Newbie eyepiece question

[butlermike]

Hi all,

I've recently got myself a WO 66sd scope to use for imaging.

I got into this hobby purely for imaging so have no experience on the visual side.

Therefore eyepieces and the like are not my area of comfort. I have a 2" diagonal on the way but I have no idea what eyepiece might go well with this scope.

Any ideas?

i know it doesn't help but I don't really have any idea what I want in terms of focal length etc.

[ronin]

I tend to work on a simple rule:

For most use at the "high" end get an eyepiece equal in mm to the f number of the scope, then get another that is 2mm longer for when the previous doesn't work. After that you are lookig at medium and low magnifications so for yours an 18/20/25 will be good. Try a 20mm and you sort of cover medium and low mag.

Catch is are you intending to get 2" eyepieces ?

It doesn't seem worth it if you are priimarily interested in AP. A 2" eyepiece is about the same size as the WO 66.

The WO 66 is good so should take a shorter eyepiece then indicated by the f number, but you start getting into the range where the cost goes up. The BST stop at 5mm, so one of them should be fine, after that it is ones like the X-Cels which go down to 2.3mm but I suspect that could be too short for the scope. Not sure who makes a decent not too costly 4mm.

As WO scopes are usually along the f/6 spec I would likely opt for the BST 5mm and 8mm, then perhaps the 18mm. All depends on the budget you want/expect to spend.

Which bit of Herts are you ?

[butlermike]

Hi, thanks for the reply.

As its an f5.6 scope then I'll try an 8mm and a 20mm. Just to pluck numbers out of the air on your advice! And I think I'll stick with 1.25" as well. I had originally thought 2" but perhaps not then.

i don't want to spend much as this is primarily for imaging but thought it might be nice to have a look through too.

i'm in Stevenage.

[Moonshane]

this sort of scope is best for wide field scanning of the skies, looking for open clusters and perhaps larger nebulae against the background of stars - therefore preferably from darker skies.

it's a good quality scope so I'd suggest a good quality eyepiece. my recommendation would be a 24mm Panoptic or perhaps an ES24mm Maxvision 68 degree eyepiece. maybe even a 16mm UWAN/Nirvana. you could use either with a standard barlow which would not be expensive. you may get decent planetary images but it's not really what the scope is for.

[Naemeth]

I agree with Shane,

You will be far better off using it as a widefield scope visually, it doesn't really have the aperture to get any decent resolution on planets. Get yourself to some dark skies and enjoy the brighter galaxies and open clusters, and some planetary nebulae (M27 for instance).

Something like the 24mm Panoptic would be great as it's the biggest TFOV you can get in a 1.25" eyepiece and it's not heavy either (about 230g).

HTH

[Moonshane]

Bigmakstutov had this scope until recently and he liked it a lot for the sort of purpose mentioned above - maybe send him a PM if he does not add to this one soon?

[nightfisher]

The maxvision 68 degree eps are proving to be a real bargain and very good quality, a 24mm and a x2 barlow would cover a lot of situations

[estwing]

its a bit of a one scope doesn't do all..but can do certain things very well..+1 for what jules has said.

[alan potts]

I tend to agree with Moonshane here, 24mm and 16mm and get a secondhand barlow, it you want. If you find yourself using the higher end then get an eyepiece around 8-6mm.

Alan

[butlermike]

Lots of suggestions thanks. I'll have a look around to see what there is.

I wasn't really planning on planetary viewing with this, I'm much more interested in DSO's...for now.

thanks again.

mike

[E621Keith]

Since your main focus is imaging, I'd be tempted to just get a 8-24mm Baader Hyperion Clickstop zoom.

You can invest in fix focal length eyepieces when you decide to do a bit more visual observations.

[butlermike]

Funny you should say that, I just saw a Televue 8-24mm on Astro buy and sell, and wondered if that would cover my needs in one go.

Seems ideal to me as like you say its not my main focus and seems to be a handy workaround.

Would that work ok with my scope?

[bingevader]

The maxvision 68 degree eps are proving to be a real bargain and very good quality, a 24mm and a x2 barlow would cover a lot of situations

I tend to agree with Moonshane here, 24mm and 16mm and get a secondhand barlow, it you want. If you find yourself using the higher end then get an eyepiece around 8-6mm.

Alan

Put these two posts together and get the 2 for about £110!

Cheers