eyepiece for DSO

[scuffer]

Hello , I'm looking at getting an ep for dso's and the more I read the more confuddled I get . My scope can accept 2" or 1.25" , all my bits are presently 1.25", so should I get a 2" because it will be wider ? do I need a wide angled one ? I was looking at 32mm ish , in the hope I will get a better view than my 25mm . I'm looking at £50 max and looking for some one to say you need this one and tell me why. Thanks

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

A 2" EP can show a wider FOV than a 1.25". A 32mm will need to be reasonably wide angled to make the most of the 2". Even my 31mm Nagler T5 (rather above your budget) does not get the maximum FOV out of my C8, despite its massive 82 deg FOV. Given that your scope is quite fast at F/5.9, very cheap (ultra) wide angles will perform relatively poorly at the edges. The Skywatcher Panaview 32mm has quite a good rep for the money, see review on SGL here:

http://stargazerslounge.com/astro-lounge/136376-skywatcher-32mm-panaview-awesome.html

And that was on a slightly faster scope. The 30mm Aero is reportedly a clone of the TMB Paragon (I have the original 40mm) which is very good indeed, but more expensive again.

[Hobbes]

I tried a Revelation 30mm 2" Eyepiece in my 8" F6 Newtonian at a group observing session recently and was really impressed.

I loved the view of the Double Cluster in Perseus which was always one of my favs through Bins but which never really delivered the same wow factor through the scope until I used this eyepiece.

I have promised myself one as a reward if I pass my last ITIL exam.

It is well within your price range and avaialble!

[Capricorn]

There are no speific eyepieces for DSO's.

The Orion nebula is big and bright, the Crab nebula is small and dim. Both DSO's and require different setups.

Something like Orion nebula and the Pleiades are about 1 degree so using a scope at around 50x would get all (most) in the view. In your scope that means about 25mm eyepiece.

For finding the dimmer and smaller DSO's you need to concentrate the collected light into a small area, again low magnification, then centre the object and increase the magnification in the hope of seeing more.

At £50 and 32mm I cannot think of anything other then a plossl, BST's stop at 25mm, TMB's stop at something like 20mm.

2" eyepieces are not small, the seemingly small change from 1.25 to 2.0 (0.75) is scary.

[Tinker1947]

I took a chance with a 36mm Hyperion, its works just a bit iffy in day light looking at Venus, it gets a small smudge in the centre of the view, but by the time its dark enough to see Jupiter its gone, so yes i'm glad i got it and finding DSO's with it is a dream, most are right on the edge and with a smaller FOV would be missed and therefore required more time to find them, so god bless the 36mm and the Telrad that gets me very close..