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Where to buy eyepieces???


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This might seem like a really stupid question, but where do you all buy your eyepieces from?? every website has different ones and I'm not always sure what the difference is!! 

I am looking for a 2x Barlowe and possibly a 18mm ep (and maybe even a 8mm one if my budget can stretch that far)

I suppose what i am also asking is what are the differences in all the brands and the different types of eyepieces? 

Any help would be great

Dan

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For 18mm EP, I can warm recommend Baader Classic Ortho, for £49, you get an EP almost as good as those cost many hundred quids, just narrower field of view ( about 50 degrees compare to 70 or 100 degrees). The Baader QT barlow (£45) can both used as 2.25x and 1.3x, works very well with BCOs, together with the 18mm,  you get effectively 8mm and 13.8mm equivalent EPs. BCO 18mm was my galaxy hunter in backyard when I had explorer 130P, I got some 30 Messier galaxies with that scope and 18mm BCO.

you can get EP and barlow from FLO:

http://www.firstlightoptics.com/baader-planetarium/baader-classic-ortho-bco-eyepiece.html

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FLO is one, X-Cel EP's

Skys the Limit for the BST range StL

Rother Valley RVO

365 Astronomy 365A

Harrison HT

Widescreen WSC

Telescope Service TS

In general, not always, the first step up is to something in the £50-70 bracket, some decide that they need ones like the ES82 and/or TV's. Which while they cost more they are eyepieces that you will not need to upgrade again in 3-5 years if you get bigger scopes. Equally the BST's and X-Cels will still perform in bigger scopes.

Presently a first upgrade is best satisfied by the BST Starguiders (£49) and/or X-Cels (£64).

All depends on what you want and want to spend.

The 2 focal lengths you mention (18+8) are a match for the BST's.

Do you get along to BSIA?

If so ask a few people there.

If North London then consider a drive up the M40 and visit the IAS (Leamington Spa area) you will see lots of eyepieces.

I have the  BST's so easy to say they work well, as I do not have the X-Cels I cannot comment from direct experience but they are generally of identical performance from the assorted postings and comments.

Enjoy the spending.

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Hi there,

I also own the Heritage 130p and the eyepieces I find the most important are my 20mm 70 degree overview eyepiece (Erfle), the 8mm 58deg for many deep sky objects (HR Planetary) and the 3,2mm for planets.

A long time I just used those three.

The HR Planetary cost around 45-50€ including shipping if you buy them in the UK.

- http://m.ebay.de/itm/160858487601?nav=SEARCH

- Astroversand.com (Germany) has some of them cheap (45€, but my experience with them have been mixed, online reviews are very mixed.)

- In China (eBay, aliexpress) you can get them for 40€ but have no real warranty and you will have to pay tax, perhaps customs when importing goods over the tax free value (here in germany: 22€/26€ as the fee will have to be over €5 for them to bill it).

The BST explorers and NED from Teleskop-Express (great shop!) are a tad better then the HR Planetary, but all of them perform well on f/5 even if they have a bit less apparent field of view then some other wide angle eyepieces.

Cheaper eyepieces such as erfle and plössl are not sharp across the whole field at f/5, much more noticable then at telescopes with f/6. Personality I am not bothered by that as much as others.

IF you are just looking for eyepieces that are affordable, you can live with a bit of blurr in the outer 10-20% of the field, go get the 66degree wide angle eyepieces with the golden line. Those are sold by many companies under different names.

They are modified Plössl IIRC but have a nice wide angle view (6mm on the Heritage is AMAZING as the whole moon fits into view at 108x), a better eye relief then the short focal length plössl, and if you like to tinker you can change the distance to the bottom tube barlow element to increase the focal length.

They cost 32€ shipped in the UK,

http://m.ebay.co.uk/itm/140717462903?nav=SEARCH

http://m.ebay.co.uk/itm/140600338633?nav=SEARCH

(available in 6, 9, 15, 20mm)

around 39€ from Germany, and the 6mm can be imported from China for around 21€ shipped if the tax free value is 22€ there as well. http://m.ebay.co.uk/itm/400612422038?nav=SEARCH

The 6mm has some kidney beaning but personally I do not find it hard to get a good view through it. Still beats short focal length plössl type eyepieces and the included "super 10".

Another budget solution are the Seben/Orbinar Erfle and Plössl eyepieces. You find a lot of bad reviews on Seben/Orbinar telescopes due to weak mounts and such, but I have both Plössl and Erfle eyepieces from them, both look exactly the same as other noname eyepieces I have from recognized stores.

Qualiy control may be different, so your mileage may vary.

Seben Plössl cost around 6-15€, are a bit better then the included eyepieces. Sadly the 30mm has no eye cup, but you can improvise something with a zip tie and pipe isolation from the hardware store.

http://m.ebay.co.uk/itm/380439958980?nav=SEARCH

(if you buy a single seben item, their eBay or amazon shops are a bit cheaper, when ordering two or more, their webshop will be cheaper as the shipping at eBay is included in the item price... "free shipping")

It will give you around the maximum field of view you can get on the heritage with a 1,25" focuser.

Better would be a 32mm Plössl from Teleskop-Express, but also a bit more expensive.

The 40mm Plössl does not show much more field as it has a narrower apparent field of view, plus 40mm gives you a very large exit pupil, under regular conditons it will just waste light gathering power and the sky background is too bright.

The Seben Erfle cost around 22€ and are neat budget, wide angle eyepieces. But at f/5 they won't be the best!

I have two of the cheap erfles, one beeing from Seben.

The 20mm is nice, I use it the most. Shows a bit less field then the 30mm but the sky background is darker, especially here at the city borders 6mm exit pupil is just too much. With 4mm exit pupil (eyepiece focal length devided by telescope aperture ratio) it is nice to view large star clusters and nebulae.

http://m.ebay.co.uk/itm/380750246253?nav=SEARCH

The 12mm suprised me with a short eye relief, I do not know if the shorter focal lengths have similar issue. I would reccomend the 6mm gold-line for short focal length eyepieces.

If you really plan on using the eyepieces for ever and plan on buying a larger telescope, the 82 degree Explore-Scientific are a great deal... But cost more then the telescope ;-)

Before I get scolded, I do not reccomend the cheap eyepieces at f/5. But they do work at f/5, and I still use some of them. They improve the fun of observing while you can get two or three for the price a TS NED eyepiece would cost.

For the higher magnifications, such as a 3,2mm HR Planetary with 58 degree apparent field of view. It might be sharp, but at 200x and more planets will be quickly out of the view of field. Here is where a 82 deg eyepiece really comes in handy in a dobsonian. Though if the heritage is standing on solid ground and is balanced well 200x should still be possible.

Regarding Barlows:

The cheap 2x achromatic for 13-30€ are all looking quite similar, I have seen a few, the seben looks like the 30€ ones... THOUGH: I did not compare coatings and such.

The 2x seben achromatic (not the cheap plastic lens one) performs better then the meade 3x I bought. While the 2x already shows some chromatic aberration (color fringe around bright objects) it worked well with the 8 and 6mm eyepiece. The 3x makes things worse, yet still better then a plastic barlow.

The better ED Barlows cost as much as two or so decent eyepieces. Plus the swapping and focusing at night can be anoying. Overall I would reccomend a few nice eyepieces before considering a barlow, as three eyepieces will perform better then one or two with barlow.

Regarding maximum magnification with the Heritage 130p: The mirror quality varies. Some report 130x is the maximum useful magnification, some use 160 or more like myself. The high magnifications on mine do not surpass those of a 4" maksutov but are still nice and the image is brighter at 200x.

You should probably not go higher then 4-5mm or a (modified) 6mm gold line ep.

For deepsky I said I find 8mm great, as the image is still bright and the magnification high enough to recognizer the shape of some galaxies and nebulae.

The optimum would be a eyepiece around two or three millimeter exit pupil, so 2mm x f/5 = 10mm or 3mmxf/5=15mm eyepiece.

1mm exit pupil for high magnification, so around 4-5mm would be fine, 3,2mm if you think you have a good mirror (star test?).

4-5 or 6mm exit pupil as overview, if your sky is dark enough (borlte scale, all ursa minor stars visible, milky way visible?).

The budget solution could be

30mm Plössl

15mm Erfle or gold line

6mm Gold line

=starting at around 60€, perhaps a 9mm as well.

The best buy solution

24-25mm wide angle eyepiece

8-12mm HR Planetary/TS NED/Bst...

4mm HR Planetary

...but this will cost at least twice as much.

IMHO a 8" dobsonian comes within reach if you buy all the great eyepieces, and if you can transport that, it would be the best "upgrade", and at f/6 aperture ratio handle the cheap eyepieces well ;-)

The small 130mm dobsonian is a great portable telescope. But eyepieces 150€ each are a bit of an overkill in my oppinion ;-) Only if you plan on buying a f/5 telescope such as a 10" f/5 later anyway, or even f/4.7, then the 20-30€ eyepieces will be horrible.

Otherwise the perform well enough to enjoy the night sky.

Along with some 8x binoculars and a map the sky is amazing. The Heritage is a nice wide field telescope.

Good luck choosing some eyepieces :-)

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Oh, I forgotten:

Stay clear of the zoom eyepieces. Seben and TS have decent ones for around 50€ (24-8/21-7), but the apparent field of view at lower magnification is only 40 degree, thus rather buy two fixed focal length eyepieces.

I rarely use my zoom, only durring the day with the maksutov.

What use is a 21mm 40deg eyepiece for orientation!? ;-)

And don't let me start with the 20€ zoom, it is neat to replace budget telescope eyepieces but even then a emergency budget solution.

If a zoom still sounds tempting, consider Astrozoom.de.

As mentioned before, you can change the focal length of some eyepieces by changing the distance of the bottom lens element. Astrozoom adapters do just that, and while the zoom range is not as large, the apparent field ov fiew and overall performance of the eyepiece stays about the same.

Most of the zooms are for 2" focusers, at least the version I got is a bit tedios to clamp on the 1,25" tube, I am sure there are solutions though.

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You have many choices of inexpensive eyepieces for an first upgrade, which most of site member have upgraded again and again later on, and lose some money on the way, or left them in eyepiece case for long long time. If you want a 18mm eyepiece which DOESN'T need upgrade, and doesn't cost a fortune, 18mm BCO is the one.

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I don't want to be a spoil sport, but at f/5? And the eye relief under 10mm can be a problem, the 6mm ortho have 5mm eye relief according to a random shop's site.

I'm under impression that OP is asking about 18mm eyepiece, BCO 18mm works very well in f5 SW 130P explorer.

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Wow, loads of information here for me, thanks guys!!! One thing that stands out at me is that decent eyepieces are more expensive than i thought, so...

If I had to choose between a barlowe or an eyepiece, what should I go for? (bearing in mind i have the 10mm and 25mm eyepieces that came with the scope, and would mainly observe planets and some of the easier messier objects)

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I would go for another eyepiece over a barlow - especially a budget barlow. (Even more especially a budget barlow with the supplied EPs!).

Another option for you to consider are the Vixen NPL range (£35).  My first purchase was a 15mm NPL and I still love it.  They are a Plossl design but so much better than the supplied with EPs.

I'll also like my TS HR Planetary (€59). I have the 9mm but it is a step up in price.

Both suppliers linked - FLO and TS are excellent.

Andrew

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I'm under impression that OP is asking about 18mm eyepiece, BCO 18mm works very well in f5 SW 130P explorer.

I agree. I feel that the 10mm and 18mm Baader Classic Orthos are optically the best you can get at the £50 price point for a new eyepiece and work very nicely at a wide range of focal ratios. OK so they don't have wide fields of view but their sharpness and light transmission are really top notch :smiley:

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Not what i would have expected, i would have though a barrow would be better, but an eyepiece it is!! 

With that i ask whether a 18mm (or something around that) would be that beneficial to me at the moment, as I would like to see more details on the planets. Will, say, an 8mm EP give a decent amount of detail or should i go for something like a 5mm (or just stick with the 18mm if it is so good) ?

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Hi,

See explanation from earlier, If you want to observe deep sky objects, 2 to 3mm exit pupil will be ideal, for planets you should consider more... It boils down to what you want ;-)

magnification;

Don't choose long focal length eyepieces too close together, stay clear of most eye piece Sets.

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Not what i would have expected, i would have though a barrow would be better, but an eyepiece it is!! 

With that i ask whether a 18mm (or something around that) would be that beneficial to me at the moment, as I would like to see more details on the planets. Will, say, an 8mm EP give a decent amount of detail or should i go for something like a 5mm (or just stick with the 18mm if it is so good) ?

To see planets with more detail, you'll need EP in 3mm to 8mm range, because the 18mm will only show small disk of these planets. depending on which one you are looking at, Mars needs most magnificaion, while Jupiter usually 120x to 150x, and Saturn somewhere in between, the seeing conditions plays very important role.

As to barlow, many cheap barlows are of bad quality, while good barlows are really good, all those eyepieces with constant eye relief have build-in barlow, and these barlows really works.

BTW, Baader has just raised their price for BCOs from 55€ to 65€

http://www.baader-planetarium.com/section_prices.pdf

FLO has kept £49 as before, maybe because of appreciation of Sterlings against Euro, but a price-raise can very well come soon.

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you say good barlowes are really good, how much would these cost? I don't really fancy getting a really high power eyepiece for some reason, and something like an 8mm is too close to the 10mm i already have (although it is a bit rubbish...)

of course could be entirely mistaken...

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Those really good barlows cost €200 too over €400 as shown here

http://www.apm-telescopes.de/de/Optisches-Zubehoer/Barlow-Linsen/125-Barlow-Linsen.html

But that's necessary for most us, I assume, baader QT barlow is a good inexpensive, just as the whole BCO eyepieces, Here's John !the Mod! review with BCOs,

http://www.firstlightoptics.com/blog/baader-classic-ortho-plossl-review.html

BCO 10mm and 18mm are optically among the best EPs, together with the QT barlow, you have a very good coverage of EP range for your f5 scope.

If the stock 10mm is rubbish, then it'll be better not letting it ruin the view.

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A good eyepiece will allways beat a barlowed combination.

The included 25mm is okey-ish, the 10mm for starters but here you would benefit from an upgrade the most.

A good barlow would cost more then one or two decent eyepieces. This means a decent barlow as one of the first starter upgrades does usualy not make much sense.

A barlow

-decreases contrast

-means fiddling with eyepieces in the middle of the night and the focus changes drastically, swappimg eyepieces becomes more of an hassle

-may influence the apparent field of view

-dust specs on the barlow become very visible

I regullary reccomend the 13 euro Seben along with two Plössl to students if they are on a really low budget, but never as final solution. A better ed barlow may cost 40-50 euro or more.

So why not get two or three eyepieces instead? :-)

If you have a REALLY good eyepiece >100€ a barlow can make sense instead of buying another eyepiece, or if you plan on imaging with a webcam.

If you plan on viewing planets you will not be able to avoid a good low focal length eyepiece. I compared some barlow-eyepiece combinations and many details vanish compared to a single eyepiece.

A better solution is a Astrozoom.de zoom eyepiece perhaps.

The 29gbp/32euro 66 degree eyepieces are a steal and along with a plössl or erfle eyepiece you would spend less then what you would for a good barlow.

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Well thank you all so so so much for helping me out here, especially you Schorhr :) I think i will go with either the BST 18mm or the BCO 18mm, and then the 6mm gold line ultra wide as a cheap high power eyepiece for now, and upgrading the standard 10mm sometime in the future along with a barlow (maybe the Baader Classic 2.25x  - i can't really afford the 'great' barlows mentioned before, but if i ever get in to imaging (which i might if i find mac applicable software and hardware) i might need a barlow)

I also apologise profusely for my misspelling of 'barlow' throughout this topic :p

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Sounds like a plan, you could also consider the Astrozoom instead of the barlow but getting ahead of things.

With the 6mm goldline 66deg uwa and the 10mm kit eyepiece, you won't be using the 10mm at all much, even though it gives a bit larger exit pupil the 6mm will perform better and you will see the difference a wide angle eyepiece makes.

For a rough impression compare it here, http://www.12dstring.me.uk/foveyepiece.php

with the 130p, a Skywatcher uwa 6mm 66° and skywatcher super 10, for example at the moon.

My advice would be - if you are getting the 6mm anyway - to get the 6mm66deg first and then decide if you want the bst or if the other 66deg or erfle would suit your needs.

Instead of the 18mm you could also consider

I just spent half an hour on the balcony with the 20mm erfle (http://www.ebay.de/itm/Orbinar-Super-Weitwinkel-Okular-70-FMC-1-25-31-7mm-SWA-20mm-/360770688129?pt=DE_Foto_Camcorder_Okulare&hash=item53ff9bd481) and 6mm66deg eyepieces. Sadly the barlow element of the 6mm does not fit the erfle well and the 6mm without the element does not reaxh focus unless pushing in the heritage tube a bit.

If you are into a bit of tinkering however the 6mm can be pushed to around 4mm if you find a tube or whip something up to extend the distance/tube length.

With 6mm Saturn is a small dot with rings, cute to look at, Jupiter's two cloud bands visible if you have good eyes ;-)  Mars will remain a red dot mostly but no doubt about it not beeing a star with 6mm  / at 108x.

As you can see eyepieces are a difficult subject, somewhat a personal preference, and the really good ones cost quite a bit compared to the telescope itself.

Really don't bother much with the barlow for now, and the heritage is not suited for imaging anyway (and that's from someone who does use it for imaging ;-))

Also if you get the two eyepieces now, all you really need is another one or two eyepieces to fill the gaps, so at around the same investment you can later complete a decent eyepiece set.

Plössl and the 66deg have a decent resale value, and over time you can still replace them with hr/bst/es or what ever. The Explore Scientifoc are great but price and weight are a bit of an overkill on the Heritage :-)

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A few more tinker tips:

I just realized that the Seben Erfle fit into the 66degUWA tube if you unscrew the top lens of the 66degUWA and remove the bottom tube of the erfles.

This way the 12mm Erfle ends up as guestimate 2.5-3mm giving around 200-250x in the Heritage.

Much better then the 12mm or 6mm with Barlow.

The only downside is the eye relief of the 12mm that's about as short as the Super 10 eyepiece's.

The unscrewed 6mm66degUWA top element roughly equals the 20mm erfle, probably as the same/similar element is used in the 20mm66degUWA. The only problem is that the top element does not screw into the eyepiece tube of the erfle but something could be improvised.

I am not saying this is the ultimate solution, only temporary, but it is a budget way to try things out and see for yourself what magnifications you would need. Other eyepiece manufactors even sell distance rings or adapters and basically do the same thing to change magnification, just a tad more elegant.

With a 12mm Erfle and a 6mm66Deg, both starting at 20€ each, you could get

32x Great overview, shows a similar field to the Super25 but wide angle, more ideal exit pupil under light polluted skies - 6mmt top element

54x   - 2,4mm exit pupil -  ideal for deepsky - 12mm erfle, eye relief a bit short

108x - 1,2mm exit pupil - great for smaller dso and planets under mediocre conditions - 6mm66deg

200x+ - Planets, moon, about the maximum with a  good heritage 130p mirror - 12mm+66deg tube

But of course the quality will be not as great as a 3/4mm HR Blanetary or BST and a 20mm, plus the threadings get a bit beaten.

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