EPs - possibly a full house?

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

One thing I do not consider, except for travels by air, is the weight. All my scopes sit either on the brilliant Vixen GP mount, or on my home-brew Alt-Az, which I designed with the featherweight solar scope, and the little 80mm F/6 in mind, but which has not problems with the C8. EP weight is no problem for these mounts

[Bart]

Yes, on the 16" Dob, now that I have some counterweight, there is no problems switching from 1.25" to heavy 2" EPs. Except maybe when I'm cheating and looking at something very low in the sky rather than waiting for the correct time of year

On the 10" I have a sliding weight which is basically a soft fabric enclosing a magnet and a lumphammer head all taped up. Works a dream on the solid tube as you just push it around to suit. No problem and doesn't bother me really. I find the alt adjustment on the GSO really really user friendly

Barry

[swamp thing]

Hi Barry

I used to have a 16" LB and a 10" Dob like your good self. TBH I used a smaller set than you've already got. I certainly wouldn't try and talk you into in filling myself. I only used three eyepieces and a Barlow and never felt the need for more. I reckon I'll be using the same set with my 20".

I used

31mm T5

20mm T5

12mm T4 Naglers

2" x2 Powermate

I do own other eyepieces (some of them are premium ones too) but they never got used in those two scopes. I doubt they'll get much of a look in with the 20" either. The only addition I would make to that set is an 8mm Ethos for globs and small planetaries at high power. My policy has always been, buy few and keep the quality high. Maybe I ought to clear out some of the dead wood in my eyepiece case then I could get the Ethos

If you are wondering why so few high power ones? I have little interest in observing planets or the moon.

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

I personally do not like switching around EPs and Barlows. Apart from the hassle of switching the extra optical element (and the added strain on the focuser which using R&P or Crayford), I do not like the large changes in focus these Barlows bring. They are of course a cost-effective way of increasing the range of EPs you have. Having said that, the idea of using a 31T5 Panzerfaust with 2" Barlow to create a 15.5mm Nagler looks like a case of definite overkill, compared to a 16T5, or 15mm Axiom LX.

[swamp thing]

But I have a 16mm T5 Michael.......don't use it

[Moonshane]

I have a 16mm T2 and certainly do

I'm with Michael myself. I bought an Antares 1.6x and although it was really excellent it annoyed me using it so for another £50 I got a T2 16mm Nagler which is superb.

[Bart]

I personally do not like switching around EPs and Barlows. Apart from the hassle of switching the extra optical element (and the added strain on the focuser which using R&P or Crayford), I do not like the large changes in focus these Barlows bring. They are of course a cost-effective way of increasing the range of EPs you have. Having said that, the idea of using a 31T5 Panzerfaust with 2" Barlow to create a 15.5mm Nagler looks like a case of definite overkill, compared to a 16T5, or 15mm Axiom LX.

Point taken about the Barlow, it is a bit of a faff, but doesn't bother me overly, you still are taking a unit in and out of the focusser.

Steve, You're probably right. I've sold a couple of EPs recently and found myself just using the ES 30mm, the ES 20mm and the 14mm with the 11mm just used occasionally. I found myself messing around a bit more with the 10", more especially trying to squeeze the last bit of detail out of the planets. This probably sounds odd, but I find myself feeling happy that I think I have the EPs I need, and sad that I won't really be buying new ones!! I could always rationalise my purchases to date with the excuse that I 'needed' them. I now realise I don't need any more, it would be buying them because I want them. Lets face it, I've prob spent far too much already on 4 scopes, of which I have sold one (and the MEade ETX 70 was <€100) and numerous EPs, binocs etc etc.

There's probably a word for this, like EP Collection ComeDown or Post EP fulfilment Blues or something like that.

From here its only TV and Pentax..........God help me........

Barry

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

From here its only TV and Pentax..........God help me........

Barry

And Leica, and Nikon

[Ben Ritchie]

I'm a bit late to the thread, but the reason I have a 24mm despite also having a 20mm ES100 is that it's always useful to have a max-TFOV 1.25" eyepiece in the collection; especially with my grab'n'go TV76 it's nice to not lug around a 2" diagonal and monster eyepiece.

Excluding that, my eyepieces effectively scale by a factor of 2x (5mm, 10mm, 20mm, then not quite for the 34mm) and, as it happens, my telescopes almost do too (480mm, 1040mm, 2350mm). But i'm not too fussed about framing objects, and i'll also tend to let the seeing decide what i'm going to do - rather than looking for a close spreads at high power to allow me to adjust what I do to match the seeing. That's mostly driven by budget though, I can't put a lot of cash into a large set of eyepieces so i'd rather try and pick a few good ones and cover as many bases as possible in the process.