Are my eyepieces branded?

[Daedalus]

Having recently bought the Skywatcher Explorer 200p, I have asked several questions about eyepieces. It seems that there are many different types and qualities etc etc. What I dont know is how good are the ones that came with the scope and what are they ie if I wanted to buy them on the internet etc. Same with the barlow.

It came with:

2x deluxe barlow

10mm and 25mm eyepiece

I have looked at them and it doesnt say a make etc, or at least I cant find where it does. If I had an idea what they are it might give me some idea of quality and may influence my decision on eyepieces to buy in the future.

Hoping someone can help.....Daedalus

[pvaz]

They are also branded as Skywatcher. The design type is Plossl.

Eyepiece - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[PreludeToADream]

Sounds like the eyepieces that came with my telescope. The 25mm isn't too bad but the 10mm isn't up to much to be honest.

Think these are the eyepieces: Sky-Watcher Super-MA Series Eyepieces - by OVL

[Daedalus]

Prelude, the link you put up...I would say that these are the eyepieces that came with the scope. Im a bit confused now, because I was under the impression that these are Plossl which are recommended (although i have no idea what plossl is) but at the same time Im gathering that these arent that good as they are priced very cheap compared to others, and also because they came with the scope. Im presuming the barlow may be on a cheap side too, or is a barlow a barlow?

[John]

The eyepieces that come with the scope are OK to get you started, though the Deluxe barlow did quite well in a magazine review recently I believe. The 10mm seems to be the weakest of them and is often the 1st replaced / upgraded.

I suppose if they supplied better quality eyepieces with the scope they would add around £70 - £80 to the overall price, and hitting a certain price point seems to be very important to these brands.

[John]

If the eyepieces were of the plossl design they would almost certainly say so on the barrels. MA is a different design - I believe it means Modified Achromat.

What is a little disappointing is that Skywatcher admit themselves that the design is more suited to "mid-range to long f/ratio" scopes but supply them with fast scopes

[Daedalus]

Is Plossl a make or a design??

[John]

Is Plossl a make or a design??

It's a design, as are kellner, orthoscopic, erfle, monocentric and many others.

This web page explains more:

Common Telescope Eyepiece Designs

[Daedalus]

Very useful Jahmanson, cheers.

[pvaz]

Oops! I thought the 200p came with plossls. My XT8 did, it's made by Orion which belongs to Synta, just like Skywatcher so I assumed the EPs ware the same as the scopes are equivalent.

[John]

I think Orion supply better quality eyepieces with their scopes than Skywatcher do, namely Orion's Sirius Plossls. That might go just a little bit of the way to explaining why Orion scopes are more expensive in the UK than their Skywatcher counterparts, eg: £271 for a Skyliner 200P V's £359 for an Orion SkyQuest XT8 Classic. The latter comes with just one 25mm plossl as standard though so that's an expensive plossl !.

[pvaz]

I think Orion supply better quality eyepieces with their scopes than Skywatcher do, namely Orion's Sirius Plossls. That might go just a little bit of the way to explaining why Orion scopes are more expensive in the UK than their Skywatcher counterparts, eg: £271 for a Skyliner 200P V's £359 for an Orion SkyQuest XT8 Classic. The latter comes with just one 25mm plossl as standard though so that's an expensive plossl !.

Yeah, probably some import taxes in the mix.

Better get the 200p and spend the extra 90 or so on some better EPs.