Eyepiece Advice for Celestron Astromaster 114EQ

[bod00]

Hey guys,

I have been reading a lot about eye piece choices over the past few weeks for my Celestron Astro 114EQ and i am finding it a little difficult to make a decision!

At present i only have the stock Celestron 10mm eyepiece as i bought the scope 2nd hand and this is all it came with, i find viewing the moon just a little too big at 100x and looking at jupiter just a little too far away, after a lot of research i now know that something like a 12.5mm might be better to view the whole moon and maybe a 6mm or 5mm for the planets?

My main question is just what type of EP do i go for that fit my needs, if i suggest a few setups can someone very kindly offer some advice!

Option 1 - Generic TS Optics plossl EP Kit in sizes 6mm, 12.5mm and 32mm + 2x Barlow (approx. £100 value)

Option 2 - 1 x 12mm BST Explorer Dual ED Eyepiece and a decent 2 x Barlow to get the 6mm (approx. £75 value)

Option 3 - 1 x 12mm BST Explorer Dual ED Eyepiece and a 1 x 5mm BST Explorer Dual ED Eyepiece (approx £100 value)

Option 4 - Any suggestions????

I am only a very amateur astronemer so i want something thats easy to use and give me good details etc but also something that i might be able to use on a larger scope as i get more involved in this great field

Any suggestions or help is very much appreciated

Thanks

[baggywrinkle]

I have a 6SE and that came with a 25mm bog standard Celestron eyepiece. I splashed out and bought the Celestron eyepiece kit at the time and that had a 2x Barlow 32,17, 13, 8 and 6mm eyepieces, plus filters.

The larger kit EP's are OK but I found the quality of the 8 & 6 mm not so hot with either the moon or planets.

So more recently I bought two more lenses the Celestron Omni 40mm (great eye relief and superb FOV) and the Omni 15mm (good eye relief). Both are Plossl lenses and the difference is huge. Images are much brighter.

Basically you get what you pay for and if you can afford better lenses then you will certainly appreciate the difference especially for the higher power EP's.

[bod00]

Thanks for the reply, i have looked at the Omni EP's they do look good and i can get them for around £30 each which is about £15 cheaper than the BST ED ones! - I have read a lot about the BST ones and they won a few awards as a good mid price range EP.

I find the quality of the stock EP on the moon good but can get blurry very quickly when tracking so sometimes i need to refocus. I guess my budget for the new EP is about £100 so if that means just getting 2 decent EP's then i dont mind that, i just wanted to really know if a 12mm EP with a 2 x Barlow will perform the same as a 6mm EP in terms of quality does the extra optics in the Barlow effect the image clarity at all??

As always all help is appreciated

[baggywrinkle]

Images will be slightly dimmer as the Barlow will absorb some light, but you should be OK. I have not used BST EP's so I cannot comment. All I noticed was the difference between lower cost kit lenses and the Omni.

[nephilim]

Thanks for the reply, i have looked at the Omni EP's they do look good and i can get them for around £30 each which is about £15 cheaper than the BST ED ones! - I have read a lot about the BST ones and they won a few awards as a good mid price range EP.

I find the quality of the stock EP on the moon good but can get blurry very quickly when tracking so sometimes i need to refocus. I guess my budget for the new EP is about £100 so if that means just getting 2 decent EP's then i dont mind that, i just wanted to really know if a 12mm EP with a 2 x Barlow will perform the same as a 6mm EP in terms of quality does the extra optics in the Barlow effect the image clarity at all??

As always all help is appreciated

It depends greatly on the quality of the barlow, with a premium one you'll hardly tell ur using it (as in there will be barely any light loss or loss of image quality all round) as with everything in this hobby, you most definitely get what u pay for.

Steve

[baggywrinkle]

My Barlow is the one with the Celestron EP kit, so maybe not top notch in terms of quality.

[ianfiat]

Hi

I think that Plossl below 8mm are a bit of a pain to use because of the low eye relief.

I use Vixen NPL at 8mm, 10mm and 30mm (Explorer 150P)

For your telescope (4.5" ish) the maximum magnification (unless conditions are exceptional) is 4.5 x 30 = ca 135 times

Your telescope has a focal length of 1000m, therefore using an 8mm will give you 125X, 15mm 67X and 30mm 33X.

I think anything that you get would be a huge step up from the stock celestron 10mm (I always struggled to see anything through it because of its poor contrast)- I wouldn't bother with a barlow - you'll often find that increasing magnification on say eg Jupiter blurs the detail and you may have more resolution at a lower magnification.

If you haven't already done it, remove the useless starfinder thing and replace it with a Telrad.

So my option 4 would be: An 8mm and 15mm Vixen NPL, and a Telrad- still around a £100

[ronl]

Try this site http://www.swindonstargazers.com/beginners/eyepieces.htm it gives advice and price ranges

hope it helps.

Clear Sky's and Good Luck

[bod00]

Try this site http://www.swindonst...s/eyepieces.htm it gives advice and price ranges

hope it helps.

Clear Sky's and Good Luck

Thanks for the link Ron this is in fact where i had read about the BST eyepiece in the 1st place this website was extremely helpful in getting the info i needed for the EP but there is just so much choice at the £30-50 price mark that its hard to choose!

My main focus in the moon at the moment as this is easy to see and i love looking at the detail so with all the advice i have been given so far (thanks everyone) i have narrowed my choices down to these models hopefully someone will help me make that final decision.

EP 1 - 12 or 15mm BST Dual ED - £47

EP 2 - 12 or 15mm Celestron Omni - £30

Ep 3 - 12 or 15mm Vixen NPL - £35

Thanks again to everyone's help i much appreciate it

[rwilkey]

A Telrad may be a bit of overkill on the smaller scope, I suggest a Rigel Quickfinder as a good solution, it has a smaller footprint. Here: http://www.firstlightoptics.com/finders/rigel-quikfinder-compact-reflex-sight.html

As for ep's, I thoroughly recommend the BST Explorers/StarGuiders perhaps in the 8mm (125x) and 18mm (55x) focal lengths, or thereabouts.

[bod00]

Thanks Robin,

I am not really using the finder scope at the moment as i am just practicing on the moon, my main aim is to get the entire moon in the eyepiece with the best detail and clarity i can, looking at the moon through my 10mm (100x) the moon is quite clear and detailed but doesn't fit in the eyepiece well so if i go for the BST which i am leaning towards should i get the 12, or 18mm as they don't seem to make a 15mm?

Many people suggest the 15mm as you can use the barlow for the 7.5mm so you don't need to change eyepiece but other people say 8mm no barlow is better would i best with the 18mm and 8mm or should i go for the 15mm in another make?

Thanks again for everyone's advice just keen to buy one now

[rwilkey]

Hi there, a 15mm would certainly fit in the whole Moon, as i suspect the 12mm will, great one is the 12mm. A 15mm BST is made as I have one, it may not be on Ebay at the moment as they may be out of stock. All the best in your choice.

[Naemeth]

I think it would be a good idea to get either a 32mm GSO Plössl or 32mm Revelation Plössl (whichever is cheaper) for around £30, you need low power for DSO hunting really, plus it will fit the Moon in easily.

[RMcCallum]

I would recommend an 8 or 12mm BST and an 18 or 25mm BST.

The 8 or 12 for close ups of the planets ect. and the 18 or 25 for (my favourite) DSO hunting.

[Stargazer_00]

I just want to point out an earlier comment about the 40mm Plossl.

Any 1.25" plossl will have to reduce it's FOV after 32mm due to reaching themaximum achievable with a 50 degree (plossl standard) inside the 1.25" field stop diameter. On that basis this 40mm plossl and all others that you find in this barrel size will be forced to compromise field of view to deliver lower magnfication. This is true of the omni plossl which delivers only 42 degrees of field of view compared to a 32mm showing 50 degrees, in practice they show the same amount of sky it just looks more pleasing in the 32mm.

The point of the 40mm plossl showing the same sky area as a 32mm plossl but in a narrower field of view is mostly for afocal photography where you photo directly the image coming out f the eyepiece, in this instance it pays to squeeze more sky into a smaller circle, the camera can photo more sky. For visual you would be much better off getting a 32mm with 50 degrees FOV.

the 32mm plossls that come in eyepiece sets for some bizarre reason also seem to come with 45 degree AFOV. No idea why this is but these are not achieving all that they can, you want to get a 32mm plossls sperately of the set. The sets look good at the start but they give you a lot of things you wont really need or use very often. You'd be better off spendning the money on dedicated individual eyepiece purchases and maximising your money's potential.

Dont want to put a bad wrap on the eyepiece kits, but the view ive given above is pretty much how it is. It pays to do a bit of reading and make sensible decision on your purchases.

[bod00]

Thanks to everyone who posted a comment and offered advice, after even more reading and totting up the votes i think i am going to go for this setup over the next month or so

1 x BST Dual ED 8mm

1 x BST Dual ED 15mm

1 x BST Dual ED 25mm

I do like the looks of the BST and all the reviews and comments i have come across say they are good so i am willing to make an informed purchase and give them a go, seen as i only have the stock eyepiece everyone tells me i am due to see a dramatic improvement so hopefully they are right!

I would like to thank everyone who commented and without the helpful people at SGL i would be still very much in the dark and feel a lot more confident

Thanks everyone and i will let you know how i get on once the equipement arrives

[Stargazer_00]

Those eyepieces will serve you well in any scope, they are very versatile. I have still got my 5mm, 18mm and 25mm in my cupboard. Wont part with them even though I have improved my range somewhat.

[nephilim]

Those eyepieces will serve you well in any scope, they are very versatile. I have still got my 5mm, 18mm and 25mm in my cupboard. Wont part with them even though I have improved my range somewhat.

I've been following this thread with interest & was wondering if the BST's would work ok with my 200p at f5 , especially the 15mm, as I know my scope isnt very forgiving of the lower end EP's (not saying BST's are lower end btw just heard that f5 scopes & faster perform better with expensive EP's unfortunatly )

Steve

[Stargazer_00]

They Would perform very well on a 200p f5

[baggywrinkle]

Thanks Stargazing00 re the max sizes for lenses. Usefull.

[nephilim]

They Would perform very well on a 200p f5

Thats good to know (The 15mm BST is added to the 'list' ). Thanks for the quick reply

Steve

[rwilkey]

Steve, I agree, the BST's perform very well in the 200P at f/5.

[bod00]

Hey everyone,

Just a quick update on this post!

I have purchased the 15mm BST EP from alan at skies the limit very nice man and brilliant to deal with! with reference to my previous comments re setup i have been thinking about adding a 2x barlow to the list so that i can cover the following, can i just ask if anyone can think of any other EP i might need thats not covered??

EP list

25mm

15mm

8mm

with barlow

12.5mm

7.5mm

4mm

I know the 4mm is going to give me 250x mag which is more than i need and very close to the max my scope can take and the atmosphere etc but i think that i have a good range of EP if i get the barlow.

Once i get the eyepiece i will let everyone know how it performs

thanks

[Stargazer_00]

Its a great plan. Stick to it.

I would probably get the 18mm BST at some point. It was my favorite of the lot.

A 12mm barlowing to a 6mm would have its uses too. I appreciate the 25mm coming down to 12.5 mm is basically an overlap but the 12mm is the jewel of the set, would be better without a barlow and 6mm is a very useful eyepiece length for planets. The 4mm from the 8mm pobably would be a little too strong on many occasions that the 6mm would be perfect for.

[bod00]

Thanks for the reply i had thought about the 18mm as it would barlow to 9mm which would give me another 2 views so its on the list i think.

Due to budget i think i will stick with the 15mm 25mm and barlow in the short term then introduce maybe one of the others each month!

Lets just hope for some clear skies otherwise its going to sit in the box for a bit!!

Thanks again everyone!