mak 127 what eye piece next

[captaincaveman]

Ive got a nexstar 127 with the original two ep's (10 and 25), ive also got a barlow, what would be the next eye piece to get?

My main love is jupiter, saturn and im hoping mars, plus going to work through a few brighter messiers

I have read that replaceing the 10mm for a 9mm plossl is a must, also i know that the mak has a narrow field of view and was wondering if theres any ep's more usuable for things like m45?

[John]

It depends on your budget of course but you could get a 32mm plossl for wide field (relatively speaking - the mak is a narrow field scope really) viewing and something like a 9mm and a 7mm TMB Planetary clone or BST explorer for higher and highest magnfication work. 16mm is also a useful focal length with that scope. If you have a larger budget then there are many other options of course. A 16mm plus a good quality barlow lens might be worth thinking about too.

[SiriusB]

You won't get all of m45 in the fov with any ep on the mak127. A 32mm plossl or similar is pretty handy for lower power views.

9mm sounds about right for the planets when seeing is reasonable, maybe a 12mm also for poorer nights?

Bear in mind a 9mm plossl has fairly short eye relief- if you wear glasses it might be as well to look at other ep designs.

[captaincaveman]

Cheers guys, yeah i wear glasses, should have mentioned that:D, so for m45, id best stick with 10x50's then

What about things like M13?

Is there a planetary ep thats common for us speckies?

I was considering getting a 15mm, so that 16 sounds like i was in the right area

[SiriusB]

I think the tmb planetary ep's & clones seem to be popular with speckies & non speckies alike. Not used them personally.

M13 isn't that big, so should fit in the fov with a fairly high power ep no problem.

I'm quite suprised how good it looks through the little mak on a decent clear night-quite a lot of stars resolved when conditions allow.

Best results for me were with an 8mm ep.A 9mm should be pretty similar.

[John]

Globular clusters like M13 are pretty compact - the only time I've seen it fill the field of view was with a 20" scope - that view was pretty jaw dropping as you can imagine !. 80x - 100x magnification is useful with globulars to start to resolve the stars in the outer edges.

As a glasses wearer you need to look for eyepieces that have decent eye relief - 16mm or more ideally. The Baader Hyperions offer this (20mm eye relief) plus a wide field of view and would be excellent in your scope. They may exceed your budget though. BST Explorers are a lower cost alternative.

[hemihaggis]

yep as above .... 32mm ,tis very good

[Smeg]

I love my 32mm Plössel that came with my Revelation kit

[captaincaveman]

who suppliers the bst?

what about meade 4000 32mm and 9.7mm super plossl 52-degree apparent field?

or the celestron x-cel ed 8mm, that quotes 20mm eye relief

or even this set, are they worthwhile? or is it better getting individual ones?

or the meade ma eyepiece set?

Ep's are just as much a minefield as the scopes themselves:D

[ronin]

Good old Wikipedia says M45 is 110 arc min, so 2 degrees.

With a plossl that means 25x magnification so a focal length of 60mm. Know a 56mm exists, maybe 2, but thats it.

Cannot recall any planetry's above 25mm so that is them out of it.

There are a few 100 degree eyepieces but they are not inexpensive and I don't know what the longer focal lengths available in them are. For something like the Explore Scientific 100 deg range you would need a 30mm, just no idea if they do one.

[captaincaveman]

thanks for that, unless im missing something, there isnt any reason why i dont just lift my glasses when veiwing is there?

[SiriusB]

thanks for that, unless im missing something, there isnt any reason why i dont just lift my glasses when veiwing is there?

Rather depends on your prescription, astigmatism may cause problems, long or short sightedness should not.

[John]

I think the widest true field of view you can get with a 127mm Mak would be around 1.2 degrees (I believe you can't use 2" eyepieces with them). Many deep sky objects will fit into that just fine but the more extended ones won't. You could think about getting a fast refractor for those larger DSO's.

[Matt2011]

I have the Skywatcher 127 5" Skymax Maksutov and was thinking about upgrading, Would a Skywatcher 6" Dobsonian out perform my 5" Mak as far as observing the planets and moon and would the Dob have better images overall as its a 6" and my Mak is a 5". Thanks

[captaincaveman]

Rather depends on your prescription, astigmatism may cause problems, long or short sightedness should not.

mines just short sightedness:)

[Tyr]

As I understand it if you don't have an astigmatism, you can just look without your glasses and focus to compensate for your short sightedness. Although I've not tried it myself though since I'm not short sighted, but I think my dad does this with his binoculars.

I have a 127 mak and a 15mm BST, which is what I'd describe as my work horse EP. It's a nice point between the 9mm and 25mm EPs which were supplied with the scope although the 12mm, 18mm and 25mm BSTs are on my Christmas list to self

Most of my observing is focused on smaller brighter objects since I live in a rather light polluted area.

Tyr

[captaincaveman]

yeah i think the next is going to be 15-16mm plossl, cheers guys

People keep mentioning Bst, where are they from?

[Tyr]

They are sold by Skys The Limit

1.25" Eyepieces

In the UK known as BST explorers, I think they are called Paradigms in other parts of the world.

Tyr

[captaincaveman]

They are sold by Skys The Limit

1.25" Eyepieces

In the UK known as BST explorers, I think they are called Paradigms in other parts of the world.

Tyr

thanks, i'll give it a look

[jasdav]

My favourite eyepiece on my Mak is my 32mm Televue, which gives a good wide field and a lovely contrasty image. I can get 16mm with a 2x barlow. I then have a 7mm orthoscopic for the nights when the seeing is very good (I'm lucky to live at a pretty dark site about 1000 ft up). I have a 6mm TMB but I think that is a step too far.

[captaincaveman]

I had great views with the 25mm last night, jupiter was crisp and sharp with some great detail, using the barlow or 9mm on anything exept binarys and jupiter was a struggle, not sure if its me or the ep's?

[Nibor]

How useful have 127 Mak users found a focal reducer, say a 0.5, to have in their eyepiece collection of filters, barlows, etc??

I understand that it can be quite helpful in increasing the FOV - What eyepiece / reducer combinations have been found to be successful??

Any thoughts appreciated.

[M4lcs67]

Just coming in on this thread as I am looking at maybe getting a couple of new eyepieces to go with my set-up. I am really interested in viewing the planets, nebular and have been looking at the Celestron X-cell LX's. Has anyone had any experience of them? I don't wear glasses and have reasonable eyesight. Don't know if it would be best to just replace the standard ep's that came with the scope (like for like) or get a couple that are slightly outside what I already have so as to increase my available selection? Also taking into account my Barlow as I don't want to duplicate anything if I do attach the barlow.