choosing a new eyepiece!?

[Gino Arcari]

so i have a little bit of money to spend and I'm thinking about getting a new eyepiece, the only 2" eyepiece i have is the 28mm that came with my 150pds. Last night i did a bit of observing with it which i rarely do (i usually image) and i quite enjoyed it. I was thinking about getting maybe a wider field eyepiece with a little more magnification maybe? to view the ring nebula or galaxies a bit closer? will a higher magnification eyepiece make better DSO's? Any recommendations would be great

thanks

[nightfisher]

The BST starguiders work well in the 150p ds, a 12mm or 15mm would work well

[Gino Arcari]

hmmm, what about a skywatcher SWA?

[John]

hmmm, what about a skywatcher SWA?

I did a review of some of those a while back:

http://stargazerslounge.com/topic/211960-skywatcher-swa-70-degree-eyepieces/

[Gino Arcari]

thanks a lot john, wouldn't it be better to get a 2" eyepiece for a 2" barrel rather than a 1.25"? or doesn't it matter at all?

[John]

Some eyepieces are 1.25" inch but are rather large so offer the option of using a 2" fitting for more security. You will see this quite often in the form of hybrid 2" / 1.25" barrels like the Skywatcher SWA's use in their shorter focal lengths. In the longer focal lengths they are genuine 2" eyepieces so you just have the 2" barrel.

I thought the ones I tried were OK but not brilliant.

[Mr Spock]

2" eyepices are more suitable to wide fields low power eyepieces. Shorter focal lengths only come in 1.25" and that's what you'll need for closer views. Your 28mm gives x27 which is fine for wide fields and open clusters, but you need a lot more magnification for such as M57.

A 7mm T6 Nagler would give you x107. Enough magnification to get you closer to fuzzies but also with that huge 82° field of view.

[Gino Arcari]

thanks for that but theres one thing I'm unsure about. If you were to get 2 identical eyepieces (one a 1.25" and the other 2") with a 150pds (2"barrel) then would the 2" EP be better because its wider and so lets in more light?

[nightfisher]

thanks for that but theres one thing I'm unsure about. If you were to get 2 identical eyepieces (one a 1.25" and the other 2") with a 150pds (2"barrel) then would the 2" EP be better because its wider and so lets in more light?

A 2" 28mm ep should let more light than a 1.25 28mm ep, i did not suggest a 2" because you asked about getting higher magnification 

[Gino Arcari]

A 2" 28mm ep should let more light than a 1.25 28mm ep, i did not suggest a 2" because you asked about getting higher magnification 

okay thanks are there any good high power 2" eyepieces then?

[John]

okay thanks are there any good high power 2" eyepieces then?

Not really. The 2" fitting only brings benefits in terms of a wider field of view when the focal length gets longer than around 18mm - 20mm. Otherwise there are no particular beneifts. A 2" eyepiece does not make your scope perform better, show fainter objects etc, etc.

[Gino Arcari]

ohhhh okay!! thanks for clearing that up!

[ronin]

Problem is that higher magnification means a narrower field, it is difficult (costly) to get both.