Which eyepiece?

[George!]

Dear fellow astronomers,

Which eyepiece wil be best for my Skywatcher 200p Dobsonian? Also how close up can I get to the Moon even if its just looking at lunar soil! I was thinking what would happen if you used the maximum magnification of 406x?

To summarise the most important question, which eyepiece would be best for viewing the Moon close up with high detail? One last thing: plus which one for deep sky objects e.g. M42

[Mr Spock]

X406 it far too high for this scope, and indeed most scopes. You would be better off with something like a 5mm eyepiece giving x240.

For M42 and others, a 13mm would be ideal. It's a nice balance between not having too high a magnification and it being enough to see faint objects.

[George!]

Thanks I kinda guessed about the 406x anyway!

[spaceboy]

This eyepiece TeleVue 13mm Ethos Eyepiece 1.25 & 2.0" would probably be the best for your 200P dobsonian

[chunky]

well i fell for that lol. really £400 odd for just one, is it a telescope in itself?

[crazyjedi]

TV Ethos A beautiful thing! Wish i could afford my own My Meade 5000 5mm gives good views for me. The highest powers are only really usable under the most steady of seeing conditions. So for most cases the higher powers just look shimmery and blurred. The TV EP mentioned above is expensive!!! but perfect for you because it is high powered but has a wide FOV meaning that the moon won't race out of your view too quickly and require constant adjustment for your fav craters to stay in view. If i had the money i'd buy one.

Like i said though my meade 5000 5mm is great for moon views through my EQ mounted 150 newt. It works best when the moon is high in the sky however because when the moon is low there is just too much atmospheric shimmering. a good lunar filter is also a great addition if you don't already have one - which i guess you do else you'd be nearly blind in one eye by now

Clear sky to you

[crazyjedi]

Seriously The TV Ethos is just something to drool over for most of us mere mortals 100 degree field of view!! No one does it better than Al Nagler eh? Shame the price is as astronomical (no pun intended) as the view.

[Doug]

Hi George

They is a site that you can go too, you can put your scope size in and the eyepiece

well you get the idea check it out " telescope calculator dobsonian"

Doug

Essex UK

[DOBBY]

What type of budget do you have ?

1) look how high I can p ?

2) more money than brains ?

3) gotta have what the others have ?

4) good eyepiece at a sensible price ?

5) most of the cash went on the 'scope ?

[redgiantjohn]

What type of budget do you have ?

1) look how high I can p ?

2) more money than brains ?

3) gotta have what the others have ?

4) good eyepiece at a sensible price ?

5) most of the cash went on the 'scope ?

lol

I've just tried out my new meade 5.5 5000series EP and it gave fantastic views of the moon it has 60 degree FOV which I found was plenty for the moon I also used a polarising moon filter and it took a lot of the glare away,I did notice some shimmering though it wasn't that bad really so I would recommend this EP from my personal experience

[rwilkey]

Hi George, just as a general observation, I find the low power wide angle EP's the most comfortable to use in fast scopes, I have the 200P as you see from my signature, be careful what EP's you go for, the 200 is not very tolerant of high power except in the most perfect of conditions, I find it best to use low power and then Barlow it to be on the safe side.

[twotter]

The 200P dob is F6 so a little easier on EPs.

At the lower end of the budget scale I would suggest a 32mm plossl for widefield, a 12mm plossl for general observing and a 2x barlow. I like the GSO Revelation plossls which cost about £30 new (£10-15 s/h). Those EP sizes are the ones I've tended to use most whilst observing with my 200P dob.