Best eyepiece for Skywatcher 150 pds

[Mvdg2001]

Hey,

I just bought my first telescope and are having quite some fun with it. it is a Sky-Watcher Explorer-150PDS (OTA) (f/5) 150mm Dual-Speed Newton. Now I am still using the eyepiece that came with the telescope the Skywatcher 28mm LET eyepiece with 2" barlow. I feel like this eyepiece is not the best option for planetary viewing, and really want to upgrade to a better eyepiece (as I believe this one only gives 30x magnification with my telescope.)  I am quite new with telescopes, and would like to get some help regarding picking the best eyepiece for my telescope (particularly for planetary viewing.)

I hope some of you can help me out!

[Zermelo]

Hi, welcome to the forum.

You are correct that the "stock" eyepieces that come with telescopes (even decent ones like yours) do not exploit their capabilities fully.

Also agreed that you need significantly more than 30x to view planets, and your scope can deliver this with the right eyepiece.

The most frequently recommended general-purpose upgrade from stock EPs is the BST Starguider range. They have decent fields of view (~60 degrees) and eye relief, and work well in fast scopes like yours.
For planetary work specifically you may not need the wide field of view and image sharpness at high magnification is often more important. Some eyepieces are marketed specifically as "planetary" in this vein, usually of plossl or orthoscopic design.
Another option is a zoom eyepiece. This one for example works well at F/5, and you can barlow it to double the magnification. The field of view is smaller than the BSTs, but for planetary viewing may not be an issue.  

The maximum magnification for a 150mm is around 300x in ideal conditions, but I would suggest 200x if you're based in UK conditions or similar. You could get that either with a single eyepiece, or more flexibly get one that gives 100x and barlow it when conditions allow.

 

[M40]

Hello and welcome. Have a quick look in resources at the top of the forum page and select astronomy tools. The link will take you to the First Light Optics webpage. Select the FOV calculator, choose the object you would like to observe, then scroll down the list of telescopes and select your telescope then look through the various eyepieces to see how each would appear. You can then go straight to FLO and look at costs etc. Personally, I have the Baader Hyperion zoom and 2.25x barlow and love it.

Enjoy