General DSO hunting EP?

[NotSoSuperNova]

I was looking at the Meade 4000 12.4mm as an economic DSO buster for my F/4.7 10” Newt. I thought I’d double check that I'm not trying to put a square peg in a round hole as this will be my first additional EP. I'm not against alternative suggestions so feel free to give me something to look at.

[Spec-Chum]

Great choice

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

In terms of exit pupil, that sits between my 31mm and 22mm I use in my F/10 scope, which are my main DSO hunting EPs. Good exit pupil to hunt DSOs.

[John]

I think it would work fine. Don't pay to much for one though - they crop up all the time used on UK Astro Buy & Sell and E.Bay for very little.

[Stargazer_00]

Just as an alternative option (you did ask!) maybe the 12mm BST? It has more AFOV I think (52 in the meade vs the 60 in the BST) and has a very nice ergonomic design. They are quite well corrected to work in fast newts as well in my experience.

The 15mm would also work well for DSO but possiblty the 12mm is more versatile. Barlowed to 6mm is perfect for planetary.

[spaceboy]

Another vote for the 12mm BST. The 15mm is also OK but I personally felt edge performance starts to drop off 15mm onwards with the BST Explorers but this was probably more so due to the fact in my F/5 newt I was observing with lower magnification and a greater number of stars in the edge of view where aberrations are always going to be more noticeable.

[twotter]

I use my lowest mag eyepieces for hunting DSOs, either 31mm in my dob or 24mm in my refractor.

Am I missing something here with recommendations for what I would consider to be mid mag eps?

[Mattscar]

Iv heard no end of people talking about the BST's, infact their propaganda worked so well on me Iv just bought one. But yes, just adding another little bit of weight to the BST's.

[John]

I use my lowest mag eyepieces for hunting DSOs, either 31mm in my dob or 24mm in my refractor.

Am I missing something here with recommendations for what I would consider to be mid mag eps?

For DSO sweeping and finding a low power, wide eyepiece is great. Quite a lot of DSO's benefit from a bit more magnification when they have been found though, especially planetary nebulae and globular clusters, which is where a good mid range eyepiece is useful. 13mm is often held to be a very useful mid range power in many scopes. It's no accident that Tele Vue's first Nagler and Ethos were in that focal length !

[twotter]

Thank you. My 24mm and 13mm are my most used, and favourite, eyepieces. Perhaps I was thinking too literally with the thread title

[NotSoSuperNova]

Yeah sorry about the title, maybe should have been 'busting' instead of 'hunting'. Ah the power of hindsight