Thinking of buying a better telescope for looking at moon's craters and I need suggestions

[LukeSkywatcher]

I now know Irish customs laws. Any item shipped from overseas which costs less than 40 Euros is exempt from VAT and import duty. Anything costing between 40-100 euros has a set VAT/import duty of about 12 euros. Anything over 100 euros is calculated on a sliding scale of 23% of total value.

[LukeSkywatcher]

FLO (First Light Optics) always calculate shipping. Ive only ever bought small things from them (meteorites,filters etc) and never a problem. Ive bought bigger items from Germany, and never had a problem. Ive bought small things from Japan and United States, and always had problems.

Why?

Japanese shops and American shops dont include VAT or import duty. Ive bought Star Wars model kits from Japan and i just pay 12 Euro extra tax (depending on retail cost). My Quark shipped from America cost me 350 euros extra.

My sister lives in America. I should have asked her to buy a Quark for me and post it or bring it over.

[Louis D]

4 hours ago, LukeSkywatcher said:

Japanese shops and American shops dont include VAT or import duty.

Probably because it doesn't dawn on them to do it.  The US doesn't impose import duties on items of less than $800 per individual.  The US also doesn't have a VAT tax.  Individual states collect sales tax, but until the latest Supreme Court ruling (which is still being sorted out), sellers didn't have to collect it unless they had a brick and mortar presence in that state.  This is why I've been so angry with just about every other country in the world imposing what amounts to a 20% to 30% or more import tax/tariff/duty on items sold from the US.  How can this be seen as anything but extremely unfair??  I've bought thousands of dollars worth of stuff from overseas over the years and have yet to pay one cent in duties/tariffs/taxes on any of it.  And to add insult to injury, the US sends over $40 billion dollars in foreign aid to countries around the world.

Signing off before John comes along and puts the kibosh on me again.

[erseavetir]

UPDATE:

Hi all! Firstly, I apologize for the lack of updates. Some personal stuff happened and I couldn't get myself to make the update post on time and I am sorry about that but I am now ready to make the update so here we go:

My father got the mount on July 16th and surprisingly, they didn't ask for any tax money from my father and they just delivered the mount to his house which was awesome so in the future, shopping from the Teleskop Service might be a better investment even though their shipping is a bit slow but at least it's only 13 Euros and taxes/custom fees seem to be included.  

I wasn't online around the same time when my father first got the mount on July 26th due to time differences (again he lives in Turkey while I live in Canada) so he set up the mount and OTA and used it on July 26th a bit in the daylight when the moon was visible. Then the next day we were both online around the same time and I called him on Skype and he answered the call from his phone and these are some screenshots I took from that night (image quality is bad because the connection was weak and it was through his phone):

Check out this link if you want to see all of the pictures: https://imgur.com/a/FqoYjoi

Overall, he said he really liked the OTA as well as the mount. He loves the fact that he is able to follow the moon way easier now compared to his old mount. He said this telescope definitely has the best quality images compared to his older telescope and spotting scope. He also enjoyed looking at the "Sky & Telescope's Mirror-Image Field Map of the Moon" and he even told me that he found an inconsistency on the map and that he said he discovered some mountains that are not shown in the map

Now let's get to the beginner problems and issues he is facing:

Even though he is enjoying every second he spends with this telescope, I think he expected to get even sharper images while he is zoomed more. He said that when he is using the "Celestron 8-24mm Zoom Eyepiece", after he passes a certain point (I believe he said below 12-10mm without using any Barlow lenses) he starts to get blurry images but I assume that may change night to night or that because of the high light pollution in Istanbul, after maybe 125-150x zoom, it's normal to get not so sharp images.

The other thing he mentioned to me was that he couldn't get the "ZWO ASI120 MC Camera" to work with the Celestron Zoom Eyepiece or the 10mm and 25mm eyepieces that the OTA came with as he said that the camera wouldn't fit right and be tight and that it would move and shake so he couldn't catch any visuals with that even though he tried for a long time. 

I've taken these screenshots while he was explaining to me the problem and you can see those images on here:
https://imgur.com/a/zP8aw8s

Other than these little things, he is very happy with using his telescope. Even though he couldn't manage to get the ZWO Camera work, he used his android phone to record a video of the moon with the 25mm eyepiece that came with the telescope and his "Gosky Universal Cell Phone Adapter Mount" that I bought him a year ago. He said it took him two and a half hours to finally catch the moon on the camera but once he caught it, he recorded some videos of the moon and he sent them to me and I've edited them into one video and I've cut out the blurry visuals and you can watch that video on here if you want to:

 

He also shared one of the videos he sent me on his facebook which the comment "This is a video of the moon that I shot tonight with the telescope my son bought me" which made my day:
https://www.facebook.com/kamil.tamer.1/videos/10214312014572131/

My father also told me to tell you guys how much he appreciated all of your help as you can also see from this picture:

Thank you again for all of you for finding my father the telescope of his dreams! He is really happy now that he has his telescope and he is now on his balcony every night to watch the moon 

[happy-kat]

Sounds like a great success.

The ZWO is used direct in the telescope, the telescope acts as the lens for the ZWO camera.

Seeing and atmosphere direct what magnification is possible in any observing condition so it will vary.

[Louis D]

16 hours ago, erseavetir said:

He said that when he is using the "Celestron 8-24mm Zoom Eyepiece", after he passes a certain point (I believe he said below 12-10mm without using any Barlow lenses) he starts to get blurry images but I assume that may change night to night or that because of the high light pollution in Istanbul, after maybe 125-150x zoom, it's normal to get not so sharp images.

Not light pollution but atmospheric instability.  It looks like shimmering due to heat waves at higher powers.  Is he looking over roofs of other builiding?  If so, the heat they radiate at night from heat gathered during the day will make for unsteady seeing above them.  Have him try again in the early morning after the roofs have equilibriated during the night to the air temperature to see if the views are sharper and shimmer less.

10 hours ago, happy-kat said:

The ZWO is used direct in the telescope, the telescope acts as the lens for the ZWO camera.

More specifically, he should make sure the wide angle lens is not attached to the camera, and then attach the 1.25" nose piece to the camera.  Then, he just needs to insert the camera nose piece into the 1.25" visual back just like an eyepiece.  He'll then have to focus the image on the camera's imaging chip.

[erseavetir]

Hello all!

So my father has been enjoying his telescope a lot but today he said that his "Celestron 8-24mm Zoom Eyepiece" seems like it has a steam inside it where it started to give out a blurry vision so he has been using the 25mm cheap small eyepiece that came with the telescope which reminded me, he now needs an upgrade on his eyepiece as well. Thanks to you guys he has a good mount and an OTA now but I guess that's only half the battle so I was thinking of buying him a good budget 1.25" eyepiece that is for specifically viewing the moon. I was thinking of going with the "Celestron X-Cel LX 25mm Eyepiece - 1.25" - 60° field" eyepiece:
https://www.teleskop-express.de/shop/product_info.php/language/en/info/p6964_Celestron-X-Cel-LX-25mm-1-25--Planetenokular---60--Feld---6-Element.html

What do you guys think? Seems like a good budget option to me, as well as a good upgrade vs the cheap 25mm eyepiece he is using now. But maybe you guys know way better eyepieces that are around the same price or double the price but really worth it, in which case I may consider the expensive option as well, especially if it's on the https://www.teleskop-express.de/ website as they ship it to Turkey for cheap and they didn't ask any tax and paperwork stuff last time when I got the mount from them.

I also saw that there was an 18mm version of the same Celestron X-Cel LX eyepiece but I think that may cause my father some problems because I know that with 25mm eyepiece and the phone adaptor attached to the OTA, my father says that he is able to take some good pictures and videos of the moon easy with his phone, as you can see from the video he took:
https://youtu.be/8Px3uugWnRk

But maybe 18mm would work well for him as well, I wouldn't really know. I assume some of you guys are eyepiece experts as well so I hope one of you can help me out with this :) 

[Louis D]

I have the Meade HD-60 set which is reportedly made by the same manufacturer as the X-Cel LX line, and the 25mm and 18mm are the poorest of the line.  At f/12 they might not be too bad.  I'd have to get out my 127 Mak and check sometime.

I'd recommend the TS-Optics Eyepiece Expanse 17 mm Wide Angle eyepiece over the 18mm X-Cel LX.  I have the Astro Tech AF70 version and it is far superior to the 18mm Meade HD-60 in every respect.  There is some edge astigmatism and chromatism in faster scopes, but it looks nearly perfect at f/12 in the 127 Mak as I recall.  With the eyecup threaded off, there's an M43 thread revealed for attaching cameras afocally.  It even comes with a thread-on 2" skirt should he ever move to a 2"-centric eyepiece collection.

At 24mm, the new APM Ultra Flat Field is supposed to be very good, but TS doesn't seem to carry it.  I'd have to think about what to get in a 1.25" barrel at this focal length more.  He could get the TS SuperView 32mm which can be used for photography.

[erseavetir]

Thank you for the suggestions Louis D. I guess 17mm would work for him as long as it has a wider angle so that the moon doesn't slip by quickly. I wonder what type of angle his cheap little 25mm eyepiece has, the one that came with his 127 Mac OTA. Because I'd assume that, that little eyepiece has a so much lesser wide view but it's still enough to see the whole moon like this (on 60x zoom):
https://imgur.com/nsfGJHI

With 17mm, the zoom would be 88x but with the wider view, I'd assume that, that would still be acceptable and that he'd be able to still catch the moon on his phone easily and get even sharper views when he is zooming with his phone, unlike what he sees now:
https://youtu.be/8Px3uugWnRk

Though I guess with a 17mm, he wouldn't be able to catch the whole full moon inside his view, even with a 70-degree wide angle right?

For now, this "TS-Optics Eyepiece Expanse 17 mm Wide Angle" seems like a good option so far:
https://www.teleskop-express.de/shop/product_info.php/info/p4924_TS-Optics-Eyepiece-Expanse-17-mm-Wide-Angle-1-25-and-2-inch-connection.html

And when it comes to Photography, I guess the TS SuperView 32mm you mentioned would be cool and it doesn't seem to be that expensive:
https://www.teleskop-express.de/shop/product_info.php/language/en/info/p1429_SuperView-32mm-1-25--photography---visual---T2-adaptation.html

But I'd rather invest in something good that he can use in both photography and video, kinda like what he is trying to do now with his 25mm as he is telling me that he has taken some good pictures with his basic cheap 25mm which makes me wonder if a 25mm would be better over 17mm. Or maybe something in between? My father right now has the basic 10mm and 25mm eyepieces that came with his OTA and he never uses the 10mm as he says that's too powerful (can't find the moon on the phone) so maybe 17mm is the sweet spot (with a wide angle).

I wish he had a 17mm eyepiece that he could try, I mean he has the 8-24 Celestron zoom eyepiece and he could try to see how everything looks around 17mm but I wouldn't know how much this 70-degree wide angle factor would affect his decision since that zoom eyepiece wouldn't have 70-degree wide angle.

I've also gotten these suggestions from the user Freezout on the other forum, what do you guys think about these ones:

Quote

This serie, the TS-Optics ED, gives 60 degrees, is less expensive than the Xcel and is very appreciated from almost all users. I don’t have myself one but I just make the echo of what I read. Many focal lengths in this range.
https://www.teleskop-express.de/shop/product_info.php/info/p4929_TS-Optics-1-25--ED-Eyepiece-15mm---60--Flat-Field---high-contrast.html

If you want to invest more, go for a 68 degrees eyepiece!
I use the Hyperion range with the 24 and 13mm focal length and I’m happy with it for the moon.
https://www.teleskop-express.de/shop/product_info.php/info/p137_Baader-17mm-Hyperion-Modular-Eyepiece-1-25--and-2----68--Field.html

But many people will tell you that the best in this category is Explore Scientific.
https://www.teleskop-express.de/shop/product_info.php/info/p5597_Explore-Scientific-24mm-1-25--Eyepiece---68----waterproof.html
or smaller focal length:
https://www.teleskop-express.de/shop/product_info.php/info/p5595_Explore-Scientific-16mm-1-25--Okular---68----waterproof.html

If you want your father to be astounded by the field of view and have the feeling that he landed on the moon, go for larger field of view. I do not own the following one.
https://www.teleskop-express.de/shop/product_info.php/info/p5337_Explore-Scientific-14mm-WA-eyepiece---82----water-proof.html

I have an eyepiece of the Morpheus range and it’s my favorite, the view is amazing, I wish I have the 14mm or 12.5. They are famous to have an excellent price/quality ratio.
https://www.teleskop-express.de/shop/product_info.php/info/p8085_Baader-Morpheus-14-mm-76--Wide-Field-Eyepiece.html

The Meade range is also famous in 82degrees. I have one.
https://www.teleskop-express.de/shop/product_info.php/info/p7567_Meade-Series-5000---14mm-82--1-25--Ultra-Wide-Angle-eyepiece---waterproof.html

I think your father will have a big “wow” effect with a large field of view. That is also something nice to have when you upgrade from a “basic” eyepiece. So I would suggest field of views above 60 degrees, if budget possible. Just ask him what is his favorite magnification, which one he uses most often. And invest on that focal length. All the eyepiece ranges I list below have several focal length available.

6

 

[happy-kat]

Using stellarium you could add the telescope and the eyepieces and see the differences between then when looking at the Moon to help your buying choices. The occular view is the feature you would use.

[Ruud]

Goto https://stellarium.org download and install

start stellarium

[F2] Configuration -> Plugins 
find "Oculars"
Check "load at startup"

restart stellarium

Populate the Oculars plugin with your telescope(s), barlow lenses, and eyepieces and start comparing

[Louis D]

You can figure out the true field of view (TFOV) for any given eyepiece/telescope combination by dividing the apparent field of view (AFOV) by the magnification (Telescope Focal Length/Eyepiece Focal Length).  So, for the 17mm 70 degree, you'd have 70/(1540/17)=0.77 degrees TFOV.  Since the moon is about 0.5 degrees, it would fit the moon with a bit of room to spare.  Keeping it centered with the phone attached might be challenging at 91x.  For the 25mm, I'll assume it's a 50 degree Plossl, but it might only be a 45 degree Kellner or similar.  Under that assumption, you get 50/(1540/25)=0.81 degrees TFOV, which is just slightly wider than the 0.77 degrees for the 17mm but at 2/3s the power (62x vs 91x).

The 24mm Hyperion is about as well corrected as an Erfle, which might be good enough for an f/12 Mak.  It would yield a 68/(1540/24)=1.06 degree TFOV, which would be 0.25 degree improvement over the stock 25mm eyepiece.  It's also just about the widest you can get with a 1.25 visual back with that scope.

For 82 degrees, the 16m TS-Optics Optics 1,25" Ultra Wide Angle Eyepiece UWAN gets very good reviews (also look for reviews of the similar 16mm Williams Optical UWAN).  Eye relief is quite tight, making them useless for afocal photography, so it would be a visual only eyepiece.

I have the 14mm Morpheus, and while it is nice and wide at 76 degrees, the outer 15% suffers from some field curvature and astigmatism, but that might go away at f/12.  The 17.5mm is reportedly much better and the focal length would be a better fit for that Mak.

[erseavetir]

I'll install and play with Stellarium when I go home but I've done some research on different eyepieces and so far, the eyepiece below seems like the best budget option with an 82-degree wide view on a 16mm eyepiece made by TS:

TS-Optics Optics 1,25" Ultra Wide Angle Eyepiece UWAN 16mm - 82° field of view
https://www.teleskop-express.de/shop/product_info.php/language/en/info/p8989_TS-Optics-Optics-1-25--Ultra-Wide-Angle-Eyepiece-UWAN-4mm---82--field-of-view.html

but then there are two other good options on similar specs:

Celestron LUMINOS 15mm 1,25" 82° Field Eyepiece
https://www.teleskop-express.de/shop/product_info.php/info/p6241_Celestron-Luminos-15mm-eyepiece---1-25----82--Field.html

Explore Scientific 14mm 1.25" Wide Angle eyepiece - 82° FoV
https://www.teleskop-express.de/shop/product_info.php/info/p5337_Explore-Scientific-14mm-WA-eyepiece---82----water-proof.html

I played with the calculator on this page:

https://www.skyandtelescope.com/observing/skyandtelescope-coms-scope-calculator/

I feel like an 82 degree view field will serve my father the best and with these eyepieces on my father's 127 Mak, the calculator says "The full Moon would easily fit into the field of view" so I assume my father would (hopefully) be able to easily find the moon with his phone being on an adaptor and capture some good visuals.

I'll do more research on this today but I will most likely end up ordering one of these today or tomorrow, please let me know if you think I am making a mistake and also which one of these three (or a different one) would you pick yourself?

 

Edit: I didn't read Louis D's review before writing this one.

 

[erseavetir]

17 minutes ago, Louis D said:

You can figure out the true field of view (TFOV) for any given eyepiece/telescope combination by dividing the apparent field of view (AFOV) by the magnification (Telescope Focal Length/Eyepiece Focal Length).  So, for the 17mm 70 degree, you'd have 70/(1540/17)=0.77 degrees TFOV.  Since the moon is about 0.5 degrees, it would fit the moon with a bit of room to spare.  Keeping it centered with the phone attached might be challenging at 91x.  For the 25mm, I'll assume it's a 50 degree Plossl, but it might only be a 45 degree Kellner or similar.  Under that assumption, you get 50/(1540/25)=0.81 degrees TFOV, which is just slightly wider than the 0.77 degrees for the 17mm but at 2/3s the power (62x vs 91x).

The 24mm Hyperion is about as well corrected as an Erfle, which might be good enough for an f/12 Mak.  It would yield a 68/(1540/24)=1.06 degree TFOV, which would be 0.25 degree improvement over the stock 25mm eyepiece.  It's also just about the widest you can get with a 1.25 visual back with that scope.

For 82 degrees, the 16m TS-Optics Optics 1,25" Ultra Wide Angle Eyepiece UWAN gets very good reviews (also look for reviews of the similar 16mm Williams Optical UWAN).  Eye relief is quite tight, making them useless for afocal photography, so it would be a visual only eyepiece.

I have the 14mm Morpheus, and while it is nice and wide at 76 degrees, the outer 15% suffers from some field curvature and astigmatism, but that might go away at f/12.  The 17.5mm is reportedly much better and the focal length would be a better fit for that Mak.

3

I saw your comment after posting my latest one and your comment changes everything then because my father would want to have an eyepiece where he'd be able to find the moon and take pictures and videos with it using his smart phone's camera. So if the 16m TS-Optics 82 degrees has a tight eye relief that would not allow my father to do that then he won't end up using that eyepiece. Could you safely say that with the 16mm TS-Optics eyepiece, he would not be able to record good videos with it like the video he recorded before on his cheap 25mm eyepiece? I'd assume that his little 25mm eyepiece also has bad eye relief but I wouldn't know.

Anyway, I guess then I'll end up buying the 17.5mm eyepiece you suggested:
https://www.teleskop-express.de/shop/product_info.php/info/p8086_Baader-Morpheus-17-5-mm-76--Wide-Field-Eyepiece---New-Generation.html

Even though it's on the expensive side but might as well get the best option while I can. I am assuming my father will have an easy time doing some photography and video recording with this on right?

[eekeek]

Forgive me as I have only skimmed the other posts.....

The limiting factor is not cash, weight or anything else but your location. However good your setup, the "seeing" and "transparency" will limit the views you get. My location is inner city. I've almost given up on eyepieces and I'm slowly trying to build a setup around EAA - that is, a camera and laptop. It is not an easy option by any means but I'm hoping I'll shortly be able to see things that just aren't possible with the Mk I eyeball and whilst sat in a comfy chair.

 

[Louis D]

55 minutes ago, erseavetir said:

I saw your comment after posting my latest one and your comment changes everything then because my father would want to have an eyepiece where he'd be able to find the moon and take pictures and videos with it using his smart phone's camera. So if the 16m TS-Optics 82 degrees has a tight eye relief that would not allow my father to do that then he won't end up using that eyepiece. Could you safely say that with the 16mm TS-Optics eyepiece, he would not be able to record good videos with it like the video he recorded before on his cheap 25mm eyepiece? I'd assume that his little 25mm eyepiece also has bad eye relief but I wouldn't know.

Anyway, I guess then I'll end up buying the 17.5mm eyepiece you suggested:
https://www.teleskop-express.de/shop/product_info.php/info/p8086_Baader-Morpheus-17-5-mm-76--Wide-Field-Eyepiece---New-Generation.html

Even though it's on the expensive side but might as well get the best option while I can. I am assuming my father will have an easy time doing some photography and video recording with this on right?

On the subject of afocal projection with a smart phone, the exit pupil of the eyepiece has to be accessible by the lens of the camera.  Many times, it is not possible to get the camera lens in close enough to eyepieces with tight eye relief (those not usable by eyeglass wearers) to successfully couple the two together.  That stock 25mm eyepiece probably has about 18mm to 20mm of usable eye relief, so coupling it to the camera lens has not been an issue for your father.

The best straight replacement for that 25mm your father likes so much would probably be the 24mm Hyperion.  It should couple with a cell phone camera quite nicely and provide a wider field of view than the 25mm.  It isn't that great at f/5 or f/6 at the edge, but will probably be just fine at f/12 in that Mak.

The Morpheus is a forever eyepiece that your father will likely never outgrow, so it is a good choice from that perspective.  That, and it is difficult to tell the difference between 76 degrees and 82 degrees without doing side-by-side eyepiece swaps.  Both provide a very immersive view.

Discuss with your father what he thinks his needs are right now.  Does he desire a wider low power view (24mm Hyperion), an intermediate power (17mm/17.5mm), or something to complement the 10mm at the high power end of things (12mm probably)?

[erseavetir]

I think my father would enjoy more power with a wider view way better.

UPDATE:

These are my final thoughts:

For my father's 127 Mak, I am thinking about buying one of these two eyepieces:

$172 USD: 17.5mm Baader Morpheus 76° Wide-field Eyepieces
https://www.firstlightoptics.com/baader-planetarium/baader-morpheus-76-degree-wide-field-eyepieces.html

or

$190 USD: 24mm Explore Scientific 68° Series Eyepieces
https://www.firstlightoptics.com/explore-scientific-eyepieces/explore-scientific-68-degree-series-eyepieces.html

which is very similar to 24mm Hyperion but I guess a bit better.

As far as I understood, I feel like the 17.5mm would be a better option for my father and this is my reasoning:

While the 24mm 68-degree eyepiece gives out near True Field of View: 1.1° the 17.5mm with 76-degree eyepiece gives out True Field of View: 0.9° and that is quite good for the 25mm.

HOWEVER, my major consideration on picking the 17.5mm vs 24mm is that while 24mm gives out the 63x zoom, the 17.5 gives out 86x zoom and I believe that would be a different/better experience to have for my father.

Especially considering with his 25mm cheap small eyepiece that probably has 40 degree view, he is getting True Field of View: 0.7° but he is still having a lot of fun with that taking pictures and videos of the moon so I assume he'll have even more fun with 0.9 degree view, ESPECIALLY considering he'll now get to see the moon on 86x zoom vs 60x zoom he is currently getting. Also, my father is way more interested to look at moon's creators on more zoom as I mentioned before which is why with his phone he keeps trying to zoom to those creators but can't get good views currently starting from a stable cheap 25mm eyepiece, if he'd get even a wider view 24mm eyepiece now on basically the same zoom power, then I assume he'll have to even zoom more now and zooming on the phone decreases the sharpness of the view vs zooming on telescope (so I assume).

If I bought the 24mm 68 degree eyepiece, then he'd get a 63x zoom which wouldn't be much different from the 60x zoom so this is why I was thinking of buying the 17.5mm eyepiece over the 24mm. Would I be wrong in my thinking? Taking videos/pictures of the moon with his smartphone attached to OTA with his adopter is really important for my father so considering this, which of the eyepieces would you recommend the most for my father? 

[Ruud]

Morpheus 17.5mm 76° is an excellent eyepiece in all sorts of telescopes. Long eye relief makes it good for people who must wear glasses. I'm very happy with mine.

The 16mm 82 °Skywatcher Nirvana / William Optcs Uwan / TS Optics UWA are all clones of each other and amazingly good value. The TS costs €100 these days. See here. My best ever view of Jupiter was with the 16mm Nirvana, barlowed in a 1500mm telescope. Eye relief is comfortable, but probably too short for those who must wear glasses. I mention these ultra wides because they have about the same true field of view as the 17.5mm Morpheus above.

ES 68° 24mm is about as good as the Nirvana. Eye relief is again too short for glasses. I have an optical twin of this eyepiece. It's a nice eyepiece even in fast telescopes. Has a bit of pincushion distortion, but no more than the expensive TeleVue Panoptic 68°. 

Hyperion 24mm is not so good. Many say it's just an Erfle. That's an older design which is surpassed by many others. Of the Hyperion line this is the weakest performer, but frankly, the whole line has the reputation of being a bit soft.

I suppose your dad's 25mm is some sort of Plössl eyepiece?  I got one with a Celestron telescope that's not bad. It's about 50°. It gets little use. I prefer the 24mm 68°. 

---

For the Moon I prefer magnifications around 150x or, when the atmosphere permits, higher. I like wide views on the Moon so I use  82° and  76°  eyepieces for it. The Moon itself is half a degree wide, and at 150x it spans 75°.

---

I have a few short and medium focal length eyepieces.  For really high magnifications I combine them with a Barlow.

[Guest]

On 22/06/2018 at 20:45, LukeSkywatcher said:

Here's my new scope (Bresser ar 102 xs) on AZ5 tripod/mount.

Nice setup. I like the mount. 

[erseavetir]

I've decided to buy two different ranged eyepieces and currently I am thinking of buying the 24mm Explore Scientific, as well as the 14mm Explore Scientific. I'll make my final desition on Monday and if the comments don't change my mind, I'll end up buying these two on Monday.

The reason I've (currently) decided to buy 24mm Explore Scientific vs the 17.5mm 76° eyepiece is because both of these eyepieces would give out similar views due to the wide view degree difference and buying both 24mm and 14mm would be better than buying both 17.5mm and 14mm since the 24mm and 14mm would have much more difference between them so my father would end up using both of them. And, the 14mm one has a 15.6mm eye relief which seems quite enough for my father to even potentially use his phone on it. Also, most people seem to be in agreement that the Explore Scientific eyepieces are amazing and my father could always use his 2x Barlow lens on the 24mm eyepiece to experiment with more zooms on the moon as well. In short, I think buying these two eyepieces will serve my father better at the end and since I have the money for it at the moment, I may as well buy two eyepieces for him and let him play with both.

[Ricochet]

Does your father view through the eyepiece with his eyes or does he just hold the phone up to the eyepiece? If it is just the later some sort of camera/monitor set up may be better. Also, what sort of adaptor is being used to hold the phone? If the eyepiece is too wide for the adaptor to fit over it it may not even be an option. 

[erseavetir]

On 18/08/2018 at 11:48, Ricochet said:

Does your father view through the eyepiece with his eyes or does he just hold the phone up to the eyepiece? If it is just the later some sort of camera/monitor set up may be better. Also, what sort of adaptor is being used to hold the phone? If the eyepiece is too wide for the adaptor to fit over it it may not even be an option. 

He does both. He uses his eyes as well as his adaptor which is this one:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Gosky-Universal-Cell-Phone-Adapter-Mount-Compatible-with-Binocular-Monocular/282393559051

Not sure if this would fit to the ES 24mm. If it doesn't fit then I could look into other adaptor options I guess.

[erseavetir]

UPDATE:

On the other forum, the user Freezout suggested me this website which didn't require me to install and learn a software to see the view of the moon with a specific telescope and eyepiece:
https://astronomy.tools/calculators/field_of_view/

And wow was this site amazing, put everything to better perspective for me. After seeing the views on this site, I think just buying the 17.5mm will be enough for him, especially considering the view he gets on his cheap 25mm 40-degree eyepiece on 60x zoom right now. He will have a way easier time finding the moon with the 17.5mm and I am sure he'll be amazed at the view he'll get. I don't think that he would enjoy the view that ES 25mm offers after seeing the view myself on that website. I think he'd find that moon is too far away with that 25mm but maybe in the future, after playing around with 17.5mm, I'll send him the view of the moon from that site with 25mm and see if he'd like to have that eyepiece as well. The view that ES 14mm offered was really close to the one 17.5mm offered and considering the quality of 17.5mm and sine the 14mm one was £137 vs 17.5mm £149, I thought the price difference wasn't much so I went with the 17.5mm one. Also I was afraid that on 14mm with the more zoom (due to the atmosphere of earth/moon, light pollution in Istanbul etc.) he might get more blurry/less sharp views so 17.5mm will probably work perfectly for him. We'll see in about 1-2 weeks I guess, I'll update you guys how he found the 17.5mm once he gets it. With paper works it might take 2 weeks, I'll edit this post with a tracking number later on.

Edit: The tracking link: http://www.dhl.com/cgi-bin/tracking.pl?AWB=2012062216

Thank you all for your suggestions!

[Cosmic Geoff]

19 hours ago, erseavetir said:

his cheap 25mm 40-degree eyepiece

I have a 127mm Mak and also the starter 25mm eyepiece that came with it, also the 25mm starter eyepiece from a Sky-watcher. The field of view is more like 50 deg than 40 deg, so while a more expensive eyepiece would no doubt be an improvement overall, the improvement in FOV may be less than you are expecting.  I put my money into replacing the not-very-good 9mm eyepiece that came with the scope, so that I could attain the Mak's ultimate resolving power.  (The Sky-watcher 10mm starter eyepiece is not much good either).

I can confirm that one can take useful lunar and planetary images with a 127mm Mak and a ASI120MC camera, but the process is not as easy as holding a smartphone to the eyepiece and taking a snap. ?

[erseavetir]

Quote

I put my money into replacing the not-very-good 9mm eyepiece that came with the scope, so that I could attain the Mak's ultimate resolving power.

I was thinking of buying this 1.5x to 2x Barlow for my father to use the 1.5x portion of that Barlow with his 17.5mm eyepiece to test out near 12mm eyepiece views:
https://www.teleskop-express.de/shop/product_info.php/info/p53_TS-Optics-Optics-TSB21-1-5x-and-2x-achromatic-Barlow-Lens---1-25-inch---fully-multicoated.html

I am not sure if the 1.5x Barlow portion of it will work with the 17.5mm eyepiece. In the description of it, it says this:

Quote

♦ Double magnification with eyepiece inserted into Barlow lens

♦ 1.5x magnification with Barlow element screwed into eyepiece

2

Also, I was thinking of buying this diagonal to replace the one that came with the OTA or our "Celestron 90° Star Diagonal (1.25")" that we had:
https://www.teleskop-express.de/shop/product_info.php/info/p604_T2-diagonal-prism-90----T2---1-25--connection-on-both-sides.html

And for the final piece of the puzzle, I was thinking of buying this helical focuser:
https://www.teleskop-express.de/shop/product_info.php/language/en/info/p1751_Baader-Focusing-Eyepiece-Holder-and-Adapter-from-T2-to-1-25-.html

Then hopefully I'll be done with the additional equipments xD What do you guys think?