New Scope New eye pieces

[Sargares]

Hey guys. First post. 
 

pretty new to all this, I bought a Starblast 2 for the kids and mrs last year and suprise suprise it never left the box. I ended up using it just so it got some use  and I’ve gotten a little hooked. [removed word] the mrs off down the bottom of the garden at 1am every time there’s a clear sky. 

 

Ive snagged a cheap used 10” Skywatcher 250p dob after trying a friends dob. I’ve only got some cheap plossls and a cheap Barlow at the moment. 

 

considering the saving on the scope I’m going to spend that on a few eyepieces to get some more out of it. I’m thinking 

 

ES 2" 62* 32mm or 26

ES 62* 20mm or 14

 

ES 82* something higher powered and this is where it gets a minefield. LER or not? Which one? I’m thinking something 7-10mm range. 

 

I don’t wear glasses or have any other issues that could complicate viewing. Just looking for a good spectrum of bang for buck eye pieces with as good field of view as possible without spending a fortune. 

 

Cheers

[Louis D]

The ES-62's are basically 5 element super Plossls (the older Meade 5000 Plossl line reintroduced).  As such, they are fine in the inner 50% of the field, and gradually fall off with astigmatism to the edge.  The polish and coatings are quite good.

You'll want a coma corrector for that Dob.  The GSO (Revelation, TPO, etc) CC is quite good once you add a 25mm M48 spacer ring between the eyepiece holder and the optical section.  Of course the Paracorr T2 is better, but vastly more expensive.

If you don't need to wear eyeglasses, you can get away with using eyepieces with 12mm of usable eye relief or more.  Below that, it starts to get a bit uncomfortable for extended viewing sessions.  Ask on here about usable eye relief before buying.  ES in particular likes to recess their eye lenses and quote design eye relief.  This disappoints many buyers because the usable eye relief is generally much less.

The BST Starguiders are a good step up eyepiece range.  They have 12mm of usable eye relief from 18mm on down, no noticeable kidney beaning, and are quite sharp for the money spent.

The Baader Morpheus would be a good choice to step up to premium level performance at a reasonable price.  The 9mm in particular compares very favorably to the 10mm Delos.

I would get the 30mm APM UFF for a near widest field eyepiece.  It is very well corrected and should work well in your Dob.

You could also look into Abbe Orthos for high power, planetary eyepieces since you don't need to wear eyeglasses.  However, the narrow field of view can be a pain when manually tracking at high powers because you don't get much dwell time with each nudge.

[Sargares]

@Louis D cheers! 
 

Skywatcher does a coma corrector for their f5 reflectors I presume wouldn’t need a spacer. Would that work? 
 

the APM 30mm UFF after doing some reading seems like a winner too. Will have a look at the baader Morpheus too, seems likely worth the small amount more money. 

[Louis D]

4 hours ago, Sargares said:

Skywatcher does a coma corrector for their f5 reflectors I presume wouldn’t need a spacer. Would that work? 

It probably would work, but I've read nothing about it's use visually.  The problem becomes getting the spacing correct for the majority of your eyepiece collection as with the GSO.  I also don't know if it has any field flattening effects as does the GSO and Paracorr, or what its in-focus requirement is.  I also don't know how much spherical aberration it introduces at higher powers.  I remove my GSO CC at high powers to get sharper images because of SA not visible at lower powers.  Users of the Paracorr T2 claim it does not have SA and can be left in the focuser at all powers.

[Sargares]

@Louis D did some more reading. The Sky-Watcher is. 0.9x reducer and seems only useful for photography. Moves the focal point even further. Also lots of complaints about reflections. 
 

I found an omegon branded gso coma corrector in Europe so went with that plus the recommended spacer. Cheers. 
 

Also done a lot of reading on eyepieces. Think I’ll pull the trigger on Baader Morpheus 17.5 and 9mm and the APM 30mm UFF. I’m tempted on the 6.5 but the 9 seems to get more love for better eye relief and more immersive view. I can always Barlow if the seeing is good enough and viewing planets I suppose. 

[Louis D]

3 hours ago, Sargares said:

I found an omegon branded gso coma corrector in Europe so went with that plus the recommended spacer. Cheers. 

One last bit of experience with the GSO.  Immediately replace the two thumbscrews with (IIRC) M4 socket head cap screws.  While tightening one of the two in my CC, the head literally sheared off flush with the body thanks to their screws being made from molded pot metal instead of machined steel.  I have yet to be able to back out the screw section trapped in the eyepiece holder section, so I'm working with a single thumbscrew, which has been sufficient.