help what 12 mm is good quality

[kiltedscotsman]

after some replies to my post , it seems a 12mm eyepiece would be a good edition .

im very new to this , so any reccomendations would be great i have seen this one which has a good review but is £70

Celestron 12mm X-Cel LX eyepiece 1.25"

is there a good quality one which maybe cheaper i guess its a case of pay what you get for

thanks andy

[Damo636]

I think in that price bracket the XCEL-LX will be hard to beat if the reviews are anything to go by. http://stargazerslounge.com/discussions-eyepieces/163180-celestron-x-cel-lx-v-bst-explorer-eyepiece.html

A Baader Genuine Ortho falls into the same price bracket but you will be giving up fov and eye relief for slightly sharper optics.

[John]

The BST Explorer ED 12mm is a pretty good eyepiece for it's price. Not quite as good as the Celestron as the above review shows, but decent nonetheless. They go for around £40.00.

[great_bear]

You could get a BST Explorer for £41, but it would be beaten in quality by the Celestron X-Cel LX at £69 or its Meade equivalent at £79 (you may prefer the Meade look). All of these would be beaten by the 12.5mm Baader Genuine Orthoscopic at £72 which is largely accepted as pretty much unbeatable optically - provided that the 45-degree view doesn't bother you.

Shorter Baader Ortho focal-lengths (below 9mm) can require you to get uncomfortably close to the eyepiece, but - provided you don't wear glasses - the 12.5mm has no such issues.

[kiltedscotsman]

excuse my ignorance, 2 points im unsure about as im a newbie, i hear the word eye relief a lot what is this also what does it mean when one is a 40 degree viewing angle and another is 55 im baffled please help

[John]

Eye relief is the distance your eye needs to be from the top lens of an eyepiece so that you can see the full field of view. It's expressed in mm. Some designs need your eye close to the eyepiece top which some people find OK but others find uncomfortable. This is quite a personal thing.

Eyepieces also have varying fields of view which is expressed in degrees, eg: 40, 50, 60, and so on degrees. The more degrees the wider the field of view and the more sky that the eyepiece will show, compared to one of the same focal length with a smaller field of view. Some folks like wide fields of view and some like a normal or even a narrow one. Wide field and low power is good for large astro objects like M31.

Hope that makes some sense !

[ismangil]

I am also new at eyepieces selection etc, I found this link very useful: http://astrosurf.com/luxorion/reports-epsuggestions.htm

I sort of come to conclusion I want to pay a bit extra for a wide view... Maybe a Baader Hyperion around £90. Or anything else guys?

[ismangil]

Should have added I am also looking for a 12mm or so to get that magic 2mm exit pupil, for a workhorse ep.

[Capricorn]

Eyepieces are, or can be, a very personel thing.

Have read that an eyepiece with greater then 68 degrees means that you have to move your head/eye in order to see everything.

If so that then a wider field may be nice but some may not want to have to move in order to see everything.

So wider may sound better but could be something you would find annoying.

Of the various ones I have I find that the BST's seem the best for performance and budget. Have the feeling that to get better will cost me signifiantly more, and that possibly that extra performance would not warrent to extra cost.

To the OP, the BST's are good and for the cost will take some beating. They do a 12mm.

[nicnac]

I have the 12mm LX, GREAT EP!!, easy on the eye it is.

[andrew63]

Don't forget the humble plossl. Simple design, good sharpness and light throughput and given a bad name by the poor quality of cheap chinese ones bundled with scopes. I have had some excellent plossls and can be bought from around £30 and above.

andrew

[cs1cjc]

My 12.5mm ortho measures nearer 40 degress than 45, but it does give good detail.

[great_bear]

I sort of come to conclusion I want to pay a bit extra for a wide view... Maybe a Baader Hyperion around £90. Or anything else guys?

Meade SWAs here <click> - big, but nice!

- and also Celestron Ultima LX here <click>