GSO or Vixen? Eyepiece opinions.

[completenovice]

Just received my new telescope and thinking ahead to eyepieces.

Have a ST102 with the standard supplied eyepieces and while they are OKish for starting out, it won't be long before I'll need to upgrade.

I've seen a GSO kit and single eyepieces from scope'n'skies at reasonable money and they get decent reviews but I've also seen Vixen NPLs from FLO for a little more cash and they also get good reviews.

With the scope being a F5, which would you recommend? Would like to keep the price down to less than £40 per piece. I'm thinking of getting a 6-8mm, a replacement 10-12mm and a 32mm.

(although not all at once!)

Ta

[RikM]

I have a couple of Revelation plossls (made by GSO) and they are okay but not great in my little ST80. The Vixens should be much better. I have an old Vixen LVW and that is wonderful.

[happy-kat]

When I get one it will be the GSO 32mm as having used both I prefer a rubber flexi top then the flat twist top that say a Vixen has.

[John]

The Vixen NPL's are nicely made plossls. I've been testing the 30mm and it's optically excellent. The twist up and down top works well and the soft rubber rim to it is comfy to rest the face against.

[cotterless45]

For a reasonably priced star bargain, try Meade 4000 series. These appear now and again on Fleabay. For the money hey give super results.

There, got away without mentioning Bst Explorers...Dooooh !

Nick.

[breezy]

Almost mate, almost

[LukeSkywatcher]

The 32mm GSO is a brilliant EP. The 30mm Vixen NPL is also a brilliant EP but i prefer the GSO. Not sure why really. In general the NPL's are my favourite EP's. I have an 8mm,15mm and a 30mm. I also have a 25mm NLV.

[completenovice]

Thanks all!

I think I'll start with a Vixen NPL eyepiece and go from there.

There is a temptation to go for a 'boxset' of EPs and be done with it especially when starting out but the general advice on here seems to be to start slowly and find what works for you which is exactly what I'm going to to do!

[Bart]

When I first got a telescope I got a set of EPs. They weren't bad, but got me playing with different focal lengths and taught me the difference between high magnification and too high magnification. They were short eye relief. After a while got individual EPs and never used them again. Some folk like the idea of having a set to play with and maybe they're ok. If you think you're in it for a while, don't bother with a set, just read up and buy focal length you think you need/want.

Barry

[happy-kat]

I used my maxvision 16mm 68 degree last night and discovered that if I have the barrel extended I then have to look really close and peer around the corners to see the bits out of sight. So I wound the barrel back in and found the eye relief even less but I could see to the edges. This is my reasoning for looking at the GSO rather then another twist up design like the Vixen.

[Stargazer_00]

In all honesty I wouldn't upgrade to a Plossl eyepiece. You would be far better off going for BST Starguiders in my opinion. Priced under £50 each new they offer amazing performance at F5 compared to similarily priced EPs. They are extremely comfortable in terms of eye relief and they have superb build quality and they offer a 60 degree apparent field of view compared to a plossl's 50 degrees. That might not sound like much but it actually means you see close to 50% more sky in a BST compared to a Plossl.

[breezy]

Knew they'd get a mention