More about eyepieces

[ramstar]

I've a Skywatcher Skyliner 200 Dobsonian which I bought mainly to look at the moon and planets. I have the standard 10mm & 25mm lenses it came with but am thinking of a 3mm or 5mm addition - possibly one of the Williams Optics pieces. Any thoughts -am I going down the wrong path with this potential purchase?

[John]

I'd go for a 6mm initially which will give you 200x with this scope. The 5mm gives 240x which might get some use but only when seeing conditions are very good and the 3mm gives 400x which will almost never be usable under our seeing conditions.

The William Optics SPL's are good eyepieces but there are other options

[Eastridge]

+1 for 6mm. What is it that draws you to the WO's, that may help us suggest alternatives for you to consider if you wish.

[damnut]

Hi There,

Williams optics are great ep's, if you are on a budget try the BST explorers c£50, next up Baader Hyperion, Celestron Xcels, Vixen Lanthanums, all around £100. After that posh Explore Scientific, Pentax and the Televues for widefield spacewalk at the eyepiece.

Cheers

ps.

There is an excellent guide to eyepieces by Warthog on the forum.

[rwilkey]

I find anything below 8 or 7mm difficult to use in the 200P, very few nights when the viewing is good enough I am afraid. The BST Exporers/StarGuiders and the Vixen Lanthanums work well in this scope, especially the LVW's. Mind you, I do have the WO SPL 6mm and it works well in both my scopes when seeing is good enough.

[Lee M]

+1 for the BST Exporers/StarGuiders. I bought the 8 & 15mm then a 5mm came up secondhand so I bought that too knowing it wouldn't get a huge amount of use.

The 8mm is great for Jupiter. A huge improvement on the SW 10mm. I haven't spent that much time observing the Moon yet but the brief look I had on the 8mm's first light was fantastically sharp.

I've had a couple of brief views through the 5mm but it's been just too much magnification for the conditions.

However I did use the 15mm on my 2.5x Barlow (6mm equiv) on Saturday and I was very pleasantly surprised. It was really still a bit too much for steady viewing, which is why I didn't try the 5mm, but I did get some brief focussed glimpses of Jupiter that made it worthwhile.

[ramstar]

Just I've seen WO getting some favourable reviews on here. As far as a budget is concerned I don't mind going to around £80 if it means I get an eyepiece which is in line with the potential of the scope meaning I'll actually use it

[andrew63]

rather than tread the line and go down the solid BST explorers et al route, i would suggest - unless you need to use specs - to consider the the new 6mm baader classic ortho that John has been putting through it's paces. At £50 from FLO it would give top notch performance.

andrew