eye pieces for scope?

[neil groves]

I am about to place my order for this scope after many many weeks of deliberating:

http://www.amazon.com/William-Optics-ZenithStar-Refractor-Flattener/dp/B00GS5OFZM/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1394244085&sr=8-1&keywords=williams+optics+telescope

I am going to use it mainly for imaging but also want to occasionally observe with it and I just noticed it doesn't come with an eye piece...

My interest is mainly open star clusters and nebulae, can anyone recommend a size suitable for this purpose and a decent brand, at this stage I'd rather not use very expensive ones, yeah I know you get what you pay for but naglar are VERY expensive comapared to other brands.

also it doesn't come with a finderscope, am I likely to need one for this little guy?.....if so a recommendation for that would be nice also.

I'm also a little confused about the mount, will it fix directly onto my Celestron AVX?

Neil.

[neil groves]

My concern about the finderscope is that will I need one for this wide field instrument?

I had a wide field scope on time and was once guilty of spending at least 5 mins trying to find the M31, at one point I wondered if the galaxy had exploded and I'd just not heard about it lol

I lined up the finder and found it so easy after that

Neil.

[Alien 13]

Hi Neil

I hope i can answer a few of your questions.

I does help to have a finder scope i find a normal red dot one ideal you only need to get within a basic area of the sky with this scope but i have managed fine without one. The WO finder would be the obvious choice because of the non standard fitting but i managed to get a cheap skywatcher one the fit with a little bit of DIY.

I posted a thread asking about eyepieces http://stargazerslounge.com/topic/210192-odd-request/ but you will require a diagonal to use them, i would suggest a 2" one the revelation usually gets good reviews (dont worry the scope comes with a 2" to 1.25" adapter for normal eyepieces)

The scope is fitted with a vixen style shoe so it should slide right into your mount but you may want to remove the shoe and turn it around to get a better balance.

One last thing the FF will have a T thread for direct connection to a camera T ring but if you want to do some imaging without the FF you will need one of these http://www.firstlightoptics.com/adaptors/william-optics-2-inch-prime-focus-camera-adaptor.html you can get exactly the same thing from skywatcher for less money too.

hope that helps

Alan

[ronin]

For you the Astro-Tech Paradigms are the obvious ones - Astronimics $60, also think AgentaAstro sell the "same" at $59 (may have a different name branded on them.

Focal lengths are 5mm, 8mm 12mm at the lower end.

Alternative is the Celestron X-Cel LX, again Astronomics $75, suspect AgentoAstro as well.

Focal lengths are 5mm, 7mm, 9mm, 12 at the lower end = better selection but more cost.

They do a 2.3mm in X-Cels but that seems too small.

Finders, you may not need one, drop an AT 25mm in and you are basically using the scope as a finder, the FoV will be just under 3.6 degrees. I have the WO RDF fitted to one of the scopes. All depends if you get on with an RDF od course.