new eyepiece

[jenksie]

Looking to buy my first eyepiece and was wondering as always which to buy, two ive seen are celestron x-cel 5mm ed @£45 (flo offer ) or a ascension wide angle 66 degree 6mm @ £35. Im looking at these as i dont want to be squinting through a small hole and believe these have a larger viewing hole ??. My scope is a celestron astromaster 130md. Is there a big difference between the two or is the extra £10 worth it in the long run for the xcel. I also have a 3 x barlow from opticstar. Any advise appreciated

[ronin]

The scope is 650mm FL so F/5, the 5mm should be OK however I see that no-one says parabolic, which causes me a concern. The 6mm could be a little safer.

With the 5mm you get 130x, the 6mm giving 108x Probably little to choose as the wide angle may give a little distortion at the edges, but more edge.

Eventually you will get both a 6mm and a 5mm, so it comes down then to which one first.

As not a great fan of magnification, although 130x isn't great, I would opt for the 6mm. Then save again for a 5mm of whatever one you want.

I have a little f/5 scope and I tend to use a 6mm a lot more then a 5mm, but I have just bought 2 smaller planetry's to see how they operate on it.

[jenksie]

thanks , the 5mm xcel looks a lot more larger and better build than the 6mm which looks like standard eyepiece, so think it may be the 5mm from FLO if not much in it.

[nicnac]

X-CEL LX is said to be a big impovement on the X-CEL, i baught the 12mm from FLO, very nice