Yet another case of 'which eyepiece'!

[Joe12345]

I am sorry if this question has been asked before, but I couldn't find the exact same question as mine.

A few months ago I bought an 8" skywatcher, although I am still using the starter eyepieces. I am looking for an eyepiece or eyepieces which would give a considerably better image for both planetary and DSOs, although I have a tight budget of £100. I have had my eye on the baader Hyperions as it can change focal length and has some good reviews. Any other ideas?

[Dom1961]

I was advised to get BST starguiders, and I LOVE THEM!! They are very comfortable to use with twist up rubber eye cups, great eye relief and large 'eye lenses'. They are £49 each from Alan at skies the limit on eBay. You will find lot's of good thoughts about them on here.

[-Aldebaran-]

I too have a Skywatcher 8", and like yourself I was looking into the Hyperions as my first upgrade, I believe they are good quality eyepieces but I was made aware that they may suffer from some abberation in a fast scope, although my 8" Dob is borderline on needing good optics in an eyepiece I decided instead to opt for the slightly more expensive Explore Scientific range. When a purchase of upto £100 and sometimes beyond for a single eyepiece I needed to know that I was getting quality.

I have read posts of people having the Hyperions in a F6 scope and are happy with the results, use the search icon (Discussions-eyepieces forum) in the corner of the page and type Hyperion and you should get some reviews to ponder over

[-Aldebaran-]

Strangely enough, asking about the Baader Hyperions was my very first post on Stargazers Lounge. Have a quick read through.

http://stargazerslounge.com/topic/215814-do-the-hyperion-show-any-weakness-down-to-f6/

[ronin]

The Hyperons have a number of people that like them but they do appear from posts to fail to perform at f/6 area, even a bit slower, and if you have an 8" Skywatcher it is F/5 or f/6, so you are likely to find them a problem or not up to expectations.

The Starguiders seem to get the vote for performance and are £49 each - you can get 2 .

May deoend on what it is you ovbserve, if planets are a lot of it then maybe the X-Cels are a better idea, they have a better selection at the lower end which is where planetary viewing needs them. Otherwise the Starguiders are likely the simple option.

The 8mm Starguider seems about one of the best, nothing is being pushed to the limits and the magnification is good.

[damnut]

Another vote for the BST. Great ep's for the cost..

[wookie1965]

After 6 months of getting used to my scope I then ventured on here and asked same question near enough was advised get BST`s i bought the 8mm and the 18mm luckily at the time Saturn was up and when i put the 8mm in wow what a sight. I have since bought the full range and they are brilliant 60 Degree FOV and great for specs wearers.

[Joe12345]

Thanks for the advice guys,

I now think I might get an 8mm bst, and I was wondering if there was something with a quite big fov for DSOs. The bst only goes down to 25mm and I would like something with a visibly bigger view?

[Dom1961]

I Ightfield be investing in a 28mm maxvision soon, people have recommended it to me. It has 68° and is eighty something pounds.

[Joe12345]

If I am getting a BST then it would be slightly out of budget, but thanks anyway.

[Pr3tec]

I bought the 25 and 8 mm BST, combined with my barlow i get 25, 12.5, 8 and 4. For the wide field i bought the 2 inch SkyWatcher 32mm Panaview.

[damnut]

You would be able to get two BSt's for £100,

One for £32 here :-- http://www.astrobuysell.com/uk/propview.php?view=98962

Two for £35 here :-- http://www.astrobuysell.com/uk/propview.php?view=99572

If you are on a budget then you have to look around, these took two minutes to find

[Dom1961]

Or you could wait till he has some customer returns. People review them or some people see if they fit in bingo viewers. He checks them thoroughly and then puts them on auction.

[Floater]

Joe, there are a couple of short fl BSTs on ABS for £35. May be too much mag for your scope, though.

[ronl]

Hi Joe, if you do decide getting a BST eyepiece, make sure it's the Starguider,

not the BST Wide Angle, the wide angle are planetary, the Starguiders are for

general observing, the Starguiders are really good and really good value, as above

the 2", 32mm Panaview is also very good for this scope, but they are £79.00. 

[alro]

Hello joe,

im another bst starguider disciple. I find them really comfortabe and enjoy the views. I much prefer the twist up eyecups on these.

if you do go for these i would advise contacting alan at skys the limit. he is open to negotiation and you will probably save a few pounds....

Good luck

al

[gbarnett]

Hi,

there's a lot of choice really - which doesn't help matters!

As you mentioned planetary and DSO I would look into getting a good eyepiece around the 12mm mark ( assuming your scope is F6 - to give you approx 100x mag and a 2mm exit pupil) that you can use with a barlow lens at a later point to give a 200x mag (approx the highest magnification normally reccomended).

I've got an 8" dob and went down the 11mm Explore Scientific route. At £110 from FLO it's a bit above your budget of £100 - and of course you would have the expense of a barlow at a later date.

There's a 12mm Vixen SLV on the FLO clearance page for £79.

I'd also strongly reccomend checking Astrobuysell as you may find a bargain!

Have a think about what you want to look at, is eye relief important (do you wear glasses etc), do you want a wide field of view so you don't have to nudge the scope as much.

A used 8mm Hyperion with fine tuning rings may be a good idea - if you don't like it you can sell it on with little loss and would give you 8mm, 6mm, 5mm and 4.3mm focal lengths.

Good luck!

Graham.

[John]

I think there are better eyepieces than Hyperions for F/5.9 scopes. The BST Explorers / Starguiders are better corrected than Hyperions in faster scopes and cost around half as much as the Hyperion.

[spaceboy]

For £100 it's a no brainer, get a used ES 82°

[faulksy]

For £100 it's a no brainer, get a used ES 82°

+1

[Charic]

Joe 12345......first time I veiwed Andromeda through my Skyliner the supplied 25mm gave a poor result, not what I expected from my site, just a small grey smudge. However, from a darker site I could see much more, lots more. The difference is so great! but M31 is enormous, massive when viewed under the right conditions, but tightly cropped. My BST gives a better view, but I needed more?

Robin suggested to me the Panaview 32mm ( 2" format) [sorry for mixing number values!] The 70° view is stunning. There are wider fov's available, with other brands, but the Panaview works well for me, from my darker site?

[Joe12345]

Ok, I'm pretty certain about the 8mm BST which would cost £50, so I would have £50 to spend - i would ideally like an ep with a wide field of view. A long focal length ES 82(where's the degrees button!) would use all my money so I wouldn't be able to get an ep for planetary.

[Charic]

For a Planetary EP? I chose the William Optics 6mmSPL. Its a good EP, matches the spec and power for my f5.9_f/6 scope, but if there was a 6mm Starguider, I would have bought it by now!

Dont rush into buying, take your time. The Planets and Stars will still be there when your next EP arrives. Buy whatever you think you need, then enjoy that untill the next EP arrives.

My 8mm BST gets more use than the 32mm?

My scope is resting, If its not raining here, its still light outside at 2330Hrs. Winter will be here soon!

[Joe12345]

I just found an Explore scientific maxvision 68 degree 34 mm ep - it has 6 elements and says good eye relief (no number). Any thoughts?(I have read another thread saying these are good for short FLs). I suppose I could wait until my birthday for a planetary ep.

[John]

I just found an Explore scientific maxvision 68 degree 34 mm ep - it has 6 elements and says good eye relief (no number). Any thoughts?(I have read another thread saying these are good for short FLs). I suppose I could wait until my birthday for a planetary ep.

It will be a 2" eyepiece and would work pretty well as a lowest power / widest field eyepiece with your 8" F/6 dobsonian.

I've seen the eye relief for those quoted at 26mm which sounds about right. It's going to weigh around 1.5 lbs so watch the balance with your scope.