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A little advice on EP selection


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Hey guys,

I am buying my "first" telescope in the near future (SW 150/750pds), although it's not available in my area till March. In the mean time I found a local, secondhand Orion 102 Mak. 

After starting with 15x70 binoculars, with its stock 25mm plossl has made me go wow and I'll never forget seeing Saturn's rings for the first time. Now I'm thinking I'd like to start getting another EP.

I am leaning towards either:

ES 24mm 68°

Or

Baader 8-24 mk iv

These help max out the range of the 102, and please feel free to leave opinions, but I'm hoping they can both be good on the 150 in the future. 

The Baader is more versatile, but the ES gives me a good wide field, with more power then the binoculars.

 

Cheers,

Gary

 

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Hi Gary, welcome to the forum, you may find either eyepiece a little bulky for the 102 Mak (does it have a 2" visual back?) but both ep's will work well with the SW 150 PDS.  Do you wear spectacles for viewing?  This will make your choices a little more sensitive, as the ES ep's tend to have short eye relief (the distance of the eye from the ep), in which case ep's with long eye-relief are better, also it would help us to know what targets you want to view, bearing in mind that the ES 24mm is a low power ep (31x on your SW 150PDS, 54x on your Orion 102 Mak).  The Baader 8-24 mk iv is a jack of all trades and this, I suspect would be a good choice for a beginner (at 8mm the ep would give you a comfortable 162x on the Mak, which is a great setting for the planets and Moon.

Good luck and clear skies!

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Thanks for the welcome,

The 102 only has a 1.25" back on it and still using the stock 45° prism at the moment. Once the 150 arrives, I will probably use the 102 as a grab and go scope, and with the slower f ratio it's better for planets and lunar. I think in the long run DSO's will be main stream focus and the 150 even gives me the ability to start down the AP rabbit hole. 

I wear glasses (longsighted, +7 lens) however I also seem to be able to adjust focus to correct image if I'm not wearing them, however this is just with the 25mm plossl and my binoculars, not sure if this changes as I reduce the focal length. 

Ultimately down the road I will probably get both EPs, I am thinking the Baader may be a good start point, I can always use the binoculars to view wide field in the meantime.

Thank you for the feedback

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For the Mak, an inexpensive 32mm Plossl EP will give you the widest field possible. You could get (will need) a better one for a wide view on the Newt. Mind you, the PDS is designed for AP, isn't it?

I have the Baader IV zoom and love it (got it secondhand). However, there are cheaper/smaller ones around that get great reviews. A zoom and a widefield are good ways to start, I reckon.

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Thanks Pixies,

Yeah PDS is AP oriented. My reasoning had been I was thinking of a decent apperture, not to large for transport, not to big on AZ or EQ mounts, has the 2" dual speed focuser and AP capable (coma correcter is needed) 

That's why I thought the ES may be an ok investment as it is very close to max FOV on the 102, but slightly higher zoom (see screenshot below for FOV, according to sky safari anyways)

I tend to be someone who likes the middle ground, that's why I thought Baader, out does the celestrons etc, but not as crystal (or pricey) as a Pentax. 

Cheers,

Screenshot_20201217-185442_SkySafari 6 Pro.jpg

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I owned the ES 24mm 68 before I moved to a TV Panoptic 24mm. The ES was a very nice eyepiece in my opinion. It was a bit bulkier than the Panoptic but it's optical performance was right up there and it was probably slightly more comfortable to use.

The Baader 8-24 zoom (which I've also owned a couple of) is pretty good in the 20mm - 8mm range but at the longer end the field does seem constricted (it narrows to 44 degrees independantly measured) so you would also need a true wide field like the ES 24 / 68 to compliment it. Get both ! :grin:

 

Edited by John
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I have two MaxVision 24 mm 68 deg EPs, and these are optically similar (or even identical, bar possible differences in coatings) to the ES 24 mm 68 deg. Very nice down to F/5, but below they start deteriorate (they are advertised as good down to F/5, so fair enough). Should be great in the 102 Mak and fine in the 6" F/5.

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