"New'' accessories. Your opinion please

[Astro-Nova]

My dad suprised me with a few telescope accessories. He gave a refractor scope away ages ago but kept the eyepieces. Not sure how old they are. Can anyone advise me which would be no good and which would acceptable?

Regarding the sun filter(4), its a filter I can screw on an EP, Im sure this is not enough to look at the sun with only this filter, am I right?

1. 2x Barlow lense

2. H12.5mm EP

3. SR4mm EP

4. Sun filter to screw on bottom of an EP

5. Moon filter

[Kai]

Put a hammer through the Sun filter as your first action I'm afraid

[jflowers]

Sun filter straight in the bin, the rest look okish, best to see how they perform

[JamesF]

If the barlow is not great then with the lenses removed it could make a perfectly usable extension for planetary imaging, or might work as a housing for a lifecam mod.

James

[swamp thing]

What size are these eyepieces they look like the 0.965" ones I had with my Tasco ( ) newt years ago. In which case they're the old Osama bin liner I'm afraid.

[Viv]

What size are these eyepieces they look like the 0.965" ones I had with my Tasco ( ) newt years ago. In which case they're the old Osama bin liner I'm afraid.

Was thinking exactly the same, that they looked like it

[LukeSkywatcher]

Put a hammer through the Sun filter as your first action I'm afraid

Absolutely. Dont even take a risk of using it.

The rest i would try out and see how you go.

[John]

Get rid of the sun filter and by all means give the other things a try but the eyepieces supplied as standard with your scope are better quality than these I reckon so don't expect much.

[cantab]

Destroy the sun filter as others have mentioned. The eyepieces are the most basic type, Huygenian, and while OK in long-tube refractors I doubt they'll be very good in your reflector. A use of Huygenian eyepieces is for solar projection, since they don't have any cement in their lenses, but Newtonian reflectors aren't suited for solar projection.

If they eyepieces are, as they look, .965" then they won't even fit without an adapter.

[Pete Presland]

as others have said destroy the sun filter, the suns rays should be filtered out before enter the scope not after.these do occasionally come up on eBay and are potentially lethal.

[Moonshane]

here's why you don't eyepiece based sun filters

[LukeSkywatcher]

here's why you don't eyepiece based sun filters

That is terrifying and exactly why glass solar filters should never be used.

[DirkSteele]

It has already been written several times but I will echo it as well. Destroy the sun filter as you don't want someone else to stumble across it and use it. The eyepieces look a lot like the 0.965" EPs I got with my first 4.5" Newtonian years ago so the quality may not be that high, but no harm in trying them out to see. Assuming of course we ever get clear skies again in the UK! ;-)

Clear skies

[L8-Nite]

here's why you don't eyepiece based sun filters

This video should be pinned to this forum.

[Astro-Nova]

hello all I was expecting that the sun filter would be no good to use so thanks for confirming this for me. That is a good video about that sun filter

the EP's would not fit straight on i think, so ill just have to improvise to make them fit just for the sake of using them and see what I can get out of em.

Barlow lense I should be able to use, bit filthy though, so need to clean the lense a bit. A barlow lense was my next buy anyway so I hope this one will give me what I need so I can focus on something else now.

[paul schofield]

+ 1 DISPOSE OF THE SUN FILTER.

[Moonshane]

you can buy adapters which allow fitting of .965 eyepieces into 1.25"

[John]

Barlow lense I should be able to use, bit filthy though, so need to clean the lense a bit. A barlow lense was my next buy anyway so I hope this one will give me what I need so I can focus on something else now.

By all means try it but it looks like the type that has a singlet lens, ie: non-achromatic. Usually barlows have a doublet or even a triplet lens (ie: 2/3 pieces of glass) to reduce optical aberrations like false colour to acceptable levels.

[Astro-Nova]

thank you John. It has a single lense so Ill have a look for the tal barlow lens soon if this one is not satisfying enough.

[boabsta]

Remember to thank your dad anyway even if they dont turn out to be any good and dont mention about him trying to blind you with the sun filter.

Was a nice offer