200p sky - Barlow, Lens

[Davidswift9]

Hi Davidswift9......... I would go for the 8mm and 18mm BST 'Starguider' Eyepieces. Thats exactly how I started out. The 8mm will blow away the 10mm EP 'SW Super'  The 18mm is better than the 25mm IMHO, however the 25mm is OK for the needs of that telescope.  I found that from a real dark site, I could not get  M31 Andromeda inside the field of view using the 25mm 'SW Super' so I ended up getting the skywatcher 32mm Panaview.  If you buy two or more EP`s from the retailer listed in an earlier thread, if you speak/text him, you will be able to try them out, and refund if you dont like? I would also consider a  Cheshire for setting up your telescope.

What manufacuturer for the 8mm? Many have suggested BCO for 18mm.

[YKSE]

If you want fix focal eyepiece with barlow, 18mm BCO with the QT barlow will be my recommendation.

If you like more flexible zoom instead, Baader Mark III gets my vote, both will work very well in your scope. Optically, the 18mm BCO will be a tad better.

I've had BST starguider 8mm and 12mm, where 12mm is said to be the best of the BSTs, after comparo with my BCOs and Baader zoom, the BSTs found new home. The BCOs and Mark III zoom are noticeablelly better than BST to my eyes.

[Charic]

As YKSE says, its all a personal choice. I've never tried any other EP's, and I purchased the BST Starguider EPs from skies_unlimited on the ebay auction site. For my eyes and pockets these are excellent EPs and  great value too.  BST is an abbreviation of BarSTa?  who build the EP's and these EPs are also branded and sold as  Astrotech Paradigm, N-ED, Olivon ED & Orion Epic by other vendors Worldwide. The BST's I believe are still the cheapest. The fact that I could return them for a refund was a no-brainer. I get on fine with all the lenses.

Now there will be better lenses in the eyes of the beholder, but a lens is only as good as the telescope itself, so if seven owners had  the 200P and all using different  lenses, would they all have different  final images, with some far better than the others? I very much doubt it!  Yes there are some very expensive EP's out there, and will give a nice wide image, but only from what the telescope itself can provide, It wont improve it? You may have TeleVue lenses, and I`ll use my BST.s. Apart from you having no money left, were going to see very much the same thing from the same location, from the same telescope, under the same viewing conditions. The EP cannot turn a poor telescope into a great telescope. It can give a much  wider view, and may help correct some aberrations, but only your own eyes will tell you what's right/wrong.

This may open a can of worms, but I personally don't think a Televue EP would seriously improve what I'm already seeing, with my own eyes, from my observing station, unless someone can pop around and prove me wrong?

[itmo]

I would also buy BST's for first eyepieces , they are not the absolute top , but they are VERY good for their price. Even though I have moved on to more expensive eyepieces , I still use BSTs occasionally. 

Also to explain something about BSTs: Barsta (BST) is  apparently a bulk manufacturer of eyepieces and these same eyepieces pop up in different stores with exactly the same build, maybe a different price and a different name and label. I bought my bst's from teleskop-express as "TS NED" (i think). They also have a very good eyerelief and a wide exit pupil which makes it easy  (=not tiring) to look through them. They have a twist-up eyecup which will make it easy to adjust to your eye OR eyeglasses. Also if you have kids, the eyecup keeps the lens hidden and protected so kids cant get their fingers on it.. I have a 12mm (excellent) a 25mm (good) and a 5mm (ok) 

[YKSE]

I would also buy BST's for first eyepieces , they are not the absolute top , but they are VERY good for their price. Even though I have moved on to more expensive eyepieces , I still use BSTs occasionally. 

Have you compared the BST with the MVs you have?

In my scopes (SCT C8 and 80ED) BCO 18mm performs better than both MV16mm and MV20mm optically, with good eye relief,  and it costs the same as a BST, I would never advice beginners to buy something not as good for the same amount of money.

[jetstream]

There is a reason a lot of people move on from certain eyepieces,there are also reasons why people buy and keep good orthos.The price point of the Baader Classic orthos is ridiculously low for what you get,which are eyepieces that compete with Televue,Pentax,Leica and others.To each his own in their purchases.The 200mm f6 SW is a great scope and can benefit from good eyepieces.

[itmo]

For me MV's and ES are better than BST (especially the MV 24mm) , but I think the difference is that my scope is a very fast one , yours is a slower one. 

[YKSE]

For me MV's and ES are better than BST (especially the MV 24mm) , but I think the difference is that my scope is a very fast one , yours is a slower one. 

There you go.

Maybe I should also mention that I had a f5 explorer 130P as my beginner's scope, I had it for a about half a year, and found over 30 Messiers in my light-polluted  backyard, and all those Messier galaxies - over a dozen of them, were found with 18mm BCO, mostly in the edge of FOV.

[itmo]

Ofcourse , if you are able to buy a maxvision 68deg 24mm , for 79euro from explore scientific, do get it. It is a very nice and relatively cheap eyepiece. but I think you can get a BST for half that price and it is also a very good buy. For the more expensive eyepieces you have to either have a huge budget or hunt for bargains, for BSTs, you really cant go that far wrong. 

[itmo]

Oh. at teleskop-express BSTs sell for 74 euro now. so if that is the lowest price you can get for a BST 25mm, get a 24mm MV instead at 79 euro. I think my BSTs cost around 50 when I bought them. 

[YKSE]

Oh. at teleskop-express BSTs sell for 74 euro now. so if that is the lowest price you can get for a BST 25mm, get a 24mm MV instead at 79 euro. I think my BSTs cost around 50 when I bought them. 

24mm MV is a very nice EP. It's just that I'm under the impression that OP is considering 8mm and 18mm EPs.

[itmo]

Yes , i think it has been said the 16mm MV is quite good also and they have a wider FOV than BSTs which i think are around 60deg, MVs are 68.MVs also have a twist-up cup and a safety groove. 

[lestergibson]

I have the MV 68 16mm and I'm very happy with it. I just wish that shorter MVs were available.