Eyepieces

[Ray02]

Hey guys,

I wanted to ask some of you what eyepieces should I get to view deep sky objects? My telescope is a Skywatcher 150 eq3 - Reflector. I have eyepieces of 10 and 25mm diameter.

[rockystar]

I think you are going to get a wide range of response, from "you don't need anything extra to view DSOs", to "spend £200+ on a quality, well corrected eyepiece that will last you a life time".

As I said above, you have everything you need to get going, you just need to know how to find them. Galaxies and extended nebulae (eg. In Orion) will mostly be best in your 25mm, and globular clusters and planetary nebulae will mostly be best in your 10mm (once found).

if you do want to upgrade your eyepieces (or fill in gaps, such as a 14mm & 6mm for example), then you need to consider the following: Budget ( as mentioned you can spend anywhere between £20 and £400 for a single eyepiece), eye relief (do you wear glasses) and FOV (do you want to see more of the sky in the eyepiece)?

[bomberbaz]

Surprised there have not been more replies although rockystar has covered most points. 

Believe me we have all been whereyou are, all wanted to progress into this hobby quicker and oftn the route taken by many, myself included is to upgrade kit in the hope it will launch us off into better abilities. 

Honestly if theexisting eyepieces are working and you find them ok fir now, stick with them and learn before you spend  

learn the skies, constellations, whatyours scope is capable of and where/how to find things. If you can do visit an astronomy centre and use other peoples gear to get a real feel as this is the best wAy of learning  

Then you will be better positioned and informed as to what you need next, instead of what you think you want  

steve

 

[Mak the Night]

I believe your scope has a focal ratio of f/5 and a focal length of 750mm. The eyepieces that are supplied with most Sky-Watcher scopes are reversed Kellners. The 25mm is quite useable and I like them as a bino pair as they are light and have no draw tube safety undercuts.

I'd suggest trying something like a relatively inexpensive 20mm Plossl. Possibly like this Revelation (Guan Sheng Optical) Plossl. It's the same as the Orion and Celestron equivalents but cheaper as it is the home brand of Telescope House. It will give you a 37.5x magnification with an exit pupil of 4mm.

This will give you a third alternative magnification to your 10 and 25mm Kellners. The Plossl will probably produce a sharper and brighter image than the Kellner type with less chromatic abberation.

I find a 35 - 40x magnification good for many nebulae as it is low enough to produce a brighter image but powerful enough to see any detail.

[Ray02]

Ok thanks for the help! 

[Charic]

Those Revelation Astro [GSO] Plössl eyepieces mentioned above are very capable!, don't be put of by their cheapness?  From the various  branded Plössl's in my signature the Revelations, are, to date, my favourite Plössl.
As for the Reversed Kellner EP's  supplied by Skywatcher, I thought  they were Modified Achromat eyepieces! something else I need to check out? not that either the Super 10mm or the Super 25mm ever get any use these Days?

[Mak the Night]

1 hour ago, Charic said:

Those Revelation Astro [GSO] Plössl eyepieces mentioned above are very capable!, don't be put of by their cheapness?  From the various  branded Plössl's in my signature the Revelations, are, to date, my favourite Plössl.
As for the Reversed Kellner EP's  supplied by Skywatcher, I thought  they were Modified Achromat eyepieces! something else I need to check out? not that either the Super 10mm or the Super 25mm ever get any use these Days?

Yes, a lot of people these days tend to overlook standard GSO Plossls but they are quite capable eyepieces. The Sky-Watcher 'Modified Achromat' series can be bought separately and are a reversed Kellner design. I actually prefer a pair of 25mm Sky-Watcher MA's  to the 20mm WO SWAN pair that were supplied with my WO bino.

[niallk]

For a long time, this little beaut was my favourite EP:

http://www.teleskop-express.de/shop/product_info.php/info/p4839_GSO-SuperView-15mm---1-25--WA-eyepiece---70--FoV.html

I used it alone, and also with a 2x barlow, in a f/4.7 250px. 70° afov for €46, and <6.7% the cost of a 10mm  Ethos which I use now

[jetstream]

Well, for 1.25" eyepieces the 25mm TV plossl is excellent, a really versatile eyepiece which works well with filters. A 2" option would be a 24mm ES 82 and either of these would be great for nebula with an OIII/UHC.

For visibly small galaxies a 10mm BCO is a great narrow FOV eyepiece and for widefield in this FL a Pentax 10mm XW would be my choice. Many many options however and all of the ES line is good from what I hear.

The main thing for DSO viewing is dark skies...IMHO.

[Charic]

10 minutes ago, jetstream said:

The main thing for DSO viewing is dark skies...IMHO.

+1.   When I use my scope away from home, the difference is startling,  its like the scope has become better in some way,  the effect of being  away from  man-made light pollution. In fact, for me, the sky is  often brighter, due to the extra amount of light from the Stars, especially the Milky way. But only on Moonless nights  during our Winter season does the effect become so dramatic.

Cassiopeia for example, when overhead ( my location ) if the clouds were away is clearly visible to my naked eyes, clearly identifiable, and is often used as my guidance to finding Andromeda, but away from home, its not as clear, does not stand out as well, due to the thousands of extra Stars that are now visible.
Unless I'm needing to view a Planet away from home, under these conditions, my 8x40 Binoculars give me the most satisfaction.

As for DSO's I have only ever seen M51  Whirlpool Galaxy once from my home address, due to the glaring Street lighting in my field of vision, but away from home with the scope,  M51 and the likes of M81 & M82 stand out  almost like lights, something not achievable from the home. Maybe  with the introduction, when I don't know, but LED Street lights  are getting installed here, and a better hide, then,maybe then will  I be able to see DSO's better from my own garden, yet only two gardens away, total darkness! no apparent street lighting entering their property! maybe I should ask to use their patio? 

[jetstream]

I too get lost among the stars, the constellations meld into the stars in and around them. These conditions provide excellent opportunity to view everything even if planetary/lunar seeing conditions suffer at times during the nights of outstanding transparency.

Charic, the LED lights will help if they have the "lids" on and I talked to some people who know of an LED streetlight being developed in Ottawa that is being "yellowed" to help with the all encompassing, blinding light spectrum that LED's give with their phosphor coating. In my former town the conventional LED streetlights helped a lot.

Do you have a city light dome to contend with or just localized light intrusion?

It is my hope that the OP can read this some what off topic post and realize how important dark skies are for DSO viewing and that the differences between eyepieces show up under these conditions and much less so under lighter (LP) skies. I moved from mag 20ish skies to 21.7ish mag skies and the difference is dramatic to say the least.

RayO2, using your existing eyepieces under dark skies like this might stun you with the views.

[Mak the Night]

Slightly customised bog-standard 17 & 13mm Celestron/GSO Plossls I viewed M42 with earlier this morning.

I started off with a 19mm TeleVue Panoptic and slowly increased the magnification ending with a 7mm Fujiyama orthoscopic. These two were the inbetween stages. I changed the original aluminium draw tubes on these that had safety undercuts so they don't get caught up on the helical focuser compression ring.

[Charic]

Ray02.........Your 'Super' 25mm eyepiece is quite reasonable in performance, but for me just not wide enough in the field of view so I purchased a 32mm 70° afov Panaview from Skywatcher. As many DSO targets up there are classed as extended, they are fairly dim, so a low power, wider field of view may help to achieve your desire, to see these targets, but there are so many variables to by-pass, the seeing conditions, how dark your site is, your patience and the ability of your eyes to detect whats up there. Just buying a new eyepiece alone will not fix-it, get everything right and you will achieve that Wow! moment that some of achieve from time to time.

jetstream......I live on the edge of my town/city! just one house separates me from the fields and countryside, but local street lighting is my issue, right in my face, so I have to hide in the available shadows, or create my own hide ( presently a utility toilet tent) and with the leaves rapidly falling from the North facing 40 foot tree, light pollution is now more intense, and when away from home, say 5 miles all-round, I do see the orange city light domes? I do have some remarkable clear sites  well within 45 mins driving time. Just the effort and timing to lug everything out there!