Eyepiece upgrade?

[Trollinthewall]

Hello all

My first scope was delivered yesterday (Skywatcher star discovery 150p) remarkably the astronomy curse didn't hit me and I had a relatively clear night last night to get to grips with my scope so spent a few hours playing around with it and the views I got through it we're great, got a look at the moon and a brief glimpse of the whirlpool galaxy, I have been told to basically not bother with the supplied eyepieces (10mm, 25mm and a 2x Barlow lens) and get new ones straight away as these are a bit lackluster, where would be a good place to start with upgrading them? Would love to see the planets, make some lunar observations, and view some DSO's just curious what EP's I'd need for this as I don't know where to start.

Any help appreciated as always guys

 Cheers

George

[billyharris72]

Hi George, and welcome to the forum.

I'm not sure who said "not to bother" with the supplied eyepieces, but I'd give them a go before you jump to any conclusions. If you're been supplied with the usual SW "Super" eyepieces (modifed achromats) then the 25mm is perfectly serviceable and the 10mm, while not great, is not nearly as bad as people make out (I suspect quality varies a lot and I may have been lucky). In general, SW are among the better manufacturers when it comes to providing half decent eyepieces with their scopes.

That said, you will probably want to upgrade at some point. It very much depends on budget. Good value options include:

* Skywatcher Super Plossls (or Celestron or Revelation or GSO Plossls) - the cheapest of the upgrades, but worth it. Good control of stray light and reflections, but not very well corrected at the edge. Apparent field of view about 52 degrees. A little more expensive, the Vixen Plossls get very good reviews.

* BST Explorer or Celestron Ex-Cel. These have a 60 degree AFOV and are better at the edges. I find them maybe a bit more prone to glare on bright objects, but not really bad. They also have good eye relief (eye relief on Plossls gets very tight once you get into short focal lengths, which some find uncomfortable; not great for spectacle wearers).

Lots of decent Barlows out there. Give the supplied one a go first, and if you can't get on with it go for an upgrade. I went for a Celestron Omni, which is fine.

Cheers,

Billy.

 

[MarsG76]

I always recommend Televue, absolutely stoked with my TVs (especially DSO), but I also like my LV Vixen and Celestron X-Cels for planetary viewing. 

Although looking at the eyepieces that came with my 14 Dob or my 8SE, I don't think that they're bad at all so perhaps stay with those until you get a chance to trial a few different eyepieces from star parties or clubs, or others you might know and research a few different type.

A lot of people recommend Explore Scientific (ES) eyepieces and claim that they're as or near as good as televue but at half the price.

I think you'll most likely still get great views with the eyepieces you have with the scope but I'd say don't use the barlow... standard barlows seem to always be substandard.

[Trollinthewall]

1 hour ago, billyharris72 said:

Hi George, and welcome to the forum.

I'm not sure who said "not to bother" with the supplied eyepieces, but I'd give them a go before you jump to any conclusions. If you're been supplied with the usual SW "Super" eyepieces (modifed achromats) then the 25mm is perfectly serviceable and the 10mm, while not great, is not nearly as bad as people make out (I suspect quality varies a lot and I may have been lucky). In general, SW are among the better manufacturers when it comes to providing half decent eyepieces with their scopes.

That said, you will probably want to upgrade at some point. It very much depends on budget. Good value options include:

* Skywatcher Super Plossls (or Celestron or Revelation or GSO Plossls) - the cheapest of the upgrades, but worth it. Good control of stray light and reflections, but not very well corrected at the edge. Apparent field of view about 52 degrees. A little more expensive, the Vixen Plossls get very good reviews.

* BST Explorer or Celestron Ex-Cel. These have a 60 degree AFOV and are better at the edges. I find them maybe a bit more prone to glare on bright objects, but not really bad. They also have good eye relief (eye relief on Plossls gets very tight once you get into short focal lengths, which some find uncomfortable; not great for spectacle wearers).

Lots of decent Barlows out there. Give the supplied one a go first, and if you can't get on with it go for an upgrade. I went for a Celestron Omni, which is fine.

Cheers,

Billy.

 

I was told by my astro society to just forget them haha and yeah I had a play around with them both last night only thing I noticed was there seemed to be like a reflective glare as I looked through the eyepiece which kinda obscured my view a bit but not sure if that was caused by stray light thanks for the suggestions I'll look into them

[Louis D]

Really it depends on your budget.  I started 20 years ago with Vixen LV and Pentax XL eyepiece that still hold their own against today's offerings.  Since then, I've added Panoptics, Naglers, Pentax XWs, Delos, ES-92s, etc.  I also have lower end stuff like a set of Meade HD-60s for comparison sake and outreach.  They're perfectly fine for the average beginner.