Which 3 of your eyepieces get the most use, and why?

[Elp]

I'm more imaging than visual but I do like to view every now and then. People generally don't like them but I find my WO 9mm swan gets most of the time, super sharp and contrast and works very well with a Coronado PST for solar. Also have a Meade 8.8mm uwa though it's nice and is good for eye relief doesn't get as much time. Next would be the Vixen 30mm npl. Haven't had a chance to try the 3.2mm BST but suspect it will be good. As you can see I haven't settled on one brand.

Wondering whether a Televue 32 or 20mm plossl will be worth the extra cost?

[Paz]

I have a set of Delos/Naglers and SLVs plus some plossls other stragglers and I would say although I use many of them over a period of time my most used recently is probably the 17.3mm Delos.

I use a pair for binoviewing and I only use 1.25" eyepieces on smaller scopes so it is often my wide field eyepiece in small scopes unless I use something with a smaller apparent field of view to get a slightly wider true field of view.

If I did use 2" eyepieces in smaller scopes then my 22mm Nagler might be in the running.

[A McEwan]

Quite often I got from 24mm ES 68 degree to Nagler 13mm T6 to 4.7mm ES 82-degree. That's for "general" observing, as they all have wide fields and I'll most likely be using an alt-az mount, and all have pretty good performance.

For planetary or lunar, it'll be any three of my Baader Genuine Ortho's, or perhaps throw in my 3.9mm Siebert Starsplitter for high (power) kicks!

 

[Dave1]

At the moment my most used eyepieces are my Carl Zeiss Jena 16mm and 25mm Huygens. Followed by my Brandon 8mm. 

[John]

2 weeks later ......

My most used 3 eyepieces are none of them, due to the cloudy conditions that have persisted since Dave / @F15Rules posted his pic of rainy Lincolnshire 

But "Clear Outside" is promising me 2 clear nights in the coming week so my fingers are tightly crossed 🤞🤞

 

[wookie1965]

Clear outside has been promising clear nights but for the last 12 weeks I had nothing, tonight was supposed to be clear and at 5pm looked promising but as the time went on the clouds have rolled in once again. 

[scarp15]

Have been more fortunate this side of the UK, as last night (and tonight) was windy yet clear. Based on last night; 6mm Ethos, quite sublime on M35, 21 Ethos for just panning around and generally picking up clusters, early doors; 7mm DeLite (or possibly 5mm) for Jupiter.  

[Ships and Stars]

Hi all, been AWOL for a long time, happy to be back. Hoping to take the 20" out tomorrow night. I have the APM XWAs, 9, 13 and 20mm, plus a 17.5 Morpheus, a 28mm LET, some plossl pairs, (25mm/32mm and 40s for my binoviewer). Also a 10mm BCO and a 31mm Baader 2".  I had a few Ethos but was afraid I'd drop them or lose one out in the countryside. The 21mm Ethos is awesome as you'd expect, but I got the three XWAs for what I sold it for. Also had the 13mm. Superb. The XWAs aren't far off in my opinion, even after side by side tests. I can tell a slightly narrower FOV with the 20mm XWA vs the 21mm Ethos, but... it came down to money as always.

I only have one 2" filter, (OIII) so my Hb, TV Nebustar, UHC and small OIII filters are all 1.25" which means I have to use what's available in the 1.25" filter range depending on what I'm looking at and exit pupil.

So long story short, I love the XWAs, 9/13/20mm. One of my dobs is f4.5, the other is f4, so for faint DSOs I try to find the right mag with an exit pupil around 4-6.5mm. 

Observing galaxies don't require filters, just dark skies, so enough mag vs decreasing exit pupil becomes the name of the game for me.

 

[Dave1]

25 minutes ago, John said:

2 weeks later ......

My most used 3 eyepieces are none of them, due to the cloudy conditions that have persisted since Dave / @F15Rules posted his pic of rainy Lincolnshire 

But "Clear Outside" is promising me 2 clear nights in the coming week so my fingers are tightly crossed 🤞🤞

 

Yep I've only had one chance to observe since this thread was started, with my new mount so that I could even observe at all ! I expect when I actually remember that I have a Carl Zeiss Jena Ortho 10mm, that it will probably become one of my favs.

[bomberbaz]

Ooh interesting question this one, let's think. 

Dob, probably the Nikon 17mm as it covers so many bases (exit pupil and fov) and as it has a supplied EIC it doubles up to a 14mm. Cheating maybe yes but it is bought and supplied as one eyepiece.

In my refractors it is a zoom, I think the 7-21 gets most use and love it for doubles and clusters.

My large bins I have a pair of 18mm APM for them which again are the size that fits most Dso (magnification & fov). (Its two again but the same size count as one for the purpose of this answer)

[IB20]

Right now, it’s the Pentax XWs 10, 7 & 5. They  are fantastic eyepieces and work brilliantly for WL solar in the 3” frac - I’m doing much more daytime viewing than night observing currently. I’m finding I can really hit the seeing conditions with these 3, giving 57x, 81x and 114x respectively. Can’t recommend them enough. 

[Ags]

I tried answering this thread before and ended up listing all my eyepieces 🤣

But now I have a Solar Scout, so the picture has changed. 

Eyepiece 1: Ha Solar: Vixen NPL 30 mm

Eyepiece 2: Dark sky trips: Vixen NPL 20 mm

Eyepiece 3: White light solar, lunar, planetary, DSOs, doubles: Explore Scientific 6.7 mm

[cajen2]

Now that my EP collection is wider, my answer is completely different. Low mag/wide-field: 2" 20mm StellaLyra 80°. Medium: Baader Morpheus 12.5mm. High (if seeing allows): Pentax XW 5mil.

However, I love the Morph so much that I often start with that and return to it after trying other mags.

[Zeta Reticulan]

This all depends on the scope. I can definitely say my 19mm Panoptic is in the running. Of the 90 sessions I've had this year, 26 have been with my 72ED DS Pro. The three most used EP's with that are an ES 24mm, a 4mm TS Planetary and a 3.2mm TMB clone. The 19mm Panoptic has been out a few times with it. 

The 19 sessions I've had with my Altair 60EDF all have been with just two eyepieces (19mm Panoptic, 6mm Vixen SLV) and a 2x TV Barlow. 

My 102mm SkyMax has been out for 15 sessions this year, predominantly with a 7-21 SvBony zoom. 

So, not totally sure about the second and third, but the 19mm Panoptic has probably been out the most.

[Guest]

On 02/01/2022 at 14:51, wookie1965 said:

Clear outside has been promising clear nights but for the last 12 weeks I had nothing, tonight was supposed to be clear and at 5pm looked promising but as the time went on the clouds have rolled in once again. 

Accu weather said clear skies for last night, so by 2200 I was set up and ready to go.  Finding things isn't normally an issue but I found myself not being able to find M81 and 82.  Then I noticed a distinct lack of stars in that general area....back to the weather app....which now showed 75% cloud cover and a ceiling at 35k feet.  I was done by 2300

 

[Paz]

This is interesting to read back, my habits have changed quite a bit, I do a lot more daytime solar and early evening lunar observing than night time sessions and I observe mostly with binoviewers rather than cyclops.

So currently the top 3 are pairs of 20mm SLVs, 30mm NPLs and 40mm NPLs in binoviewers with quite a lot of amplification, usually in the range 2.6x to 4.3x

[Moonlit Night]

This thread is as old as the hills, however that’s not going to stop me posting.

With a 102 refractor (fl8.6) my most used eyepieces are 5mm, 7mm and 13 mm Delites’. 

To be honest that’s probably all I really need 95% of the time. Planetary observation is my main interest. A 32mm plossl pretty much covers everything else. 

Edited February 21 by Moonlit Night
Spelling errors

[Ags]

My three most used eyepieces are the Svbony 3-8 Zoom and, um, well, that's it.

Edited February 21 by Ags

[woldsman]

Tal 25mm plossl; 17mm super plossl (unbranded;  10mm plossl. (unbranded) - all 1.25".  The latter two mainly for planetary & lunar although the 17mm sometimes draws out more detail on DSOs. 

 Used with a 150mm F5 reflector and with 90mm F11 and 100mm F10  refractors.  Sometimes also used with a x2.5 Tele-vue powermate but my seeing conditions are not great and I just don't

have the aperture for very high magnification and so rarely use smaller EPs. 

Edited February 21 by woldsman

[Littleguy80]

Between the 10” Dob and Tak FC100, my top two are the APM UFF 30mm and Docter/Noblex 12.5mm. After that probably the 10mm Delos though I often Barlow the Docter with the Baader VIP too. 

[Piero]

Some changes since my 2021 post:

- 12" f/6 and Tak 4" f/7.4: APM UFF 30mm, Docter 12.5mm, Zeiss zoom 25.1-6.7mm + Baader VIP barlow

Why? Because, they cover all the targets I generally observe, from low to high power. I find this set very practical. DSO: 30 -> 12.5. Planets/solar/moon: zoom+VIP. I do not observe double stars.

- 16" f4: [ APM UFF 30mm, Docter UWA 12.5mm, APM XWA 7mm, APM XWA 4.77mm ] OR [ TV Nagler T4 22mm, APM XWA 9mm, APM XWA 4.77mm ] OR all of them.

Why? The first set maximises the FOV and is often used for nebulae, open/globular clusters or smaller galaxies. The second set is often used on non-challenging / medium size galaxies. The 4.77mm tends to be used on PNs. I somehow prefer the first set, but that's likely due to the eyepieces rather than the exit pupils these eyepieces yield.

Edited February 21 by Piero

[Mumia]

For DS : Pentax xw 16,5, nagler 20, nagler 31

For planetary : Tak abbe 6 and 9, zeiss jena o-10, Toe 4mm

[SCANS]

It's fun to read about all these great choices. For our XT8+ dob, my top three are Morpheus 12.5 and 6.5 as well as an APM UW 30mm. The APM gets me where I want to observe and then then I progress down through our Morpheus eyepieces until I find the right combination of field of view and magnification. That usually lands around the 12.5m, or 6.5mm for small bright stuff. That said, the 17.5, 9, and 4.5 mm Morpheus also spend a fair bit of time in the scope, but probably not quite as much.

I also enjoy our little StarTravel 102 refractor. For this one it's the 17.5mm for expanded objects and as a finder, and then the 9mm and 4.5mm. The 30mm is pretty crazy in this scope. It shows nearly 5° of sky, but I prefer the added contrast and magnification with the 17.5.

[JTEC]

13mm Ethos, 10mm Delos and 9mm Tak ortho pair in the bino (if that’s allowed).  That said, I don’t remember a session when I only used 3 eyepieces.

[Roy Challen]

On 21/02/2024 at 12:32, Ags said:

My three most used eyepieces are the Svbony 3-8 Zoom and, um, well, that's it.

Same here, in my FS60. 32mm plossl for the Solar scout. I do have a 26mm plossl that hardly ever gets used, and a broken 7mm BGO that never gets used. I don't own any other eyepieces any more.