Help choosing three eye pieces

[the lemming]

I've been doing a bit of research and sounding out views of those kind enough to reply to my other OP's and I have come to a conclusion, I think.

With my choice of telescope (Skywatcher 130p) I have settled on the following magnifications:

108x With Barlow 216x

43x With Barlow 86x

21x With Barlow 42x

This gives me eye pieces of

6mm

15mm

30mm

I have never seen through any of these eye pieces and all my research is academic, so are these average and worthwhile sizes for a punter such as myself to buy?

My next question revolves around which brand to buy my lenses from. With my price range this is a two horse race between Celestron and Vixen. Both brands have their respective eye pieces at roughly the same price with only a pound or so to separate them.

Which brand if any is better than the other when I eventually hand over my pennies?

When I was choosing a budget pair of binoculars I learnt that for entry level binoculars, most were made in the same factory and then re-branded with which ever company bought them. In effect up to a specific price range I was buying the same binocular but with different badges and prices depending on what the Marketing Departments could get away with.

Are budget Plossls made in the same way as cheap binoculars, as in they are all made the same way and probably from the same factory but given different badges and price ranges?

A lot of questions there I appreciate, but I don't belong to a group and as such I'm guessing in the dark.

Cheers

[Jiggy 67]

Carefull with your choice of ep's:

The 30mm becomes a 15mm with a 2x barlow, so why get a 15mm

Likewise with the 15mm and the 6mm (or near enough)

The 6mm maybe a bit powerfull to barlow, practically to barlow that would stretch the scope's capabilities.

You need to mix the sizes up a bit and not just keep doubling in size.

As for brand, thats a personal matter, I swear by my Hyperion 8-24 zoom, all the mags you need, plus I use a Celestron 32mm and a Vixen 4mm

[crazyjedi]

If your scope is the f5 SW 130p it is pretty fast and so i'd recommend getting the best lenses you can afford.

As jiggy says above. There is little point in getting those three lenses plus the barlow as you'll be duplicating your mags.

The lenses that you are looking at are well thought of generally but I'm not sure about the 30mm lens or the 6mm. The 30mm is probably the lowest that you would ever use in your scope and the 6mm may be too high powered. Out of my collection my 12mm and 24mm lenses are my most used focal lengths. something in these ball parks are usually most peoples most used EP's Somewhere between 9mm and 12mm and between 24mm and 28mm will be good workhorses for you

[Lorne]

Last year I had an eyepiece case containing 5, 8, 12, 15, 20, 25, 32, and 42mm eyepieces plus a barlow. I was finding most of these stayed in the case during my observing. I narrowed it down to what I actually used - a low, mid and high power, the 32, 15 and 8mm. After getting a look through one of our groups SW Nirvana 7 and 16mm EPs, I decided on upgrading my minimal collection. I added the Nirvana 28mm after reading so many positive reviews on here. These 3 give me 43X, 75X and 171X mags

I find - from my experience so far - these 3 suit my needs as I've rarely had seeing conditions to merit adding a higher mag EP.

[wookie1965]

Did your scope come with a 25mm if it did that is not a bad eyepiece as far as the others go id go for two BST`s they are very good in fast scopes reasonably priced great eye relief and above all great eyepieces the 18 and 8mm would suit you.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1-25-18mm-BST-Explorer-Dual-ED-eyepiece-Branded-Starguider-/380521268257

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1-25-8mm-BST-Explorer-Dual-ED-eyepiece-Branded-Starguider-/160949760069?pt=UK_Telescope_Eyepieces&hash=item25795a7045

[Mr Fiery Jack]

Last year I had an eyepiece case containing 5, 8, 12, 15, 20, 25, 32, and 42mm eyepieces plus a barlow. I was finding most of these stayed in the case during my observing. I narrowed it down to what I actually used - a low, mid and high power, the 32, 15 and 8mm. After getting a look through one of our groups SW Nirvana 7 and 16mm EPs, I decided on upgrading my minimal collection. I added the Nirvana 28mm after reading so many positive reviews on here. These 3 give me 43X, 75X and 171X mags

I find - from my experience so far - these 3 suit my needs as I've rarely had seeing conditions to merit adding a higher mag EP.

I think that this makes good sense, most of us have EPs' that we rarely use. That said there are some EPs I only ever use it in my refractor, 6mm, 14mm and a 32mm plossl, I rarely go above 8mm in my dob.

[Mr Fiery Jack]

Buy the very best you can, better to have 3 decent ones than a box full of budget numbers.

[crazyjedi]

Last year I had an eyepiece case containing 5, 8, 12, 15, 20, 25, 32, and 42mm eyepieces plus a barlow. I was finding most of these stayed in the case during my observing. I narrowed it down to what I actually used - a low, mid and high power, the 32, 15 and 8mm. After getting a look through one of our groups SW Nirvana 7 and 16mm EPs, I decided on upgrading my minimal collection. I added the Nirvana 28mm after reading so many positive reviews on here. These 3 give me 43X, 75X and 171X mags

I find - from my experience so far - these 3 suit my needs as I've rarely had seeing conditions to merit adding a higher mag EP.

EP sets are rarely top quality lenses (although I do rather like the look of the cases)

I've always cherry picked the best lenses I can afford. The Nirvana's are excellent EPs - Good choice!

My highest power EP is a BGO 6mm which is a fabulous EP and far better than my Meade 5000 5.5mm plossl. If anyone wants to get a planetary EP I'd recommend they get the best they can afford. The high powered Nirvana's fall into this bracket as do several other brands. The BGO's have gone out of production now but Baader have launched the Classic ortho range to replace them and are reported (by John on here) to be measuring up very nicely in quality (we're still waiting for the final review john )

Celestron and Vixen are very good brands and I'm sure they'll serve you well but their base models are just that.

I'd recommend that you buy the lenses one at a time to get your eye in so to speak and then judge it as you go.

It might be better to save up for the lenses one at a time over the months and buy the best you can get individually. There's no rush, the sky isn't going anywhere and is mostly covered in cloud so getting the best you can might be worth while.