New 10mm eyepiece

[lonick]

While i would love to be in the position to be asking about some £500 badboy, i'm not. I  do want to get a replacement for the stock 10mm eypiece that came with the scope. I'm looking at either the;

Celestron Omni Plossl 9mm £28 - http://www.firstlightoptics.com/celestron-eyepieces/celestron-omni-plossl-eyepiece.html

or 

Skywatcher SP Plossl 10mm £20 - http://www.firstlightoptics.com/skywatcher-eyepieces/skywatcher-sp-plossl-eyepieces.html

or 

GSO (Branded Revelation Astro) 9mm £15 - From AstroBoot

While these may not be top end eyepieces the stock 10mm eyepiece that came with the scope is not great. Would any of the above be an improvement? 

[John]

They would all be an improvement of the stock 10mm. The Astroboot Revelations look tempting at £15 a throw. GSO made plossls are pretty good and usually cost a bit more than that.

[phoobar]

Hi Ionick

I have recently purchased the revelation 9mm plossl and am happy with it, but I would not say it is a vast improvement over the 10mm, I would also add that I would look at an alternative focal length somewhere in between the 25 and 10 you have, and upgrade the 10mm in future.

When you say improvement what are you expecting? Unless you are a seasoned  professional astronomer I think you will be disappointed.

I find myself using the 16mm maxvision most, it has a wide field of view and is quite flat across the glass and very comfortable to use, in a barlow it gives the equivalent of an 8mm for planets and the moon.

The ep I do not use at all now is the 25mm as it has been replaced by a maxvison 24mm which is a night and day improvement over the stock 25mm, but I do still use the 10mm as despite what most people say on here it is not that bad IN MY OPINION. I have also used it with my barlow and was happy with the views.

I would suggest the 16mm maxvision for a little more money or a lot of people like the bst starguider from skysthelimit maybe in an 18mm which gets good reviews.

[chris_suffolk]

Have a look on AstroBuySell, see what they have for sale, I picked up replacement eyepieces from there for my scope last year, and much better than the stock ones. Need to do a bit of research (on here) as to whether they are any good, but the search can be fun if you can wait a bit to get a good one at a good price

[jetstream]

Its nice to know that some eyepieces are keepers regardless of price, my Baader 18mm BCO is one of them and I have just ordered the 10mmBCO. At 49 pounds from FLO these eyepieces are extremely good value and their performance is very hard to beat at any cost. Mine will be here Tuesday...

My vote 10mm Baader Classic Ortho.

[Charic]

I just purchased  the 12mm 1.25" GSO EP on AstroBoot, just to trial it out.

[YKSE]

I just purchased  the 12mm 1.25" GSO EP on AstroBoot, just to trial it out.

I suppose you know that 9mm eye relief in that 12mm GSO will be quite tight too.

[Charic]

YKSE.... I  read it was 5.6mm ? Best I check again?

Now I see it at 8mm?  Still a little better than the  Televue 8mm Plossl.

I just want to try one. Not everyone is so generous to loan me their eyepieces, so on occasion, one needs to make some purchases, after all, what else do I spend my Christmas money on, and only £16.50 delivered!

[YKSE]

Charic,

Typical eye relief (ER) for plossls are 0.7 to 0.75 of focal length, 0,8 for orthos, so 8 or 9mm is just a round-off effect for 12mm plossl. ER is measured from center of the eye lens, TV plossls have more concaved eyelens than many other plossl to achieve better edge performance, that in turn makes actual accessible ER for TV plossl a little tighter than other plossls.

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

I got my kids (one with glasses and astigmatism) a 4mm planetary clone (25 euro secondhand) for their 4.5" miniDob. I tried it in my F/6 apo and was pleasantly surprised by the image quality. If eye relief is an issue (which it can be at short focal lengths), these planetary EPs of about 10mm focal length are a good option. If you can get a secondhand Vixen LV,NLV, or even SLV, pounce on them, because they are great. A bit more expensive, though. SHould you want to replace the stock 25mm, you could certainly consider Plossls or orthos (both about 18-20mm eye relief at that focal length), or alternatively go for the MaxVision 24mm 68 deg. AWESOME EP for a really modest price, given its quality. 

[John]

..... If you can get a secondhand Vixen LV,NLV, or even SLV, pounce on them, because they are great. A bit more expensive, though.....

Yes, definitely. The SLV has an orthscopic quality of view with long eyerelief and a nice large accomodating eyelens. Like a smaller version of the Pentax XW's.

[bomberbaz]

Or if you could stretch your budget just that little bit more these are supposd to be a pretty decent eyepiece for the money and have 16mm of eye relief, that should be plenty.

http://www.firstlightoptics.com/skywatcher-eyepieces/skywatcher-uwa-planetary-eyepieces.html

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Or if you could stretch your budget just that little bit more these are supposd to be a pretty decent eyepiece for the money and have 16mm of eye relief, that should be plenty.

http://www.firstlightoptics.com/skywatcher-eyepieces/skywatcher-uwa-planetary-eyepieces.html

My 4mm planetary was one of those. Very nice indeed, especially for the money

[lonick]

Thanks for all the help and ideas chaps

[Charic]

The 12mm  revelation Astro Plossl arrived, a nice looking  EP with a solid  weighty  feel about it ,  compared to the standard Skywatcher or Celestron EPs, I've received.

I have since ordered the 9mm and 20mm  Revelations at only £9 each! .  Folk have said they were great value at Astroboot. 

Just got to wait for a break in the Weather.

[philhas]

The 12mm revelation Astro Plossl arrived, a nice looking EP with a solid weighty feel about it , compared to the standard Skywatcher or Celestron EPs, I've received.

I have since ordered the 9mm and 20mm Revelations at only £9 each! . Folk have said they were great value at Astroboot.

Just got to wait for a break in the Weather.

A bargain and great eyepieces, sometimes the simplicity of a Plossl shines through

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

[jetstream]

As a bit of an update on the 10mm EP's, my 10mm BCO was tried last night under some poor to avg changing skys. This eyepiece exhibits very low scatter and great contrast ( as much as conditions allowed), we'll see if the more expensive EP's pull away from it under better conditions.

Comet Lovejoy was excellent in this eyepiece, having a green/grey tone to it, with a nice core. E and F in the Trap was no challenge for the 10BCO, Alnitak,Rigel etc easy as well.

Jupiter showed extremely well in this eyepiece and @ 120x in the dob was razor like. I must say the Baader Neo also helped under these conditions, allowing higher power views and pulling some very nice detail out of the caps. It Barlows very well, in the VIP anyway.

From this brief 2 hour viewing session the 10BCO is already competing with more expensive glass. Purists start "bouncing up and down" when these are called orthos, over the extra FOV designed into this eyepiece, which technically makes these "not true orthos". From my understanding the BCO are the incarnation of a Zeiss/Jena design from years ago, as Baader took over Zeiss's astro division in the 1990's.

Whatever they are called, I like these things.

[John]

I like them too Gerry

In terms of pure optical quality I think they are the best eyepieces available for their retail price.

[jetstream]

I appreciate the great review you did of these eyepieces a while back John, it helped "steer" me in the right direction so to speak. I can't believe the glass in the BCO, the lightweight anodized body and painted on writing may not be everyones cup of tea however. Personally though, its all about the glass.