new Eyepiece set

[jase81]

Hi all , can anyone give me some advice, opinions on this please

http://www.firstlightoptics.com/eyepiece-sets/celestron-eyeopener-eyepiece-and-filter-kit.html

would it be a good investment for the astromaster 130eq

thank you

[Charic]

Hi. jase81.........The Celestron kit would appear to be of great value, but I doubt if  it is a  "good investment". 

FWIW....... I too owned a Celestron, the  Powerseeker 127EQ, and very quickly  learnt that it was not right for me. The supplied eyepieces were awful,  my newer eyepieces cant improve  that telescope either, so I had to upgrade. Plossl eyepieces have a  limited eye relief so your eye / lashes will almost touch the lens on the lower numbered eyepieces  to see the image, too close for comfort.

My honest advice is to try and visit a shop or club or a friend, and try some eyepieces before you actually buy them. Eyepieces are fully interchangeable, so if you have a nice EP now, it will last  for ever and  even fit other telescopes. If you get poor or lower quality EP's now, they will always give you less than what is achievable.

very difficult to choose, or accept information when just starting out, but most of us have been there, and have learnt some of the mistakes on the way.

[moriniboy]

I tried one of these box sets when I re-discovered my Tasco scope about 10 years after buying it.

These ep's were far superior to the ones which came as standard with the Tasco (0.965" plastic ones) however I quickly realised their deficiencies and moved onto Hyperions, now I'm in Televue territory 

I would not expect such a jump in quality compared to the original equipment ones.

[Schorhr]

Hi,

Plössl are not well suited at f/5, the ones under 10mm have such an short eye relief that it is difficult to view through, and Most of the filters are Not neccesary.

Either take the cheap route, Seben Plössl 7-15£ or their 18£ Erfles, but for a 130/650 and the f/5 aperture ratio the BST explorer / TS NED / Hr Planetary work much better.

A bit inbetween are the 66 degree UWA eyepieces, cost below 27£ a piece, and are modified plössl with a much larger apparent field of view.

The 6mm 66deg is neat, the moon still fits into the field of view at 108x, and thanks to the bottom barlow type element both the outer and coma are not as bad plus the eye relief is much better then plössl.

You can even change rhe focal length a bit by extending the distance of the bottom element with (half) a film can.

The eyepieces I use most with my 130f/5:

30mm seben plössl: not as neat as a 32 TS Plössl, needs a diy eye cup out of foam insulation or similar, but shows you about the maximum field on a telescope with 1.25" focuser.

Cost: 17€/15£ or so.

20mm erfle: Cheap, relatively large field, yet a smaller exit pupil that works under sky cities with light pollution.

Costs 22€/18£ or something like that.

12mm erfle or 15mm 66deg goldlione, or a plössl in that range:

great for deep sky, dark sky background, good contrast with around 2-3mm exit pupil, many galaxies visible.

8mm hr Planetary: A tad less magnification then the 6mm but when conditions are not so great, it will show a lot, deepsky objects are not as faint as with higher magnification and planets are small but nice.

M81 and M82 both fit into view, planetary nebulae look great.

The HR Planetary are a tad cheaper then the BST explorer, some astro sellers at eBay sell them for 40€/35£ or something like that, depending on the focal length and availability. Sometimes you can Get the 2.5mm Hr Planetary for 25£ but it only works If you have a well parabolized mirror and great Seeing conditions, something the planets are standing much to Löw now.

6mm: The 6mm 66deg can be bought for 20£ in China or 27£ in the UK, I Made a cheap zoom eyepiece out of it. Requires a Bit of tinkering especially depending on how much back focus your telescope has.

It is a great Budget eyepiece If HR Planetary or BST are too expensive, the cheap Erfle eye relief is too short for you and If you want more field of view then with a comparable Plössl.

3,2mm & 2.5mm HR Planetary.

Awesome for planets IF you have a Good mirror... Else go for a 4 or 5mm to be safe. Another reason why a 6mm6zdeg is a inexpensive way to find out IF you like tinkering.

2x and 3x achromatic Barlows

The 2x seben achromatic barlow costs around 12£ or so (If ordered at their Shop direclty or sometimes via amazon, at eBay everything has "Free shipping" added onto the price now).

The barlow looks similar/identical to many of those cheap 20-30£ achromatic Barlows out there, probably all of These come out of the Same factory. They ad a Bit of chromatic abberation, so If you are into planets, consider a BST explorer or HR Planetary instead, as Apo/ED Barlows cost much more.

The 3x Meade/Bresser I have Shows much more chromatic abberation, I haven't used it for much but with the camera ever since I got it.

So again, lowest Budget solution If you have a 10 and 25mm kit eyepiece:

2x achromatic barlow for 12£

If you want to improve the kit eyepieces, especially the 10mm, something like a 32mm Plössl, a 6mm66deg will be a big step Up, eithert with an aditional 4mm HR Planetary or BST, or on the Budget side the 2x barlow or tinkering with the 6mm66 itself.

If you Plan on spending more then 100£, consider a 24mm wide angle eyepiece, a 3-4mm eyepiece (Not a Plössl, I have a 4mm, it's cheap, it works, but difficult to observe through) and One or two inbetwen.

If money is No issue, consider a Astrozoom.de eyepiece (compared to other zooms the apparent field of view does Not change but the zoom range is smaller) and perhaps take a look at the Explore Scientific wide angle eyepieces. Though those are heavy, so Balance might be an issue.

[RT65CB-SWL]

Hi 'jase81' and wecome to SGL.

I personally purchase individual eyepieces rather than a set. That way you can have a selection of Plossl's, wide-angle, long/short eye-relief etc. My questions to you are:

1. "What do you want to mainly observe?" - "...lunar, solar*, planetary, DSO's!

2. "Do you want to try astro-photography?"

Barlows are popular items. Filters another popular topic too. Plenty of discussions on SGL and other astro-forums.

* with a full aperture solar filter.

[Jim Steele]

I'd skip the idea of a collection and mabye get a couple of £50 mid range Plossls, such as BST ones from flea-bay

Collections are ok, but often ship with eps that won't be optimul on your scope

[jase81]

thank you all for your help

philip r at the moment i havent really thought about what i want to observe really , i'm like a kid in a candy shop at the moment lol  , astro-photography is something i would love to do in the future

[Charic]

No matter what oculars you purchase, they will eventually become 'Your Kit'  So, If like a Hi-Fi enthusiast ( remember them?) you would  purchase the best that each company offers, to get the best out of 'your system'.

I purchased two BST  Starguider oculars in good faith on the advice here on SGL, and have not regretted that decision, and in the end,  bought the rest of them  "the set" but purchased on my individual needs. You don't need them all. Choose wisely, but more so, try them if you can first!

Also, Astro-photography gets very expensive with equipment required to get the results you so desire.  Its very difficult to get near Hubble type images, without owning a Hubble or being out of Earth's atmosphere, to get the best images possible.

Firstly it would appear from many folk that most of your money spent goes into a decent support system that is rocky steady, at the same time as it tracks the target that you wish to photograph, then some decent optics  to obtain the image, then a decent camera to capture these images. There is much to learn with astro-photography, and you need pretty clear and dark skies too. There are some good books available, along with the advice you will receive from SGL.

[jase81]

No matter what oculars you purchase, they will eventually become 'Your Kit'  So, If like a Hi-Fi enthusiast ( remember them?) you would  purchase the best that each company offers, to get the best out of 'your system'.

I purchased two BST  Starguider oculars in good faith on the advice here on SGL, and have not regretted that decision, and in the end,  bought the rest of them  "the set" but purchased on my individual needs. You don't need them all. Choose wisely, but more so, try them if you can first!

Also, Astro-photography gets very expensive with equipment required to get the results you so desire.  Its very difficult to get near Hubble type images, without owning a Hubble or being out of Earth's atmosphere, to get the best images possible.

Firstly it would appear from many folk that most of your money spent goes into a decent support system that is rocky steady, at the same time as it tracks the target that you wish to photograph, then some decent optics  to obtain the image, then a decent camera to capture these images. There is much to learn with astro-photography, and you need pretty clear and dark skies too. There are some good books available, along with the advice you will receive from SGL.

lol i remember them alot more learning ,reading, upgrading and been on here will help me on a long and fun journey

[ronin]

Never been a great fan of purchasing a set, also have one slight question and that is why does the 32mm plossl in the set have a 44 degree view? Every 32mm plossl I know of is 50 or 52 degrees, a 40mm is restricted to around 44 but not a 32mm.

After several years I still don't own a filter so in that regard I am unsure how useful they are.

Real concern is that you will, if you remain doing astronomy, want a better scope and that invariably means wanting better eyepieces. So I would suggest the BST Starguiders, you could get in effect 3 now then add to them when funds allow. Ignoring the 3.2mm there is 6 and really just collecting those 6 would give you a set to last you forever. You might want a set of Delos or ES 82's, but you would not really need them.

And if you did get a set of Delos, keep the BST's anyway they will be useful when some 4 years old applies finger to glass . It is strangely a lot less painful then a finger applied to Delos glass.

[moriniboy]

And if you did get a set of Delos, keep the BST's anyway they will be useful when some 4 years old applies finger to glass . It is strangely a lot less painful then a finger applied to Delos glass. :grin

Yep been there, a lady licked her finger and wiped the glass on my TV Plossl. Not happy, no damage luckily.