Decent ep's to go with my 127 mak????

[M4lcs67]

Hi all,

Am now considering updating the stock ep's that came with my scope for something a little better quality.

The scope came supplied with a 25 and 9mm. I assume that they are ok, but upgrading should do the scope more justice. I also have a Celestron Ultima Barlow which I intend to keep as it is a good piece of kit. I do tend to use the 25mm the most and was even considering getting something in the 30/32mm range so I can get more sky in my fov. Also there does seem to be a bit of a gap between 25 and 9mm so perhaps something inbetween?

Have been looking at Celestron Xcels, Televue and Baader Hyperons. Don't know if any of those would be total overkill for my telescope?

Also can anyone explain to me why Plossl's seem to be the ep of choice for many people? Don't know anything about them. Is it the amount of lenses contained within the ep? Coatings etc???? Apologies in advance for daft question. I know I could probably Google it, but I would rather get the definative answer from the peeps off SGL:)

[g0ibi]

I use a Hyperium 9-24 zoom EP, all the time, great optics and easy to attach a DSLR to!

[Capricorn]

For a 127 Mak you will find that a reasonable eyepiece will work quite well. Plossl's are in the majority because they are I suspect the cheapest reasonable eyepiece available.

Perhaps it is not obvious that putting a mediocre eyepiece on a good scope simply means that the limiting factor is the eyepiece.

Equally there good plossl's out there, the prime example of this being the TV plossl's, they are however not that cheap. They are however it would seem good, and uniformly good across the all eyepieces.

Options depends really on your budget.

Budget plossl's of reasonaboly quality seem to be around £30-35. GSO and Vixen come to mind.

Then there are planetary eyepieces, the standard being the TMB II Planetary's, £39 from Skys the Limit.

Then seems to be the BST Explorer, £41 from Sky's the Limit.

Have a Mak and the full set of these and they are excellent.

Then comes the Hyperons, single or zoom.

Above this is price are the TV's in their various forms - Plossl, radian, Delos, Nagler, Ethos.

There are others, RVO and Green Witch used to sell Antares W70's at around £65

Widescreen and I think Telescope Service sell a copy of an Orion ED eyepiece.

I am tempted to say get the BST Explorers, the 12mm, 15mm and 25mm should be fine on your scope. The 8mm may be at the limit.

[imarcs]

Ditto to the above. I personally wouldn't worry about overkill. Your EPs will outlive your scope.

[Dunkster]

The bundled 25 is ok but I'd be curious what would be a worthy investment for wider field.

I have the BST 15mm and really like the view (but have no other 15 to compare)

The bundled 9mm isn't all that great, or my seeing hasn't been. Could be either one! I'm also biding my time for a 8 or 9 of something. Not sure if I should treat myself to something 68/82 or better fov... be interested in what you get

[AWR]

I also think that 15mm is nice FL eyepiece for this scope, giving x100. My Vixen plossl gets a fair bit of use, especially on double stars.

I have a 9mm TS planetary (TMB clone) which is good (much better thgan the supplied 10mm that came with mine) when the seeing is good, but it tends to get used more on the 12" Dob.

At the other end I went for a 24mm Hyperion which is nice but doesn't get much use under my orange London skies.

Andrew

[hemihaggis]

try and get a hold of a set of gso revalations , a full kit of 5 eps is around 150 , or try and get hold of at 32mm revalation ep they have the threads on them for mounting a dslr

[M4lcs67]

Hi Dunkster,

I have been following your thread on this subject with great interest. I guess you haven't made a definative decision yet either? My stock 9mm isn't that brilliant, but I do tend to use the 25 with or without the barlow the most. On another point I don't want to go out and spend £60-£90 on a top of the range ep and then be disappointed with the results. There are alway limiting factors to take into account like the seeing conditions as well.

Like you I was looking at a larger ep also and was looking at the Televues and Baader Hyperons. On your thread I read that getting a 25mm Hyperon was the equivalent of getting a 32/33mm Televue. Also considered the Celestron Xcels and have emailed FLO to get their opinion, although looking on their website I cannot see a 32/33mm Xcel.

[M4lcs67]

Contacted Martin at FLO and this is what he said:

The Hyperians are my favourite eyepieces, for their price they are very good value for money and if you are able to make the choice then go with these as you will not be disappointed.. With the 127, because its a very high Mag scope with a fairly small field of view you would not benefit with a really low power eyepiece, the 24mm will be very nice with the 127, I would try one of these 1st so you can see how it performs and then make a decision on any other sizes. The problem is that once you have used one of these the normal eyepieces you have will probably end up in a cupboard!!

[Dunkster]

Hi Malcspring - yes, I've been dithering for quite a while

I know I've said this before, but I'm really happy with the 15mm BST... so far has never failed to show more detail than the bundled 9mm, but that could also be my bad choice of viewing conditions! For £41, it's good for now.

As for a shorter or longer FL EP... I'm still undecided. I have a trip to the USA on the cards, so with all the raving about Televue, I'm getting teased. In all fairness, I expect it's overkill for my scope(s), but they seem to be a fairly solid investment given the resale values, and I also don't expect to use long focal length scopes exclusively forever. And I don't get to travel all that often. Hmmm.

I was practically sold on a Hyperion a while back as it sounds great for the price, but the BST has made me rethink. Crazy given the temptation of TV with their price tag

The persistent cloud has clearly clouded my thinking too!

[M4lcs67]

Hi again Dunkster,

Been back in touch with Martin at FLO again as I had a few more queries and this is what he said:

The 127 is a very high power telescope so using a high power eyepiece as well will be effected a lot by the seeing, as will the scope not being cooled down enough. You will be able to use the 24mm in the barlow which will make it a 12mm, at 24mm it will give you a nice low power view, with its wide field of view its about the lowest power you need before you start to see the tube, you may get away with say a 28mm wide field eyepiece but the 24mm will be a good "fit" for the 127.

From what he said it seems logical to me now. The wider angled you go eventually you will begin to see the edges of the scope tube, so there does seem to be a maximum you can go to with a 127.

Also I have a good quality barlow in the 2x Ultima so when connected to the 24mm Hyperion it will give me 12mm. Hopefully with this combination I should get some more high powered views than I currently do.

I rarely use my stock 9mm as it is of such poor quality and I end up getting frustrated, so the path of least resistance is to not use it. I know I an probably missing out on a lot at the moment, but if I get the 24mm Hyperion and connect it to my Celestron Ultima Barlow I should have a good relatively high powered combination.

[andrew63]

Don't get too hung up on the tele vue bandwagon - they are great but others are equally as good such as vixen and pentax. Most of what is mentioned above will give great enjoyment until you viewing habits dictates.

andrew

[Dunkster]

From what he said it seems logical to me now. The wider angled you go eventually you will begin to see the edges of the scope tube, so there does seem to be a maximum you can go to with a 127.

Hi Malcspring - yes, indeed it does! I'll be waiting to see how you get on with the Hyperion

I must have had one too many glasses last night, frustrated with the clouds and all

[sticks]

Hi Dunkster I have been following this thread with great interest as we seem to be in exactly the same quandry with the same EPs and same scope. I bought a 15mm BST after seeing you were happy with yours and I am glad I did 'cos it is my most used EP now.

I want to achieve two objectives 1. having a high enough power EP to max out the scopes potential for planetary and moon views under not very good seeing conditions and 2. get the widest FOV possible for DSOs.

I too am hesitating before buying a hyperion due to the cost (for me £92 is a lot of money), and also the fact that I have acquired a decent EP for £40 from Alan.

As my seeing is usually not very good I hesitate to buy another 9mm or 10mm EP of any make as it would be a waste of money.

So I could go for a barlow and the Hyperion 24mm which would probably sort both of my objectives and would cost about £130, (if I got TAL 2* barlow when they are next available).

OR I could buy a 12mm BST from Alan and a 32mm GSO PLossl which would cost about £80.

Without seeing the views through a 24mm hyperion I can't decide which way to go, BUT "AWR" above doesn't use his Hyperion very much due to poor seeing...... and barlowed it ain't going to get any better. I would be well disappointed if I shelled out for the Hyp only to find I didn't use it much.

So its the 12mm BST and 32mm GSO for me and I'm going to commit now 'cos all the prevarication is making life too short!!

~Sticks~

[rwilkey]

Why Plossls? Plossl's go way back and were at thier most popular before Al Nagler came along and proved to the world you could get comfortable viewing with a wider field than 52 degrees, prior to this the market was dominated by the Monocentrics and the Orthoscopic (Abbe). Plossl's were/are good because you get a sharp FOV across the whole field and they are cheap to make. The only disadvantage of them is the short eye relief and the small eye lens in the shorter focal lengths, but otherwise plossls are very good for anyone on a tight budget. The 32mm plossl is a cracking piece of kit in my view, I like the Celestron, but Tele Vue are tops, of course.

[andrew63]

I agree - don't discount a good plossl!

andrew

[Dunkster]

Hi sticks - yeah we're all in the same boat

I now need to accommodate my 6SE, but since it has the same FL as the Mak it's nice and easy ! It's just the deciding that's the problem...

The BST was a recommendation from here in the forum, glad you're happy with it too. I also find it the mosted used so far. The general consensus is that they're good value for money. I haven't ruled out adding to the family at £41 each

Been doing some more reading around and the Explore Scientific seem to get good reviews too. At the moment they're on sale in America for about £80 ($119). Then there's postage and potentially customs/vat. But they feature an 82 degree fov, so wider than both the BST (60) and Hyperion (68), albeit at a bit more of a premium, but still nowhere near TV prices!

I wonder if there is one out here using one of these in a Mak or SCT that could comment on whether the wider angle is wasted on these scopes?

[sticks]

Perhaps the advantage of a very wide field of view is less important at higher magnifications as you will be looking at an "object" rather than a "view". So the 12mm BST might be an economical way of besting the high-power/poor seeing situation.

A 32mm plossl provides the max FOV that the scope can give for "views" but a 24mm 68* would do the same with higher magnification. Would love to hear from someone who has both.

With $50 delivery rates form the USA you would do best buying while you're over there - the USA forums are full of praise for the ES Eps but I can find only one supplier in the UK and they are expensive, (for me anyway).

[twotter]

A 32mm plossl provides the max FOV that the scope can give for "views" but a 24mm 68* would do the same with higher magnification. Would love to hear from someone who has both.

I have a 32mm GSO Revelation in my collection of plossls, and a 24mm Hyperion in my collection of...er...Hyperions The GSO is a very good plossl and I rate it very highly, but the advantage of the Hyperion is the combination of 68 degree field of view and extra magnification means I get darker skies when viewing, which is better for those faint DSOs! The wider field of view feels more comfortable to me and targets such as Jupiter take longer to drift by meaning I can observe them for longer before nudging my dob.

[badboybubby]

I have the same scope...

I have Celestron Omni 9,15,32

A 10 Celestron Xcel

and a 25 Vixen & A Celestron Ultima Barlow x 2

thats my lot!

Gives

Sent from my HTC Desire using Tapatalk

[M4lcs67]

Am finally sold on the Baader Hyperion 24mm ep. Unfortunately FLO are out of stock so will wait until they get them back in. Have seen them slightly cheaper elsewhere, but the great advice I recieved from Martin @ FLO means I have a duty to put the business their way. It isn't always about money. The quality of the service, advice and knowledge should be factored in as well in my opinion. Top marks FLO. (ps I have no affiliation to them or are indeed sponsored by them) Mearly telling it how I see it.

[AWR]

The 24mm Hyperion is a lovely EP, giving the widest view possible from the scope. It is worth getting something better at the other end of the range. The Mak is good for planets and it's worth getting something better than the supplied EPs.

My 15mm plossl is great for contrast. I often use it for splitting double stars and also fo planets if the seeing is not good enough for the 9mm planetary.

Andrew