Best eyepiece for meade etx90ec

[Dantheman420]

Hey guys I just recently came across a Meade ETX-90ec at salvation army for 20 dollars and grabbed it as soon as I cracked the hard case open, it came with the controller and an eyepiece no manual. I remembered my old telescope from when I was a kid and thought it would be fun to look at things with my kids and my niece and nephews and then realized I don't know what I'm doing and would really appreciate some help. It came with a Meade super plössl 26mm LP multi-coated, works awesome for the moon but i would like to look at some planets and other stuff and don't know anything about eyepieces, the battery cover has this info D=90mm; F=1250mm f/13.8, if anyone could help I would greatly appreciate it. Ready to learn so school me. Lol

[SIDO]

Welcome to SGL, Congratulations on the telescope, nice price indeed...

Those scopes typically came new with two eyepieces the 26mm Meade super plossl you mentioned and a Meade 9.7mm super plossl that is just an awesome eyepiece in that telescope as per my personal experience and has been written about positively in many forums and blogs across the globe. A 32mm Meade super plossl will give you the widest field of view attainable in the Etx90 and the 9.7mm I referred to will be your planetary and higher magnification eyepiece, your scope is capable of a little more magnification than the 9.7mm will provide but not much more I wouldent buy anything shorter in focal length than an 8mm  eyepiece for this scope.

These two eye pieces can be bought cheaply but are very good in the Etx90 and would give you a decent set to get started.

                Best of Luck ?

                       Freddie...

[Chris]

Good advice above, I agree with adding an eyepiece of around 9mm, but would avoid Plossls below 12mm because the eye relief with Plossls scales with focal length, so the eye relief becomes a bit short and uncomfortable below about 12mm in my opinion. 

eye relief is how far you can hold your eye away from the eyelens and still see the field of view. Too short and you have to jam your eye right in there so you eyelashes are touching the glass. 

Considering you bought the scope for 20 dollars (congrats on the bargain by the way), I'm assuming you would be looking for something towards the cheap end. maybe something like these:

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/skywatcher-eyepieces/skywatcher-uwa-planetary-eyepieces.html

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/explore-scientific-eyepieces/explore-scientific-52-ler-series-eyepieces.html

I'm sure the above equivalent are available from your local online retailer. 

 

If you don't mind short eye relief you can opt for a 10mm Plossl for about 20-30 dollars. 

 

 

 

 

[SIDO]

https://agenaastro.com/meade-series-4000-9-7mm-super-plossl-eyepiece.html

https://agenaastro.com/meade-series-4000-32mm-super-plossl-eyepiece.html

The reason Meade provides a 9,7mm with this telescope is becouse the Meade 9,7mm is at top end of the Etx90's abilities for magnification during average seeing with an 8mm you would be hard pressed to use such short focal lenth eyepiece a few times a year as the seeing rarely allows its use I know this becouse I own an Etx90. Also superplossls and plossls are not the same as superplossls are superior to plossls by design so the Meade superplossls will out perform other plossls in their price range.

On the subject of exit pupil, the 9.7mm Meade 4000 superplossl will produce an exit pupil of 0.7mm In the Etx90 with an eye relief of 5mm more than enough for individuals not utilizing perscription eyeglasses.

If you do buy an 8mm eyepiece for an Etx90 it will be your least used eyepiece.

Sounds like you are in the U.S. so Agena Astro would be the likely supplier and carry a plethora of eye pieces and telescope equipment, I have been using them for years and their just an awesome online store.

A picture of my Etx90 or my current Etx90 I should say as this is my second the first was the ec model like yours. Again best of Luck...

                           Freddie...

                       

[Dantheman420]

Thanks for the information so much guys, I appreciate your time to help me out. I plan on paying a little more for quality and performance and durability, I like to do a quick walk through of salvation army and see if there is anything nice in decent shape, every now and then I get lucky. That's a nice setup Freddie, probably next month I'm going to buy a couple new eye pieces and a tripod for mine and have some fun with the family. Thanks again for the help!!!

                       Dan