No time to test new eyepieces!

[CumbrianGadgey]

Hi,

I saw a forecast last week saying that we were in for a cold and frosty snap. My heart leapt and I ordered two Planetary II eyepieces, 3.2mm and 2.5mm. The deal was that if they were not any good for my scope, I could return them in two weeks.

The cold snap sort of came, along with skies that only cleared during the day and promptly got all misty and cloudy at night. Only once did I get a few minutes when I got as far as using my 25mm and 5mm and for a few seconds with the new eyepieces. The clarity was not good, but it also wasn't with the 5mm BST which I know performs brilliantly, given good viewing.

Tonight I got the scope set up and targeted Jupiter in the twilit sky. I didn't have a great deal of hope because there was a penumbra around the planet even to the naked eye. Sure enough, as it started to get dark, the clouds rolled in and I didn't even get anything other than the 25mm out of the box. Doh!

I am faced with the prospect of returning something I haven't even been able to try out, or keeping them, untested and hoping. Maybe I'll see if Alan at Sky's the limit will let me hold onto them for a while longer...it's not as if they're getting damaged wrapped up all cosy in their boxes in the living room!

[andyman]

Too much magnification especially for uk skies im afraid.they just wouldnt get used

[John]

Too much magnification especially for uk skies im afraid.they just wouldnt get used

Depends on the scope they will be used in doesn't it ?

I've currently got 3 of the new Skywatcher SWA 70 degree eyepieces on loan from First Light Optics for review and, apart from very short glimpses, I've got nothing to write up on them so far 

[AlexB67]

In my experience buying the BSTs, Alan is a very helpful bloke and understanding providing first class service. Just ask and explain the situation and I'll think you'll be fine.

It would really be  worth giving them a thorough run before deciding if you think they are bad or good for you.

I don't know what scope you will using them for, but seeing it is a rather short focal length selection the focal length of the scope is very short I assume, which implies perhaps a scope that is not going to need huge cooling times to get the best out of the eyepieces.

I can give last night ( more like 4 in the morning to get another glimpse of  SN2014J  )  as a good example that in my 10 inch Dob it takes quite a good while for a scope that size to even catch up with the potential performance of the most modest eyepieces. I was briefly looking at the globular cluster M3 in my skywatcher 6mm. I noticed the stars were poorly resolved early on. I stopped to try again later on that target, 30 minutes later, probably a good hour and  bit into the session I was able to resolve the core quite nicely.

It is not as if that 6mm eyepiece I own is known for its nice sharp star images and high quality optics ( < 30 pounds eyepiece) , but my scope needs to be well collimated and settled down before the limitations of such an eyepiece really begin to show in full capacity over the scope performance.

[andyman]

Depends on the scope they will be used in doesn't it ?

I've currently got 3 of the new Skywatcher SWA 70 degree eyepieces on loan from First Light Optics for review and, apart from very short glimpses, I've got nothing to write up on them so far 

Using magnification on that scale you would need nights of exceptional seeing conditions which are as rare as hens teeth...even in the right scope.in a 10" dob  for example that would give 500x 375x.the maximum mag i have used is 240x before it started to effect image quality...apart from very rare occasions when managed 300x...just my opinion

[John]

Using magnification on that scale you would need nights of exceptional seeing conditions which are as rare as hens teeth...even in the right scope.in a 10" dob  for example that would give 500x 375x.the maximum mag i have used is 240x before it started to effect image quality...apart from very rare occasions when managed 300x...just my opinion

But we don't know what scope the OP was referring too ?

In my ED102 refractor the 3.2mm eyepiece would give 207x which is readily usable on Saturn, Mars, the Moon and binary stars. 

But I guess the overall point of his post was that the weather lately has not been conducive to viewing at any magnification 

[Pig]

Hiya,

When I bought my T31 is was at least a month before I got to see first light through it. However, it was well worth the wait when I finally did, so hold onto them this weather cant stay this bad forever ..... I hope

I guess I have just put the kiss of death on it

[Reeny]

This thread may shed some light on the OP's choice of scope

Skywatcher Explorer 130 newtonian, F7, 900mm

http://stargazerslounge.com/topic/203053-how-far-can-you-push-a-skywatcher-130/

I can feel an "I told you so" moment coming on from all the people who took the time to say that 200x would be the realistic maximum.

And a 4mm at 225x would be pushing the limits.

3.2mm and 2.5mm will give a massive 300x and 360x magnification.

Great for those once or twice moments per year, but not very useful for the rest of the time.

I notice Skys the Limit does the TMB 58^o in both the 4mm, and 4.5mm sizes.

[John]

This thread may shed some light on the OP's choice of scope

Skywatcher Explorer 130 newtonian, F7, 900mm

http://stargazerslounge.com/topic/203053-how-far-can-you-push-a-skywatcher-130/

I can feel an "I told you so" moment coming on from all the people who took the time to say that 200x would be the realistic maximum.

And a 4mm at 225x would be pushing the limits.

3.2mm and 2.5mm will give a massive 300x and 360x magnification.

Great for those once or twice moments per year, but not very useful for the rest of the time.

I notice Skys the Limit does the TMB 58^o in both the 4mm, and 4.5mm sizes.

Well knowing the scope does help the discussion somewhat 

It's always worth adding the scope details (unless they are in the signature) to any question on eyepieces otherwise we are shooting in the dark with responses unless we happen to recall the equipment that a particular member has

Given the scope, I'd agree entirely that the 3.2mm and 2.5mm would only be rarely, if ever, used.

[Reeny]

I was looking at the 6mm TMB Planetary II to use at 200x.

The 58-degrees should be wide enough.

There is a second hand one on Ebay for £30.

Hmmmmm.

[bingevader]

As Alex has said, unless Alan has moved his business to somewhere with permanently clear skies, I'm sure he's experiencing the same weather as us. In which case, I'm sure he'd appreciate a call and an explanation of the difficulties you are facing. As long as he is aware of the delay, I wouldn't have thought there'd be too much of an issue.

I think 'scope specs in your sig is an excellent idea. 

Cheers

[Naemeth]

Let Alan know, you might just be surprised .

Personally I find very high magnifications (40-50x per inch of aperture), while they can be used, they don't offer anything above 25x-30x per inch, just a larger image with more chance to see the limitations of the seeing. There are of course brief moments where I eat my own words, and I have used a 3mm on my Vixen 80M (303x, ~125x per inch) and the results were, very briefly, very nice. It helps to be able to change the magnification in seconds though, and smaller apertures often seem to cope better with high power.

HTH

[rory]

Depends on the scope they will be used in doesn't it ?

I've currently got 3 of the new Skywatcher SWA 70 degree eyepieces on loan from First Light Optics for review and, apart from very short glimpses, I've got nothing to write up on them so far 

be interesting reading john . theres not been a lot of info on those particular eyepieces. apart from the fact they are rather large !

[John]

be interesting reading john . theres not been a lot of info on those particular eyepieces. apart from the fact they are rather large !

Still no real news from me on their performance under the stars yet I'm afraid. I've had a few peeks but nowhere near enough to reach any conclusions on them