Eyepieces for Glasses wearer

[Coastliner]

Hi All,

I've been getting along reasonably well with observing but I find the glasses really annoying having to take them off most of the time.

Are there any recommendations for long eye-relief eyepieces suitable for glasses wearers?

Thanks,

Neil.

[ronin]

In general you need something with 15-20mm eye relief.

This means the BST Starguiders which have about 15-16mm the Celestron X-Cels that have 1 or 2 mm more 17-18mm gets mentioned.

The more costly ones like ES 82's 100's etc will also suit but it all depends on the budget.

Will say that eye relief is a bit ambiguous - where is it measured from?

Do not presume that it is the top surface of the top lens.

Plossl's can have sufficent but their eye relief depends on the focal length - it tends to be about 2/3 of 70% use which ever you find easier to calculate with in your head.

If you are going to get some then I suggest from the same group as in 3 or 4 BST's or 3 or 4 X-Cels. You get the par focal aspect as well then.

Which set to me depends on what you look at, if planets are foremost then the X-Cels as they have a good selection at the shorter focal length end (5, 7, 9, 12mm). The BST's for DSO simply as they cost less and the small increases at the short end is less relevant.

[Northern Soul man]

Hi Neil, I use the Hyperions in my SCT, but at F10 they are fine, but I think your dob has a focal length of F5 - not too sure, but the Hyperions tend to begin to really degrade the views, I think below about F7, but in my SCT they are fine with very long Eye relief at 20mm and fine for glasses, I wear glasses, but I have no Astigmatism in my observing eye, so the focus of the scope corrects for this, I much prefer to view without glasses and can even use the Meade 4000 Plossls down to 12mm without any problems, but to get long eye relief with excellent correction for faster scopes (better than F7 or so) you really have to start to get into the Televue EP's - very expensive, the ES range are also very nice (not tried them but get very good reviews on here) but, again, the eye relief is a little tight, for most glasses wearers, you are probably looking at the 17 - 20mm range of Eye Relief.

You can trawl the net for hours looking at EP reviews,  but really your going to need probably 20mm Eye Relief, Like me if you have no Astigmatism in your observing, you could get away with taking them off eye and adjusting focus at the scope, but may need them to read handsets, or charts (that's the problem with me), I get on very well, just have to adjust focus more than others, but the resolution I can pick out on say Jupiter amazes me - if I take my glasses off, my eyesight is really poor, but sit me in front of Jupiter for an hour or two - it doesn't get any better!!

Paul.

[S.A.M]

Delos would be my answer, know they are expensive to other models but they are good, hope this helps?

Peter

[Paul73]

Yep. Like Peter ^^^^ says.

Delos all the way. My Vixen SLV's have pretty good eye relef for < half the price of the Delos range but you do sacrifice some FOV.

Not cheap but 20mm eye relef is great. I would want a bit more than 16mm for viewing with glasses.

Paul

[Coastliner]

Thanks for the replies, I'll have a look around. I didn't realise how much more I would have to pay for the longer relief!

[ronin]

BST's are £49, X-Cels are £59, Hyperons £95, not sure about the ES but guess £130, Delos £250.

However even a reasonable plossl will be £35. So plossl to BST is £15 more and they perform very well.

Anyone around you got a BST to try out?

Also when asking about eyepieces it is good to supply a budget and state how strongly that budget is tio be maintained as the replies already cover £49 to £250+.

[LittleSkink]

I am interested in this topic also

My understanding is BST eye relief is 13 to 15mm (sorry cant find source) and X-Cel is 16mm - which for me isnt enough. ES vary but the shorter focal lengths dont have much

I have 25mm SW Plossl that gives enough eye relief to see the full field of view comfortably but 20mm Plossl doesnt - its usable but lose c20% field of view. Even 9mm SW Long eye Relief (LER) lens doesn't give enough relief because the eyepiece lens is recessed

Been looking at Vixen SLV (20mm er and £110) but that exceeds the cost of our current scope!

[Hartmann]

i wear glasses too and i´m very happy with a hyperion eyepiece in a Mak 127.

Depends on the budget . Dellos it´s the best option but Hyperions are not too expensive and it´s modular design with extension rings.

[MattJenko]

The larger MaxVisions from Explore Scientific have long eye relief - I have the 2" 28mm and it is great for me. I picked up a second hand TeleVue Radian for 100 quid, which has long eye relief and the Vixen SLVs (also about 100 quid) are also quality EPs with 20mm eye relief and are a joy to use. I use an F4.8 10" dob, so as mentioned above the Hyperion Zoom I have is not that great in it, but it works at a push, but is shamed by the others. Another wide EP I am interested in is the Celestron Luminos, which are 82' EPs with long eye relief, but with glasses, you have to ask yourself if you can realistically use that much of a wide FOV without some painful eye contortions. I have looked through some 100' EPs and it is tough going. Also the Altair Lightwave EPs look good and cheaper with decent ER and their HyperWide is lovely.

[MattJenko]

The Skywatcher Panaviews are great as well, and are so big you can feel like you can put your head in them, so you really can see the whole 70' easily. These have huge ER at the larger sizes.

[mister_wavey]

All TV delos and Pentax XWs have great eye relief, and 32mm and 25mm TV plossl too.

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

I have used EPs with eye relief longer than or equal to 16mm successfully with glasses, although the exact boundary of comfort will vary. Apart from the (excellent but expensive) Delos and XW eps, there are Radians and the Pentax XF (surprisingly cheap for a Pentax, cheaper than the Radians). The SLV 5mm I is really great, not as cheap as the BST, but with much better eye relief and not nearly as expensive as the XWs which it matches in performance on all fronts except field of view. You could loook out for the older NLV and LV series: REALLY comfortable, and excellent performance. The NLV is mechanically different from the LV in that it has a much nicer twist-up eye cup to adjust effective eye relief, instead of the rather awkward stiff, rubber, fold-back eye cups of the LVs.