EP for DSO's

[Watchman]

Hi all, I have a Skywatcher 130p explorer and am looking to buy a low power, wide view EP for DSO's. I have a budget of around £40 at the moment that I can use for this., What do you all reccomend? There is light pollution and  I'm 43 years old so exit pupil must be taken into account!

So, what would be good for that price range and would a light filter be needed on top of it? Thanks in advance.

[ronin]

Going to take the simple option and say get a 25mm or 18mm BST Starguider, they are £49 so a bit above £40.

http://stores.ebay.co.uk/Skys-the-Limit-Astro-and-Optical

Alan has them advertised as BST Explorers branded as Starguiders which is sure to cause confusion. :eek:

X-Cels cost more over here, in the US they are about $1 difference, here the difference is £10. So they are too much.

There are others around but not sure of the performance. Check the 365 Astro site for the eyepieces they offer from TA - the wide angle ones.

[Qualia]

Aye, as Ronin says, something like a BST, X-Cel LX or Vixen NPL. For a wider view than your 25mm, you'll need something like a 30mm Vixen NPL or 32mm Plossl. which will probably cost a little more than the others. However, DSOs comprise quite a variety of objects, sizes and brightness, and more than anything else the amount of light pollution (and one's telescope aperture ) will be the biggest factors affecting the view. Depending on your skies, one problem with using a low power eyepiece with a fastish scope is that under a light polluted sky the view gets washed out and you lose contrast making it more difficult to pick out fainter DSOs.

[Watchman]

I see that you can get the BST UWA for £ 34.99 from sky's the limit. Easier for me to afford happily, would that be an okay option?

[ronin]

Suspect OK but equally suspect not as good.

Barsta seem to be producing some decent eyepieces so no reason to expect the UWA's to be poor. Oddly the UWA's are narrower then the Starguiders.

Think the problem is that the Starguiders (Explorers) are very good and the price they sit at is just below a psychological level for many.

Depends if you want an extra eyepiece or two for the 130P and you intend to remain at the 130P, or if you intend to get a bigger scope in the future.

I have two of the TMB planetaries that Alan sells and I never use them, the BST's are just so much better.

You could ask Alan (email), he is fairly honest. He tried to talk me out of buying the 2 TMB eyepieces from him and there are not many retailers that do that. I think his arguement was "Are you mad wanting those?"    (It was the focal lengths) I convinced him I probably was and still wanted them, never really used them and will likely give them away in a few weeks. Maybe he was right after all ? :confused:

If in no hurry, you may be better putting a post out titled "Anyone have BST UWA's" and ask if anyone has one to offer an opinion. I would think a few people own one or two, but make it clear that you want to know about the UWA'a not the Starguiders.

[John]

58 degrees is hardly "UWA (Ultra Wide Angle)" really. It's just a bit wider than the 52 degrees that a normal plossl gives. I sometimes wonder with the really low cost wide angle eyepieces, when intended for use in a fast scope (eg: F/5), if a decent plossl of the same focal length would actually show a wider expanse of sky that is actually well corrected ?

You can get 25mm or 32mm GSO plossls, branded as Revelation, for £24 and £27 respectively. I wonder if one of those might actually be a better bet in an F/5 than an economy wide angle ?

[alan potts]

That's got to be a joke, they are not even coming close to eyepieces traditionally called Super wide angle. I don't know who was in there first with all this SWA and UWA, Meade maybe, I don't really recall TeleVue labelling any of theirs as such, we just know Nagler is TeleVue for 82 degree etc.

Alan

[-Aldebaran-]

Skywatcher do a similar thing with their UWA planetaries at 58° /TMB Planetaries from FLO

They also do another UWA at 66° which is identical to the TS SWM series (365astronomy)

Strange how the 66° is cheaper than the 58°.