Eye pieces for older timers

[LenGazer]

Okay so I purchased my father the celestron 102gt and the eyepieces that came with it are Terrible.  Trying too find some eyepieces that are of decent quality, and that are old timer friendly.  He's got fairly bad eyes, so having some sort of eye piece that he doesn't have to "hunt" with his eye to find the viewing port.  And yet at the same time, still be useable by someone with "good" eyes.. if that makes sense..

we were viewing last night, ide line up the object and have it tracking. and he has a heck of a time finding the pin hole in the 4mm eye piece with his eye..    Any suggestions on where I can find a good quality eye pieces which are easily used by older folks?

Thanx in advance!


 

[ronin]

The 2 that are usually refered to are the BST Starguiders and the Celestron X-Cels.

Both have good eye relief and good sized eye lens - finding them is easy.

Really the BST's are as good as you will need and are slightly less cost at £49, X-Cels are £65.

StL

There is not a 4mm but 5mm, next up is 8mm, should be good for everyone.

[chiltonstar]

I am fairly ancient by astro standards, and certainly the two BST EPs I have are very good indeed. Easy to see through - the only downside I've found (minor) is the reflection off the eye visible when looking at something bright like Jupiter.

I use a 32mm Meade plossl a lot and that works very well for me as well. The only EPs I've tried that gave me issues were some very wide angle ones on a friend's SW 200P. I found the wide field of view hard to cope with - I'm happier with 50 - 60 degrees.

Chris

[AlexB67]

The BSTS ED starguiders are very eye friendly, you can afford to move about a bit and still get the views without suffering I find.  Just tell your father to screw the eye cup all the way out so all of the view can be seen still to start with, it avoids blackouts,  adjust inward a bit if needed.  Some complain about this with some of the BSTs getting blackouts, but I suspect a lot of the time it is down to the cup adjustment.  If your father wears glasses some inward adjustment will be needed on the eyecup in order to see all of the view.

On paper the BSTs only quote about 13mm eye relief which may seem short compare to some of the competition that quote more, in practice it works out as plenty eye relief with room to spare.   

Very small exit pupils ( higher magnifications ) may be more problematic for older people anyway and the likelihood of seeing floaters increases with age unfortunately, so see how he gets on. 

Good luck

[ronl]

The BST StarGuider ep's are very easy on the eye, my eyes are not

very good and I wear glasses, but I don't wear them at the eyepiece,

some great advice I was given was to wear a black eye patch while

observing, it helps to relax your eyes, you can keep both eyes open,

that way you are not screwing your face while keeping one shut, this

does work, and I find you can observe for longer without straining.

The StarGuiders are £49.00 and you get them here on e-bay

 http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_trksid=p2050601.m570.l1311.R1.TR2.TRC1.A0.H1.Xbst+eyepi&_nkw=bst+eyepiece&_sacat=0&_from=R40