Eyepeice advice for 12in Dob.

[Smithfire]

Hi all. Time to start thinking about eyepieces. I do have a 32mm wa 82° lens, but would like to add to this. My budget is up to circa 250 pounds and again would like a 82° fov. What is the current fave with you guys? The scope is an f5.

Many thanks

Clive

[Charic]

I too have been considering a 12", another Skyliner, and if my eyepieces are no worse, then I'm already set for f/5 , but seeing is believing. Otherwise I could be investing in the Tele Vue Delos, but these are narrower than you require. I would have the Delos on a 10" too due to the faster focal ratio?

Tele Vue ETHOS EPs will have a good field of view if someone is giving them away for £ 250?

It must be nice to have a larger field, but how many and how often is what you need to decide. The eyepieces in my signature allow me to frame the target accordingly. I dont think I need every view to have so much space around the target. The Moon in my 32mm 70° looks pretty lonely on its own?

Have fun choosing.

[John]

Hi Clive,

I'm a "wide field junkie" as  well !. My personal choice with my 12" dob are Ethos and Nagler eyepieces for the really wide fields but there are some good lower cost alternatives which won't break the bank, or at least not quite as much !

- The Explore Scientific 82 degree eyepieces which range from £108 to £235:

http://www.firstlightoptics.com/explore-scientific-eyepieces/explore-scientific-82-degree-series-eyepieces.html

- The Skywatcher Nirvana's which range from £129 to £249 (these are the same as the William Optics UWAN range):

http://www.firstlightoptics.com/skywatcher-eyepieces/skywatcher-nirvana-uwa-82-degree-fov.html

The Explore Scientific 100 degree eyepieces are excellent too and very close to Ethos levels of performance I've found:

http://www.firstlightoptics.com/explore-scientific-eyepieces/explore-scientific-100-degree-series-2-inch-eyepieces.html

The 14mm ES 100 would be a cracking addition to your current 32mm eyepiece but it would swallow up your whole budget in a single eyepiece.

I recently reviewed the Skywatcher Myriad 100 / 110 degree eyepieces for this forum so they might be another option:

http://stargazerslounge.com/topic/236613-skywatcher-myriad-100-110-degree-apparent-field-eyepieces/

There is a surprising amount of choice in the ultra / hyper wide market these days

[NGC 1502]

Hi Clive, you have some good advice above.

One factor worth considering applies if you need to wear eyeglasses whilst observing.  If you do, it will be difficult or impossible to see the whole field of view with many of the wide and ultrawide eyepieces.   Often recommended for eyeglass wearers is 20mm eyerelief to enable full field observing.

Another related factor can be that some eyeglass wearers only need their specs at low power because the large exit pupil uses more of your dilated pupil, and some can remove them at medium or high power because of the smaller exit pupil.

If you don't wear glasses, then please ignore this post.

But worth checking out to save disappointment and money.

Good luck with your choice, Ed.

[Smithfire]

Thanks for that NGC. I am actually looking at getting glasses in the near future so its worth considering. 21mm seems to be a recurring theme for an f5 dob. May look down this route.

Clive

[dreamlander]

Gonna piggyback here as I am in a similar boat. Buying an Orion 10" astrograph f/4 for a first scope and want a couple good ep's.

Es 20mm 100deg is first on the list, less expensive than the 24mm or the 14mm.

I also want something from the tv delos line. What is a favorite focal length for dso's at f/4? Thinking maybe a 10mm with a 2x focal extender for planets.

Thoughts?

[John]

A 100 degree eyepiece in an F/4 scope is going to be crying out for a coma corrector to be used. Make sure that you budget for one of those.

Clive's F/5 is not quite so critical in this respect as many folks seem to do without coma correction at that focal ratio.

If you think you might need glasses to observe at some point soon Clive I'd think carefully about 82 / 100 degree eyepieces as most have eye relief that challenges the glasses wearer. You can get 68 - 76 degree eyepieces that have much more generous eye relief and still have relatively large and immersive fields of view.

[Charic]

........my reason  for the Delos, with Dioptrix? 

[dreamlander]

John, I will be on the search for a used paracorr, and used ep's for that matter. Used delos for sale seem very scarce, which is a good sign I suppose.

Thought I would get the ep's first to have more appreciation for the effect of the coma corrector.

[Charic]

John, I will be on the search for a used paracorr, and used ep's for that matter. Used delos for sale seem very scarce, which is a good sign I suppose.

Thought I would get the ep's first to have more appreciation for the effect of the coma corrector.

.........I share that opinion too, and for that reason, probably hold their value well. if/when they do become available?

I would have  liked 3 Delos EPs to compliment a bigger scope that I had ideas about? but to this day have never tried a Delos EP,  but  I just  sense they will be ok for my needs, and I saw some quite cheap recently, if you call +£200 cheap, but VAT was still to be added, then postage ect, it all adds up.