Beginner EPs to put on my Christmas list

[SandsofEss]

I have a Celestron Astromaster refractor with an 80mm aperture, FL of 910mm and an FR of 11.3.

 

Over the past year, my daughter and I have been getting to grips with our telescope – using the supplied 10mm and 20mm lenses to watch the planets.

 

Now we’d like to up our game. Since it’s Christmas, I can probably ask family to chip in for an eyepiece or two for us. Our budget is probably quite low, but I suspect almost anything will be an upgrade on the standard lenses that we currently have.

 

So, I’d be really grateful for recommendations on lenses to ask for, to achieve our two spotting goals for 2018:

 

- Messier objects - 

We’d like to start working through the Messier list. Can you recommend a wide-field eyepiece with decent eye relief (I wear specs) that would work well with our scope? 

 

- More magnification -

Fellow forummers have kindly recommended the following three lenses to us in the past to get more detailed planetary views. I suspect all three would be good options for us, with the Starguider the most affordable, but are there any other particularly good deals we should be looking at at the moment? 

• 8mm BST Explorer ‘Starguider’ ED eyepiece 
• 6mm William Optics SPL eyepiece 
• 7mm Celestron X-Cel LX eyepiece

 

Thank you for reading!

[cloudsweeper]

For wider field and lower mag, I'd go for a Revelation Plossl (£32) 32mm, or Celestron Omni Plossl (£40) 32mm eyepiece.  22mm eye relief.  Both good EPs, and not expensive!  

Doug.

[Victor Boesen]

The bst explorer eyepieces are great eyepieces for their value, and many members of this forum would recommend them, so I wouldn't either.

As for widefield eyepiece, then skywatcher make some good budget ones such as the SWA 70 degree and explorer scientific also have a great set of eyepieces, and if you want some eyepieces that will also be your best friend in 10-20 years then I would recommend the 68 degree version, or the newer version of the 68 degree, the 82 degree eyepieces which is also more expansive.

I hope that you'll find what you're looking for, and I am sure som other members on here will help you out as well.

Clear skies!

Victor

[ronin]

For wide then the 32mm plossl will be wide but to some extent the 25mm BST will be much the same. The FoV of the BST is wider but the magnification a bit more and they basically cancel out. So they end up the same at your eyeball. You can work the numbers out.

The 8mm BST will deliver 910/8 = ~114x magnification. Likely just enough for Saturn and as Jupiter is bigger then it covers Jupiter also.

The X-Cell LX's are reckoned to be equal to the BST's by most people and as the cost of them is higher the BST's kind of win.

For planets the BST's have a fair jump from 5mm to 8mm and planetary viewing can mean an eyepiece at every 1mm step.

Any chance of someone around you having the BST's for you to drop into your scope one night? Just a sort of observing night and asking nicely, no need to keep past the evening meet. Will depend on being a member of a club I suspect.

One awful aspect of getting an 8mm and 25mm BST is that you start thinking of which one next. That's easy the 12mm After which is the remainder of the set.

Thne BST's have something like 16mm eye relief and the X-Cel LX's are around 1mm more at about 17mm. Will say that "eye relief" can depend on where it is measured from. I wear glasses and have the BST's, I also often just remove the glasses.

Concerning the WO SPL's yoiu may find that Altair sell a clone of them. AA have (I think) 2 eyepieces called "Lightwave" the lesser expensive one (£55) appears to be a WO SPL in disguise.

[SandsofEss]

Thank you Doug, Victor, Ronin for the really helpful advice, as always on SGL.

Trying out the EPs is excellent advice. I keep meaning to get down to my local club (which I think is Cranbrook in Kent), but they meet on Mondays - an awkward day for me. I'll have to look around for another local club that meets another night (or ask around on here to find any local stargazers who might be willing to let us pop over to look at their lenses!).

Considering cost, it sounds as though my best bet is to ask for the 8mm BST and the 32mm Revelation Plossl as decent entry-level eyepieces to open up our horizons more. Fully expecting, of course, to catch the eyepiece-collecting bug from thereon out...

One other question if I may. I've so far held off on getting a 2x barlow lens, as it didn't feel worthwhile with just 10mm and 20mm EPs. With these two lenses added is it now something I should consider? I've seen that they can be much cheaper than EPs, though I suspect there's a lot of tat out there. Any top tips on a bargain barlow that will add to our viewing?

Thanks again.

[Ricochet]

3 minutes ago, SandsofEss said:

One other question if I may. I've so far held off on getting a 2x barlow lens, as it didn't feel worthwhile with just 10mm and 20mm EPs. With these two lenses added is it now something I should consider?

I would say no. You don't want to be barlowing an 8mm with your scope. To be honest I suspect the 8mm in itself will be right on the scope's limit for planetary views. Long term I would plan 8-12-18-25mm Starguiders, possibly swapping the 25mm for a 32mm Plossl or 24mm ES68/Maxvision/Meade SWA if one came up second hand. The other thing that might make a noticeable improvement would be to swap the supplied erecting prism for a decent star diagonal. 

[JOC]

25 minutes ago, SandsofEss said:

Any top tips on a bargain barlow that will add to our viewing

I got a good secondhand Skywatcher premium x2 Barlow for not a lot of cash.  It works well with many of my EP's - such a gadget would let you push your 10mm (assuming its semi-decent - my bundled EP's were) to 5mm which might help with the planets.  If your next other option is a BST at 8mm such a magnification would slot into the next gap down nicely.  The added advantage of the Skywatcher delux one is that is usefully unscrews into various bits which can help to attach a DSLR camera and gives further flexibility with filters.  However, please note I am no expert and have only been a telescope owner for a year.

Edit - Ah, Ricochet says you are already at the limit for your telescope magnification wise at 8mm - I should listen to them on that account and ignore what I wrote - he posted as I typed.

[25585]

I would recommend a Vixen SLV 25mm eye piece, has 65 deg AFOV. The range has 20mm eye relief throughout. 

Adding a 2x Barlow will then give a 12.5 magnification. Otherwise a 12mm SLV. 

The Vixens are more expensive but as a spex wearer, they are my mainstay. @John has a favourable opinion of them, and a thread "in praise of" SLV eps is in the forums. 

[LukeSkywatcher]

I love my Vixens. I have 3 NPL's and another one (NLV i think?). I also have a mish-mash of other EP's. Im seriously considering selling up all of my EP's and investing in a low,medium and high mag SLV. 

[25585]

10 to choose from 2.5 to 25mm. Wider go for a 32mm Plossl. 

[LukeSkywatcher]

32mm Plossl...........great EP.

[Ricochet]

1 hour ago, 25585 said:

I would recommend a Vixen SLV 25mm eye piece, has 65 deg AFOV. The range has 20mm eye relief throughout

50° for the SLV range. 

[LukeSkywatcher]

37 minutes ago, Ricochet said:

50° for the SLV range. 

Really?. That's disappointing to read. All of my EP's (cheap and middle of the road cost) are 50 degrees. SLV's for £100 quid a pop..........i'd expect more.

[Ricochet]

1 hour ago, LukeSkywatcher said:

Really?. That's disappointing to read. All of my EP's (cheap and middle of the road cost) are 50 degrees. SLV's for £100 quid a pop..........i'd expect more.

Yeah, it's probably the one thing that has put me off them so far. Most of the reviews are very positive with regards to the quality of the views. I still might end up getting some for binoviewing if further testing changes my mind on the suitability of XWs. 

[25585]

My bv pair are LV 20mm. Same optics but thinner than SLV as less dressing. 

I was thinking of LVW range which are 65 deg. Best Vixens of all IMO. Still various fl ones around. Cheaper than XWs.

[LukeSkywatcher]

55 minutes ago, Ricochet said:

Yeah, it's probably the one thing that has put me off them so far. Most of the reviews are very positive with regards to the quality of the views. I still might end up getting some for binoviewing if further testing changes my mind on the suitability of XWs. 

About the only thing i want to try but as yet dont have is a binoviewer.

[Ricochet]

12 hours ago, LukeSkywatcher said:

About the only thing i want to try but as yet dont have is a binoviewer.

It's well worth trying to see if you get on with them I think. There's not really any rush though, given the current planetary positions from our latitudes.

[25585]

I may buy a relatively inexpensive one to see how it suits my viewing first so will need spacers & tubes etc kit to work with my diagonals. 

 

[SandsofEss]

Thank you all for the useful advice. The Christmas list has been suitably updated..!