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Eyepiece Help


Mangleworsle

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I need help. My wife has offered to buy me an eyepiece for my birthday and has given me a budget of up to £100.

My equipment is a SW Startraveler 102 with goto mount, 6, 10, 20, 40 mm eyepieces.

I was thinking of getting a 15 mm eyepiece and have been looking at the TeleView 15mm Possl.

I would be grateful if you could give me some advice about this eyepiece or recommend any other good quality eyepieces in the price range (I might be able to add a bit more for something really good).

Jim

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I have the ST102 as well and purchased a 15mm Vixen SLV.

I absolutely love this combination - to be honest, this is probably my most used eyepiece in this scope. I use it on clusters (globular and open) and some DSOs. 

No way I would part with this guy now. It has a 50 degree fov, which is narrower than I normally go for (I prefer 60s) but it gives a really nice balance of fov and exit pupil (in my opinion). 

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2 hours ago, davyludo said:

I have the ST102 as well and purchased a 15mm Vixen SLV.

I absolutely love this combination - to be honest, this is probably my most used eyepiece in this scope. I use it on clusters (globular and open) and some DSOs. 

No way I would part with this guy now. It has a 50 degree fov, which is narrower than I normally go for (I prefer 60s) but it gives a really nice balance of fov and exit pupil (in my opinion). 

I looked on FLO for info on Vixen and while I was looking l saw saw they had an offer for a Vixen 12mm SLV, so I bought it, should arrive tomorrow.

Now I still have the problem with the one for my birthday.

Jim

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14 minutes ago, Mangleworsle said:

I looked on FLO for info on Vixen and while I was looking l saw saw they had an offer for a Vixen 12mm SLV, so I bought it, should arrive tomorrow.

Now I still have the problem with the one for my birthday.

Jim

Good stuff! Hopefully you like it as mush as I like mine :biggrin: 

I had thought about the 12mm as well, but opted for the 15mm as it also gave me 100x on my mak 127. 

Out of interest, is it a 2" of 1.25" diagonal you have? 

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15 hours ago, davyludo said:

Good stuff! Hopefully you like it as mush as I like mine :biggrin: 

I had thought about the 12mm as well, but opted for the 15mm as it also gave me 100x on my mak 127. 

Out of interest, is it a 2" of 1.25" diagonal you have? 

I have a Revelation 1.25"

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I have one of them as well. Liked it so much that when a 2" came up on here I jumped at the chance. Then I managed to get a second hand Skywatcher Aero ED 30mm (2").

It gives me 4 degrees and blew me away the first time I used it - such an immersive experience. An amazing eyepiece for scanning the Milky Way. I managed to pick up both for less that £100 on the second hand market....but I was looking out for a couple of months before I got them both. 

Just in case you were looking for something more wide-field. 

Good luck! 

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Mangleworsle, don't be stuck in the past with 50° eyepieces, your short scope is a rich-field thing, it needs widefield oculars. Modern glass provides Plössl and ortho sharpness over much larger fields these days, and they don't charge you a lot more for the bonus. Personally I will never buy less than 68°, but 60's are not too narrow either, check BST's Starguiders, and Celestron's XCel-LX line, at the very least.

Plössl's and ortho's were invented before 1880!

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Personally I will never buy more than 68 degree apparent field eyepieces and most of my eyepieces are plossls. Older designs do not equal poorer visual images. For me anyway. 

Eyepiece choice is very individual.

That said I agree that a nice 24mm 68 degree eyepiece would be a great buy for your scope. I have one (24mm Panoptic) and its a superb all rounder. According to reviews the ES or Maxvision types are not far behind for a lot less.

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14 hours ago, Moonshane said:

Personally I will never buy more than 68 degree apparent field eyepieces and most of my eyepieces are plossls. Older designs do not equal poorer visual images. For me anyway. 

Eyepiece choice is very individual.

That said I agree that a nice 24mm 68 degree eyepiece would be a great buy for your scope. I have one (24mm Panoptic) and its a superb all rounder. According to reviews the ES or Maxvision types are not far behind for a lot less.

Hi Moonshane,

Thanks for the help, I think I am coming to the realisation that a good high quality eyepiece in the 25 - 35mm with a nice wide field would be the best way forward. 

Thanks again

Jim

 

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20 hours ago, Ben the Ignorant said:

Mangleworsle, don't be stuck in the past with 50° eyepieces, your short scope is a rich-field thing, it needs widefield oculars. Modern glass provides Plössl and ortho sharpness over much larger fields these days, and they don't charge you a lot more for the bonus. Personally I will never buy less than 68°, but 60's are not too narrow either, check BST's Starguiders, and Celestron's XCel-LX line, at the very least.

Plössl's and ortho's were invented before 1880!

Ben the Ignorant,  thanks for your advice it really is a reality check and has helped me formulate my way forward. 

When I first got interested in astronomy in the 1970s Plössl's were the bee's knees and people who had them were considered as serious astronomers.

Thanks again 

Jim

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8 minutes ago, Mangleworsle said:

Ben the Ignorant,  thanks for your advice it really is a reality check and has helped me formulate my way forward. 

When I first got interested in astronomy in the 1970s Plössl's were the bee's knees and people who had them were considered as serious astronomers.

Thanks again 

Jim

I've only tried a couple of plossl's but really didn't get on with them because of the eye relief. I have tried both the BST's and the XCel-LX's - both are really good for the price and work well in F5 scopes....but the BST's are a bit cheaper (think FLO is actually doing a bit of a deal if you buy more than one). 

The 15mm BST is meant to be fantastic (if you're still thinking of a 15mm eyepiece). Unless you are now looking at something more wide-field....or both!! :tongue2:

If you're looking more wide-field, then I would consider what others have said about the 68 degree eyepieces. I think 24mm @ 68 degrees is as far as you can go with a 1.25" barrel - sure someone more experienced can confirm, or correct me if I'm wrong. 

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On 12/10/2017 at 08:40, davyludo said:

I have one of them as well. Liked it so much that when a 2" came up on here I jumped at the chance. Then I managed to get a second hand Skywatcher Aero ED 30mm (2").

It gives me 4 degrees and blew me away the first time I used it - such an immersive experience. An amazing eyepiece for scanning the Milky Way. I managed to pick up both for less that £100 on the second hand market....but I was looking out for a couple of months before I got them both. 

Just in case you were looking for something more wide-field. 

Good luck! 

I think you have hit the nail on the head. I am definitely going to scoure the second hand market.

I doubt I'll ever be able to afford a Panoptic, but I should be able to get something.

Can't wait to try out the 12mm  Vixen, according to Dark Sky's Sunday looks like being the best day for weeks.

Thank again

Jim

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7 minutes ago, Mangleworsle said:

I think you have hit the nail on the head. I am definitely going to scoure the second hand market.

I doubt I'll ever be able to afford a Panoptic, but I should be able to get something.

Can't wait to try out the 12mm  Vixen, according to Dark Sky'sports Sunday looks like being the best day for weeks.

Thank again

Jim

I am a total convert to the second hand astro market now - have picked up some really good bargains over the last few months. 

It's addictive....

 

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23 minutes ago, davyludo said:

I've only tried a couple of plossl's but really didn't get on with them because of the eye relief. I have tried both the BST's and the XCel-LX's - both are really good for the price and work well in F5 scopes....but the BST's are a bit cheaper (think FLO is actually doing a bit of a deal if you buy more than one). 

The 15mm BST is meant to be fantastic (if you're still thinking of a 15mm eyepiece). Unless you are now looking at something more wide-field....or both!! :tongue2:

If you're looking more wide-field, then I would consider what others have said about the 68 degree eyepieces. I think 24mm @ 68 degrees is as far as you can go with a 1.25" barrel - sure someone more experienced can confirm, or correct me if I'm wrong. 

I am definitely going to follow your's and Ben the Ignorant'so advice.

It really has helped me, particularly as you have the same scope and obviously much more experience. I would be grateful if you could pass on any other comments and experiences about the ST 102. 

Best regards 

Jim

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3 minutes ago, Mangleworsle said:

I am definitely going to follow your'search and Ben the Ignorant'so advice.

It really has helped me, particularly as you have the same scope and obviously much more experience. I wouldon't be grateful if you could pass on any other comments about the ST 102. 

Best regards 

Jim

oooft, I don't know about "much more experienced". I've only been into astronomy for a couple of years and I've only had the ST102 for about a year. I'm a total amateur! However I've spent a lot of time on this forum, reading as much as I can and extracting as much information as possible from the lovely SGL people. 

I found it really useful to make up a spreadsheet with my scope and all my eyepieces - then worked out magnification, fov and exit pupil for each. This helped me to work out what gaps I had and stopped me from ending up with too much overlap. For example, you might find that the 12mm SLV is pretty close to your existing 10mm in terms of mag and fov....or course the image quality may be different though. You'll probably end up using one of them most of the time and the other will gather dust...hopefully it's the 12mm you fall in love with!

I also used the following website: http://astronomy.tools/calculators/field_of_view/ You can select an object to view, then pick your scope and eyepiece combination and it will give you an idea of what you can see. I found this REALLY helpful.

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26 minutes ago, davyludo said:

I've only tried a couple of plossl's but really didn't get on with them because of the eye relief. I have tried both the BST's and the XCel-LX's - both are really good for the price and work well in F5 scopes....but the BST's are a bit cheaper (think FLO is actually doing a bit of a deal if you buy more than one). 

The 15mm BST is meant to be fantastic (if you're still thinking of a 15mm eyepiece). Unless you are now looking at something more wide-field....or both!! :tongue2:

If you're looking more wide-field, then I would consider what others have said about the 68 degree eyepieces. I think 24mm @ 68 degrees is as far as you can go with a 1.25" barrel - sure someone more experienced can confirm, or correct me if I'm wrong. 

For the time being I think the 12mm will do the job at that end of things and so as you advise I am going to look at the 24mm to 35mm range.

I picked up an eyepiece projection unit a while back, have yet to try it,

Have you had any experience in this area?

Jim

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2 minutes ago, Mangleworsle said:

For the time being I think the 12mm will do the job at that end of things and so as you advise I am going to look at the 24mm to 35mm range.

I picked up an eyepiece projection unit a while back, have yet to try it,

Have you had any experience in this area?

Yeah...sorry, but I have no idea what that is. Now you've given me something else to go away and read about! :tongue2:

Just for your info - here is an idea of the difference in view between the SLV 12mm and the BST 15mm (on M42).

image.thumb.png.e0a286a91440db3318cf504c170c9ce2.png

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6 minutes ago, davyludo said:

oooft, I don't know about "much more experienced". I've only been into astronomy for a couple of years and I've only had the ST102 for about a year. I'm a total amateur! However I've spent a lot of time on this forum, reading as much as I can and extracting as much information as possible from the lovely SGL people. 

I found it really useful to make up a spreadsheet with my scope and all my eyepieces - then worked out magnification, fov and exit pupil for each. This helped me to work out what gaps I had and stopped me from ending up with too much overlap. For example, you might find that the 12mm SLV is pretty close to your existing 10mm in terms of mag and fov....or course the image quality may be different though. You'll probably end up using one of them most of the time and the other will gather dust...hopefully it's the 12mm you fall in love with!

I also used the following website: http://astronomy.tools/calculators/field_of_view/ You can select an object to view, then pick your scope and eyepiece combination and it will give you an idea of what you can see. I found this REALLY helpful.

Just had a look at Astronomy Tools, it looks like just what I need. 

 

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