Eyepiece For Glasses Wearer

[Markh68]

Hi,

What eyepieces are best for someone who wears glasses.

Any advice?

I am looking for good priced not necessarily the cheapest or most expensive.

[jabeoo1]

These are supposed to be suitable:

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/celestron-eyepieces/celestron-x-cel-lx-eyepiece.html

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

There are many to choose from. I got some fairly cheap second-hand "Planetary" eyepieces for my eldest son (who also wears glasses), the BST Explorers have a good press and are quite affordable, and I myself use a range of long-eye-relief EPs (Vixen SLV, Vixen LVW, three TV Naglers Type 4, and Delos EPs, and a few Pentax XWs).  The SLVs are the cheapest of these, and impressively sharp.

[rwilkey]

Any eyepiece with long eye-relief, you will need about 15-20mm, a good eyepiece that fits the bill are BST Explorer/StarGuiders found here: http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=p2050601.m570.l1313.TR0.TRC0.H0.Xbst+starguider.TRS0&_nkw=bst+starguider&_sacat=0

[101nut]

I would suggest trying a few out at a local Astro Society before purchase if you can. Not all eye relief figures are the same and different spectacle designs require different eye reliefs (sp?) - as I found when I changed specs. for seemingly identical frames ... Experiment a bit and you may be pleasantly surprised with the options available to you.

AndyG

[Markh68]

Many thanks for the advice I will try and locate my local astro club and try some out.

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Just spotted these on ABS-UK.

http://www.astrobuysell.com/uk/propview.php?view=123965

 

I had some Vixen LVs years back, and they were very good indeed. I replaced them with TeleVue Radians later, but the LVs were close in quality (some people prefer them). My only real quibble were the rubber eye-cup, which were a bit stiff, and didn't fold back very quickly. They twist-up eye-cups of the new SLV series is better, I feel, but for the price asked, I do not think you can go wrong

[Nova2000]

I don't know if there are special Eyepieces for people who wear glasses. I use normal. It does create circles on my glass

 

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

26 minutes ago, Nova2000 said:

I don't know if there are special Eyepieces for people who wear glasses. I use normal. It does create circles on my glass

 

All you need is long eye relief. When I started out, all my planetary observing was done first with a 9mm symmetric, later a 10mm Plossl. I kept banging my glasses against the EP, shattering any hope of getting really sharp views, unless I put my eye further away, and consequently couldn't use the full FOV. My astigmatism is too severe to observe without glasses. The Vixen LV 9mm I got, with its generous 20mm eye relief solved that problem for good. I now buy no EPs with an effective eye relief below 16mm, as they simply always spell trouble for me. The otherwise excellent Meade Series 5000 14mm UWA had 14mm ER, and that turned to be its undoing for me. I since replaced it with a Nagler 12mm T4 (and a Delos 14mm).

[Markh68]

45 minutes ago, michael.h.f.wilkinson said:

Just spotted these on ABS-UK.

http://www.astrobuysell.com/uk/propview.php?view=123965

 

I had some Vixen LVs years back, and they were very good indeed. I replaced them with TeleVue Radians later, but the LVs were close in quality (some people prefer them). My only real quibble were the rubber eye-cup, which were a bit stiff, and didn't fold back very quickly. They twist-up eye-cups of the new SLV series is better, I feel, but for the price asked, I do not think you can go wrong

Many thanks Micheal they do look good and the price is reasonable

[JOC]

I wear glasses and I have a number of different EP's by different manufacturers.  TBH I don't have any huge problems I just get on and deal with whatever I am looking through.  My mother does the same when she comes to look at what I am seeing.  Maybe if I was going to be sat there looking through the same EP for hours and hours I'd find issues that I am not seeing now, but as someone who is outside for 2-3 hours absolute tops still trying this and that rather than looking in one spot for a DSO to miraculously surface from the inky blackness for hours at a time I don't find any issues with my glasses and my EP's (and they can't all have good 'eye relief'!).

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

2 minutes ago, JOC said:

I wear glasses and I have a number of different EP's by different manufacturers.  TBH I don't have any huge problems I just get on and deal with whatever I am looking through.  My mother does the same when she comes to look at what I am seeing.  Maybe if I was going to be sat there looking through the same EP for hours and hours I'd find issues that I am not seeing now, but as someone who is outside for 2-3 hours absolute tops still trying this and that rather than looking in one spot for a DSO to miraculously surface from the inky blackness for hours at a time I don't find any issues with my glasses and my EP's (and they can't all have good 'eye relief'!).

The 32 and 25mm certainly have enough eye relief, the 10 and 11 will be short, but you can certainly observe with them wearing glasses. I did it for decades (I even had a 5mm Ortho, which was WAY worse in terms of eye relief). However, once you make the switch to long eye relief, there is no going back. The main rule of thumb I use is I stick with the EPs I have until I start noticing shortcomings. If you are happy with the set you have, don't change!