Choosing EP's

[Ian123]

Hello fellow member's, i was curious how many of you decide which eyepiece to purchase.

There seems to be a myriad of parameters to consider when choosing an eyepiece for your paticular scope.

Many of you describe certain makes and models perform better at different focal lenght's?

Is your main consideration eye relief, exit pupil, reviews or AFOV?

Probably like many new to astronomy i am curious what other members have in their collection.

When i have been looking at the "show me your ep case" thread in the eyepiece forum there seems to be various makes and models in your cases(except the green & black ones )

I know these have probably been accumalated over many years but for those of us that are new this seems to be quite an expensive experiment to undertake.

I know it will take time to get to know what my scope and my eyes prefer and it is all a personal choice, but to start with i dont want to make bad choices.

I have a fairly fast scope at being at f4.7 and my choice of EP has to be a carefully considered one in regard to that.

With this in mind what would be my first option in choosing an EP?

I will be building my collection slowly and surely as going out and buying a fell set of naglers simply is not a realistic option in my case.

I have been looking at the WO UWAN, Anteres SW and ES 82's, with being quite new are there many other options to consider? and will these be reasonable in a fast scope and should i consider buying a full set or different makes at different FL's.

Sorry for the long question

[John]

I think you will get loads of different answers to these questions because, as you say, eyepiece preferences are quite a personal thing.

In my case, with all my scopes being on simple, undriven, alt-azimuth mounts, I've always been attracted to wide fields of view to aid manual tracking. I have reasonably fast scopes (F/7.5 to F/4.8) and I like the field of view to be as sharp as possible right across so the eyepieces need to be well corrected for fast scopes.

I've tended to be prepared to trade a little in ultimate sharpness and contrast for a wide field of view but recent developments in eyepiece optical quality have made that trade off much less than it was in the past.

I confess that I do also have some simpler design eyepieces with low numbers of air to glass surfaces as well and the trade off with those is a narrower field of view and tighter eye relief (the distance your eye needs to be from the top of the eyepiece to see the whole field of view). Sometimes it's nice to use these rather than the ultra wide angled ones.

Of the ones on your list, I've tried a few UWAN's / Skywatcher Nirvana's (same eyepiece in my opinion) and have been very impressed with them. They offer 90% or more the performance of the "green & black" ones for a much lower outlay and they perform pretty well in fast scopes too.

There are now some excellent choices available from £40 and upwards though so big spending is not really needed to get enjoyable performance even with fast scopes. That said, a quality eyepiece set will last a long time and many scopes

The above are just my views - you will get lots of others too I'm sure

[rwilkey]

Hi, the Celestron X-Cel LX's are good ep's for fast scopes as you may have alresdy found with the 25mm. Another recommendation is the SW PanaView 32mm 2" ep, an excellent wide sky ep and my personal best in my 200P, I pressume from your telescope choice that you would be into deep sky and therefore with your aperture you should not go below 8mm in focal length. Fast scopes are not tolerent of cheap ep's unfortunately. Another ep I would recommend, though a bit expensive, are the Axiom LX's (82 degrees), I bought mine s/h and am very pleased with them. Celestron for some reason have renamed them 'Luminos'.

Don't rush with ep's, my collection was built over time and I have been buying with two telescopes in mind. If you can, get to an astro club or star perty and try other people's ep's.

[Ian123]

Thanks John, i am not sure if i could like the short eye relief of some ep's, some people like the BGO but it seems the short FL ones look like peering through a pinhole.

Is this comfartable for viewing?

I have recently purchased the Celestron X-Cel LX and have yet to get a good viewing with it but soem people like them.

Like you mentioned is the extra outlay on the UWAN worth it as im just starting out?

Will be giving carefull consideration before my next purchase as im sure many do.

EDIT:You must of posted while i was typing rwilkey,as mentioned not had a good view with it yet ( the celestron)

[John]

Yes, the orthoscopics and some other designs in short focal lengths do have pretty short eye relief and tiny eye lenses. Some folks have no problem with this and love them, others simply can't be doing with it.

It's so difficult to answer the "is it worth it" questions I find - in many ways you really need to try out a variety of eyepieces at a variety of prices and then you can answer that question better than anyone. Do you have an astro club near you where you might be able to do this ?.

I've always tried to buy the best quality eyepieces I could afford and I've not regretted it. I don't see why newcomers to the hobby should not have great views too.

The used market (see the UK Astro Buy & Sell website) is an excellent way to get quality for less £'s and then trade up as and when you feel you want to. Most of my eyepieces have been bought used.

I tend to read as many reviews as I can on equipment I'm interested in. There are a number of websites, including SGL, that carry good reviews including the Cloudynights forum - you don't need to be a member there to read the reviews.

[rwilkey]

That's interesting, I have only heard good things about them with fast scopes, I would be interested to hear further from you when you have had the opportunity to use it more.

[Ian123]

It's looking good for tonight, quite clear at the moment but i think i just jinxed it

Hopefully get out later, at the moment the moon is shining brilliantly so not much chance for some DSO's though

[rwilkey]

Real thick cloud here in Swindon!

[John]

Real thick cloud here in Swindon!

Same here in North Somerset

[Capricorn]

I chose the bunch I have based really on cost.

I find there is a cost above which I am basically unwilling to go.

This seems to be around the £60-70 mark.

Then it is a case of what is available at and below this, then try to find out something about them. What do people think, both plus and minus.

The WO UWANS fall outside what I am comfortable in paying, the SWAN's fall inside. So I have a set of SWANs.

Yes UWAN's are wider but also in looking I read that over something like 68deg you have to move your eye round to see everything. I do not see any point in that. So I suppose I limited myself to around 68 (70) or less.

Rather like a car, you can pay foir one that does 160mph, but if you realistically rarely get to 100mph and never to 120mph why pay for something you will not use.

That basically left me with buying TV plossl's, TMB II's, BST's, WO SWAN's and Antares W70's. The TV's were at the top of the budget but most were bought used. They are now outside what I would consider paying.

The BST's are very good, and owing to that I cannot see why I would purchase more expensive ones. Have read that TV Radians are not that good, or at least have drawbacks, bit surprising. So would I consider what is now about £200 on one - answer No. The remainder are outside any considerations.

That was the process I used.

[Ian123]

Good advice Capricorn, how do you find the TV Plossl's, are they comfortable or do you find yourslef squinting at the EP.

I have never used a Plossl so would like to know, the BST get some really nice reviews on here and probably for good reason.

If i purchase some decent EP's around the same price range as you suggest, which i have done recently(Celestron) i could save for a Moonlite focuser

Sounds like a good plan.

Cheers.

[Capricorn]

TV plossl's are fine, good image, good contrast. They do however stop at 8mm means you still get 5-6mm eye-relief. Really if you want magnification from one then you have to have a long focal length scope and that makes a plossl a decent choice.

The BST's go to 5mm and are sharp. So a little more magnification and more eye relief.

Problem at present is the TV plossl's are nice but at around £100 a piece I really think they have just dropped out of most peoples budget for what is a still a plossl, although a good plossl. Would like a 32mm TV plossl but for whatever reason they are silly prices.

There are others around, try the Telescope Service site and look at the various offerings.

[Ian123]

Thanks Capricorn, i think i will either choose another X-Cel LX or a BST.

[Ian123]

My main reason for considering the more expensive EP's was to get the best optics i could. But considering i am a new observer i would not really appreciate the leap in quality really until i have more observation time under my belt at which time then i can really consider the leap in price and what that would give me.

[twotter]

My main reason for considering the more expensive EP's was to get the best optics i could. But considering i am a new observer i would not really appreciate the leap in quality really until i have more observation time under my belt at which time then i can really consider the leap in price and what that would give me.

Why wait? I was using GSO Revelation and Meade 4000 plossls, but decided to change to Baader Hyperions. The wider field of view makes it so even I can tell the difference

[Ian123]

Why wait? I was using GSO Revelation and Meade 4000 plossls, but decided to change to Baader Hyperions. The wider field of view makes it so even I can tell the difference

Thanks for the info twotter, decisions decisions!!

[John]

Hyperions are great eyepieces if your scope is F/6 or slower. They do show quite a lot of astigmatism (elongated stars) in faster scopes though.

Don't rush the decision - there is a lot of choice in the <£100 price niche these days.

[Ian123]

Hyperions are great eyepieces if your scope is F/6 or slower. They do show quite a lot of astigmatism (elongated stars) in faster scopes though.

Don't rush the decision - there is a lot of choice in the <£100 price niche these days.

Nice to know John about the Hyperions in a fast scope and i am not rushing into it at all, carefull consideration.

Been of work now for 2 weeks and probably be off for another 2 weeks due to an accident so might get some money from that and a set of naglers could be here after all

[twotter]

Oh blimey, quite right! I didn't notice what telescope you have Hyperions work fine in my F6 but recent threads highlighted issues in faster telescopes. I still don't think you need to wait though.

Oh, and get well soon!