doh!

Martin

[lunator]

Martin

it is always difficult to judge these things

Your baader zoom is probably a little under powered for your scope. My 2 main scopes are 1200mm and 2250mm so the baader works quite well.

If a use my zoom on my ST120 I get great widefield views but a maximum magnification of x75 doesn't really cut it for doubles.

Cheers

Ian

[neural]

I was wondering this the other day........Naive maybe but is it not the one that you have that gives the highest magnification ?

For my money, each double has its own best magnification. If you're pushing the scope's resolution limits, then you're spreading out the Airy discs, which is fine if it's really bright, but it can make faint companions harder to see - there's a tradeoff. When I'm looking at doubles that aren't challenging for the scope, I personally like to use the lowest magnification at which the stars are just cleanly split without too much effort. Certainly this is true for showpieces like Mizar and Cor Caroli, which just lose their charm for me at high mags. I also like to see doubles in their star-field context if possible, so in fact low magnification and widefield eyepieces have their place in double-star observing alongside the high-power orthos. 

Having said that, I do most of my double-stargazing with a Circle-T 6mm ortho (giving 150x in my f/9 100mm frac), or a 4mm for the tightest pairs. I've just come by a Tak LE 5mm which I have high hopes for though.