Fairly new to Astronomy, need advice!

[Paul Shatwell]

Hi all.

I'm fairly new to astronomy and even newer to Stargazers Lounge (just signed up!). I hope I'm writing this in the right section!

I've been extremely interested in Astronomy for a few years now and have recent bought a Celestron NexStar 6 SE. With the scope came a 25mm PLOSSL eyepiece and a 12.5mm PLOSSL eyepiece.

After a month or so of observing with these eyepieces, viewing excellent images of the moon and fairly good images of our solar system (mainly Jupiter & Saturn) and stars, I invested in a Celestron X-Cel LX 9mm eyepiece. This (obviously) gave me greater magnification of the objects I was previously viewing.

Now, another few month down the line, I'm looking for something else to buy to improve viewing even more.

My question is really, am I seeing the best I will see through my 9mm eyepiece in conjunction with my 150mm scope or is there something out there (better eyepieces/barlow lenses) that will improve viewing and give me better magnification without losing quality?

Thanks and any comments appreciated!

Paul.

[DOBBY]

Hi Paul... & welcome to the forum

[Daniel-K]

welcome and enjoy!

[Catweazel]

Hi and welcome. On your scope (f10), you could get a 7mm Ep which would give you 214x magnification on planets, as opposed to 167x that you get with your 9mm. If you wanted to get more varied views of DSO's, you could go the other way and go for a low power EP, like a 32mm wide view.

[rowan46]

I would go the other way and get a 32mm. the nexstar at f10 has a narrow field of view a 32mm eyepiece will open out the views. it will frame things like the double cluster better and make the faint fuzzies a little easier to see sometimes the best views are not about magnification. Welcome to sgl by the way.

[Paul Shatwell]

Thanks for the warm welcome and advice!

I think I'll go down the 32mm route for now. Any advice on make/type?

Thanks again.

Paul.

[jfox61]

Do you have a 2" adaptor with the scope. If so A Skywatcher 38mm Panaview would be an awesome addition to your ep collection. But staying with 1.25" try thr BST range of EP's. Low cost but extremely good value for money. Or from FLO our forum spnsor and link at top page you could try the Vixen NPL range too.

In my opinion they are, certainly for low cost value for money, expecially for newbies like us, the ideal EP's for cutting your teeth on before upgrading to the premium lenses.