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Eyepiece quest!

diggerdamo

By diggerdamo
in Discussions - Eyepieces

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diggerdamo

diggerdamo

Posted
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So this is it people! I have a theoretical £100 to spend, (and a real £100 when the wife isn't looking!!). I need 2 eyepieces. Firstly I need a 5mm eyepiece for planetary viewing, but a 5mm with a decent eye relief. Secondly I need a 32mm, which eye relief wise should be easier! £100 can it be done?

 

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Floater

Floater

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20 minutes ago, John said:

I'm sure it can be done - what scope will they be used with ?

 

Now this, ladies and gentlemen, is what SGL is all about - 'I'm sure it can be done'. 

Power to you, John.

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ronin

ronin

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I would go down the BST route, fairly well tried and tested.

Get the 5mm if you want a 5mm and the 25mm. The 25mm will give almost exactly the same FoV as a 32mm plossl. They will also operate fine on a 200P in the future. The other "advantage" is that  people can buy you birthday and christmas presents of the others in the set. The set additionally looks good altogether.

Half suspect the 5mm may be a bit high for the 114/900, the 8mm would be safer.

They do nopt appear to have a long one but for the 5mm and 6mm mark there is the Altair Lightwave at 5mm and 6mm. Altair (Aylsham) have them at £55 but Rother Valley and Tring have them at £45. The wide one is then back to a plossl.

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John

John

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I agree with Ronin on the BST Starguider / Explorers. They have good eye relief, wider-than-plossl fields of view and are optically are great for their price of just under £50 new.

If you really wanted a ~30mm eyepiece the Vixen NPL 30mm is nice for it's price of, again, just under £50.

 

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Louis D

Louis D

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For the 32mm, I prefer the GSO 32mm plossl.  About $35 shipped here in the states.  Just make sure it says made in Taiwan.  The 5mm BST/Paradigm/Starguider/Explorer is supposed to be good.  About $60 shipped here in the states.  There's also the 5mm Celestron X-Cel LX which is supposed to be decent at about $70 shipped here in the states.  You might also look for a used 5mm Celestron Ultima LX for about that price.  Watch the classifieds to see what pops up from time to time.  You could even put out a want ad.

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Linda

Linda

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Good choice. My scope is 127mm and I also use an 8mm as a max magnification. The circumstances are seldom so good that I can use that eyepiece, but on a good day I can get nice detail on Jupiter with it.

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Mak the Night

Mak the Night

Posted
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6 hours ago, Louis D said:

For the 32mm, I prefer the GSO 32mm plossl.  About $35 shipped here in the states.  Just make sure it says made in Taiwan.  The 5mm BST/Paradigm/Starguider/Explorer is supposed to be good.  About $60 shipped here in the states.  There's also the 5mm Celestron X-Cel LX which is supposed to be decent at about $70 shipped here in the states.  You might also look for a used 5mm Celestron Ultima LX for about that price.  Watch the classifieds to see what pops up from time to time.  You could even put out a want ad.

I've often wondered where Guan Sheng Optical actually manufacture their products. A great deal of the optical products on the world market originate from the Kunming industrial centre in the Yunnan province situated in south-west China. I'm fairly sure that more than one Taiwanese and Japanese company actually have much of their product manufactured in Kunming. William Optics and Celestron (Synta) also have products manufactured there I believe. I'm also pretty convinced all of the GSO Plossls (Celestron, Revelation, Orion etc) are all manufactured in Kunming.

http://www.gs-telescope.com/

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Mak the Night

Mak the Night

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1 hour ago, diggerdamo said:

Guan Sheng Optical. That's what GSO stands for. I was wondering! Have seen Revelation eyepieces somewhere, are these rebranded GSO's?

I'm fairly certain Revelation is the house name for Telescope House products, very possibly related to Bresser in some way. I'm also pretty sure that most, if not all, Revelation Plossls are rebranded GSO's. I know for a fact their 'shorty' 2.5 apochromatic Barlow is GSO. A lot of Orion USA and TS Optics eyepieces are rebranded GSO and Barsta. Revelation seem quite cheap in comparison. I'll bet good money a Revelation Plossl is no different to a Celestron Omni apart from the silver finish of the Omni series and they are all essentially rebranded or commissioned to be made by Guan Sheng Optical. The BST and similar eyepieces are actually made by Barsta.

http://www.telescopehouse.com/eyepieces/revelation-eyepieces.html

This Revelation 32mm Plossl is £28: http://www.telescopehouse.com/eyepieces/revelation-eyepieces/revelation-32-0mm-plossl-eyepiece-1-25.html

I'm pretty sure it's the same as its Celestron or Orion equivalent. Both normally retail at least a tenner above the price of the Revelation.

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gooseholla

gooseholla

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There is a 32mm version of the Revelation/GSO which allows the top to unscrew and a t-ring to screw on. You can then move the eyepiece up and down to use it as a projector. It is well worth thinking about if you are going to do some casual photography in the future. 

John 

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diggerdamo

diggerdamo

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Lots of good suggestions and interesting info there! I have a feeling that a plossl would be fine for the larger focal length , 25mm or about that. Which would leave me more pennies for the shorter focal length piece. I do like the look of the bst for that purpose. Thankyou all for the advice and info!

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diggerdamo

diggerdamo

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On ‎22‎/‎04‎/‎2016 at 21:33, Mak the Night said:

I'd recommend the 25mm NPL. Crisp bright images and generously sized eye lens.

Vixen 25mm.jpg

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/vixen-eyepieces/vixen-npl-eyepieces.html

Thanks Mak, been reading up on the vixens and they seem to be well received. So that's my 25mm sorted. But I was looking for an 8mm(ish) bst for higher magnification observation. I had decided on a BST as they seem to be well recommended. But I don't know where to buy other than ebay. It may sound a bit silly but I really don't trust anything on that site. Can I get them elsewhere? Apologies for my reservations.

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Mak the Night

Mak the Night

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2 minutes ago, diggerdamo said:

Thanks Mak, been reading up on the vixens and they seem to be well received. So that's my 25mm sorted. But I was looking for an 8mm(ish) bst for higher magnification observation. I had decided on a BST as they seem to be well recommended. But I don't know where to buy other than ebay. It may sound a bit silly but I really don't trust anything on that site. Can I get them elsewhere? Apologies for my reservations.

I'm pretty sure 365Astronomy do the BST's which are actually Barsta manufactured.

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John

John

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The chap that runs the Sky's the Limit operation (Alan) also has a website:

http://www.skysthelimit.org.uk/bst%20ed%20eyepieces.html

but seems to trade extensively through e.bay. I can understand your reservations about that site but Sky's the Limit have been trading for a long time and, having bought a couple of things from them, they do deliver the goods.

365astronomy do a clone of the eyepiece but stocks seem low at the moment.

 

 

 

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diggerdamo

diggerdamo

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Thank for the link Mak and thanks for the info John, I guess you can understand my reservations. Anyhow thankyou all for the input and helping me complete my quest! I will order the vixen tomorrow and the Bst next month, hopefully I will now have 2 eyepieces I can use and enjoy for many years to come! Thankyou all those who took time to contribute to this thread, your advice has been greatly appreciated!

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