which eyepiece for skywatcher ed80

[paler31]

Hi, I am looking for advice about buying eyepieces. I have just bought a skywatcher ed 80 pro scope and it comes with a 2" 28mm EP and i was looking to buy another one but am not sure what to buy. The scope comes with a 2" to 1.25" adapter and i was thinking of buying a medium power EP but dont really know what is good and what would suit this scope. Not sure what my budget is but i would rather spend a bit more to get better EP. I will be using the scope for both planetary and Deep sky objects. I also have a celestron c6 scope. What EP should i be looking at?

John

[NGC 1502]

Hi John, it's so tough to give eyepiece advice. Your idea not to get the cheapest is good, I've been there and it cost me more in the long run by needing to upgrade.

But given the huge price range that eyepieces are available at, it really would help if you could say what your budget is.

Sounds like you have the low power covered, the 28mm gives 21x with the ED80, and medium power for me with that scope would be 60x, so a 10mm eyepiece would do that. Of course, the ED80 is capable of higher mags, say 120x, 5mm EP. (I tend to be conservative with magnification, some would say higher is ok with that scope)

Perhaps you could also say which Celestron C6 you have, is it the refractor, Newtonian or SCT version ?

Hoping that folk here can help, if you could let us know a bit more please.

Best regards, Ed.

[paler31]

Hi ed thanks for replying, ok i was a bit non comital with budget i do not really want to spend hundreds on an eye peice. I am looking for value for money as well as good optics but i would say my budget lies anywhere in the region of £50 - £150. Also my celestron telescope is C6 SCT. Thanks.

John

[NGC 1502]

Thanks John. Loads of choice with that budget, but how about one from this range http://www.firstlightoptics.com/baader-planetarium/baader-hyperion-68-degree-eyepiece.html

These lose a bit at the edge of field with 'fast' scopes, but should be ok with your F7.5 refractor and your F10 SCT.

Your 2 scopes are a nice combination, one for low power wide field, the other for lunar / planetary.

I'd not rush your decision, wait to see what others may have to say, and have a look at some reviews.

Hope you find what you are after, Ed.

[Sirius Bizness]

Are you interested in second hand EPs? For me it's the only way. £150 is just under the price point of some very nice Second hand EPs. I picked up a Nagler 3-6 zoom, 9mm, 12mm and 35mm Panoptic for between 160-200 each. In my old ED80 they performed extremely well. I found they blew Baader and Skywatcher premium EPs out of the water.

[paler31]

thanks for the comments I am not against second hand equipment and ultimately I would like some Naglers in my collection but am aware they come at a price so maybe second hand is the way to go. The only thing that bothers me about spending so much money on an eyepiece is that I would not be able to tell the difference between a £100 and a £300/£400 eye piece. Is there really a huge difference between these price points or is is like hi-fi equipment i.e. to get that extra 1% you need to pay a lot more. I think they call this the law of diminishing returns.

John

[John]

There is a law of diminishing returns with eyepieces as in most things. Spending £50-£100 per eyepiece gets you a big improvement over the ones supplied as standard. Then the improvements diminish until you are picking at personal preferences rather than any substantial performance increases. That does not stop folks wanting to squeeze that last tiny bit of performance from their gear though so quite a lot do end up with some of the top end ones in their sets

The Tele Vue Nagler 3-6mm zoom mentioned above is an expensive eyepiece but is extremely useful with a short focal length scope to get a range of quality high magnification options - in the ED80 100x - 200x, so it fills the place that 2-3, maybe more eyepieces would. This might help justify the initial outlay

The good thing is that eyepieces in the £50-£100 range will work very well with your scope as it's focal ratio of F/7.5 is not too demanding.

[paler31]

Thanks for the info I had a look at the Baader hyperon eyepieces suggested by ed and like the look of them. I understand they have a thread for a camera mount and DSLR photography is something i am interested in. So at moment I am edging towards a 10mm baader hyperon 68 degree eyepiece. The 3-6 tele vue zoom looks nice but is a bit more than I want to spend at moment but will keep it in mind for my next purchase of eye pieces.

John

[kirkster501]

The BSG explorer EP's worked very nicely in my ED80. I have sold them on since my ED80 is a purely AP scope. But I would look in that direction if I were you. Their excellent quality is renowned on these boards for their price.