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Recommendations for Skymax 127


sputniksteve

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Hello you wonderful people! 

I'm already enjoying my Skymax 127 - purchased used last weekend - but am keen to get some decent eyepieces. Obviously, I'm mostly interested in planetary observation with this, and the guy at Rother Valley recommended the Sky-Watcher Planetary UWA which retail at £39. However, I see people here highly recommending the BST Starguiders which FLO has at £47. What are your thoughts about these? 

And I'm thinking of 6mm, 7mm, or 8mm. I shall also want to get a lower power one too at some point.  

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I thought your next line would be; welcome to what the math! 🙂
 

Cant tell whats the best eyepiece for a mak, but im planning to shop for a nice zoom ep.  I hope to finally get rid of most of my plössl’s.

Edited by Robindonne
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A 7mm will give you 214x mag. Under UK skies, a realistic magnification. I have the 6mm Skywatcher planetary ep which is used with a 150/750 newtonian. It's provided sharp views of Mars at 100x the last few nights. A good purchase, absolutely no complaints.

The 102 Mak and the NIRVANA-ES™ UWA-82° 7mm works really well, providing 185x mag. The 4mm/7mm/16mm Nirvanas replaced my comparable focal length BST eyepieces and the jump in price was worth it. Sharper, better contrast & wider views with less edge abberation.

 

Edited by ScouseSpaceCadet
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As a general thought: Max. possible magnification depends on seeing.
(As you may know) this will be (for a MAK127): 1500 / e.p. focal length)
All units in millimetres! Good to have a SET of "planetary" eyepieces...
As (one!) rule of thumb: 200x may be typical max. for UK skies/scopes?

Of a 5, 7, 8mm choice, I would suggest go for the "lower" (8mm) power
(already 20xx) FIRST and see how it works for YOU / your location etc.

For the lowest power re. MAK127s, a 32mm (50 deg!) Plossl type is a "safe
bet" re. the so-called "vignetting" of the scope. Or a 25mm 70 Deg e.p. for
the same visual field at slightly higher power. f/12 MAKs are forgiving re.
e.p. price/quality, so reasonably priced ones should all be... "reasonable"! 🙂

See ALL above posts? Too SLOW at the typing/thinking thing these days. 🤣

Edited by Macavity
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Both seem to be quite good, I would guess you just have to try checking reviews. Not all EP in both ranges are the same quality (it seems that the BST are best at 12 and 15mm, while the SW are up to 9mm - so I would suggest a SW 7 or 9mm and a BST 12mm).

Or you could try the SVBONY zoom 8-24mm, so you can check various ranges before you commit to a fixed EP.

For checking the field of view, try this page (you check the SW EP and instead of the default 2.5 mm you try 8 and 9mm):

https://astronomy.tools/calculators/field_of_view/

Hope this helps,

N.F.

 

Edited by nfotis
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At f/12, I wouldn't go much below 7mm to 8mm because the exit pupil becomes 8/12=0.67mm to 7/12=0.58mm which is really pushing it for most people.

I would start with the 8mm BST Starguider and the 7mm SW Planetary for 188x and 214x, respectively.  See how they well they work for you and go from there.  I have found the 8mm BST to be a very good eyepiece.  It's not Delos or Pentax XW good, but it's not that far behind despite the price difference.  I have never even so much as looked through a TMB Planetary clone, of which the SW Planetary is one, but I've read that many find them to perform quite well.  You might even want to consider the 9mm SW Planetary instead of the 7mm to back off the power a bit to 167x when conditions won't support 214x.

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Just to echo Louis Ds thoughts. The 8mm BST gets used quite a bit with both my scopes. Personally, my experience of that ep in several telescopes, and the 6mm SW planetary view, I'd be inclined to go for the 7mm Planetary & 8mm BST or 9mm planetary.

My set for both scopes (Skymax 102 & 150/750 Newt) is quite budget, but evolved over time to provide the best quality I can afford and a decent range of mags:

4mm OVL Nirvana 82°

6mm Sky-Watcher Planetary UWA

7mm OVL Nirvana 82°

8mm BST Starguider

12mm BST Starguider

16mm OVL Nirvana 82°

25mm Celestron XCel-LX

The 4mm and 6mm are only used with the newtonian normally. They're too much mag for the Mak although on a really good night the 6mm will push the 102 Mak past its limits especially on lunar.

Keep an eye out for used. BST especially are common to find used as people trade up.

Edited by ScouseSpaceCadet
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The seeing quality of the UK skies varies a lot - so I use a zoom to match the seeing conditions.

The Baader 8-24 zoom used in your Mak will give magnifications from x63 which is great for Luna to x188 which is about ideal for a 5” obstructed scope on the planets. It’s not cheap at £185 but four BST’s would cost a little more.

The zoom is even better value if you can find a used one.....

 

 

Edited by dweller25
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10 minutes ago, johninderby said:

Hete’s the results from the Televue eyepiece calculator using the actual aperture of the Skymax127.

They say max mag of 281x

 

281x would put us at, what, a 6mm? That's what I've thinking - between 6mm and 8mm is what I'm aiming for I think.

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24 minutes ago, sputniksteve said:

Do you any of you good people have an opinion of the Celestron X-CEL LX pieces?

I have the 9mm. Which has been pretty good in every scope I have used it in. Including the 127 Mak imho. Good eyepieces. 

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The only X-Cel LX that I've owned was the 25mm. It was pretty decent but, for me, not a "stand out" eyepiece in any way. For a 127 mak I would probably save a few £'s and go for a BST Starguider 25mm instead.

 

 

 

 

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