Minimalist Eyepiece Set

[Andy1978]

Hi

I own the ES 82 30mm, which I find is very good performance for the price, and want to want to extend my set partly with the proceeds of selling my full set BST Starguider eyepieces on Astrosell  (I am too new to sell them on here yet).

My question is which small set of ES 82 eyepieces should I buy to cover a general (observing) range in my 200P, I can't  go mad and buy all of them so I am thinking the 18mm, 11mm and 8.8mm.   I won't be buying them all straight away as I am also trying to buy a ZenithStar 71 to get into imaging with my DLSR. 

So 8.8mm first followed by the 18mm and lastly the 11mm?

Andy

[LukeSkywatcher]

I think the only 3 EP's anyone needs (in any brand) is an 8,15 and 30-32mm (high,medium and low).

[cletrac1922]

Andy

I use 17mm wide-angle and 15mm wide-angle when out with club doing presentation with schools and scouts groups, as gives better eye relief on my 10" dob

Currently looking at a Baader   8 - 24mm zoom eyepiece, which gives a better eye relief

Find my 10mm, which came with my dob, has a lot smaller eye relief

Hope have not confused you

Lot of people think smaller is better, not always the situation

John

 

[rockystar]

My most used EP (in my 8" dob) is a 14mm, so I'd steer you towards a similar length, then get the 8.8 and see if you still feel the need for the 18.

[John]

How about the 18 and the 11 (or the 14) and the ES 2x Focal Extender to give you 9 and 5.5mm (or 7mm) as well ?

The Focal Extenders are a good way to maintain a decent range of magnifications with a mininal set in the eyepiece case.

 

[NGC 1502]

 

Hi Andy.

Your ES 30mm is a great foundation EP for finding objects and observing larger ones. For me however I think the 8.8mm wouldn’t give a high enough magnification, I think ES make a 6.7mm ?  I’d go for that. So thats low and high power sorted.

For medium power something to give 80 to 120x would give a great low - medium - high power minimalist set.  One in the focuser the other two capped and in a pocket, nice and simple !   You’ll probably get different advice from others, so don’t take what I’ve said as your only option......

If you also have two  2” to 1.25” adapters, you could leave those semi-permanently on the medium and high power eyepieces, saves fiddling with adapters when changing eyepieces. Little things like that really help during an observing session.

Ed.

 

[Ricochet]

In my 8" dob I use 10mm, 14mm and a telextender plus a 28mm. 

[bish]

13 hours ago, LukeSkywatcher said:

I think the only 3 EP's anyone needs (in any brand) is an 8,15 and 30-32mm (high,medium and low).

I think you have a point there.  I could get by with those. I would only feel I was missing out on the nights of exceptional seeing when looking at the planets. Of course in reality I have bought twice as many and just want more!  For a few years I only used a 24mm ES, 11m nag and 8mm   Radian. 

[Moonshane]

I don't think you can specify eyepiece focal lengths generally as being 'the best' as it it totally depends on the focal length of the scope (and the observing preferences of the observer). Assuming a view everything with the bare minimum approach I'd suggest a widest eyepiece giving a maximum 6mm exit pupil, a 'maximum' magnification eyepiece (1 x diameter of objective in mm), and one in the middle if this is even appropriate - with some short scopes this will not be the case.

So for you, this equates to something about 30-35mm but you have the 30mm so that's covered. 

Something about 6mm to give 200x so of that range I'd suggest the 6.7mm at 179x

and something in the middle - I'd suggest the 14mm at 85x

Ironically, this is broadly what Paul said above but had you been asking the same question using a Mak or a 120mm f5 Frac, the focal lengths of my recommended eyepieces would have been a lot different.

 

 

[Andy1978]

Thank you all for your posts.

I think I will go for the 14mm and 8.8mm, as we all know the skies are not great in the UK so i'll likely add in the 6.7mm in the future just for the odd clear nights.

I look forward to using these at the upcoming star party, clouds permitting of course.

Andy

[John]

Thats good progress towards a fuller set but I think you will find that you want higher power eyepieces in due course Andy. The 200P dob is hardly breaking sweat at 136x. The one that I owned happilly supported 180x - 200x on most nights and 250x on good nights.

Appreciate that you need to build these things up gradually though

 

[JOC]

If you've already got a full set of BST starguider EP's (a range that always comes highly recommended on SGL) I think I'd be keeping those to use in a 200P - at least you would then still have the full range of sizes available rather than just limiting yourself to 2 or 3.  What's wrong with the BST's - I've got the odd one and they do seem a fine EP.

[Charic]

Which BST's did you favour before you sold them? I would  probably opt for something the same size in the newer 82° range.
The images you'll see with the  newer 82°  EP's  will probably look just the same,  just a little more field around the target.
I found this to be true with the Delos range,  and decided not to continue with purchasing the full set.

Based on the scopes focal ratio of f/6,  a 6mm and/or a 12mm (which could Barlowed to provide 200x) for your high power, but the 12mm would get more use (does on my scope!)  and for  your wide field,  something close too 6 times your entry pupil?