A second eyepiece

[jm_rim]

Hi all,

I’m all new in the world of telescope but have the last couple of years been observing the night sky though binoculars and my dslr. 2 weeks ago I bought my first telescope (SW Explorer-150PDS, f5) and with it followed only a 28mm eyepiece, so I am missing some magnification, and hope you can help.

Would you recommend me getting one high mag eyepiece (have been looking at Nirvana 7mm, ES 8.8mm, or vixen LVW 8mm)? Or to get two "cheaper" eyepieces, say a 7mm and a 16mm? I bought a 2x Barlow along with the telescope. My budget is not that great at the moment, £ 100-150, as I am a student.

Thanks

[ronin]

As you are Denmark I would say the TS NED eyepieces, say the 5mm and the 8mm or 8mm and 12mm. These are the same as the BST Starguiders here in the UK and are good eyepieces. TS have them at 74€.

Alternatively are the Celestron X-Cels, slightly better choice in focal lengths with these, maybe the 7mm and the 12mm. Presently 79€ at TS so with the similar cost and the better number of focal lengths I suspect these may be a better option.

In either the 5mm should be OK in your scope, either TS NED or X-Cel.

[rwilkey]

Hi Jm_rim, welcome to the forum, the ep's that Ronin suggests are really good, but if it were my choice I would chose the ES82 8.8mm, if you can get hold of one, great views and better than having high mag.

[Astro Imp]

Hi and welcome to the forum.

I use the SW 150P and have recently been adding the Celestron X-CELS to my EP case. At present I have the 5mm,7mm,12mm and 18mm and am very pleased with the performance. As you have a 2x Barlow I would add the 18mm and 12mm which will give you a nice spread of magnifications:- x125, x83.3, x62.5, x41.6 as well as the x26.8 and x53.8 you already have.

I am sure others will come along with different ideas as eyepiece selection is a personal choice and we all have our own ideas.

Good luck. 

[bingevader]

Take a look at the Maxvision eye pieces too.

If you went for the 16mm and 20mm, then with your 2x barlow it would give you the equivalent of an 8mm and 10mm eyepiece as well.

[YKSE]

I'd recommend BCO 18mm and 10mm, it'll cost just over 100£ for both, optically they're as good as eyepieces cost many times more, as John mentioned in this thread:

http://stargazerslounge.com/topic/228724-eyepiece-pricing-sweet-spot/

If your 2x barlow can be used as 1.5x too, then you have equivalent eyepieces in 5mm, 6.7mm, 9mm, 10mm, 12mm and 18mm, that's about all the focal lengths you need for observing.

[SpaceWalker]

Of course, in the long run it would be wiser buying quality eyepieces like the 8.8mm ES82. I'd say even better would be the 8.8mm Meade UWA since it's optically the same as ES82 but at a slightly lower price and it has better eye relief than the ES. I have this Meade UWA, excellent ocular! But what will you do with one good eyepiece if you have to save for another one for a long time? IMO, if you feel like you're  missing higher magnifications you have at least 3 good options:

1. Buy inexpensive 8-24 Zoom. Combined with your 2x Barlow it'll cover all your needs for the first time.  And you already have the finder eyepiece, so it's the cheapest solution. Later you'll get to know better what you need and, probably, save enough money for quality new eyepieces.

2. What Alan suggested, the 18mm and 12mm X-Cel LX. I feel that as a user of the same scope as yours he knows pretty well what you may need most.

3. For your money you can buy  the 20mm Maxvision as your major wide angle/finder eyepiece, it'll cover 1.8* TFOV at 38x and will give 4mm exit pupil which is good even in light polluted area. Plus 8-24mm Zoom, e.g. Omegon etc. You'd better have the 20mm wide angle eyepiece because inexpensive zooms have 60* AFOV at 8mm but it falls off to 40* AFOV at 24mm. And you already have the 2x Barlow that will nicely complement these two.

[YKSE]

Here's some more comments from John about BCOs against THE top-notch eyepieces:

http://stargazerslounge.com/topic/228971-what-ep-do-you-find-best-on-tweaking-galaxy-detail/?p=2472684

18mm BCO was my DSO hunting eyepiece in my backyard with SW 130P, I got some 30 fainter Messiers in half-years time when I had that scope, all with 18mm BCO.

[jm_rim]

Thanks for helping. Definitely think that I will buy two eyepieces to begin with and then upgraded when the economy is to it. I will look at them you have recommended me. The Celestron X-Cels and the BCO seems very nice.