best eyepiece for glasses wearers

[kiffy]

hi folks, this maybe a bit of a wierd question.. i did search but couldnt find anything... im one of the four eyed clan (also fat and ugly.. got nothing going for me!) and am wondering if theres one brand or one model of eye piece that would be more suitable than others for someone who must wear their glasses?

im about to order my first scope and thought id treat myself to another ep at the same time.. it comes with a 25mm so im also wondering which i should go for... dont want to spend silly money as my budgets already stretched but want something thats decent quality... so if spending more (not to much more) means i get better viewing then im willing to pay it.

so any ideas?

steve

[Rebus]

I'm in the same situation as you Steve (about to get my first scope and wears glasses), so I'll be watching this thread with interest.

I'm sure you need a longer eye-point. I made sure I got longer/adjustable eyepoint when i got my bins a few months ago.

[kniclander]

unless you have astigmatism you dont need to wear your glasses at the e/p - you just adjust the focus till it's right for your eyes. I'm pretty visually challenged and I never wear mine for looking through the e/p although funnily enough I do wear them for the finderscope.

[RogerTheDodger]

I have some astigmatism and I take my glasses off to view - not really noticed any difference... what do I look for?

[Frank the Troll]

Not going to rec EP's apart from saying 'rubber eye caps'

[Orion_the_Hunter]

unless you have astigmatism you dont need to wear your glasses at the e/p

^This.

However, I need to wear glasses to observe.

For high power I have a 6mm TS Planetary ep.

For low power I have a Skywatcher Panaview 32mm.

The TS planetary is good, the Panaview is great, mainly because the twist up eyecup gives a wide 'choice' of eye reelief.

[BazMark]

I use a 6mm TS Planetary HR eyepiece from time to time with my scope. They have long eye relief and the ability to adjust the outer piece to suit your use a bit like the rubber eye-cup on binoculars.

I too suffer from astigmatism which can be very irritating if I forget my glasses and yet it seldom causes a problem at the eyepiece. On the occasions that it does the TS EP works for me. I'd like to acquire an 8mm one but for the moment can't afford it.

[Capricorn]

You want an eyepiece that has "Long Eye Relief", abbreviated to LER by some.

The eye relief of plossl's is about 2/3 of the eyepiece focal length. However I suspect that it appears as less as most of these values are from the optical centre of the lens, close to the physical centre, and the plossl lens is reasonably thick. So you have to get very close to the upper lens surface.

So you get reasonable eye relief from the longer plossl's.

To eye pieces that are designed with LER.

The 2 inexpensive ones are BST Explorers and TMB Planetary's.

The BST's have 15mm and the TMB's have 20mm I think. The BST' have a wind you cup, bit like modern binoculars. As best I can tell the TMB's do not - well I cannot get mine to move.

If your glasses are plastic I would consider the TMB's. Longer eye relief, and the eye cup is rubber, so you are further away and the cup material is "softer".

If the material is glass (mine are) then the BST's, they do not scratch as easily and you wind the cup up to the best place for your eyes with the spectical lens just about touching.

BST's are £41, TMB's £39, from Sky's the Limit. There are others, TV radians but they cost significantly more. Celestron X-Cel's have good eye relief but are more costly then BST's or TMB's, less then TV's.

It is a compromise between cost and performance.

[182570]

I can recommend the BST's,they have good eye relief and are comfortable to use(with or without wearing your glasses)

[kiffy]

thanks for the replies guys, the bst sounds interesting... now just gota work out which to get first

[Ags]

According to the televue website, you do not need to worry about astigmatism when using a small exit pupil (high magnification) as the narrow beam of light entering the eye does not show up the optical defect.

[kiffy]

i had my scope yesterday and two of the bst eyepieces.. we have clear skies at the moment so fingers crossed ill be able to update on the difference for those who wear glasses between the standard plossl and the bst tonight