TS 4mm Plossl or Skywatcher Economy 4mm Plossl?

[Ahgii]

Have been looking to get a 4mm but on a tight budget and i need some advice to choose from the two i found fitting to my budget. Which one should i get?

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

I doubt there is very much between them. I am wondering what scope you are using. A 4mm only makes sense in a really fast scope. In slower scopes, it will easily offer far more magnification than needed

[nightfisher]

You may find a 4mm plossl rather tight on eye relief 

[Mr niall]

I've got a 5mm celestron omni, was just over £20. It's just great.

[xtreemchaos]

my smallest plossl is 6mm and it dosnt get used very often due to the mag and lack of good seeing, I would think that both makes are the same just diff branding, so id go for the cheapest. charl.

[Ahgii]

33 minutes ago, Mr niall said:

I've got a 5mm celestron omni, was just over £20. It's just great.

I found only 4mm and 6mm celestron omni and its not much more expensive than the other eyepieces so i think ill go with that one. Do u think it could see jupiter well in a 130/650 celestron? Clear skies!

 

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

The 4mm should give 162.5x magnification which isn't over the top in your F/5 scope. Useful magnification for Jupiter I would say. Jupiter is fairly low in the sky, so the view will not be ideal, but you should be able to spot quite some detail, if the scope is properly cooled down to ambient temperature and collimated

[Mr niall]

11 minutes ago, Ahgii said:

I found only 4mm and 6mm celestron omni and its not much more expensive than the other eyepieces so i think ill go with that one. Do u think it could see jupiter well in a 130/650 celestron? Clear skies!

 

Oh yes definitely - I bought my 5mm for just that purpose. Sadly don't have anything else to compare it to but was definitely a step up from what was shipped with the scope so yes, should be good.

 

...sorry just checked, mine is a 6mm not 5 sorry!

[Charic]

On a tight budget I use one of these http://www.astroboot.co.uk/AstroBoot/telescope-and-astronomy-stuff.html?highlight=AB9977#AB9977

Not sure that you will find it comfortable to use, or use it that often? I have it because it  completes the set, excluding their 40mm

A good alternative could be an 8mm BST Starguider for your scope, it's useable, comfortable and could be Barlowed to 4mm on those rare occasions that allow, and this is a fine EP at 8mm, it replaced my original skywatcher 10mm.

[ronin]

I had a 4mm plossl for a scope of half the focal length of yours, I gave it away. Utterly useless.

One of the best plossl eyepieces are the TV Plossl's, but have a look at the focal lengths - they stop at 8mm, and I suspect there is a good reason for that. That being I very much suspect is that below that they just do not perform too well. And it seems that TV issue eyepieces that perform, the one thing about TV eyepieces are they are good and a badly performing eyepiece detracts from their reputation. One easy solution is not to produce a poor one and sell it.

If this is to see Jupiter then accept 60x to 80x and have a good image. My best view of Jupiter was some years back and I was checking out two new eyepieces I had bought, the "best" was at about 30x, 350mm focal length and 12mm BST Explorer. Do not look at any image on the net, they by definition are an amalgum of many images captured by a digital camera, then stacked, then processed and sharpened. Your eye is not going to reproduce that. Also noone uploads a poor image, they only ever upload the best they got, and that might be one out of 20 attempts.

[Dave In Vermont]

If a 4mm Plössl is too uncomfortable for you - and anyone - the combination of a 8mm eyepiece and a top-quality 2X Barlow can help instead.

I emphasize 'top-quality.' Remember that a Barlow-lens will also magnify any defects in the optical-pathway, including in the eyepiece as well as the Barlow itself. And even if you need to put off buying a Barlow as a top-quality to save-up your money - buying the best Barlow will negate ending-up with a box-full of mediocre Barlows. A top-end Barlow is for life. I use TeleVue® Barlows & the related PowerMates.

Enjoy!

Dave

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

A decent 8mm + a good Barlow would certainly be more comfortable than a 4mm Plossl. I had a 4mm Ortho with similar "eye relief", and these are difficult to use without  glasses, and impossible with. A 4mm Planetary is much more comfortable, but also more expensive. On a budget, a 4mm Plossl is probably the best you can do, if you do not wear glasses while observing.

[Louis D]

18 hours ago, ronin said:

Do not look at any image on the net, they by definition are an amalgum of many images captured by a digital camera, then stacked, then processed and sharpened. Your eye is not going to reproduce that.

At least not without some serious aperture.  The best views I've had of Jupiter have been through 12 to 18 inch dobsonians here in Texas.  It starts to look like the photographs in that you can see swirls, barges, and some decent color at reasonable exit pupils.

[Rocket_the_Raccoon]

I once used a 3.6mm 4-Element Modified Kellner with my 70mm f/5.7 to get 111x for planets and doubles. Later on, I bought a Meade Short 3x Barlow and use my Omcon 10mm Plossl (~Celestron Silver-top Plossl) to get 120x. I found that the eyepiece plus barlow combination much better in image quality (slightly sharper, higher contrast), wider TFOV, and of course, longer eye relief.

However, high power viewing requires good seeing and this doesn't happen every night. Sometimes I just need to stay at 67x by using my old Celestron 6mm Othroscopic.

P.S. this is not a totally fair comparison as the Plossl formula performs better than the Modified Kellner by default.