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Cant beleive the difference


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Hi All,

Ive had my scope for over a year now and have bought lots of things to improve stuff, Today I took delivery of my first decent quality eyepiece a celestron x-cel-lx 5mm, and WOW what a difference, i had only got the couple of eyepieces that were given to me when I bought the scope which I thought were good they are GSO 26mm and 9mm plossl's but the clarity and quality of the images with this new eyepice just blows them away, I may never look through them again,

I never thought there would be so much difference.

So my newest advice is stay clear of cheaper eyepieces. Save up for better quality ones.

Kev.

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It can be difficult sometimes biting the bullet and spending a little extra on something like an nice EP, but the rewards for buying a nice EP well out weigh the cost IMO.

nice when your completely satisfied with a purchase, clear skies.

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Interesting, I didn't realise they could make 'that' much difference! Using the standard gear that shipped with my 200p Dobsonian, so an expensive eyepiece would make potentially make a noticeable difference to clarity of, say, Jupiter, to be worth the investment? :icon_salut:

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You don't necessarily need to spend lots of money. If you're content with a 50 degree AFOV then there are some good Meade Plossls (for example) which are well priced and should improve views over stock GSO eyepieces.

If you want to go to wider fields then there are offerings out there for under a hundred quid which will give pretty sharp wide fields. That may sound like a lot of money but keep in mind that if you look after the eyepiece there is no reason it shouldn't last for decades. It won't go obsolete (like modern DSLR lenses can) or spontaneously break down (like an electronic component). You can keep the eyepiece if you upgrade scopes. Overall, it's money well spent.

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This si the problem you can get so tied up in thinking that more money makes better views... to an extent it will but don't go expecting miracles now. both correct choice of scope and eye pieces will make for good views, and from what i ahve read ovr the past year some cheaper EP's give what some consider to be just as good views.

best thing to do is read peoples reviews and make informed choices when spending your money. i see more and more people suggesting Pentax are very good for the money just lately.

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The eyepieces supplied with scopes are OK to get you going but are really just the minimum acceptable quality. If they supplied good ones I guess the scope prices would rise accordingly :icon_salut:

After you get to using decent eyepieces (like the Celestron X-Cel LX's, BST Explorers, Hyperions etc) the improvements gained by moving to even higher cost and quality eyepieces become much less noticable although that does not seem to stop many folks pursuing those slight improvements :evil:

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I am surprised! Those GSO plossl are extremely good and this is the second review i've read from an x-cell owner stating a radically improved view over their GSO plossl. So i guess these new celestrons must be something special!

Enjoy the view.

andrew

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Im not saying that the GSO's are rubbish, Im just saying that compared to the celestron x-cel lx they are inferior, but can I also add having had them second hand I dont know how they have been handled.

Kev

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You do have to be clear on what you mean by "better", however. There are many ways in which one eyepiece can yield better or worse views than another. This is even more the case when you're comparing rather different designs. For example, the Celestron you mention has a 60 degree AFOV whereas your original eyepieces have (IIRC) a 50 degree AFOV. The wider field alone will make the view more pleasing even if there were no difference in sharpness, off-axis aberrations, etc.

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I also find it puzzling. I tried out a 9mm GSO Plossl that came with a new scope last week and thought it was excellent. Fov and eye relief aside, i found it every bit as sharp as my 8mm Ethos. In my 8" f6 dob i was able to resolve the e and f stars of the Trapezium at 133x. I know if i ever was to switch back to the Plossl design i would be having a long hard look at these.

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I also started for a while with supplied ep's SW 10mm & 25mm thought they were ok for a while. Upgraded to Meade S.P 9.7mm and 26mm and noticed a definite improvement in view. Then tried TMB Planetary (did not find any better really). Then BST Explorer, better again than the Meade. And finally paid out a bit more on SW Aero ED Now cant wait to try, getting delivered Tuesday, this by rights should be the biggest step up in quality for me. Kevdan I wish I had gone for the celestron x-cel-lx 5mm instead of the TMB 5mm. Maybe next time.

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I think we should all consider our selves lucky, there aren't many hobbies where ancilleries from one manufacturer fit another maufacturers item, so Eyepieces are an investment , a costly one at times but an investment never the less, and like has been said before if they are handled and stored correctly then there's no reason why they shouldnt last for decades.

Clear skies people.

Kev.

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Damo, you may find differences between the Plossl and the Ethos at faster focal ratios. f/6 is rather forgiving. Also, what's special about the Ethos is the fact that you get a very wide field that is sharp throughout. That's what you're paying for. Making the view sharp near the axis is easy. It's sharp views off-axis that are hard to produce. With that in mind, you'd be more likely to see aberrations at the field edges at lower powers rather than higher powers. My bad experiences with cheap Plossls have been at lower powers not higher powers.

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