EP for 150p

[craigsta]

Hi all,

You;ve probaly all been asked a hundred times before, But..

I have been reading, and many of you said its down to personal choice, However, Im new to astronomy and advice and opinions i embrace.

Tonight was the third time i have used my scope (brought it just after christmas) and tonight was the best night i have had by far! Jupiter looked amazing, the triangle stars (electra, taygeta,pleione and more) Looked truly amazing. I then also found andromeda nebula i managed to stumble across was awesome.

However, My 10MM ep that came with the scope seems to have a hair piece?? accross the lens that moves about (if you see what i mean?!)

So im going to invest into a few new ones.

My scope is a skywatcher 150p eq3-2 mount. Arethe eye P that come with it any good? It came with a 10, 25 and 2x barlow.

Any recommendations for my scope would be greatly appreciated and sorry for getting carried away with tonights viewing....

[John]

The eyepieces that come with a scope are usable but rather basic - they would need to raise the price of the scope if they supplied good ones !

Moving on to decent plossls like the ones made by GSO or the BST Explorer eyepieces that you see discussed on here at length will be a noticable improvement over the supplied eyepieces. You might need to budget £100 - £120 for 3 replacements - low, medium and high power.

[Nexus 6]

These are also getting good feedback although a bit pricier than Johns recommendations......First Light Optics - Celestron X-Cel LX eyepiece

[Bart]

Haven't used the LXs as mentioned above but they have been getting good reviews. I do have 2 BSTs and am very happy with them. Great value. Very good EPs.

Bart

[Zul]

I just want to correct you that Andromeda is not nebula it is galaxy. By the way congrats with new telescope

[John]

I just want to correct you that Andromeda is not nebula it is galaxy....

To be really pedantic () Andromeda is a constellation. Messier 31 is a galaxy popularly known as the Andromeda Galaxy.

[Bart]

its pedantic city here atm ! Ha

[jimmyjamjoejoe]

To be really pedantic () Andromeda is a constellation. Messier 31 is a galaxy popularly known as the Andromeda Galaxy.

Also listed in stellarium as "the great nebula in andromeda".

Maybe it was originally mistaken for a nebula.

[4lefts]

a throwback from astronomy pre-edwin hubble when all galaxies were thought to be nebulae?

anyway, i got to use my 25mm x-cel lx last night. i really like it - lovely ep. nice and sharp and contrasty, m42 is something in that ep, even though i was only using a 95mm mak. the only thing to know though, is i thought the eye relief was very long, longer even than the eyecup. it's fine to use, you just have to remember that the relief is longer than other eps, otherwise is blacks out.

i hope the others in the series are as good - they seem to be, and i think they'd make a great replacement to stock eps.

[brantuk]

Actually it's a throwback to Charles Messier who was looking for what he called "faint fuzzies" and thought they were nebulae, but some turned out to be galaxies and some were actually globulars. Dunno who found out in the end though - some bright spark with a half decent (for the day) objective I would think lol

Far a very reasonable starter eyepiece (and better than any of the cheap kits imho) you can't beat the Baader Zoom 5 in 1

(well to be pedantic you can actually beat it - but it's terrific value for money - great quality - and very flexible)

[4lefts]

i think that was hubble who found out, by measuring the apparent magnitude of cephied variables in "spiral nebulae" (i.e. distant galaxies).

[craigsta]

I realised when i re read my post that i posted nebula (DOH!) thanks for the correction I'm going to see if i can find a new set this morning. Thanks for your input and im looking forward using them sunday night if the skies permit! How great was viewing last night!!!

[rwilkey]

Hi Craigsta, that 'hair piece' moving about when you view through the 10mm stock eyepiece might be the reflection of your own eyelashes, this happens quite often in cheaper eyepieces when the anti-reflection coatings aren't up to much. Replace this one first, suggestions above are good. Congratulations by the way on a great new scope. Clear skies and all that!