bomberbaz

Yes it appears they are both rare and expensive, haha

Hi Neil, try this link. http://www.amazon.co.uk/Telescope-Guidebook-What-Can-You/dp/0971092400 These are in the USA http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/0971092400/ref=dp_olp_used_mbc?ie=UTF8&condition=used I just bought one for £55 delivered from here http://www.amazon.de//gp/offer-listing/0971092400/sr=/qid=/?condition=used&tag=bkfndr84-b-1-21 Steve

I really like the cantalever box version, very effective and space freindly

DSO's are easier than you might think Sky Daddy. Arm yourself with the right tools, these can mostly be obtained FOC and finding them is easier than at first it may seem. Steve

I said this before Qualia, you are something of a poet and philosopher, nice sentiments.

Get yourself on UK astrobuyandsell, there are always x-cels for sale on there due to people uprading, picked one up myself recently for 40 quid. Of course this is if anf when you want to upgrade. Tht sid, if you like the NPL eyepieces, then they are new from £35 at FLO. A 30 & 20 barlowed would go great with the 8 you just bought. 30,20,15,10 and 8 (4 barlowed gives you x165) and I would say bases covered. Reasonable barlows can be got for about £30. Anyway, once te bug bites, come back and tell me when ur wallets empty

You may find the celestron x-cel 18mm and 12mm with a 2x barlow and good setup. That would take you from x41 mag to x125 with 60 and 80 something inbetween plus the x-cel are hard to beat for price & are a very good budget ended eyepiece, highly thought of. ( I still have one in my case). The 8/18 would be a little to close for effective barlowing of the 18mm. On subject of barlows i use one all the time and they are a great tool for maximising available resources.

Schoolboy errors abiding here people. Eyepieces all cost 20 to 30 ponds, mounts around 50 and ota's 100 ish.

I slimmed down recently and have not regretted it. I am not using them as much and so I made the decision. (For thise who dont know what I had it was 2 pentax xw and 6 delos instead of the 3 vixens at 12,15,18 and barlow) The only thing I missed was a wider field EP at the 18mm mark and thats why I got the andromeda for occasions when looking at larger dso's. All the others are superb and give fantastic views. This also released about £1000 or so in cash. Wife got her cruise afterall

My latest and hopefully last version of my eyepiece and extra bits box. I have gone for a more minimalistic approach than I previously employed. Opting for barlowing higher range eyepieces then filling a box with lots of smaller ones. I do realise I may forgo quality a little but using quality barlows should help to reduce this to a minimum. For those who don't know, the celestron ultima is actually a 2.25 magnifier rather than the stated two, hence the 2 barlows. I didn't really need the 19mm flat field but i got it at such a good price i talked myself into getting it for the extra FOV over the 18, and it will barlow too unlike the 22mm.

Well I have finally finished slimming down my eyepiece collection and I have reached I hope equilibrium. I based my thinking around some of what Warthog says in his OP. I used to have 12, mainly high quality ep's and decided, given the amount of viewing I am doing that I could no longer tie up so much money in them. I had a 5,6,7,8,9,10,12,14,17.3,22,25 and a 28mm eyepiece. So I sold on 10 of these eyepieces to hopefully good homes and now have replaced with 3 good mid price quality eyepieces (12,15,18) and a decent 2x barlow. My existing Celestron barlow is actually 2.25 so I actually have more or less the same range with these 2 barlows and I am quite happy with the setup. Forgot to mention I also bought a cheaper 30mm Moonfish eyepiece to cover low power viewing which compliments the retained SW 22mm. This released as mentioned a fair wedge of cash and takes me from two to one eyepiece box. I think going forward I will leave it here for some time now but if they ever bring out a MWA eyepiece (100 +) in certain lengths that was useable for a glasses wearing people as myself I may look at things again.

you shouldnt have any problem getting reasonable views of the orion nebula for a starter

what are the eyepieces, makes it hard to tell when all you can see is the lens cap

I wish they would bring out a 5-30 zoom 100degree FOV with 20mm eye relief, now that would be land of make believe. I'll get me coat

hahaha, I been on a journey for sure but its been a fun one and I have no regrets. My honest and only sincere regret is living in a country with such dam awful weather.

Once I settle into my new collection and I am happy, I am going to make a thread and detail what I have and why I have it. It will be a cathartic way of justifying why I have a few hundred quid (previously a few thousand) of glass. Just need some clear skies, oh wait erm

I am currently past the first stage of hobby phase of wanting all the good stuff and sod the cost, now I am in my 2nd phase of do I really need all this stuff and will something not so expensive do the job almost as wel without killing the bank account. The next phase is either find another hobby or erm, actually never been to the next phase in a hobby, I say!!!!

I am hoping I am where you want to be, a half dozen decent nights should tell me if i am there. (Let you know in 2017 then )

See here for this interestive tool that will give you an idea if you have a play around http://www.firstlightoptics.com/pentax/pentax-xw-10mm.html steve

I would love to have a bash at an ethos but I reckon i might struggle with the eye relief which is why I love the delos so much

The SLV's are lovely little ep's and I will be honest and say that if I was starting out again buying I would probably consider buying a 5 & 6mm sizes in these instead of a delos and xw. It would be less money tied up in these little used ep's, (btw I ain't selling them though ) I find that the extra fov isn't really needed when its cranked up to these magnifications and the 9mm seems to find focus just that bit easier than compared to the 8 and 10 Delos either side. I am commenting after using the 9mm a few times of course so I am assuming the 5 & 6 are the same. Another thing about them they seem to be optically as good as the delos imho, certainly as much contrast although tbf I haven't had them at a really dark site yet. WHen I do I shall stick a review up.

bloomin heck thats some collection. Makes me feel like my collection is inadeguate now

very nice indeed and well laid out. What are the ep's along the bottom? Cant quite make out.

I havc a slight problem in the the block foam only being one layer thick between EP's is breaking in a couple of places so I am going to have to slap some seemstress tape around the insides. Bit of a long winded job but should be worth it in the end and it won't spoil the effect. I did worry about this a little and it seems they were not unfounded concerns. Ah well, Rome in a day and all that

Thanks Stu, i decided to lay them out by manufacturer as this seemed to give the best overall layout to the eye then spent a good while marking the small blocks out in dull felt pen before carefully lifting them out, end result is the eyepieces are a nice snug fit in each one. Very pleased with the end result myself.