How to choose a new eye piece

[johninderby]

There are some very good inexpensive zooms available now. The Hyperflex or one of the clones are very good and the new Svbony zooms are also good. Better than the cheaper eyepieces although not quite as good as an exprnsive one.

Usualy use a zoom first to find out the best mag to use then switch to regular eyepiece. 

Edited October 18, 2020 by johninderby

[bomberbaz]

27 minutes ago, Puffafish said:

I have wondered about getting a zoom lens, but always thought you compromised on quality to get the zoom action.

Not the case as long as you don't go too low budget, the one I linked to at just under £70 has worked a treat for me in a frac and a mak for both night time and solar

  

13 minutes ago, johninderby said:

Usualy use a zoom first to find out the best mag to use then switch to regular eyepiece. 

I just leave mine in the frac when using it, great for splitting double stars

 

Edited October 18, 2020 by bomberbaz

[johninderby]

I’ve been testing the new Svbony 10 to 30 zoom and first impressions are it is a bit sharper than the Hyperflex and with a 2x barlow nosepiece gives a useful 5 to 15 range.

Edited October 18, 2020 by johninderby

[Louis D]

6 hours ago, merlin100 said:

I was curious about the supplied SW EP's back in March this year, when I bought my 200P Dobsonian...

https://stargazerslounge.com/topic/349974-sky-watcher-skyliner-200p-eps/

Thanks.  It's too bad they're so crappy.  Below you can see the 9mm and 12.5mm generic Kellners I got with my ST80 20 years ago relative to much more expensive eyepieces.  They're not bad except for eye relief and vignetting:

Edit: I just noticed I do have an MA, the 12mm Meade Astrometric MA that I picked up for cheap used.  I remember using it and thinking, this is bad.  Especially so since it is sold for astrometric usage.  Now I'm wondering how an MA differs from a properly executed Kellner.  I found this CN post by Martin Pond which indicates the field lens is acrylic in a 25mm Meade MA with a slightly curved instead of flat outward facing first surface.  Using Acrylic instead of glass for one element could certainly account for the poor image quality.

Edited October 18, 2020 by Louis D

[johninderby]

SW should copy Bresser who supply a reasonable quality plossl with their scopes. 

[Louis D]

2 hours ago, Puffafish said:

I have wondered about getting a zoom lens, but always thought you compromised on quality to get the zoom action.

You compromise relative to the best corrected eyepieces out there, but not relative to these crappy MA eyepieces supplied with the scope.  Most 8-24mm zooms have 7 elements and tend to work pretty well by most accounts.  The 7.2-21.5mm ones are also well thought of.  In fact, you can see how two zooms compare in an f/6 ED refractor at 12mm in the comparison image I posted just above.  Both are clearly better than that 12mm Meade MA which is comparable to your stock 10mm eyepiece.

[bomberbaz]

8 hours ago, johninderby said:

SW should copy Bresser who supply a reasonable quality plossl with their scopes. 

Keep the 25, bin the 10 and supply a basic 2x barlow. that would be a great compromise.