TeleVue Lenses

[LouisB]

I'm not exactly a beginner but at 70 near enough. I have a Celestron cpc 800 and a variety of lenses including some Celestron glass from the lens set that accompanied the scope.

I have been able to view Jupiter quite easily recently and I settled for a Celestron plossi 32mm and 2x Barlow -both from the lens kit. Although the quality of the sighting was (to me) good I decided to attempt to improve matters by replacing my lens selection with a TeleVue 2x Barlow and a TeleVue 40 mm. Although slightly down in magnification the definition was ever so slightly better and some very slight tonality could be seen on the angled cloud banding. Unfortunatly the eyepiece easily blacked out as I slightly moved my head - the target moved to the side until I aligned my eye to exactly the correct angle.

This is somewhat tiresome for long viewing and does not occure with the far cheaper Celestron lenses. I also have a 10mm Baader Hyperion that although rather high in magnification for planets does allow easy viewing - I also have a Revelation Astro Quartz two inch diagonal with reducer fitted as it seemingly has a very low loss reflective element.

Any comments regarding a lens choice that is not so fussy regarding the angle that I look through the eyepiece at would be greatly appreciated.

Louis

[Peter Drew]

Hello from another 70+. The problems you have with the blacking out with the eyepieces is due to amount of eye relief (distance from the eyepiece to your eye). The long focus eyepieces mean you have to hold your eye a little bit further away which results in difficulty of keeping your eye lined up with the emerging beam. A Barlow lens does not help with these long focus eyepieces, the shorter focal length eyepieces should have less problem, this is common to many eyepieces, practice will make things easier.

[Mr Spock]

Usually a 40mm eyepiece with a barlow will increase eye relief beyond what is comfortable. You'd be better off with shorter focal length eyepieces.

I'm suprised you find the 10mm too much - x200 in your scope is easily attainable on most night (unless you are using it with the barlow).

[ollypenrice]

As above. I wouldn't use a long FL eyepiece and Barlow it, I'd use shorter FL eyepiece.

Olly

[LouisB]

Thanks everbody - I am now pointed in the right direction. Not exactly a beginner but having to re-learn what I knew long ago :-)

LouisB

[brantuk]

A TV Radian 12mm would work nice in your scope. And it has an adjustable eye relief with a good throw and they come with a little gadget to get eye placement spot on.

[Charon]

So does the 8mm Radian.

[CGolder]

basically some of the most comfortable eyepieces to use are those with adjustable eyecups, these help with the position of your eye and help to eliminate blackouts.

Delos, Radian, t4 Nagler, Pentax, Celestron, BST all have ranges with these adjustable cups (i am sure others do too)

[Saleratus]

The easiest-to-use high-quality eyepieces that I've tried are the Pentax XWs, followed by Televue Panoptics. I haven't tried the Delos, but have heard good things about them.

Pentax XW's have almost a cult following, and I'm sure Televue designed the Delos line to compete with them.