lostpleiad

I have a big piece of material I wrap around my neck like a Bedouin, and pull over my head when viewing. I find it helps to cut out light distraction and prevent me straining one eye closed! But I like the idea of a dob-tent. I couldn't find anyone selling them anymore....I' wondering if I should make my own, because there a re a lot of insecurity lights around me where I am

Great link - thanks!

@BigMakStutov - thanks for your explanation. What I didn't understand is the effect of exit pupil. I thought that the difference between a 5mm exit pupil and a 2mm exit pupil would just be that for a dark adapted pupil, a lot of the 5mm exit pupil would be wasted. But you are talking about it as if it increases the contrast to have less exit pupil - why is that?

Thank you to everyone who has replied on this thread. There's more information here than in most books on astronomy! Particularly thanks for the useful links and explanations - I'm still working my way through them. Unfortunately, it looks like I might be spending some money after all but at least I know what I am looking for....

Thanks for all the replies. I don't understand about increasing the contrast - does increasing magnification increase contrast? Sorry for the stupid question.. I'm confused about whether to stick with what I've got, or invest in an 18mm EP - I was veering towards the X-Cel after reading a comparison with BST on here. I also had my eye on a 31mm Baader Aspheric - would that be worth getting? It's 82degs I think...

I'm starting to wonder if I should invest in some better eyepieces, but is it worth it, when I have light polluted skies? I have a an 8inch Orion XT8 dobsonian. My eyepieces are what I could afford after shelling out on the scope. Seben 8-24mm zoom 6mm 58 Degree BST Wide Angle EyepieceSeries 500 1.25" 40mm Plossl Eyepiece28mm Orion 2inch eyepiece (came with scope)These days I use the Seben or the 28mm exclusively. The 6mm and 40mm stay in their case all of the time (the first is too dim on anything except the moon, and the 40mm doesn't seem to do anything useful (I bought it hoping for nice wide views, but the 28mm is better for that). I live in Banbury, near to the town centre with a reasonable amount of sky glow and neighbour's security lights. However, with the Seben I have seen plenty of nice objects - globular clusters, a few planetary nebulae, including some of the smaller ones like the blue snowball, several galaxies like Bode's nebula, the Leo triplet, what I think was the Whirlpool once. I've never managed to see M1, or the Triangulum galaxy - pretty sure the computer on my scope has me looking right at it! Hopefully that gives an idea of what I can 'get at' from my location and conditions. So my question is - would I benefit from investing in, say, a Baader Hyperion zoom, or some Hyperion 68deg eyepieces, or the Celestron Xcel LXs? I mean - would I see more? Or better? Or would my location limit me from seeing anything more than I already can? Many thanks..