Eyepiece fever

[nucleardwarf]

Hi,

Having great fun with my newly acquired CPC 800! Would appreciate opinions on a quality eyepiece for viewing DS with wide field of view possible.

Any suggestions, bearing in mind that price is the limiting factor and I don't have limitless funds!

Thanks,

[Don Pensack]

The CPC is great with any eyepiece.

If you have upgraded to 2" capability (and if you haven't, you should do so immediately), then 2" eyepieces of 40-56mm will have the largest possible field of view, around 1.3 degrees. This size field is not fully illuminated at the edge, but you won't notice.

If you haven't upgraded to 2" capability, and are still using the 1.25" back end, then the widest fields of view in 1.25" will be:

35mm Orion Ultrascopic/35mm Parks Gold Series--0.82 degrees

32mm Plossl, 24mm Wide Angle eyepiece--0.76 degrees

You can see that 2" yields a significant increase in field of view. It's why people convert to 2". And your CPC has plenty of clearance to allow a 2" diagonal to pass through the base.

If you convert to 2", do not get the SCT-style, thread-on star diagonal. Get the 2" refractor-style diagonal and a 2" adapter tube for the back of the scope.

Why?

1) The refractor style diagonal has a larger clear aperture all the way through

2) The refractor-style diagonal is threaded for filters on the front end

3) The refractor-style diagonal is easier to tip sideways when the scope is pointed near the horizon.

4) The refractor style diagonal can be transferred to a refractor easily so you could share it between two scopes.

[spaceboy]

BST Explorers http://www.skysthelimit.org.uk/telescope%20eyepieces.html

[Capricorn]

Would agree on the BST's, or whatever they are called now. The 5mm won't be of much use to you but from 8mm up the rest should be good.

Choice of them is therefore: 8mm, 12mm, 15mm, 18mm, 25mm.

On a CPC 800 with the fairly long focal length I would say 25mm and 12mm but if you had a decent barlow that is a bit of a waste as half 25 is close to 12.

If you have a reasonable barlow the 15mm and 25mm, giving 7.5mm and 12,5mm also. reasonable spread.

Wouldn't go for the 8mm immediatly, should be OK but may be usable not as often as you would like.

The BST's are now £47.

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

For very large FOV in a C8 or similar scope, I would have a look at the Skywatcher Aero 40mm. I heard it is a clone of the TMB Paragon 40mm I have which is excellent in my C8. The field of view is almost the maximum possible in a 2" EP (1.34 deg in the sky). At the moment I do use the 31mm Nagler a lot more (1.25 deg true FOV), but that is a great deal more expensive. The Paragon is very comfortable to use, and I still keep it for two reasons: (i) it is very useful for public outreach, where inexperienced users find it much easier to use than the Nagler, and (ii) for the few occasions I need that extra bit of FOV. They are also sold as Teleskop Service Paragon 40mm EPs.

Also agree completely with Don Pensack's remarks.

[Graphic]

Hi to everyone.

I am a new member of this fantastic forum.

I have just purchased a Telvue 101 and would like some really good advice concerning the selection of a few eye pieces. I cannot afford the Televue Naglers at this point and so I have been researching the Baader Hyperians, 8mm and 17mm. Would these eyepieces work ok on this 4 inch refractor? It has a focal length of 540mm and is f5.4. I have also looked at the Skywatcher Panaview series of eyepieces for wide field viewing. I also have a Televue Powermate 4X.

I would really grateful for any advice on the above subject.

Thanks

Paul

[nucleardwarf]

Can I pass on my thanks to all who replied - excellent response and guidance.

I shall start off by replacing the money that my son has in his piggy bank and replacing it with used coins from abroad so that he doesn't notice!

Seriously though, thanks for the guidelines, I shall start saving up, unless someone on this site has one that they wish to sell on........................................

Thanks

[John]

Hi to everyone.

I am a new member of this fantastic forum.

I have just purchased a Telvue 101 and would like some really good advice concerning the selection of a few eye pieces. I cannot afford the Televue Naglers at this point and so I have been researching the Baader Hyperians, 8mm and 17mm. Would these eyepieces work ok on this 4 inch refractor? It has a focal length of 540mm and is f5.4. I have also looked at the Skywatcher Panaview series of eyepieces for wide field viewing. I also have a Televue Powermate 4X.

I would really grateful for any advice on the above subject.

Thanks

Paul

Paul - I'd start a new thread with your question - it won't get much attention tagged onto this threadd.