Help me spend £300 on eyepieces

[Kai]

Ive just ordered a 12 inch Flextube from FLO 8)

Now to say that my eyepiece collection is lacking is a understatement as i tend to Image.

The only quality eyepiece i own is a 9mm Baader Ortho.

Given my budget what eyepieces would you recomend to cover DSO to Planetery ?????

Cheers

[russ]

16mm UWAN as the workhorse.

30mm Aero for DSO

8mm Hyperion for higher power with a nice FOV.

I think that's roughly £300. I have two of those in the list. The 16mm UWAN is a gem and i actually prefer it to the Nagler 16mm. I haven't used the Aero yet (it only arrived today ). But it promises to be good for the money. And if rumours are right, it's a re-housed TMB Paragon.

[John]

The UWAN's are very good - and can be found for quite a bit less than Naglers - you will also really enjoy 82 degrees FoV - it really helps keep things in the field of view for longer with dobs. I went the other way from Russ and swapped to a 16mm T5 Nagler but there is little or nothing in it - I'm just a Nagler-nut

For high power I found that the Planetary HR eyepieces worked very well in my 8" F/6 dob and still had a 60 degree FoV.

If you can get the above 2 for £150 (used) you might even have enough left for a UWAN 28mm for the low power / wide field stuff - lovely !

John

[vlebo]

When I ordered my Flextube 12" I had some cash left over so Steve at FLO recommended the Pentax 30mm XW as a good widefield low power eyepiece as I already had the Meade 4000 super plossi eyepiece set. All I can say is this eyepiece is definately a keeper as it gives some fantastic deep sky and planetary views and you definately get that spacewalk feel from this eyepiece.

I think FLO have it at £367 which is a bit over your budget but I would highly recommend going the extra as I also get great views when I use it in my Equinox 120. A very practical and well used piece of kit.

Vlebo

[Jamie]

Steve there is a nearly new 13mm Ethos on sale on astro buy n sell for round about your price range. http://www.astrobuysell.com/uk/propview.php?view=22535

I have one i use with my 12" FlexTube and what wonderfully astounding views i get with it.

[Kai]

As much as i would love a Ethos or a Pentax , im afraid i need a range of eyepieces.

I suppose thinking about it the sizes Rus suggests makes sense (I also have a x2 Apo Barlow)

How do Hyperions match up ???

[barkis]

You could buy a quality Zoom EP Steve. It might cover a few areas of observing, and leave a few quid for summat else.

Ron.

[Helen]

16mm UWAN as the workhorse.

30mm Aero for DSO

8mm Hyperion for higher power with a nice FOV.

I think that's roughly £300. I have two of those in the list. The 16mm UWAN is a gem and i actually prefer it to the Nagler 16mm. I haven't used the Aero yet (it only arrived today ). But it promises to be good for the money. And if rumours are right, it's a re-housed TMB Paragon.

I see you too are a 16mm UWAN convert Russ great eyepiece, certainly my most used. I've just got the 28 too, but not had a chance to really use it yet . But I'd certainly recommend the 16mm Steve

Helen

[Kai]

What are peoples thoughts on these ???

http://www.firstlightoptics.com/proddetail.php?prod=ms5000spset&cat=81

[russ]

Helen, i'm definitely the UWAN convert now. Added the 7mm to my collection too.

Had the chance for the 7, 16 and 28 for £300 but declined the 28 as it seemed like too much money. Wish i hadn't now.

[GazOC]

Are those UNWANs OK even at f5?

[MartinB]

Steve, with my 12" Skyliner I mainly use a 27mm Panoptic, a 17mm T4 Nagler and a 10mm Pentax XW. Strangely, of the 3 I probably use the Nagler the least, not because there's anything wrong with it but for many targets I've found swapping between the Pan and the Pentax works really well.

The point is, I don't think you actually need that many EPs, it just tends to make you keep chopping and changing. You just spend all your time comparing the views rather than just looking at the blummin target.

Consider a Baader multipurpose coma corrector (MPCC). I thought I was ok at ignoring coma but this bit of kit transformed my enjoyment of the scope. My Moonfish 30mm UWA gives great views out towards the edge of the field with the MPCC but is pretty messy without it. OK, not quite Televue standard but much, much closer than you would imagine. For the shorter focal length stuff think about a second hand Pentax XL. I bought a 7mm for around £100 and it is a gem. That is as far as I go, magnification wise, with the dob. I've put in a 5mm ortho but that really is no fun at all! At higher powers wider field EPs are a real boon with a dob.

[russ]

Gaz, the UWAN's are superb. Offer near Nagler performance in terms of correction for abberations but without sacrificing the eye relief. There's quite a well known review by Tom Trusock who compared the 16mm UWAN to the 16mm T5 Nagler. Decided to get started on doing the review and then realised he had lost the review sample UWAN. Looked everywhere but all he could find was a second T5 Nagler which he never realised he owned. It then dawned on him he had be using the UWAN all evening without realising it. The performance was so close he couldn't tell them apart.

I agree with Martin, less is better with eyepiece collections. I have 4 eyepieces, although i only use 3 with the dob. Mine more or less mirror Martin's choice -

7mm UWAN, 16mm UWAN and 30mm Aero. The UWAN's are bargain secondhand, I bought two for £160.

Also highly recommend anything Pentax. Possibly one of my best eyepieces was the 14mm XL.

I've heard mixed views on the Meade 5K, when used with scopes at f5 or faster.

[THE-BIG-MAN-SAYS]

Wy not take a look at my SALE ADVERT...

Selling up some of my 1.25" Meade ones...

I use 2" now...

The-Big-Man-Says

[Kai]

Well just to close this thread.

After a few pm's to forum members and listening to their advice i will bide my time and order a 30mm and 10mm Pentax XW and see how i get on with these.

Thanks to everybody that contributed to this thread