Help choosing upgrades

[Negatron]

Hey all!

I'm wanting to pick up some more eyepieces for my Z10. I'm scared, cuz I hear f/5s will chew up and spit out cheap eyepieces. To add, I have 20/20 vision and no local clubs or events to try eyepieces first... seems like relevant info.

 

So currenly I'm rocking the standard GSO fare; a zhumell 30mm superview and a 9mm plossl. Frankly, I kind of hate the plossl because even with the guard down I feel like I need to press my eyeball against the lens to get the whole FOV. 

I love my 30mm superview. I really like this wide FOV, but its pretty low power, which is fine, but sometimes I'd like a bit higher and often find myself using the 30mm just to initially find targets.

That concludes my overall eyepiece experience, so I'm a blank slate. I'm doing research, trying to learn differences in types, builds, learning comparisons between each brands type. So far I have only learned 1 thing -- those televues everyone talks about cost more than my scope.

I'm looking for something kind of between those, and have been recommended gold-lines, but I am also eyeballing the Explore Scientific 82° 14mm. I'm wanting 2 more to fill out my gaps, price depending.

Any recommendations on brands or types to look for? I'm struggling to swallow the cost of eyepieces over like 100-150... will my fast scope have a problem with that?

[rockystar]

I think explorer scientific, and/or the baader Morpheus will both do well in your scope, nice wide fovs, good eye relief on both, and both within the 100-150 range.

[DHEB]

5 minutes ago, rockystar said:

I think explorer scientific, and/or the baader Morpheus will both do well in your scope, nice wide fovs, good eye relief on both, and both within the 100-150 range.

I agree, I also chose the Explorer Scientific 82 degree series for my SW 200 f/5. ES are very good quality and, although not at TeleVue level, you will do well with them for a while. You might also want to consider buying a coma corrector.

[Negatron]

Are there any brands, perhaps cheaper than/comparable to ES, that still have an acceptable level of quality? I will look around at options to see if there is a set of two EPs I can get around that price, else I may just lock in with a single ES.

[John]

Over here (in the UK) we have an eyepiece range called BST Starguiders. They are the same eyepieces as the Astro Tech Paradigm's and by Agena as the Starguider range in the USA:

http://agenaastro.com/agena-1-25-dual-ed-eyepiece-8mm.html

While not quite as sharp at the field edges as the Explore Scientfic ranges and "only" having a 60 degree field of view, they do pretty well in scopes such as your F/5 dobsonian.

To get an 82 degree eyepiece that performs well at that focal ratio requires careful design and a high standard of materials and manufacturing and the ES 82's are about as cheap as you can buy good 82 degree performance that stands up at F/5.

 

[Paul73]

If the 82° ES Range is a bit rich. Try the Max Vision 68° range which do well in these scopes. From memory they go from 16mm to 40mm (28mm will be the longest of the range doeable in your scope). They can be bought from the Explore Scientific (de) website.

Paul