Lowest magnification / widest field eyepiece

[enigma]

What would you recommend as the lowest magnification / widest field eyepiece for an 80mm f/5 short tube achromatic refractor using an 1.25" focuser? A Baader Hyperion 24mm, a Sky-Watcher 32mm Plossl or something different? The refractor is on a lightweight photo head/tripod and used for grab and go short observing sessions.

[John]

Either of the two eyepieces you list will show as much sky as the 1.25" eyepiece format can. The Hyperion does so at a higher magnification which helps to darken the background sky a bit but expect star images to show some distortion towards the outer parts of the field of view because the Hyperion is not that well corrected in F/5 scopes. 

[Space Beagle]

My vote would probably go for a 24mm Televue Panoptic if your budget will allow!

Or, a Maxvision 24mm, although they are bigger and heavier than the Panoptic, if weight is an issue for you.

Doc

[enigma]

I tried the Baader Hyperion 24mm once and I did not find it very comfortable to use. But I am willing to give it a second try and for this I might look for a used one first. I don't think that I heard of a Maxvision 24mm before, but weight is for sure an issue to consider.

[Mr Spock]

The 24mm Hyperion would be perfect for that scope quality wise.

The Panoptic is a far better eyepiece, but the 80mm f5 is limited in quality. You may, however, view it as a future investment

[BillP]

Something for you to consider is the magnification.  If you use a 32mm eyepiece your magnification is only 13x.  Using a 24mm eyepiece gets you just a few more at 17x.  So if you are looking for the 80mm scope to be weak in magnification like a binocular, then this of course just fine.  If not, then you need a shorter focal length eyepiece.  The lowest I generally like to go is 25x, actually prefer 40x.  But at least at 25x I can still see some details on Jupiter and Saturn, albeit small.  In your scope a 16mm eyepiece would produce 25x.  Something like the 16mm 82 degree AFOV Skywatcher Nirvana UWA would give you 25x with a 3.28 degree TOFV, which is quite nice and large.  So a large TFOV and still some productive magnification.  This eyepiece would also give you a nice exit pupil (3.2mm) so the background sky should look pretty dark even from a light polluted site.