Eyepiece selection

[talisman]

Hi all, My name's Alan and I'm new to astronomy, having recently retired from the work force (yipee) ahem sorry. Anyhow I've treated myself to a skyliner 12"dob and I want to upgrade my eyepieces. Until now I've been using the plossles that came with it together with a 28 mm orion deepview, a 15mm knight owl uw and a GSO ED 2x barlow, of these the uw is the best so I want to buy 3 or 4 uw eyepieces. I have been considering sw nirvana, sw panorama and celestron luminos as these are in my price range. I'm interested in dso, nebula, galaxies and the like, with some planetary. I've tried working out exit pupil and all the other ocular gobbledygook, but it was too much for my old brain, so with the myriad of knowledge within the Lounge I would be grateful for any advice.  Also, is there a trick to actually finding nebulae, or is it just the case that my eyepieces are not up to the job?

                                                         Thanks,

                                                                          Alan

[Dude_with_the_tube]

hi Alan and welcome to SGL.

gratz on your 12",will show you a lot of sky,but it is also quite a demanding instrument to eye pieces.I can assume it is a manual version of your scope,as such your fist upgrade should be Telrad finder.thta will help you a lot to get around the night sky and will make finding object a lot easier.Also if you do have a Laptop or even a normal PC,download program called Stellarium.It is a freeware and again will guide you around the sky.Few books like Turn left at orion will not harm for personal education.

As of the most interesting part:eyepieces.

I have heard good responses of people using Nirwanas,Celestron Luminos,i personally can also recomend Explore scientific 82 degree range.these will perform beautifully in your scope.I use them my self and like them.For starters get maybe 3 eye pieces,not necessarily to have a whole set.try them,see if you like them.i would suggest either 6.7 or 8.8 for high powers, 14mm for mid range and either 24 or 30mm for low power DSO`s. They are the same price range as other mentioned eye pieces,can be bought from Explore scientific in germany with very reasonable postage charge.Then when times goes by,you can see if you want to add more focal length or different type of eye pieces.

Clear skies and good luck!

[DRT]

Hi Alan,

Welcome the SGL

That is an impressive starter scope you have selected!

You might find this thread useful so that you can avoid some of the mistakes that others have made when upgrading eyepieces: http://stargazerslounge.com/topic/217907-first-eyepiece-upgrade-what-you-wish-you-had-done/

I haven't used the BST's but they seem to get good reviews here. I briefly owned one Luminos (23mm) and it gave great views in my 8" Dob.

The best "trick" for nebulae is to find a dark sky, which is near impossible at this time of year due to the really short nights. The Orion nebula is the easiest to spot but won't be back in the night sky for a few months. You might want to consider buying an OII filter or something similar to get a better view.

Best of luck with your new hobby and enjoy your retirement

[damnut]

Hi Alan,

Firstly thats a great scope!.. Before parting with hard earned cash , find out where your nearest astro club is and go along and have a look at the eps being used by other folk. With that apperture I would try some of the 82 deg explore scientific eyepieces. If your budget will stretch the new 110 and 120 deg ep's. Also the usual culprits from Televue, but your pockets would need to be even deeper.!

The two sites below will do all the math for you just enter in your details..:---

http://www.stargazing.net/naa/scopemath.htm

http://www.12dstring.me.uk/fov.htm  (with this link make sure you click switch to visual view)

If you have not already done so download a planetarium program, try stellarium, its great and free, to be found here ;---- http://www.stellarium.org/

Secondly congrats on leaving the rat race.

Best Regards

Damian

[baggywrinkle]

I would work with the formula of getting 50x, 100x, and 150x magnification un non Barlowed ep's. Add a barlow and that gives you 100, 200 and 300x magnifications.

You can off course go above that but UK seeing is not so good and large mags can = poor images seen.

As has been said the 12'' dob is a great scope but hard on choosing ep's due to its focal length.

Talk to the astro shops..they usualy offer good advice. I would like to buy Telrads but they are so overpriced in the UK. However the Baader Hyperion range are good quality and value. I have not seen bad reviews.

I bought a Kindle copy of Choosing & Using Astronomical Eyepieces by William Paolini. Great read and when I was buying some higher grade EP's it helped point me in the right direction. There good technical sections and they are not everwhelming. I was visiting Japan and bought a pair of Takahashi ep's at roughly 1/3 the cost they are in the UK.

As you say you are retired I guess that means you are 65 or so. Age can affect the  pupil dilation at night which means the ability of the eye to recvieve light. Much like a good scope the large the dilated pupil the better it can recieve.

I am 59 and my optician checked my dilated pupil, it was just under 5mm. So what does that mean? If the exit pupil of an EP is greater than 5mm then for me I cannot get all that light onto my eye. So buying hugely expensive ep's with large exit pupils can mean I do not get all of their benefit.

There are a huge swathe of threads on here regarding ep's, it is worth checking through some of them, buying ep's is quite a personal things as it must suit you as well as your scope.

[talisman]

Hi all, thanks for all of your input, I've downloaded stelarium (very useful for me) also that scopemath which I also saved. As suggested I searched through all the threads involving eyepieces, so much info. Anyhow after much deliberation I have decided on Celestron Luminos 31mm,19mm and 7mm which would with my 2" barlow give 15.5mm, 9.5mm and theoreticaly 3.5mm. I quite fancied the Nirvana's but I wear glasses and need the eye relief of the Luminos. Also the 31mm and 19mm Luminos are both 2". The ES eyepieces look good but I don't want to go abroad for them, customs etc. I'll also get a cheshire eyepiece and a Telrad finder. Thanks again for your imput. Now I've just got to learn to navigate this site, I'm a bit of a technophobe with computers.

                 Any device designed to reduce chaffing can only be a good thing,even if it is called "Baggywrinkle" Di! Ecce hora! Uxor mea me necabit! Alan.

[Astrobod]

I have a Celestron Nexstar 11" GPS, bought secondhand, it came with a Celestron 32mm eyepiece and 1 1/4" diagonal.  I have upgrade to a 2" Badder diagonal and 2" Crayford fine focuser.  Next step is buy some good quality eyepieces.  My main aim is observing the Moon and planets so any advise would be grateful,

Ron

[John]

I have a Celestron Nexstar 11" GPS, bought secondhand, it came with a Celestron 32mm eyepiece and 1 1/4" diagonal.  I have upgrade to a 2" Badder diagonal and 2" Crayford fine focuser.  Next step is buy some good quality eyepieces.  My main aim is observing the Moon and planets so any advise would be grateful,

Ron

Hi Ron,

It would be worth starting your own thread on this in the "Getting Started: Equipment Help and Advice" section on your eyepiece choices:

http://stargazerslounge.com/forum/186-getting-started-equipment-help-and-advice/

Your scope has a very different specification to the one covered by this thread so the recommendations will be different.

[Astrobod]

OK thanks John, started,

Ron