General Advice Needed

[Button Moon]

Hi everyone

I've not been stargazing for very long and I'm only just learning about my telescope. I went out last night before the clouds came over and looked at the moon, venus and jupiter (which was amazing).

I would like to buy some more stuff for my telescope to help me view the night sky better like some more eye pieces, filters etc (or anything elso you think would be good). I'm don't really know whats best to look for and I get a bit confused when I'm looking on sites with 1. what long eye relief etc is. and 2. the eye pieces have all these different name like celestron, kellner, skywatcher, plossl?? I'm thinking these are different makes but does my telescope need a certain make? And filters I know can help you to see details clearer but that's all I know

Here are all my telescope details. I think this is everthing but if you need anything else I'll try and find it. I've got a: Skywatcher Maksutov-Cassegrain Skymax 127 Supatrak Auto Reflector telescope. It has a 5" primary mirror and a 1500mm focal length. I got with it a 25mm (super 25 wide angle long eye relief), a 10mm (super 10 long eye relief) and a 1.25" 2x barlow lens.

Thanks for your help

[Capricorn]

Simplest answer is 2 or 3 more eyepieces.

At 1500 the scope will work OK with just about any reasonable eyepiece. The ones you have probably not the best and are probably not giving the best views.

The favourite at present is the BST EXplorers from Sky's the Limit.

If the 25mm you have is decent then consider the 12mm and 15mm BST. These will give 125x qnd 100x resp.

If they work well and you like them then at some stage the 8mm for 187x, I wouldn't go down to the 5mm 300x is too much. The 8mm will be at the limit with all conditions that are most likely.

Shame that BST's do not come in a 32mm eyepiece as this would give good wide views.

[Button Moon]

Thanks Capricorn!

Any advice with filters?

[rwilkey]

Hi, Filters are a very personal choice and don't help with everything, a Moon filter ND96 (0.09) is good for reducing the glare of the Moon when it is at it's brightest, and a UHC (Ultra High Contrast) filter is good for nebulae, as is also the OIII filter for feint planetary nebula, but the UHC is the best all rounder. I wouldn't bother with colour filters for the planets, they don't really work that well I don't think, a Baader Neodynium LP filter would be better for bright planets and also the Moon, so a bit of overlap here and there, but get used to your new telescope properly first before you go onto filters, get to know what most interests you in the night sky first, and then go from there.

[Catweazel]

Shame that BST's do not come in a 32mm eyepiece as this would give good wide views.

I have the GSO 32mm plossl, which is nice, and around the same sort of price as the BSTs. Not quite as wide a FOV though