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Eyepiece or barlow?


Oat

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Hey Folks

Just have 25 and 10mm ep's at the mo'. From having read much info' it would seem sensible to add a 4 or 5mm and a 16mm to my set, i guess to get reasonable qaulity for a reasonable price i am looking at Plossl's?

Some questions:

  1. What is the general consensus with regard to qaulity of the standard skywatcher EP's i already have?
  2. Should i consider a 2 x barlow for the 10mm instead of buying a 5 mm? If yes to the barlow - which ones to consider (keeping prices sensible)
  3. With so many available to choose from, which brand of Plossl's should i consider?
  4. I am open to the suggestion of a zoom EP if that is deemed reasonable. Carrying and changing between fewer EP's would be good, but i don't want to end up with a lemon of an EP.

Thanks in advance

I' have a lot to do with the kit i already have, this is getting my info' straight so that i can narrow down options.

Cheers

Oat

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for your scope i would suggest a couple of BST explorer eyepieces, at £47 each or about £30-35 used they are incredible value, get the 8mm, then when funds allow get the 15mm, your supplied 25mm is a usuable ep but the 10mm seems to suffer

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The view you get at the end is determined by the quality of the weakest component in the optical train. Therefore, the best barlow can never make a bad eyepiece look good.

At £47, the BST Explorer / Starguider ED's have a good reputation for £47 each, alternatively there are the TeleVue plössls for slightly more when buying used. If eye relief isn't an issue, orthoscopics are a good choice, but a Hutech Ortho is about £90 new.

You could always try and get a second hand Revelation eyepiece kit (roughly £90) and work out what you end up using most, sell it on for the same price you got it for and buy more expensive EPs in those focal lengths.

HTH

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Well Oat as I am a complete novice who's made a very recent purchase of the SW 200P newt which came with the 25mm , 10mm and a 2 x Barlow, have decided to opt for a Sky-Watcher Planetary 5mm UWA EP to hopefully give me a bit more of view if I can learn to manually track it with such a small EP :grin: and yes definitely a Barlow for the 10mm

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If you get a 4mm or 5mm plossl then you will be wearing it like a contact lens. Either will have no real eye relief. If you look round you will find that TV anf Vixen both stop at 8mm for plossl's. Best I can comment, from owning one, is a 4mm plossl is a good solid chunk for throwing at cats.

Read a good thread on "What use is there for a 4mm plossl?" After 3 pages no-one had actually said looking through one. Some were quite inventive, one or two possibly illegal, more then a few boarding on weird.

If you want a barlow to use in conjuction with the eyepieces you have, and that you will get, then it needs to be a good one. Don't expect to pay £25 and find it is the best optical item on the planet. A TV 2x Powermate is good.

For an eyepiece the BST's are very good for the cost, most likely as good as you will get. The 5mm will be as small as you will need in general use on your scope and the 8mm will very likely be the most used.

Alternatives are the Celestron X-Cels, Plantetary's like the 6mm from WO.

One thing to realise is that for the wide end then a single eyepiece of 25mm or 30mm will do for just about everything, at the short end you could need 3 eyepieces at increments of 1mm between each and then one about 3 mm longer just for those times when the others don't work.

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Thanks folks! I will explore the BST route.

For 4 or 5mm EP's is there another type that (other than plossl) that have some eye relief?

Vixen LVs / NLVs are good eyepieces, but be sure to pick them up 2nd hand as they seem to go for peanuts compared to new price (anywhere from £30 ish to £60 depending, compared to about £100 new). I'm not entirely sure why because they are great eyepieces, even at F/5.

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The TS Planetary HR's have decent eye relief and I think they do a 5mm and 4mm. You might not use 4mm much though - 300x is pushing things under most conditions.

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The general site recommendation is for BST's, many say they are good and I have never seen anyone moan after buying them. The 10mm eyepiece that comes with these scopes can be a bit questionable in terms of quality. Have a look at the secondhand pages of Astro B&S there are sometimes Televue Plossl eyepieces there and they are about as good as it gets, and hold money.

Alan.

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+1 for hr planetary ep.

I bought a (new) 7eur 4mm plössl for fun and it's difficult to observe with.

The 45eur planetary with 58 degree aparent field of view are great for their price.

6 or 9mm 66deg uwa (32eur) and 2x or 3x ACHROMATIC barlow (from 16-20eur) can be a good upgrade as well since you can rarely magnify above 200-250x due to seeing/transparency/weather and a 2.5-4mm EP may catch dust while waiting for good conditions :-)

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Hi Folks. Just to be sure i don't buy a lemon, are the BST eyepieces that you refer to the ones available for sale on ebay at £47?

It seems odd i can't trace them anywhere else, only for sales on ebay??

Also, for when i may want a 5mm or 6mm eyepiece - is it fair to say that i'd be best off using a 10 or 12 with a 2x barlow so that i get some eye relief?

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Only cheap eyepieces have a bad eye relieve.

The HRPlanetary have a barlow element already in their lens design. (They can be converted into zooms due to that).

I think they are basically the same / similar lens setup, but perhaps someone can correct me there?

Their eye relieve is almost consistant through all eyepiece focal lengths.

Other shops have these type of eyepieces as well. I have noname ones of the HR, and they work as well as the one from TS I have (as far as it is comparable due to different focal lengths).

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Only cheap eyepieces have a bad eye relieve.

The HRPlanetary have a barlow element already in their lens design. (They can be converted into zooms due to that).

I think they are basically the same / similar lens setup, but perhaps someone can correct me there?

Their eye relieve is almost consistant through all eyepiece focal lengths.

Other shops have these type of eyepieces as well. I have noname ones of the HR, and they work as well as the one from TS I have (as far as it is comparable due to different focal lengths).

Sorry to correct you. but it doesn't matter how expensive an eyepiece is - it can still have next to no eye relief (TMB monocentrics for example have next to no eye relief and are about €440 each), it is just dependent on the eyepiece design.

Oat, they are sold here:

http://www.skysthelimit.org.uk/bst%20ed%20eyepieces.html

They all have the same eye relief :)

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Oh, yes, there are some more expensive eyepieces with high transmisson and so on ideal for planets, I should have phrased that differently :-)

I should have said older or simple lens designs (Plössl, Kellner, Hyugens). I think Plössl have about their focal length's eye relieve.

I have a 4mm here- fun! ;-)

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