Ep suggestions for 127mak

[foundaplanet]

I have a customer who got a Celestron 127slt for Christmas. I was chatting with him today about eyepieces and he has said that he would be happy to spend up to 300 pounds to upgrade on the supplied 25 and 10.

He has said that largely he will be sticking to the moon, planets and the more obvious dso's.

As I am no expert on ep's and especially with regards for use in a mak, some suggestions for the said budget would be very welcomed.

[ronin]

The 127 Mak is pretty easy going on eyepieces, so to an extent no need to go mad, as in one Ethos.

Where it has a problem is it will tend to supply highish magnifications and so narrowish fields of view, the focal length dictates that this occurs.

The Vixen NPL plossls will/should be fine, something round the 8mm to 10mm being as small as necessary - I see little reason for smaller as that gives 150x to 187x. Could get 8mm - 30mm NPL's inclusive for £220.

Assuming they are not looking to try for more magnification this also falls well for the BST Starguiders. One option here being the 8mm, 12mm, 15mm, 18mm and 25mm would come to £235.They are reasonably parfocal so little refocusing when swapping eyepieces and have a little wider field of view then plossl's.

The next, and similar to the BST's, are the Celestron X-Cels, no 8mm so it is 7mm or 9mm as a start at the high end. At £69 it means 4 of these for a budget around £300.

I have the BST set and a 105 Mak (1470 focal length) and they are good together.

Cannot suggest anything that is wider at the long focal lenghs - eg Panaviews - as I doubt the Mak can take a 2" eyepiece.

[E621Keith]

I think a 8-24mm Hyperion zoom will go quite well with that scope.

The 8-24mm Hyperion zoom covers 62x-188x. Which is good enough for both DSO and planets

I may add a 32mm plossl or 24mm Hyperion for the bigger DSO and for finding objects. A Hyperion zoom barlow or the new Baader Q barlow can be added for the few occasion when he needs more than 188x.

[Stargazer_00]

William Optics SWANS. Nice AFOV and nice affordable pricing. Should work well in that scope at F12

Edit Link: http://www.firstlightoptics.com/william-optics-eyepieces/william-optics-swan-eyepiece.html

Description says remarkably good all round eyepieces at F6 or slower. These would be rubbish in fast scopes but should be fantastic for the price in a slow scope.

My dad has a 127 mak he just bought (my enthusiam is so infectious half my friends and family have scopes now). I got him to buy the 20mm of these to see how good it looks.

127 Maks cant take 2 inch eyepieces, bear that in mind.

[foundaplanet]

Thanks for the replies..

The bst's sound like a decent choice and he could add the barlow of the same brand to, although I do feel like a 30ish would be handy so maybe a 30mm npl. All that would fall around the budget.

The zoom I think may suit very well and tick the box, I think it will only be an occasional hobby for him. A question for when using a zoom.... Do you need to alter focus as you move the zoom?

The WO Swans would be very nice to but I think as they move on up to 2" at the wider end it would be better to try and keep it largely parfocal. I'd quite fancy trying those out in my frac..

Cheers, I'll have to have a ponder, I suddenly feel under a bit of pressure to choose the best option..

[E621Keith]

Zoom eyepieces do require minor focus adjustment as you zoom but some needs more adjustment than others.

[Nibor]

William Optics SWANS. Nice AFOV and nice affordable pricing. Should work well in that scope at F12

Edit Link: http://www.firstligh...n-eyepiece.html

Description says remarkably good all round eyepieces at F6 or slower. These would be rubbish in fast scopes but should be fantastic for the price in a slow scope.

My dad has a 127 mak he just bought (my enthusiam is so infectious half my friends and family have scopes now). I got him to buy the 20mm of these to see how good it looks.

127 Maks cant take 2 inch eyepieces, bear that in mind.

Interestingly I was suprised that the Skywatcher Mak 127, which I purchased 2 years ago, came with a 2" diagonal and a 1.25" converter!! Is this something of a rarity or perhaps a special edition?? I was expecting a 1.25" diagonal but didn't complain.

Are there any views on what might be some good choices of 2" e/p for this particular Mak?? - I enjoy both planetary and smaller / brighter DSO viewing (my observing site has fairly light polluted suburban sky)