Just to make sure!

[George!]

Just to make sure,

A Skywatcher 2x Barlow for viewing the Moon and can some suggest a Plossl for viewing M42 and the Andromeda galaxy etc.

One last thing how close up could I get to Antares as I can see it every night - eyepiece for that if I can get good views aswel!

Many Thanks,

[tyler_jrb]

hey george, I would suggest (gso)/(revelation) eyepieces. If you can get up to 50 posts someone on the for sale section is selling a 12,15,20,32mm gso eyepieces £20 each which they are around £30-£35 new. I own a 12mm and they are very good plossl eyepieces better than celestron omni and meade 4000's and a step up from the 10,25mm supplied with the scope. I would suggest the 25mm or 32mm as andromeda and m42 are very large, can easily be seen with the naked eye. It depends on your budget really if you have the money buy the best you can say a televue 25 or 32mm plossl which are around £70 each but you could proberly get them for around £40 on the for sale section. You can also trust the people on sgl as equipment is well looked after. As for antares im not sure. Best of luck, Tyler.

*forgot to add you can do what i have done I have the 12mm which gives(100x) and then (200x) when I get my barlow. This would be good magnification for viewing planets but with the 8" you can push the magnification further but not too much further as you dont want it so you can only use it on the best of nights which may not happen too often, you want it for the average night.

[JamesF]

FLO do the Revelation/GSO eyepiece set which gives you a good range of reasonably-priced EPs. I think it contains all of the above plus perhaps a 9mm.

How much magnification you can use varies, but for M31 I'd say 100x is perhaps a reasonable place to start, but you may be able to push it a bit higher. The 12mm and 9mm eps and the 12mm in combination with the barlow might work well.

M42 is so large that you might want moderate magnification to see the entire thing, or higher magnification to view, say, the trapezium area.

James

[todd8137]

well the meade and gso one of which i have both are about the same when tested they are ok-ish

[George!]

I'm going for the Revelation Eyepiece kit,

Thanks for advice,

[foundaplanet]

Do you know about this..

http://www.12dstring.me.uk/fov.htm

It will give you an idea of what to expect through the scope..

If you could afford to get a 32mm televue plossl I very much doubt you would regret it. I also use the 15mm tv alot, well I do when I get the chance to get out anyway..

The televue 32 is the one I would never want to be without..

[Peter Drew]

Hello George.

The eyepiece types you have been recommended are fine. You will need a 32mm for wide field views of M31 and M42 although M42 is very good at much higher powers also. The higher power eyepieces will be good for the Moon but I regret that no matter how big your telescope or how high a magnification you use, you will not appear to get any "closer" to Antares.

[kniclander]

I would suggest not buying anything until you've used the scope a bit and worked out what you like/ need/ don't like etc. i wouldn't buy an eyepiece "kit" as you'll probably find that you tend to use two or three eyepeices the most and you may be better off buying one or two decent ones than a boxful of mediocre ones. I suspect you'll be reasonably happy with the 25mm e/p your scope comes with but maybe not the 10. just mho.

good luck

[foundaplanet]

I have a 12.5mm plossl I got from orion optics when i got my scope, don't know what make it is but its not bad. Happy to post it to you if you want to borrow it for a while.

Also a 25mm celestron elux (?) you can borrow that too if you like.

[spaceboy]

I would suggest not buying anything until you've used the scope a bit and worked out what you like/ need/ don't like etc.

I think this is some very sound advice. I would strongly recommend the same. Take a look at M42, M31 Jupiter and the moon with the equipment that came with the scope and see how you get on first. What objects have you been able to see with the scope so far?

[John]

I think this is some very sound advice. I would strongly recommend the same. Take a look at M42, M31 Jupiter and the moon with the equipment that came with the scope and see how you get on first. ....

Another vote here for not rushing into accessories until you have some experience under your belt with the scope. The "buy & sell" section is full of items that "seemed a good idea at the time"

On this one:

"....how close up could I get to Antares as I can see it every night..."

Stars will never appear as anything more than pinpoints whatever power you magnify them to.

[George!]

Another vote here for not rushing into accessories until you have some experience under your belt with the scope. The "buy & sell" section is full of items that "seemed a good idea at the time"

On this one:

"....how close up could I get to Antares as I can see it every night..."

Stars will never appear as anything more than pinpoints whatever power you magnify them to.

Unless you own the Hubble Telescope ofcourse

[spaceboy]

Unless you own the Hubble Telescope ofcourse

Not even Hubble can bring out any detail

[twotter]

I think some of us like the EP kits and some of us don't. If I could have afforded the GSO Revelation kit when I started observing I would have got it. A couple of years down the line and I know they are worth the money, and more importantly, I would have got good use out of them too.

[George!]

I think some of us like the EP kits and some of us don't. If I could have afforded the GSO Revelation kit when I started observing I would have got it. A couple of years down the line and I know they are worth the money, and more importantly, I would have got good use out of them too.

At least we have the same scope for advice! I know that you would probably see Antares as a dot, but do you have a photo?

[twotter]

No photos - I stick to visual.

Antares Just appears as a coloured dot. Double stars are fun to hunt down, particularly Albireo. Otherwise it's DSOs, planets and lunar observing for me

[milkyjoe]

well the meade and gso one of which i have both are about the same when tested they are ok-ish

How would you say these compare to the meade 3000 series as I have the 9.7mm version?

[great_bear]

I have no idea why anyone would discourage someone from buying the Revelation Eyepiece Kit.

The GSO Plossl eyepieces in that kit are not - by any stretch of the imagination - "mediocre".

[kniclander]

I have no idea why anyone would discourage someone from buying the Revelation Eyepiece Kit.

The GSO Plossl eyepieces in that kit are not - by any stretch of the imagination - "mediocre".

er, for the reasons variously stated in this thread (not just by me)

maybe your imagination does not stretch very far?

but let's not put off young George! by squabbling

[great_bear]

let's not put off young George! by squabbling

Not squabbling; just correcting some of the misinformation that's often peddled on the forum about eyepiece kits. It's often snobbery from folks who have read elsewhere about kits being bad, and are just repeating what they've read without ever performing comparative testing of the product for themselves.

The fact of the matter is, even as individual eyepieces, GSO (i.e. Revelation) Plossls are best-sellers. Optically, as Plossls, they're pretty much neck-and-neck with Meade 4000s differing mainly by having undercut barrels as opposed to the Meade's plain ones. From an optical standpoint, they're bested only by the Tele Vues and that's chiefly because the TVs are a modified Plossl design that's tweaked for better performance down to F4. In an slow scope, you'd be hard-pushed to see the differences between a Tele Vue Plossl and a GSO one.

People talk as if purchasing an eyepiece kit locks you into that purchase for life and you are forbidden from buying another eyepiece ever again. That's just silly: Of course over time you may augment the kit with quality widefields but that doesn't mean you should go without those focal lengths in the meantime - especially since you'll have to spend the cost of the entire kit - or more - to buy just one wide-field eyepiece of comparable optical performance.

And it's true - there may indeed be one or two eyepieces you use less often, but so what? For the price you also get a very nice aluminium case, and a well-respected GSO 2x Barlow (which is extremely useful as you can use the nosepiece as a 1.5x Barlow) - so it can't be said that you've lost out on anything.

It should also be pointed out that the top-selling Orion Shorty Barlow is the same, identical unit as the Barlow supplied in the Revelation kit.

I've owned (and still do) top-quality eyepieces in the past - Tele Vues, Brandons, BGOs, etc., but my 9mm and 12mm Revelation Plossls still see regular active service in my telescopes.

I see no reason to look down on an eyepiece simply because it has "Revelation" printed on the side, and I have yet to read - from anyone - any specific optical issue that they find significantly lacking in the Revelation/GSO Plossl eyepieces.

[tyler_jrb]

the revelation(gso) eyepieces. Somepeople say for most of the eyepieces they do there is little difference between the revelation and a televue plossl apart from the 32mm i think.I own the 12mm revelation(gso) and it is a very good eyepiece but I again agree with some of the people above try out the eyepieces you get with the scope and you will find out what you like. You could also try a local astro group which members will most likely let you use their eyepieces so you will get to try them out for your self.

Forgot to mention- instead of the skywatcher deluxe x2, try get a omni x2, tal x2 for around 30-35 pounds. You could also try the for sale section for a celestron ultima barlow for around the same price.

[Dave-Ryan]

A good point Great_Bear and most of us over time end up with more than one telescope. So an eye piece that is not ideal for one telescope, you might own, will be perfect for another.

[kniclander]

ok, G-B, here's an example of my thinking - I have owned many meade 4000s (trying to make matched pairs for binowieving). I also have a couple of short f/l tmb planetary e/p's - one burgess optical, one clone. Optically, there isn't much to choose between them and the meade 4000s. However, in terms of use in a dob (note the OP is getting a dob) they are much much better because they have a signifcantly wider FOV than the plossl and much better eye relief. The OP may well decide that that's how he'd prefer to spend his £££ after using the scope for a while.

you took one aspect of my post in isolation, ignoring the main point which was, don't rush out and buy anything until you've used the scope for a while.

(but I admit I am guilty of calling the revelation set mediocre without having tried them so you got me there...)

[chunky]

has anyone got a link to this gso ep kit froma uk seller

[John]

... the main point which was, don't rush out and buy anything until you've used the scope for a while....

Thats the important message in my opinion