To eyepiece or to filter....that is the question....

[Monki]

Hehe......hello guys/girls.

To cut a long story short, i have £35 to spend at sherwood-photo. I have a celestron 60lcm which i'm more then happy with, but currently have the standard k25mm and k10mm and also a Tal 2x Barlow.

I'm currently toying with the idea of getting a new Vixen NPL or a baader neodymium/ir-cut filter. I'm leaning towards the filter as i could imagine this making my views of jupiter and the moon better, and possibly even help with contrast of the sky. I have no problem with my current eyepieces and the barlow gives me a bit of range to mess with which is another reason why i'm leaning toward the filter rather then eyepiece.

I would either go for a 30mm or a 15mm vixen if i did decide on an EP to go with my 25mm+10mm.

Other things that caught my eye were a telrad and the philips dpc webcam.

Do you think the filter would be my best choice? I've heard mixed opinions but generally they are good comments.

Sent from a Galaxy S 2 far away.

[newman]

Replacing the ep's that come with the scope with quality ones is going to make the most dramatic difference regarding the views. Whether or not that means you'll prioritize this is up to you, though.. Personally I'd save the filter for later and just put money on the side until I can get my ep collection built up. The difference between the standard 10&25 that come with the scope and a good quality ep has to be seen to be believed.

[Mr Spock]

A Vixen NPL is a huge improvement over the Kellner eyepieces you have. The Kellner is a very basic three element design whereas the Vixen is a four element Plössl.

The Tal is an excellent Barlow and would complement the Vixen well.

[Monki]

Thanks for your input! I guess you're totally right about a new ep giving the most noticeable boost, i've heard that a lot...so maybe a filter to dim jupiter can wait till next month.

After more browsing i see they also have the last of Celestron's X-cel EPs for £40....i think i might just buy me one of those

Sent from a Galaxy S 2 far away.

[MorningMajor]

I've got a 30mm Vixen NPL - well worth the money - better value than a filter

[LukeSkywatcher]

Vixen NPL's and Tals are a match made in the heavens.

[Monki]

I've read nothing but good things about the npl's which has made this a hard decision, but after browsing the web for a few hours I think i'm going to go for the x-cel and take advantage of the sale price. An 18mm i think...

Hopefully they'll still be in stock, but if not....npl it is

Sent from a Galaxy S 2 far away.

[John]

It's your call but the X-Cel's are not as good as the X-Cel LX's. The Vixen NPL's would probably be a better performing eyepiece.

[Monki]

Quick update..

The x-cel came on friday and i've had 2 cloudy nights with it..

First impressions over my stock k eypieces are brilliant. I'm loving the extra field of view! Looks like i made a good choice with the 18mm as it now (with the bigger fov) gives me the fov of my 25mm but obviously higher mag, and with a 2x barlow bringing it to ~9mm it shows the same as my 10mm too.

I was really looking forward to trying jupiter with it but the clouds just would not move ..Pleiades looked very nice though, the xcel also seems to bring out the black more and has less blue tint...to say there was slight cloud coverage among it, i could still see more stars then my stock k25. I really am enjoying the improvement in fov and eye relif.

Overall I'm very happy with it....can't wait to try it on a clear night!

Thanks again for your advice guys. Glad i got an ep over a filter...i must say out of pure curiosity though my next ep will be an npl, then i can see what's best for me

Sent from a Galaxy S 2 far away.

[rwilkey]

Hi Monki, that's a great idea, try different ones and see what suits you best, that's what I did and I am very pleased with my current collection, it gives me more flexibility when choosing an eyepiece for the relevent seeing conditions. A Vixen NPL will be well worth trying.