Are these eye pieces any good

[wizardaire]

Hi there just bought a LS-8 and want some eye pieces for it i came across these on e-bay

Set of Four 1.25" PLOSSL Lens for TELESCOPE, Brand New | eBay

are they any good or should i get the revelation set?

[NGC 1502]

Difficult to know if they are any good, but in the world of eyepieces, you usually get what you pay for, and these are very cheap indeed.

I would sooner have one or two very good eyepieces than a box of lesser ones.

However your LS 8, with its long focal ratio, will not be too fussy with less than premium eyepieces, so no need to spend a fortune.

Our sponsor, First Light Optics, gives good advice.

Regards, Ed.

Edit - I would far sooner have two of these http://www.firstlightoptics.com/skywatcher-eyepieces/skywatcher-sp-plossl-eyepieces.html for the same money as the four you mention.

[cabby]

Being a newbie we've just bought our first scope. I had a 2x Barlow, 20 and 10mm ep's that came with our scope but these especially the barlow was cheap. I've just bought the Celestron set of ep's and filters in a flight case, not new but second hand from Ebay for £89. Used the new lenses last night and the difference was amazing. I know they are not great but already the difference has made it worthwhile.

[spaceboy]

As NGC1502 said you get what you pay for. I did get the 40mm version for my son and the eye relief is very long indeed. No doubt if you wear glasses you could get used to them but for none spectacle wearers they are difficult to get good eye position and so expect a lot of black outs.

If you have just purchased a scope that costs a few quid it would not be the best of ideas to then scrimp on eye pieces. Long focal length scopes are more forgiving on EP's than fast scopes but even so you should still be considering spending at least £40 per EP to do your L8 justice.

[wizardaire]

ok thankyou which are the best sizes to buy it came with 26mm and i bought a 2x barlow.

[Stephen]

ok thankyou which are the best sizes to buy it came with 26mm and i bought a 2x barlow.

Well it all depends on what you want to view with them

Have a look at this guide, see what numbers it comes up with?

http://stargazerslounge.com/beginners-help-advice/80772-eyepieces-very-least-you-need.html

[todd8137]

hi there from me lt me start buy saying i bought the rev kit and its ok an for what it costs thats the views you get, my 12" reflector seemed to like them i thought after save in lots of hard earnt cash o would splash out on a real good one 270 pounds worth on a low power ep a televue one the coma was rubbish i got about 30% of the field with stretched stars now my 32mm revelation ep does not suffer from this and to buy on its own is about 40 pound and blows the televue out the water theres no coma what so ever

i can not comment on the 4 eps you suggest but it may be worth a punt at that price

ps please all televue users do not hijack this post "with how good televues are) thats not what the op wants

[Stephen]

(snip)

[todd8137]

(snip)

hahahahah snip indeed just got two msgs to my blackberry "snip" lol @ kh3ldar

[Stephen]

hahahahah snip indeed just got two msgs to my blackberry "snip" lol @ kh3ldar

Sometimes we decide saying nothing is better - however as you re-raise it, I just struggle to work out how you can flame a widely respected eyepiece brand and then tell everyone else to shut up?

I felt the 32mm Rev was rubbish when it came to edge deformation (and I don't own a TV EP .......)

[wizardaire]

i have just bought a Celestron Xcel 8mm eyepiece for £25 off a friend so do i really just need a 12.5, 20 and 30mm for a good range. and if so best make for a LS8

[Stephen]

i have just bought a Celestron Xcel 8mm eyepiece for £25 off a friend so do i really just need a 12.5, 20 and 30mm for a good range. and if so best make for a LS8

20, 26 and 30 feel like too much all close together - could just be me though

I think you may find you just want something around 16/17/18mm - with the three EPs you would then have (8, 16/17/18, 26) plus the Barlow you can take the time to find out where you might be missing things

[spaceboy]

Is it the original XCEL ? I found these to be picky regards eye position also but I believe it has been addressed with the later LX type.

[wizardaire]

hi there it is this 1

Celestron X-Cel 8mm Eyepiece 1.25"

[great_bear]

You REALLY need something around the 10mm mark too. This is important: 250x (8mm) is too much magnification for most nights and 160x (12.5) isn't enough!

For planetary viewing, you really need to shoot for 200x (a 10mm ep)

[spaceboy]

hi there it is this 1

Celestron X-Cel 8mm Eyepiece 1.25"

This is the old one. For the best part reviews of the old XCEL range are good but personally the 10mm I had was found difficult to use. This was again down to the long eye relief. It may be that I just don't get on with LER EP's but it may also be because I don't wear glasses and found the short eye cup didn't offer any help getting a suitable eye position I am a big fan of TMB clones for this reason as they have adjustable eye cups to aid getting eye position just right 1.25" Eyepieces and for the money they offer really good views.

[John]

hi there from me lt me start buy saying i bought the rev kit and its ok an for what it costs thats the views you get, my 12" reflector seemed to like them i thought after save in lots of hard earnt cash o would splash out on a real good one 270 pounds worth on a low power ep a televue one the coma was rubbish i got about 30% of the field with stretched stars now my 32mm revelation ep does not suffer from this and to buy on its own is about 40 pound and blows the televue out the water theres no coma what so ever

i can not comment on the 4 eps you suggest but it may be worth a punt at that price

ps please all televue users do not hijack this post "with how good televues are) thats not what the op wants

The Tele Vue (presumably a Nagler or Panoptic ?) was showing you the coma that your scope produces - all fast newtonians produce coma it's just a feature of the design.

The Revelation 32mm (plossl ?) has a narrower field of view so the coma is not as apparent.

If you enjoyed the views better with the Revelation thats great - stick with it

[wizardaire]

so do i get the revelation + a 10mm to start or go 2x barlow 8mm 10mm 20mm 26mm(26 comes with scope)

[John]

For £20 a throw the Skywatcher Plossls as linked to by NGC1502 are decent value and are better quality than the ones you linked to in your original post. You can get a 7.5mm, 10mm, 12.5mm and 17mm to compliment the 26mm with the scope. That set would give you magnifications of 266x, 200x, 160x, 118x and 77x which is a good range. In due course you may want to add a 2" format eyepiece for lower power, wide angle views but that would involve replacing the star diagonal too so you might want to give that some though before jumping in. You could forgo the 7.5mm and use the 2x barlow lens with the 17mm instead which gives you 235x which is plenty of power on most nights.

Hope that helps

[4lefts]

i can heartily recommend the 18mm bst explorer. you can get them here Sky's the Limit for £40 ish.

[onesmallstep]

so do i get the revelation + a 10mm to start or go 2x barlow 8mm 10mm 20mm 26mm(26 comes with scope)

Hi

Try to avoid getting eyepieces that are multiples of each other. You mention the 20mm and 10mm but a 20mm with the 2x barlow gives the equivalent of the 10mm anyway so you would just be duplicating your EPs.

A good range is one each of a high, medium and low power eyepiece mix of 6-8mm, 12-20mm, and 26-32mm plus the barlow to double the range of magnifications available. E.g. the 8, 20 and 32mm EPs would barlow up as 4, 10 and 16mm respectively.

HTH!

[wizardaire]

wow now that sounds better 3 eps and an 2x barlow...thanks

ok i know every one has thier preference but what would be considered as ok ep's (not the best but not the worst lol)

[onesmallstep]

The standard plossl type is fine for visual and can be bought for £20 approx each plus a moon filter for a tenner. You already have a 26mm EP and the barlow so you've already saved £50-60. You can buy extra EPs or upgrade to other designs / makes as and when you are ready to make that investment in the hobby.

[John]

Up until recently I thought Baader Hyperions were good "middle ground" eyepieces, especially if your scope is slower than about F/7. There have been some very positive comments coming forth about the new Celestron X-Cel LX range of eyepieces so I'm thinking that they may have taken on that middle ground from the Hyperions now. The X-Cel LX's cost less than the Hyperions too - £69 each v's £92.