eye piece and barlows question

[iwols]

hi all ive got the sywatcher 130m scope,but i keep reading the 10mm ep and barlow are pretty poor would i be better off with something like a

Skywatcher 7-21mm 1.25" Zoom Telescope Eyepiece,so i wouldnt have to use the barlows,i know i would loose a bit of magnification,but would this be a better idea any thoughts guys cheers

[garethmob]

Unfortunately zooms aren't very good with field of views. Althrough they are good at not having to have 4 different eyepieces their not always the best. I ha the 7-21 and I found it worked great in my Coronado solar PST but not in my scopes.

Usually the tal 2x Barlow is one of the great budget ones and a eyepiece around 10 or 15. (vixen npl, baader generine orthos or other budget decent eyepiece)

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[iwols]

thanks gareth are the 10mm ep you mentioned far better than the bog standard skywatcher 10mm ep that came with my 130m

[garethmob]

They are indeed better (unfortunately the ones that come with the scope are less than desired.) but an eyepiece is up the the individual. The baaders have a small eye relief (so not great if you have glasses) the vixens are ok but 10 mm again same. There's some others out there that have a lot of eye relief though but the price does start going up

Usually the best advice is to stick with the eyepieces you have. Find where the weak points are and upgrade them. The Barlow isn't the best but it does the job really I still use my skywatcher 25 mm as it bridges the gap between my 30mm and 10mm vixens

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[garethmob]

If you can it might be good attend a star party or your local astro society as you may be able to look through one of their eyepieces in your scope. See how it feels before buying and finding they don't suit you. There's a lot of groups on Sgl maybe one local to you can help:)

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[iwols]

thanks gareth