Which eyepiece?

[Deacon]

Hi all,

Just a quick question.

I have a Skywatcher Evostar 100 refractor. Iam looking to get a couple of new eyepieces but I am kinda stuck on what to go for.

I have been looking at Baader orthoscopic eyepieces or William Optics SPL eyepieces. Appreciate your help. Deacon

[John]

Hi Deacon,

Baader Orthoscopics would work very well in your scope. A 5mm would give you 200x which is the practical maximum for a 100mm scope. I've not read that much about the WO SPL's although most WO stuff is pretty good.

John

[Mike Hodgson]

Hi,

I have a NexStar 114SLT, with 25mm and 9mm eyepieces, and a barlow lens (x2). Is there a way I can get more magnification? I was told that using the barlow with the 9mm was pretty much the best I could get through my telescope.

Thanks

[John]

Hi,

I have a NexStar 114SLT, with 25mm and 9mm eyepieces, and a barlow lens (x2). Is there a way I can get more magnification? I was told that using the barlow with the 9mm was pretty much the best I could get through my telescope.

Thanks

I think you scope has a focal length of 1000mm so the 9mm eyepiece used with a 2x barlow is about your limit - 222x - even that will be a bit too much on many nights.

John

[Mike Hodgson]

I think you scope has a focal length of 1000mm so the 9mm eyepiece used with a 2x barlow is about your limit - 222x - even that will be a bit too much on many nights.

John

Thanks John. I really want to see some of the Messier objects in great detail, so I think a telescope upgrade is in order in the near future

But my telescope shows the Orion Nebula real good.

Actually, here's a question... When I view the Orion Nebula, it's kind of dark bluish in colour. How would I get it looking like it does in the pictures I see on the internet??

Thanks in advance,

Mike

[thing]

I think you scope has a focal length of 1000mm so the 9mm eyepiece used with a 2x barlow is about your limit - 222x - even that will be a bit too much on many nights.

John

Thanks John. I really want to see some of the Messier objects in great detail, so I think a telescope upgrade is in order in the near future

But my telescope shows the Orion Nebula real good.

Actually, here's a question... When I view the Orion Nebula, it's kind of dark bluish in colour. How would I get it looking like it does in the pictures I see on the internet??

Thanks in advance,

Mike

Quick answer is you won't. With a £10K scope you won't. The eye can only take in so much at a time which is why the Orion neb will always look grey-green even through the best scopes. The images you see are long exposure stacked photographs which pick up far more than the eye can. This is the reason people image, what looks like a bit of dim cotton wool through the eyepiece turns into a brilliant DSO after 3 or more hours exposure.

[John]

Back to the subject of Deacon's original post,

The good thing about long focal length scopes like yours is that you don't need to spend a fortune on eyepieces to get good performance. The Baader Orthos are around £70 each but you can pick up 2nd hand "volcano top" Japanese orthos for a lot less around £20) and they will perform very well as well.

John

[philsail1]

Hello "Deacon" and welcome to Stargazers Lounge Forum.

Yes, as John says, the maximunm magnification for your scope is around the 200x mark. Also, I agree with John in saying that the japanese Orthoscopics are good - I have a 5mm which does give good views of the Moon and Planets (obviously no good on deep sky stuff). Orthoscopic eyepieces are good performers across a range of scopes with differing focal lengths - I have used the 5mm eyepiece on the likes of a Skywatcher 200mm f5Newtonian, a 90mm f10 Maksutov, a TAL 100RS f10 refractor, an Orion Optics 200m f4.5 Newt, and an Intes MK-66 f12 Maksutov.

However, the 5mm does have very short eye relief, and the actual eye end you look through is tiny!

You might by better off buying a 10mm orthoscopic and using this with your 2x Barlow. This combination will still give you your 200x magnification, and you will have an eyepiece which will give 100 on it's own! So you'll be increasing you range of magnifications.

If you would like to try out a 5mm Ortho before you buy I would be willing to loan you mine for a few days (or until you got a clear night!) and then you could return it to me.

If you would like to take up the offer, just PM me with your address.

Regards,

philsail1

[John]

If you would like to try out a 5mm Ortho before you buy I would be willing to loan you mine for a few days (or until you got a clear night!) and then you could return it to me.

If you would like to take up the offer, just PM me with your address.

Regards,

philsail1

Nice one Phil

John

[philsail1]

Thanks John!

I've had loads of help on here in the past, so it's nice to be able to help others a little.

Regards

philsail1

[Mike Hodgson]

Quick answer is you won't. With a £10K scope you won't. The eye can only take in so much at a time which is why the Orion neb will always look grey-green even through the best scopes. The images you see are long exposure stacked photographs which pick up far more than the eye can. This is the reason people image, what looks like a bit of dim cotton wool through the eyepiece turns into a brilliant DSO after 3 or more hours exposure.

Thanks for the info. I thought that might be the answer, but had my fingers crossed anyway! I had wanted to see the Orion Nebula for quite a while but for some reason thought that my telescope wouldn't pick it up! Haha. But it's so easy to find, and is suprisingly big. Even a 25mm eyepiece can pick up some great views.

Thanks,

Mike

[John]

author=Mike Hodgson link=topic=38396.msg391563#msg391563.... But it's so easy to find, and is suprisingly big. Even a 25mm eyepiece can pick up some great views....

In theory your scope should be able to show you all the Messier objects and many others as well. Much of my observing is done with a 102mm scope and, with a bit of perserverence, I've been pleasantly suprised what I have been able to see with it. Low power eyepieces are best for finding the "faint fuzzies".

John

[thing]

Quick answer is you won't. With a £10K scope you won't. The eye can only take in so much at a time which is why the Orion neb will always look grey-green even through the best scopes. The images you see are long exposure stacked photographs which pick up far more than the eye can. This is the reason people image, what looks like a bit of dim cotton wool through the eyepiece turns into a brilliant DSO after 3 or more hours exposure.

Thanks for the info. I thought that might be the answer, but had my fingers crossed anyway! I had wanted to see the Orion Nebula for quite a while but for some reason thought that my telescope wouldn't pick it up! Haha. But it's so easy to find, and is suprisingly big. Even a 25mm eyepiece can pick up some great views.

Thanks,

Mike

But it's still an awesome sight even as a grey/green cloud, just have an 'imaging' side of your brain and an 'observing' side. John makes a good point too, some of my best observing is done with a 30 mil 2 inch eyepiece which gives me x33 magnification. Don't forget the more you magnify something the dimmer it gets. Not a problem with planets/Moon but something you have to think about when DSO hunting.

[Mike Hodgson]

You know what, I didn't even realise that! I just thought the better the magnification, the better quality the image of DSOs. I did, however, notice that I got a better view of the Orion Nebula with less magnification.

Thanks for this information, it's helped.

Mike

[Deacon]

Hi Philsail1

Thanks very much for that kind offer. I will be in touch. Just another question, I like the idea of having a 10mm ortho and a barlow lens. I have been on the FLO website but I cant see a 10mm ortho for sale. Furthermore if I did go for this would I need to get an ED Barlow lens aswell or will a normal Barlow do?

There are also these which I like the look of:

http://www.firstlightoptics.com/proddetail.php?prod=WOspl

Many many thanks

Deacon

[philsail1]

Hello "Deacon"

The offer's always there.

Orion Optics (UK) sell Orthoscopics (of an almost identical design as the one I have). They are here:-

http://www.orionoptics.co.uk/ACCESSORIES/eyepiecesorthos.html

The Barlow I use is the excellent Celestron 2x "Ultima." You can use it with a 6mm Orthoscopic but it can increase the magnification to more than some scopes can manage. (i.e. on a 1000mm focal length scope it would give over 300x mag, and on a 2000mm focal length scope, it would give a magnification of over 600x!). Even on nights where the "seeing" is excellent, the most useful magnification one can use is around 250x.

"TAL" Barlows are very good value for money.

From experience (and I hope others will agree!) buying eyepieces for telescopes can be a bit of a "hit or miss" affair. Some eyepieces (even quite expensive ones with brilliant specifications) will just not "go" with a particular scope. Some will prove excellent with a wide range of scopes.

Whilst I cannot comment on the Williams Optics Eyepieces you mention, I'm sure others on SGL will be able to give you good informed advice.

Try not to rush into buying an eyepiece before you can obtain plenty of opinions on how it will perform with your particular telescope.

Best wishes,

philsail1