Suggestions for 4" Tal

[tom33pr]

Folks,

I've been given a 4" refractor on loan from my local astro club, and absolutely love it.

I previously used a 10" DOB with Nagler and Hyperion type of eyepieces, but due to cretain circumstances I had to get rid of my previous kit and I'll be using Tal refractor for some time now. The current eyepieces I have are: Celestron plossl (25mm) and Meade 9.7 plossl.

Looking to get a high power 5 or 6mm, something around 17mm and possibly something as low as 30mm (I'm not planning to use a barlow).

I was wondering if any of you who have some experience with Tals could recommend some affordable brands with possibly wide FOV. Please note that I intend to possibly get them sh and cheap as possible.

I know I should have done my reading but I would like to hear what your experience was.

Thanks in advance for any suggestions

[Capricorn]

Think Tal's are f/10 and so have the idea that 5mm or 6mm may be a bit too much.

BST's fit but not sure of £41 a piece is affordable. If it is then 8mm, 15mm or 18mm and the 25mm. Probably the 15mm.

They have a field of 60 deg so about 20% more then the standard plossl.

After that there are various SWAN's on the market.

Scopes and Skies do a range apparently under the Adler name, termed Wide Angle 5 element eyepieces and £30 a piece, the field on these is 60 degree again. They come in 8mm, 12mm, 17mm, 20mm offerings.

No idea how good they are but on an f/10 scope should be decent.

[AndyH]

The Tal 100 will, seeing dependant easily take a 6mm eyepiece(167x). When I had my scope, this was my most used eyepiece FL, for high mag moon & planetary viewing. Looking at my sparse notes from then, I rarely could use the 5mm. Not because the scopes lens couldn't take the mag, but, the seeing just wasn't good enough.

Back then I used ortho's, erfles and konigs on mine. For low power I used a 2" diagonal and the Tal 24mm UWA eyepiece that I had got close to the same time as the 100RS.

So as you can gather, not exactly helpful to your question. You'll get a better reply from folk with the scope and more up to date eyepieces. One thing's for sure, the slowness of the scope makes it very eyepiece friendly.

Andy.

[nightfisher]

a good 32mm will be useful, a 15mm and maybe a better high power 8 or 9mm, just get half decent plossl`s like GSO

[Caldwell 14]

If its any good to you I use a Baader 8-24 Zoom with my 100RS and it easly does me for everything, I am more than happy with the veiws. I have used a 6mm and it was not fantastic, but then neither was the seeing! I use my scope for planetary and clusters. Very tight, sharp pin points veiws in clusters and doubles.

If you just want to just buy a couple of eyepieces I would, to increase your arsenal, buy 2, a 7mm and 15mm GSO/Meade 4000 plossils.

[tom33pr]

Thanks all for your input.

Yes, considering the scope is f10 there is a wide range of eyepieces to pick from, hence the thread.

Thanks again and more suggestions are welcome