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Eyepiece for Skywatcher 130P flextube


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Hi, does anybody knows what is the maximum eyepiece weight on a 130mm heritagage flexitube? I would like to invest on a better and with broader view eyepiece than the original 10mm lens, and i wonder if a Morpheus or something like that is ok or to heavy for the flexitube...?

thanks a lot!

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1 hour ago, papacroods said:

Hi, does anybody knows what is the maximum eyepiece weight on a 130mm heritagage flexitube? I would like to invest on a better and with broader view eyepiece than the original 10mm lens, and i wonder if a Morpheus or something like that is ok or to heavy for the flexitube...?

thanks a lot!

Hi ?

When you say "a broader view" than the original 10mm, do you want to replace that focal-length/magnification in particularly, or want a wider field of view in general?

Do you have any eyepieces other than the 10mm (65x magnification) and 25mm (26x magnification)?

What is your budget? 

 

The Morpheus eyepeices are rather expensive. IMHO you could get a bunch of decent eyepieces for the Heritage.

A 32mm Plössl for an overview; http://blog.pixelgiraffe.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/fieldcompare.jpg

And a ~4mm with long eye-relief for Planets. 

http://blog.pixelgiraffe.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/130-650-high_3.png

http://blog.pixelgiraffe.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/awb_Heritage_Magnifications_small.png

http://blog.pixelgiraffe.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/AFOV_.png

A 32mm Plössl, a 15mm gold-line (66°), 9mm gold-line, 6mm gold-line, 4mm HR Planetary (only 58° but good performers) would be my recommendation, when ordered via Aliexpress or eBay, those total for around $120 or less, and thus cheaper as a single Morpheus eyepiece ?

Clear skies!

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Hi, thanks a lot for your fast answer! Very helpful! Yes indeed I also have the 25mm eyepiece, a 2 time achro barlow lens from Omegon plus a 40mm super possl from Meade serie 4000, that a collegue of mine gave me recently.

I get that flexible heritage last year.

For the time beeing, i observes with my children the moon and try also saturn. The moon is fine and quite well defined even with the 10mm lens, with or without the barlow. But since the summer we tried to do more observation on planets, and this is where we came into troubles...the 10mm lens has a to small field of view for us, the time that I fix a planet, saturn for exemple,  with the 25mm eyeview, then go on the 10mm, and we only have i would say 1minute before it's gone...and with my two boys it is really hard to make observations...

Therefore i was looking on...i would say my dream would be a zoom with a large, very large field of view, something like 70° or more....but probably to heavy and very expensive...

If i only purchase a 4mm, you mentioned the 4mm HR planetary with 58°, would you have another model with some more field? if more expensive, I would then focus on this one and not buy the whole pieces. But then i may also come on a probleme if it is to heavy for this flexible tube?

thanks again:)

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All zooms suck in that regard, as they have a narrower apparent field of view on one side of the setting.

There's the Astrozoom, but it's not as wide-range, and only for 2" focusers. I tried using it in the Heritage, but it's not worth it.

At higher magnifications, things will get out of the view faster. With a 3-4mm for example, it's quite fast, but you get used to it.
With the 66° gold-line, setting the planet into the left corner, and letting it travel across, works quite well.

There are some 82° eyepieces, but I do not have any of these, and can't tell you how well they fare in the Heritage/Onesky, weight-wise.

What confuses me is that you're having such a hard time at only 10mm/65x to keep the planets in the view. Perhaps it's not so much the eyepiece's apparent field of view, but the rather short eye-relief that makes it difficult keeping things in the view?  Are you wearing glasses?

The field transit time should still be over a minute in each scenario:

Field transit,
At 0° declination,  at 22° declination

 - 10mm50° 185 seconds, 161

 - 10mm82° 303 seconds, 264

 - 4mm58° 85 seconds,  75

 - 4mm82° 121 seconds, 105

(A barlow of course will decrease that)

 

 

Other thought:

As you are considering spending so much money for a large field of view eyepiece, do note that while 70° vs 50° makes a difference, you might be better off investing in either an equatorial mount (e.g. used NEQ3/EQ-3-2) -
Or if you don't want to negate the portability, building some sort of EQ Platform (a barndoor-type tracker might still work with the 5") in order to more easily keep the planets in the view. Commercial EQ Platforms cost too much compared to other solutions for 5".

What country are you from?

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Having the same telescope I think 4mm is pushing it as the sky conditions I don't find are always good enough for my 6mm. My most used eyepiece is 16mm (not that I have many eyepieces) so if I was looking again from scratch I think I'd look for a nice 12 or 14mm as you could add the barlow when sky conditions allow.

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3 minutes ago, happy-kat said:

Having the same telescope I think 4mm is pushing it as the sky conditions I don't find are always good enough for my 6mm. My most used eyepiece is 16mm (not that I have many eyepieces) so if I was looking again from scratch I think I'd look for a nice 12 or 14mm as you could add the barlow when sky conditions allow.

What 4mm eyepiece do you have?

I use the shorter eyepiece a lot for planets. I find seeing conditions work at 150-180x most of the time. Unless I'm observing directly over a roof-top or the mirror hasn't cooled down.

A (budget) barlow will always reduce the contrast a little.

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It's a 6mm and I've found I can't use it every time and have to swap to something less magnified, so compared to other eyepieces it is used less. I prefer a smaller clearer view then a larger soft image which over magnification can bring.

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Yes, but what type of eyepieces?

E:g. I've bought a 4mm Plössl when I started out, and it's nearly useless due to the horrible eye-relief. Even if the conditions allow, it's difficult to observe. The HR Planetary of similar focal-length is usable almost every night for planets and double stars.

Only above 200x I find seeing really becomes a major issue (But with >200x with the larger telescopes of course).

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If the focuser can handle the weight I'm sure the Morpheus range would work really well. 

I wouldn't recommend the 15mm gold line suggested above. I was given one with a second hand scope and it remains the worst eyepiece I've looked through. 

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Hi, Marcus I am from France. i don't wear glasses, thanks your calculation how much time we have to see the planet dependant from the field is amazing!! I am a beginner, i hope i will undertsand and be able to do it later one.

OK so no zoom eyepiece.  Yes pproblem is we are 3 around the telescope, myself plus my two boys, so time is going one very rapidly to not loose the planet form the fiels to fast....Yesterday evening i get quite nervous.....found saturn on the 25mm, thought i get it also with the 10mm + barlow, let the place to my first son and nothing more to see....and i am not so experienced, once i losed it, i need to go back to the 25mm eyepiece and so one....

I bought that telescope last year so the idea was this year to purchase a better eyepiece, that i could alos use laterone with another telescope?

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Next time the Moon is around why not see if using the 25mm your son's might try learning how to nudge the telescope to keep the Moon in the field of view.

1.25" eyepieces can be used in other telescopes it is a common size. The heritage is what is known as a fast telescope as it is f5 so if an eyepiece gives a good view in it then it will in another. Fast telescopes are quick to show weaknesses in poor eyepieces.

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2 hours ago, papacroods said:

Hi, Marcus I am from France. i don't wear glasses, thanks your calculation how much time we have to see the planet dependant from the field is amazing!! I am a beginner, i hope i will undertsand and be able to do it later one.

OK so no zoom eyepiece.  Yes pproblem is we are 3 around the telescope, myself plus my two boys, so time is going one very rapidly to not loose the planet form the fiels to fast....Yesterday evening i get quite nervous.....found saturn on the 25mm, thought i get it also with the 10mm + barlow, let the place to my first son and nothing more to see....and i am not so experienced, once i losed it, i need to go back to the 25mm eyepiece and so one....

I bought that telescope last year so the idea was this year to purchase a better eyepiece, that i could alos use laterone with another telescope?

As happy-kat wrote, practice "nudging" the telescope to track the objects. It's a bit finicky at first, but you should get the hang of it quickly. Also, with a well aligned finder, you should be able to point&scan even at medium-high magnifications. 

And then... teach them! ? I had a 9-10 year old at an outreach event, which quickly became self-declared telescope operator, to show others Jupiter at up to 400x... We had exceptional seeing that night. And of course I did not bring my tracking platform, as I had not expected this.

 

I am not sure if it would help much if you'd increase transit time by getting a 82° eyepiece, say,  increase transit time from one and a half minutes to two minutes, (e.g. 10mm+barlow), if you already struggle with the relatively long transit times in the 10mm without barlow.

TL;DR: Either practice, or use a EQ/tracking mount/platform.

If you're lucky you might find an EQ2 or Astro3 in the classifieds for under €50. They are not ideal for the Heritage... But at that price, and without extended legs, they might do OK (especially since you're observing at moderate magnifications). With an EQ mount, you just turn one axis to follow the planets. The NEQ3 mount that's more rigid costs €200 though.

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With the 130p I find the easist way is to put your hand flat on the base and just ease it gently round once you get the hang of the technique it’s much easier. But IMHO a tracking mount would solve all your problems and cost less than some of the eyepieces you are describing. Even an EQ mount with a tracking RA motor fitted would make life much easier and solve a lot of your issues!

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My 130P Flextube is, at the moment, my most used grab-and-go scope, and is equipped with just three eyepieces/barlow, that fulfill all my needs:

Explore Scientific 26 mmf/62° LER eyepiece, giving a true field of view of 2.5°; the same as  with a 32 mmf  Plössl or the praised ES 24mmf/68°. Weighs and costs less than the latter. Good optical quality, no kidney beaning, "calm" view

Seben 8-24 mm Zoom

Baader 2,25x Barlow (a shorty one)

With these, mags from 25x to 183x are covered. Not too expensive, lightweight and easy to handle with the Heritage.

Hth.

Stephan

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hi, thanks Stephan! Do you have any tip to purchase this seben zoom ? It seems to me it is not sold anymore,  i was not able to find it on amazon, nor ebay...only the omegon one which is twice the price,

 

thanks!

 

patrick

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Seben doesn't sell via their website anymore, but Amazon and eBay. Their brand is "Orbinar". Most stuff is crap, but some of their eyepieces, like the zoom, is OK. (Edit: They have different ones, the cheap €20 one is not good, I have that one too).

I have the Teleskop Express Zoom (similar, but 7-21mm).

Beware: 

 - A turning zoom eyepiece in the rotating/helical focuser can be pretty awkward

 - These zooms have 40-60° apparent field of view. The lower magnification only 40°, making them poor overview eyepieces. 60° is still not as large as you were looking for ?

I rarely ever use the Astrozoom, only in my daytime spotting scope. The dedicated eyepieces perform better- IMHO.

 

For the money of the zoom and a good (!) barlow, you can get some nice wide-angle eyepieces. Or follow the mount idea if you find it necessary.

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Maybe a second hand az5 goto mount may be beneficial? Could probably pick one up for same  price or less than a morpheous eyepiece. I think sharing the telescope between 3 people then automatic tracking has to be a good thought?

A nice step up in eyepieces would be the bst range, they are a joy to use.

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On ‎18‎/‎08‎/‎2018 at 09:47, papacroods said:

Hi, does anybody knows what is the maximum eyepiece weight on a 130mm heritagage flexitube?

The helical focuser will take most eyepieces and with a short-tube x2 Barlow. If the moving part is too slack, it can be stiffened by using some plumbers white PTFE tape wrapped round the threads. To get the best control of the altitude axis, it is important that the dovetail plate is in the correct position in the clamp - with the clutch released, it should not move, and require the same force to move it up and down.

You do not say in which part of France you are located, but a week ago (14th), I was viewing Jupiter and Saturn from just north of Bordeaux, at 45 Deg. North. I was using my 127mm Maksutov-Cassegrain on the Skymax tripod mount with Synscan GoTo. This has about the same aperture as the Heritage 130, but about double the focal length. My home location, near Bristol, is at about 51.5 Deg. North, and both planets are lower in the sky. From Bordeaux I was able to use a higher magnification before the seeing conditions reduced contrast (180x in Bordeaux / 120x in Bristol). As mentioned in the earlier replies, it is difficult with a manual mount, to keep a target in the field of view at the higher magnifications.

On ‎18‎/‎08‎/‎2018 at 17:14, papacroods said:

OK so no zoom eyepiece.

A zoom eyepiece will help get the best magnification/contrast compromise, and is also useful if many people are using the telescope. You select the target at lower magnification, hand over to the next person, and they can increase the magnification whilst nudging the mount to keep the target in view. I have found the Celestron 8-24mm zoom to be a good price/performance eyepiece.

Geoff

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