Some Advice on My Astronomy Imagery and Eyepieces Please

[DeckerZ]

Hi Guys,

As the weather has not been so good over the last 2 weeks where I live, I have been busy on ebay buying stuff for my Telescope. My Telescope is a Meade 4504 and I was given just one 25mm eyepiece with it. I also built a battery pack to get the GOTO and motors working and I am pleased to same they are working. Not sure how accurate, but they are moving when I press the buttons. 

I bought some lenses on ebay and received them. They are a bit light and I am thinking they are not the best as there is only one glass right up at the eyepiece. Here's a photo of what I mean. I have separated a couple of them just to show the single glass and what seems to be an aluminium threaded tube.   

When I attach the eyepieces to the telescope, after focusing with the 25mm eyepiece, on a terrestrial object, I do see it closer, but it's kinda zoomed in a bit and a little darker. As I go down the eyepieces from 20mm to 4mm it gets progressively darker and smaller in size. Is this the normal? Here are the other lenses.

They are all light and feel cheap, so some advice on good lenses would be a welcome.

I also bought a 2 x Barlow which I have connected when I have focused with my 25mm eyepiece, but it was out of focus and I just couldn't get it focused on the terrestrial object I was already focused on with my 25mm eyepiece.

Then I got hold of a webcam adaptor and used it on my Logitech webcam. I done what I read online I should do to connect it to the telescope and again, I got nothing but fuzz on my terrestrial object. I am just wondering if I am doing something drastically wrong?

The IR filter is removed from the webcam as seem below.

I have also bought a few books, Turn Left at Orion, being the main one. So I am reading around Astronomy while the clouds are overhead.

Thanks for any help on these matters.

Declan

[Leveye]

Quality of eyepieces are directly related to price pretty much. "You get what you pay for"  Used Tele Vue stuff is highly recommended. I have some older EDCORP and they are excellent. Orion,BST,Meade. Try to stay with brand names. The Zhumell stuff is great for the money. Remember when getting new eyepieces to try not to repeat what you already have. Your Barlow doubles the magnification of them so 3 eyepieces now become 6. Try to space them out and not repeat them. 32mm 20mm 9mm 5mm 3mm and a 2x ,3x and or 5x  barlow. A wide and flatter field of view no matter the mm will mean higher$$

[todd8137]

Sounds like hour busy leave e bay a lone for a while ,what make if any is on the eps ?

Pat

Clear skies always

[DeckerZ]

No make on the eyepieces. Yep, I now realise they are probably not so good.

[RikM]

I have moved this thread to 'general help and advice' because I think you will get more appropriate advice here than in 'imaging'. Imagers won't have a clue what eyepieces are for

As said above, you generally get what you pay for. Any eyepieces made of plastic, with a single lens in and with an H on it, like H12.5mm will probably be very disappointing.

Unless you have replaced the focuser, your telescope will probably only accept 0.965" barrel diameter eyepieces and these are not very common, so any you find will likely be the plastic types.

I would keep a lookout for a telescope that takes 1.25" eyepieces because this is the standard size and you can get much better quality for quite a reasonable price

[cantab]

The shorter the eyepiece focal length, the greater the magnification - which also means the narrower the true field of view and the dimmer the image.

Most of the simpler eyepiece designs have their lenses in the top section, and the bottom is just the nosepiece.  The ones you've got are probably Huygens or Ramsden eyepieces, with two simple lenses They should work, but they'll be tunnel-visiony.

Focus always gets trickier at higher magnifications, and with webcams. Astro scopes also don't tend to be able to focus very close; if you're trying it in the day, find the furthest target you can.

Looking at the diagrams in your scope's manual,

http://www.meade.com/manuals/TelescopeManuals/Reflectors/4504.pdf

it looks like the focuser might be able to take 1.25" eyepieces. Have a closer look at your scope, see if there seems to be an adapter in the focuser that you can remove.

[hippie]

BST lense are a good starter at £49 squids new or around £30 squids S/H,

Televue lenses are one of the best on the market, Meade, Orion, lenses are also good you can find S/H ones often to save a few squids, 

You can find S/H lenses hear http://www.astrobuysell.com/uk/propview.php?minprice=0&maxprice=1000000000000000&typechoice%5B%5D=Eyepiece-Barlow-Diagonal-Reducer&cur_page=1&sort=id+DESC

You could also try asking in the lounge for S/H lenses there maybe some people looking to clear out some of there old lenses!, . 

[RikM]

Have a look through this thread for ideas http://stargazerslounge.com/topic/144296-meade-4504/

[rwilkey]

Hi Declan, those eyepieces are not the best around as others have hinted at, but with a bit of patience you should get something out of them.  Best to read up on other peoples comments on eyepieces, of which there are plenty around this forum, otherwise ask for advice before you buy.  Good luck with your endeavours and clear skies!