Televue 11mm Plossl or 15mm

[Pete D]

I am getting a Sky watcher 32mm panview when FLO have them in stock and would like to know if a 11mm Plossl would compliment this eyepiece for getting more detail out of say M42 or would a 15mm be better. Any ideas would be appreciated, thanks.

[newman]

Well, something around 10mm would give you great results due to a 2mm exit pupil (the 11mm you suggested would work well too). Only bear in mind, the Orion nebula is fairly large, about 1.5 degrees across, so there's no chance it'll fit inside the field of view of a Plossl at that magnification. Not even a 15mm Plossl would fit it. The only way around this would be to get a wide field eyepiece and not a plossl.. and quality wide fields that still work great with a fast scope generally cost way more than a plossl, unfortunately.

Or, use the low power to view M42 and other larger objects, and switch to a 10/11mm plossl to view smaller DSO's, like planetary nebulas and such.

[russ.will]

I use a 18mm 60deg FOV EP with my 32mm Panaview and don't find the jump in magnification to be an issue - I sold my 26mm because it wasn't getting used for this and other reasons.

However, the jump from 18mm down to 8mm felt enormous, so I bought a 12mm to plug the gap. None of them are Plossls, Televue or otherwise, but I thought it worth a comment as I feel 32 to 15mm might feel a bit of stretch.

Russell