Eyepiece upgrade for a 130p

[Captain Scarlet]

Hi all,

A colleague of mine has a f/5 SW 130p and still uses the original eyepieces. He knows it's a fine telescope, but he wants to upgrade the eyepieces. He asked me for advice.

I told him it very much depends on his budget: £900 per eyepiece gets him TV Ethos, £250-300 gets him TV Delos or Delite, £100 gets him [  Baader Hyperion?  ], £40-50 gets him BST Starguider. I'm not that experienced and went straight for TV Panoptic/Delite/Delos so I can't really help him.

He said he'd be looking for perhaps 3 eyepieces, in the £100 per eyepiece range. What's best at that price point? He does not wear glasses to observe.

Advice gratefully received...

Thanks, Magnus

[Ricochet]

Which 130p? If it is one with a 1.25" only focuser then I would start over budget with a 24mm ES68 to max out the field of view. The shorter lengths he can save a bit on by going with Starguiders, BCOs or SLVs while FLO have them on offer. 

[joe aguiar]

The way I do it may be different than most but this is how I do it u may choose any way u like

I base it on the telescope price so for a 130mm reflector that's like a $200price point, I would only buy plossls/ super plossls  maybe bst or something like Meade HD 60 fov 5000 eps.

If I was gonna think about spending on anything more expensive eps like badder, delites, delos, naglars or ethos I would uprgrade  my scope to a larger more expensive scope first.

I kinda match the scope to the eps

To me atleast I think to have best views I dont put $900 eps on $200 scope or I dont put $30 eps on a $3000 scope. As both the eps and scope both needs to be equal.

Again this is how I see it it may not be how u like which is fine too.

Joejaguar 

Edited February 20, 2020 by joe aguiar

[Captain Scarlet]

On 20/02/2020 at 21:28, joe aguiar said:

The way I do it may be different than most but this is how I do it u may choose any way u like

I base it on the telescope price so for a 130mm reflector that's like a $200price point, I would only buy plossls/ super plossls  maybe bst or something like Meade HD 60 fov 5000 eps.

Joejaguar 

Joe thanks - in general in life I agree with you, matching components on any system, be it hifi, bicycle, new kitchen or whatever, you get what you pay for and it makes sense to balance the "what you pay" accordingly. But in astronomy equipment, I do find this rule gets broken a bit. With something like the 130p you seem to get, for the mirror at least, much more than you pay for, but for the accessories, less. So I do think it justified to up the spend a little on the eyepieces for such a mirror, because the OEM ones are so poor, but obviously not to the level of Delos etc. So your suggestions of Meade HD 60 or BST are about right.

Any othres in that category that stand out? Vixen? APM? ES?

Cheers, Magnus

[Louis D]

The Vixen SLVs are being closed out by FLO for a good price.  They view very similarly to the Pentax XL/XW, just much narrower.

[John]

13 minutes ago, Louis D said:

The Vixen SLVs are being closed out by FLO for a good price.  They view very similarly to the Pentax XL/XW, just much narrower.

Good advice from Louis. For a £100 per eyepiece max budget the Vixen SLV's are very good. Spending 3x more will get a wider field of view but not better optical performance.

If you get an eyepiece set of excellent quality now, it will last you for years and years and serve well in future scopes you might own

 

 

[fiestazetecmk2]

Hi.I cannot comment on your scope.but I can say that I own BST eyepieces and I'm very pleased with them.

Good upgrade from the std eyepieces that come with every new scope.

I have no intention of getting anything better.

It's just my opinion. 

Good luck with whatever you choose.

[Captain Scarlet]

Thank you all ... just the advice I was asking for, ES68/24mm + Vixen SLVs upwards is what I’ll recommend

M