Eyepiece for Planets in 8" SCT

[blinky]

I got me an eq5 head at Kielder last weekend so finally have a 2nd mount for visual. Last night I used some of then 'Eyepieces' I hear folks talk about to look with my eye through the telescope First time I have done that in years since converting over to the dark side of imaging, anyway.......

My highest mag EP at the moment is a 15mm Meade series 4000 wide angle and I do love it but last night the seeing was very good and I wanted a bit more ooomph so to speak - I did use my 2X Barlow but TBH, I am never a fan of them and would prefer a dedicated planetary, high power EP. At the moment my mount is undriven so I think that kind of rules out ortho's with the resricted fov. What would other reccomend as the max power and what EP for an 8" sct.

[ronin]

Getting a bit repeditive saying it but the BST Explorers should be very good in yours.

Assuming a "standard" f/10 SCT then the 8mm will give 250x and the 12 will give 167x. Think the 5mm may be a bit too much at 400x. They are £41 a piece from Sky's the Limit. They have a 60 degree field so a little wider.

After that come various planetary's, usually TMB II or the clones of them. About the same cost or a little lower. Not sure of the focal lengths.

Then the plossl's, budget or something like TV's. These are good but the cost is higher, around £80.

Beyond these are the Hyperions and Radians

[blinky]

Thats sounds about my price point and 8mm would fit in nicely!

[Charon]

I would keep a look out for a second hand Hyperion. Shameless plug here...... but I will be selling my 8mm and my 13mm Hyperions next month when I come back to the UK as I very rarely use them.

[John]

A few years ago I had my best ever (well to date anyway) views of Saturn using a 10 year old Celestron C8 and an 8mm Tele Vue plossl (250x). A great combination under good seeing conditions although I'm sure a Hyperion or similar would have shown similarly stunning views.

[brantuk]

8mm or 10mm is a good size for the Sct - I like the Hyperions and the TV Radians - occasionally I get to use a 5mm Radian but it's infrequent due to seeing

[astrogeoguy]

In my F/10 Meade LS-8, I've got a Baader Hyperion Mk II 8-24 zoom and 14mm and 6mm Radians. For Jupiter (and most everything), the 6mm is useless, but the 14mm is great. The zoom lets me find the sweet spot - last evening it was around 16mm. I wish I'd bought the zoom instead of the 6mm, but it may still find use if I get out of Toronto sometime.

[m.tweedy]

Having had a C8 for a while before I got the 11 I found my best planetary eyepiece was the TMB 6mm which gave great views for the price

[Nexus 6]

not quite on the cheap side, Nagler 13mm ( have now got the Ethos so look forward to looking at it again soon) gave me some incredible views of Saturn earlier in the year. 180x seemed to be the sweet spot though as when I used the 9mm Nagler it appeared bigger but less detailed.

[dazcornish]

With my Meade 10" SCT/OMC140 I get good views with a mix of Edmund RKE's and Circle T ortho's. Less glass seems better in this case.

My OMC has the same focal length and I use at max a 8mm RKE or 12.5mm ortho. Viewing from my back garden does not lend itself to really high powers. No problem with fov on my undriven CG-5.

The Ortho's are a good buy from Lyra Optics.

Tried the TMBs. Loved the design/eyecups etc but just could not seem to get my eye in the right place! So they had to go.

Have fun with the visual observing its a lot less stressful!

[blinky]

I used an Ortho before but thought that since this was an undriven mount I would rather have the wider field given by non ortho's - If its was driver I would have no hesitation buying an ortho.

[dazcornish]

The fov of the orthos/RKEs is narrower and requires more fiddling but the reward is the views. I need all the help I can get in murky/light polluted Southampton!

There is a chap on ebay selling new sets (4) of Kson Orthos for 26 pounds (290630364232). These are the same as the Super Abbe Orthos sold by University Optics for $47 each. At 26 pounds for four leaves plenty of cash for motorizing your eq5!

[John]

There is a chap on ebay selling new sets (4) of Kson Orthos for 26 pounds (290630364232). These are the same as the Super Abbe Orthos sold by University Optics for $47 each. At 26 pounds for four leaves plenty of cash for motorizing your eq5!

The orthos referred to above are the same as the Apogee Super Abbe Orthos. When I was interested in them a while back I read a number of reports on these and had feedback from owners in the USA and the conclusion I reached is that they are not quite as good as the University Classic "Volcano Top" Ortho's.

Looking at the price though, they are probably worth a try - £26 barely buys 1 single cheap plossl

[blinky]

right.... i have some christmas money to spend and am goung to get one of these eyepieces, which one though.. i can either get an 8mm BST or a 9mm TMB II, i am edging towards the 9mm since it is a TMB planetary and also i think at 9MM it may get a bit more use than the 8mm - does that all sound ok or should i stick with the 8mm BST???

[dweller25]

Consider this ......

First Light Optics - Pentax XF 8.5mm

[faulksy]

i have the 8mm bst and its great in my sct also consider the bgos they are great as well slightly better than the bst but double the money. also eye relief a bit small if you wear specks