Annoying EP question again, sorry folks.

[Kit-Fox]

Hey folks,

I was hoping I could ask an often repeated question of 'what eyepeices should I go for?'

Annoying to have the same question asked over & over I know, but i always think its best to ask for your specific circumstances as little changes can affect the advice given.

So I have an F5 Omni150xlt & an F9.4 VMC110L (ok so I have a galileoscope too, but thats mostly just for playing around with & I dont recall the F ratio of it)

I'm hoping to get some new EPs soon as I really only have the 25mm that came with my Omni (again ok so the galieoscope came with a 20mm EP & a x2 barlow that you put together yourself)

What kind of EPs would I be looking at getting for good allround use arcoss both of my scopes? So what would b econsidered important to have?

Also would it be simpler and potentially cheaper to simly get say the baader Zoom EP instead of seperates?

[Catweazel]

For DSo's I would look for a 32mm wideview plossl and for planetary an 8mm BST Explorer or TMB Planetary II EP. That's just me though, others may advise differently

[Don Pensack]

In general, you want to start out with 3 eyepieces producing magnifications of 1X, 2X, and 3X, where x's value depends on the size of the scope.

For most backyard telescopes, it's possible to over-magnify the high-power images so that the turbulence in the sky (seeing conditions) causes the image to become blurrier and less sharp than you need.

Since you have a 150mm telescope, a size I've owned a few times through the years (and for over a decade at one time), I recommend a value of X = 50 for your scope.

That means 50x, 100x, and 150x.

The 50 power will be a low-power, widest-field, eyepiece for large objects, star clusters, and great "contextual" viewing.

The 100X will be a nice medium power for globulars, Moon, large planets, smaller clusters and nebulae.

The 150X will be a nice high power for double stars, planets, Moon, small globulars, planetary nebulae.

Since your 150mm scope has a 750mm focal length, that means eyepieces of 15mm, 7.5mm, and 5mm.

Since those two shorter focal lengths could have extremely short eye reliefs (the distance you have to hold your eye away from the eyepiece to see the entire field of view), you want to look for long eye relief eyepieces, like the Meade HD60 or Baader Hyperion, or any eyepiece with a long eye relief so the higher power eyepieces are comfortable to use.

If I were to add one additional eyepiece to the arsenal in that scope, it would be a 24mm wide angle eyepiece, which would have the widest possible field of view in a 1.25" diameter. I think you might enjoy that more than the narrower field 32mm Plossl, which, though it has the same True Field on the sky, has a narrower Apparent Field, which makes it feel a little narrower than its true field would indicate.

the Baader Zoom is a nice eyepiece, but it has a narrow field of view in the 24mm-16mm range, and it doesn't go quite high enough in magnification for the short focal length 150mm scope. It would be OK on the Vixen (because the Vixen has a longer focal length), but since the Vixen already has a somewhat narrow field of view, you would want wide angle eyepieces even more on that scope to not unnecessarily restrict the true field of view.

There really is no ultimate answer to your question, and you might eventually have a hundred eyepieces to play with.

If your budget allows, though, get 3 wide angle eyepieces with decently long eye relief that come close to the focal lengths I mention (in the Baader, it would be 17, 8, and 5mm) and then enjoy your scopes. Because they are decent instruments, and wherever the hobby takes you, rest assured you are starting out with some very decent scopes.

Stargazing is more about the experience of viewing than it is the scope. You don't know that yet, but you will.

[paul schofield]

I would go for something in the 30-32mm for low powered deep sky use. There is an endless choice out there. Also for planetary observing I would agree with the above the BST Explorer/Starguiders have great reviews. I have been reviewing planetary EP'S lately and the ones on my short list were: celestron xcel lx 7mm, Williams Optics SPL 6mm, Televue plossl 8mm, and the Vixen npl in 6mm or 8mm. But in the end I settled on the BST as I own the same in 18mm and these are great EP'S. Anyway there are a few to look at with varying prices in the budget range.

[stevetynant]

or consider the Baader Click zoom - I think it has 5 focal lengths between 8mm and 24 mm - used with a barlow you would have a real range and basically with only two eye pieces- I think its advertized on Flo between 160-£70 pounds

[rory]

if i had the money in one hit, i would most certainly buy a b h zoom.

as it stands i dont , so im buying my e/p's one at a time ,and different makes at the moment to see what suits me best. but my first buy was a low power meade 4000 (32mm) and its been a exellent bit of kit ,cost me £25 s/h and gives sharp wide views,cant fault it.

the bst explorer 12mm ,ive only used a couple of times,but on the moon it was great.

[Kit-Fox]

This is why I've just pottered around (looking mostly at the moon and a few of the more well known nebulas like orion, i do give doubles a try, TLAO encouraged me to try albireo{sp?}) and got a small lightweight grab-n-go scope before getting EPs, so many choices and paths to take and they can produce very different results.

That and now I need the Eps to suit both scopes (cant afford to have two collections for each until I win the lottery)

Atm I could probably only afford to get two hyperions, which i'm erring towards choosing as they seem to have such a good reputation. Does anyone know what the new Xcel LXs are like at all? I think realisitcally if i'm getting individual EPs its going to be one of those ranges because of the need to keep the cost down now

EDIT: Cost of course being one of the reasons for considering the baader clickstop zoom EP, as it would seem to be useful but eye relief is important for me as i'm not a fan of having objects too close to my eye, makes me all squirmish :S *shudders*