eyepiece question

[kirsty]

Ok i currently own a 130p flextube and have the standard 25mm and 10mm ep but am after a higher mag one. Now some of you guys must own same as me so what do you use and find is best ?

Also, if i decide on one will it be ok for my 200p ugrade (eventually lol) as didnt want to spend twice, it has to be able to do both ?

Any advice pls, thanks

Oh yer, mainly for planetry use

[Capricorn]

The BST/SkyGuider gets good remarks, £47 from Sky's the Limit.

The 5mm seems good in f/5 scopes so will give the magnification increase, and the 8mm also but not much more then the 10mm.

The 5mm will probably be about the max magnification for the 200P on most occasions, could be too much occasionally, but should get used.

[Mr Spock]

I would suggest the 5mm too

[kirsty]

thanks for the quick replys, i forgot to mention i do have a tal barlow as well, sorry

[Welrod50]

Kirsty,

if you wish to concentrate mainly on planetary, then BST eyepieces are designed mainly for this. I personally have found that my SW 8-24mm zoom is pretty good and notably better than the std EP's that came with my SW 130 scope.

I don't own any BST's but lots of people here swear by them for contrast and sharpness with planets. I looked into these a lot before I plumped for the SW zoom and may yet still add one to the collection for when the 'seeing' is good.

So far as 5mm EP goes - a word of caution. I had (and sold) a Celestron XCel LX 5mm EP recently. It was a lovely, solid EP and very well made, but I found that, even with good seeing, it was a little beyond my scopes capacity. In my view, 180x mag is about as good as it gets in the Midlands even with excellent 'seeing' such is the atmospheric pollution, turbulence etc.

With my 8-24mm I've found that 10mm is about as sharp as it gets. 8mm is perfectly useable, and you will tell the difference between this and the std 10mm EP, but it is at it's sweetest around 12mm.

Just my thoughts

Same part of the world and similar scope and all that.

Scott.

[kirsty]

Kirsty,

if you wish to concentrate mainly on planetary, then BST eyepieces are designed mainly for this. I personally have found that my SW 8-24mm zoom is pretty good and notably better than the std EP's that came with my SW 130 scope.

I don't own any BST's but lots of people here swear by them for contrast and sharpness with planets. I looked into these a lot before I plumped for the SW zoom and may yet still add one to the collection for when the 'seeing' is good.

So far as 5mm EP goes - a word of caution. I had (and sold) a Celestron XCel LX 5mm EP recently. It was a lovely, solid EP and very well made, but I found that, even with good seeing, it was a little beyond my scopes capacity. In my view, 180x mag is about as good as it gets in the Midlands even with excellent 'seeing' such is the atmospheric pollution, turbulence etc.

With my 8-24mm I've found that 10mm is about as sharp as it gets. 8mm is perfectly useable, and you will tell the difference between this and the std 10mm EP, but it is at it's sweetest around 12mm.

Just my thoughts

Same part of the world and similar scope and all that.

Scott.

Cant ask for more than that then lol, similair scopes and same land an all. Have looked on the net about the 8-24mm but ya dont know nothing about them until ya speak to someone who has one. I wonder then how that compares to the bst then

But like i said im hoping to upgrade soon so will this do for that as well do ya reckon?

thanks

[Welrod50]

Oh yeah, deffo. Let me put it this way...

Tuesday night we had a bit fo broken cloud didn't we. I managed to get out late on for an hour and have a good look at Saturn.

32mm EP - sharp and bright but very small.

25mm EP - sharp and bright, but small.

10mm EP - good mag, but less bright and less sharp and accentuated the atmospheric turbulence, so the planet wobbled.

Enter stage left, the 8-24. From 24mm down to 12 it was bob on, bright clear and very sharp. Still good down to 8mm and although the turbulence was still amplified, it remained sharper and brighter than the std 10mm by a good way.

If it was £100 I would still buy one. For £50 thereabouts, you can't go wrong.

There are 'better' zooms out there but in my view and on my scope, the SW one is worth the outlay!