Eyepiece quest!

[John]

No problem !

I bought a couple of used BST Starguiders for outreach use (starparties) this year and I've been pleased with them even compared with my usual Tele Vue and Pentax eyepieces. Difficult to do better for around £50 a throw.

 

[Charic]

I started with  the  Celstron 127EQ, then upgraded to a 200 Skyliner, almost immediately?
For me, trying the   BST's  in the 127 did not  improve the performance of that telescope, let down mostly by the ability of the scope itself ?  but work very well with the Skyliner.

Why was your scope in the skip in the first place?   did not satisfy the previous owner maybe !

To be honest, without actually trying for yourself, you`ll never know, some newer eyepieces will get your present scope working, but £100 is a good third of your 200mm scope, which will give you better results  even with the basic supplied  skywatcher eyepieces, in comparison to the present scope.

 

[diggerdamo]

19 hours ago, Charic said:

I started with  the  Celstron 127EQ, then upgraded to a 200 Skyliner, almost immediately?
For me, trying the   BST's  in the 127 did not  improve the performance of that telescope, let down mostly by the ability of the scope itself ?  but work very well with the Skyliner.

Why was your scope in the skip in the first place?   did not satisfy the previous owner maybe !

To be honest, without actually trying for yourself, you`ll never know, some newer eyepieces will get your present scope working, but £100 is a good third of your 200mm scope, which will give you better results  even with the basic supplied  skywatcher eyepieces, in comparison to the present scope.

 

It was left behind be some previous tenants in a rental property, along with lots of other things! I just happened to be walking past with the dog at the time . So I asked the Landlord of the property whether I could take it. I have used it with a 10mm plossl and it gave me a a good clear view of Jupiter and moons, I also tried it on Pleiades and was pleased with the sharpness and brightness of it all. It'll never be an amazing scope, but it'll do for now.

[Charic]

32 minutes ago, diggerdamo said:

 It'll never be an amazing scope, but it'll do for now.

..........even for some folk who have moved on from their 200mm scopes, they could say the same for the Skyliner, and like yourself, its what I have,  and will do for now ( I  don't look through the 127EQPowerSeeker anymore, its not in the same league?)
This hobby is often built on expectations,   let down by the performance of our systems, though some are truly better than others, but finding the one that suits you is what matters, and this takes time.
If/when I find something better, no doubt I will change if the price suits, but I still favour out of all my eyepieces ( the last time I used them)  my BSTs, despite some premium EPs and other recommended EPs in my collection!

[Adrian]

I had that scope (See my review) - it was a reasonably decent reflector on a terrible mount (wibbly wobbly ), and only the 20mm Kellner was any use out of the accessories that it came with. to this I added a 32mm Omni Plossl to get the widest possible views, which was an excellent eyepiece. 

I then found an 8mm Baader Hyperion second hand for under £50 - The 70* FOV  and long eye relief was a revelation after the Kellner & Plossl, and by using the optional 14mm and 28mm fine tuning rings, this can also give 6mm 5mm & 4.3mm, giving 113x, 150x, 180x and 209x from the single eyepiece, allowing me to choose the magnification to suit the conditions.

The only problem is that, although at F8 the Hyperion was great, when I upgraded to an f5 scope the eyepiece struggled badly and was sold pretty swiftly, so it probably wouldn't be a "forever" eyepiece. It was replaced with an 8mm BST Explorer, if that tells you anything  Smaller AFOV, but excellent even in fast scopes, and also very comfortable to use. If you can find second hand ones, an 8mm and a 5mm might squeeze into the budget with a 32mm plossl/25mm BST