New to Stargazing, Need a little advice on eyepieces!

[Gfamily]

Another voice here - just a quick note to say don't be too dismissive of your 40mm, it'll give you a good way to observe some of the great Open Clusters such as the Pleiades and Hyades in Taurus and the Double Cluster in Perseus.  in higher power eyepieces, these can just be a lot of stars, whereas in a lower power EP you can see how they stand out against the more sparse field of stars. 

It'll also be invaluable when you are star hopping to find some target or other - this is where you know that what you're looking for is a few degrees away from a brightish star; so pre-plan a route whereby you get move from that bright star to another one that's close to your target, the 40mm EP will give you a nice wide field of view that allows you to move a few degrees at a time, and hopefully a nice bright image to confirm when you have your target centred.  At which point you swap to a higher power eyepiece for a 'closer view'. 

If you are star hopping, it can be useful to simulate it first in software like Stellarium on your PC, and taking screenshots to print out on paper can be worth doing too - often better than trying to do it on an app on a phone or tablet, because the light from the screen can spoil your night vision. Using a red light torch (head torch if you have one, or a £shop bicycle rear lamp if you don't) will let you see the charts AND the stars through the eyepiece. 

Here's a site that shows how you might find M92 from the nearby star pi Herculis

http://www.nightskyinfo.com/star-hopping/

[happy-kat]

There's me forgetting the great book Turn Left at Orion. Coveres what you can see how it might look page by page by season with star hoping guide for each item.

[Jimtheslim]

1 hour ago, happy-kat said:

There's me forgetting the great book Turn Left at Orion. Coveres what you can see how it might look page by page by season with star hoping guide for each item.

I was surprised it took so long for this to come up, It's usually recommended within the first 3 replies!

It's hard to give short, concise advise tailored to an individual without getting excited and waffling on for ages about experiences with eyepieces and all the technical stuff. I can imagine that you're reluctant to spend too much when there is still so much to learn. Just don't overlook used eyepieces. All the eyepieces I have ever purchased have been used and all have been as good as new. The prices people list are usually about correct, I can't think I've ever seen a listing for an eyepiece and thought the seller was taking the mickey. A little bartering is fine.

Personally I would avoid buying an eyepiece set. As mentioned above filters are not to everyone's taste and even in my 250mm I find there is very little difference other than to cut down the amount of light my eye is receiving (every photon counts). Also, if you buy a set and don't like something about the design of the eyepieces, you're stuck with a whole set of them! The cases they come in look attractive, but trust me, building up a set of individual eyepieces and buying and cutting out your own eyepiece case foam is far more rewarding . Buy use eyepieces at the right price and you can't really loose too much money.

 

[sockgoblin]

welcome to the forum.

My first scope was also a 130p newtonian (although on a dobsonian base but makes no difference to the optics they are the same as yours) . I found that I used a 30mm , and 12mm the most . I also bought a 2x barlow which gives  twice the magnification. So if you were to buy  a 2x barlow you would already have a 40mm and a 20mm. One more eyepiece say a 15mm or 12mm would mean a range of 40,  20,  15 (12)  and 7.5 (6)  plenty to be going on with. No need to spend a lot until you decide that this is for you, plenty of time to upgrade and spend once the bug bites.  If you look for Plossls ,( that is a description of the way that the glass lens are arranged in the eyepiece ) from named brands such as Meade or Skywatcher or GSO look on first light optics website to get  a feel of the good brands to consider. Ebay ,astroboot or in the classified section on this forum is a good place to look you can pick up used eyepieces for less than £25, but avoid unbranded Chinese very cheap ebay knock offs.