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Need help with choosing some eyepieces!


Russko13

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Hi all after a long time of observing with my bins I've finally decided on a scope and bought the skywatcher star travel 120 and also bought the az4 mount separately, looking on getting a 90 degree diagonal as it's a 45 at the moment and also a different finder scope as I don't think il get on with the red laser one provided would quite like a 9x50 erect image as I'm used to normal views through my bins, just wondering on some eyepieces you would recommend. I would like to buy couple for the moon and planets such as Jupiter and Saturn and also one or two for deep sky viewing. I find I observe the andromeda galaxy and M42 the most with my bins so something that would be much suited to them would be great also any recommendations for a barlow I've been looking at the orion shorty x2

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My budget is flexible, I've been looking at the baader hyperions for a high mag eyepiece such as the 5mm and the skywatcher pana view 26 or 32mm for a nice wide low power and also a set of celestron possls for anything in between, the Hyperion and the pana view are both around the £80 mark and the set of celestron a are just short of £100, would love to add a few televue naglers to my collection eventually but at the moment these are just too expensive for me

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Hi Russko, that's a nice refractor you have there, should be able to loads with that, the AZ4 mount is also very sturdy and very capable.  On the subject of eyepieces, best to try out what comes with the scope first (the 10mm and the 25mm), and see how you get on with them and what targets you like to look at.  if you want to buy new ep's avoid the sets, best to buy individually depending on the targets you want to view, however, the best ep's in my view are the BST Explorer/StarGuiders from 'Sky's the Limit' here: http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_trksid=p2050601.m570.l1313.TR11.TRC1.A0.Xbst+starguider&_nkw=bst+starguider&_sacat=0&_from=R40

Great value for money and better than the plossls. A 9x50 RACI (right-angle, correct image) finder would also be a very good asset. There would also be a lot of other good subjects to view besides the Andromeda Galaxy and M42, a telescope creates a lot of other exciting opportunities besides the binocular targets.  On the Barlow, I would recommend the Orion Shory-Plus Barlow rather than the plainer Orion Shorty, a bit more expensive but a lot better quality ( and a little bit more expensive).  But concentrate on ep's to start with.  At a later date you may find a Semi-Apo filter would help as your viewing of bright objects like the planets and the Moon, may suffer from CA (Chromatic Aberrations), a small problem with this type of achromatic telescope, but see how you get on first.

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Thanks rwilkey I will be investing in a shorty plus! And will try and have some patience when it comes to diving in buying eyepieces and have a play around with the ones that come standard, from what I've been reading I think I like the hyperions as an all round eyepiece

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The Hyperions are nice eyepieces if your scope is F/7 or slower (eg: F/8, F/10 etc). Your refractor is an F/5 so Hyperions will show some distortions to stars in the outer parts of the field of view. This annoys some people more than others. 

Have a go with the standard eyepieces and see what you think of those. These short achromat refractors are nice low to medium power scopes for deep sky objects. They will show the moon and planets quite well at higher powers but that is not their strongest point.

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Thanks rwilkey I will be investing in a shorty plus! And will try and have some patience when it comes to diving in buying eyepieces and have a play around with the ones that come standard, from what I've been reading I think I like the hyperions as an all round eyepiece

Robin has a great eyepiece guide for beginners, click on the link

http://www.swindonstargazers.com/beginners/eyepieces.htm you

will learn a great deal, and there are other links which relate to

eyepieces on his site, it's well worth a bookmark.

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I've wondered about hyperions with all the comments I've read about them being soft or distorted toward the edges in faster scopes . I can't help wondering if they are overpriced , or is it because tuning rings give the value ( if you can be bothered to faff about in the dark ).

I've not owned a regular Hyperion I'm only going by comments , however I did have a aspheric 31mm which I found to be really nice to use.

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There are about 200 threads on the Maxvision eyepieces that have sprung up in the last few months. These are all from an ex Meade order and are quality and once expensive eyepieces at knock down prices, I do not know what is left after the feeding frenzy but you could do a lot worse than buy one, or two.

Alan

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I have the MaxVisions and they are excellent in the 8-inch dob F5.9.

The 16mm is a little too close to the 24mm in size, so it lives in the Barlow most of the time.

The 16mm is the highest magnification from MV, and is good for Nebula at 75x and 160x

The 24mm makes the stars sparkle, and is amazing on the double cluster (68 degrees at 50x magnification)

The 24 and 16mm work OK together.

But if you have the option to use 2-inch eypieces - think about getting the 28mm instead of the 24mm for a better match.

EP weights and specifications are on the ES.de website. (16mm and 24mm together are £130 delivered to the UK)

http://www.explorescientific.de/eyepieces-c-8964.html?page=2&sort=1a

I have an 11mm 82 degree Explore Scientific arriving today to extent the set up to:

24mm / 11mm / 16mm x2.1 / 11mm x2.1 = 50x / 110x / 160x / 230x

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I've wondered about hyperions with all the comments I've read about them being soft or distorted toward the edges in faster scopes . I can't help wondering if they are overpriced , or is it because tuning rings give the value ( if you can be bothered to faff about in the dark ).

I've not owned a regular Hyperion I'm only going by comments , however I did have a aspheric 31mm which I found to be really nice to use.

I think Hyperions are thoughtfully designed and nicely made wide field eyepieces. When they came out there was nothing as good as them in that price niche and for a while they were the eyepiece to have if you did not want really spend big bucks on the Meade SWA's (which were expensive back then) or the Tele Vue Panoptics. Whether they are now overpriced depends on whether competition now exists that delivers a similar field of view, eye relief and the same or better optical performance in faster scopes I guess.

Interestingly the Vixen LVW's are very similar in specifications, build quality and overall shape but they are optically better eyepieces. Guess what ? - they cost twice as much  :smiley:

The Hyperions do seem to hold their used value pretty well so must have a continuing degree of popularity I reckon.

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