Eyepiece advice for widescreen viewing!

[Timdog]

Hi. I have recently upgraded the eyepieces for heritage 130 from the standard 25 and 10 that came with it. I have bst starguiders in 5 12 and 18mm. To my yet inexperienced eye the 25mm isn’t bad but I would like to get the optimum eyepiece for a wider view, I would like the experience of panning across the sky with the broadest view, feels so immersive just seeing what comes into view. M29 by pure chance on my second session. Do you remember your first? I don’t mind admitting it just felt great.

Having tried to research the subject and work it out I thought I’d take the shortcut and ask any heritage 130 owners if they have found best balance between field of view/ eyepiece size. EG 40 mm Meade plossl or a wider field of view. I’d like to keep it below around £60.

Hope my question males sense and thanks for any replies

[Ricochet]

A 40mm Plossl will have a very restricted AFoV and an exit pupil that is too big. The next option is a 32mm Plossl, which has a nicer AFoV and a 6.4mm exit pupil, which will be fine under dark skies but probably washed out in urban conditions. The option I would look at is a 24mm 68° eyepiece. If you are prepared to play a waiting game, you should be able to find one (or the old version sold under Maxvision/Meade SWA brands) second hand, but you will still need to increase your budget. 

[jonathan]

Caveat: I don't own a Heritage 130, but I do own a Skywatcher 150.

I quite enjoy the 82 degree Explore Scientific 14mm eyepiece I have, you could look at that product line but they jump from 1.25" to 2" after the 14mm; for the Ultimate Widefield View nothing I've tried quite compares to the PanaView 38mm SWA 70 degree 2" eyepiece!  I'm sure there are better (more expensive) eyepieces out there, but this one is superb for wide starfield views.  It's a large, heavy eyepiece with a wide piece of glass to look at, however I'm not sure if it will fit your Heritage 130, perhaps there is a 1.25" similar eyepiece but I don't know of one.

I think whichever way you go, for the best widefield views you're probably going to be looking at a 2" eyepiece with a lot of glass / weight.  I'm not sure if a 2" -> 1.25" adapter is really the best way to go as you'll be losing a good portion of the eyepiece's capability, perhaps an OTA upgrade to one with a 2" focuser could be on the cards if widefield is really your bag?

Edited June 10, 2020 by jonathan

[Timdog]

Sounds like an excuse to buy additional larger telescope to me, the 130 is a keeper due to portability. Just want to get the best out of it. Thanks for replies, I will do some more looking and then get one. Or wait until I can get to a local meeting and maybe try some

[jonathan]

You could use Stellarium to virtually experiment with different eyepieces (you can manually enter your scope's stats and then add the same for individual eyepieces and also finders), and I'm sure there are online resources that will show you how various eyepiece and scope configurations will show certain star regions etc.

[Kyle Allen]

This website is good for showing the field of view of different scope and eyepiece combinations: http://astronomy.tools/calculators/field_of_view/

Your Heritage 130P has a 1.25” focuser so this will limit how wide a field you can see. A 32mm Plossl eyepiece shows about the maximum field of view in the 1.25” format - if you go any longer than this (a 40mm Plossl for example) the apparent field of view will reduce but you will still see the same area of sky. You can go the opposite way and have a shorter focal length eyepiece with a wider apparent field of view, but still maxing out your field of view. An eyepiece with a wider apparent field of view is likely to feel more immersive when panning star fields

[John]

A good, low cost, wide field eyepiece is the Maxvision 24mm. It has a 68 degree apparent field of view which means that it shows as much sky as a 1.25 inch eyepiece can and with enough magnification to keep the background sky reasonably dark.

There are other eyepieces with a similar spec and also good performance but the Maxvision is one that you might find within your budget. They are out of production now so you will need to find a used one but they are well corrected eyepieces for their price which is more than can be said of some of the low cost wide field eyepieces.

[rl]

+1 for the Maxvision 24mm. These were released a few years ago badge engineered after a major manufacturer cancelled an order, at knockdown prices. Every time I take it out I'm impressed, regardless of the scope,even at f/4.. It works a lot better than its original purchase price would suggest. 

[Timdog]

All very helpful and appreciated. You learn a lot just by asking  the question. Thanks