Another eyepiece question...

[DavieH]

So, after a few years with my SW130p I splashed out on a second hand Evolution 8 and am looking at getting a few eyepieces to get the most out of it. I never get tired of the moon, Saturn and Jupiter so they will always be on my target list but I also want to try some dso viewing. Budget isn't huge (it will take a while to recover from buying the Evo!), so up to 50 quid per eyepiece. At the moment my collection is the eyepieces that came with the SW (10mmm & 25mm - not the best quality) and a Celestron Omni 12mm and Omni Barlow. 

The BST eyepieces look like good value and have nice reviews, but before I jump in any advice would be great, especially if you have or have used and Evo 8.

[russ]

Hard to look past the BST in the sub £50 bracket. Such a good eyepiece for that sort of money. But I would like to recommend the Nirvana 16mm. It's comfortably in that bracket secondhand. And offers 82deg field, nice sharp optics and good build too. 

[DavieH]

Thanks Russ, I'm more than happy to look at second hand so will keep an eye out for the Nirvana. Sounds like a really wide FOV by comparison to other eps?

[KP82]

Please be aware when buying these ultra wide fov (82deg or larger) eyepieces if you wear spectacles. Most of them have very short eye relief (usually 10 - 13mm only). Some also have restricted eye position (ie. can easily black out).

The BSTs are pretty much the best bet for sub £50.

Edited June 22, 2022 by KP82

[Cosmic Geoff]

The Evo 8 at f10 will be tolerant of eyepieces.  If you want a wider field of view, a 32mm Plossl ( or a shorter focal length eyepiece with wider FOV and higher price) will prove useful.

The highest power eyepiece  I regularly use in my C8 is 8mm.

[DavieH]

As always really helpful advice. I've pressed the button on the flo website - an 8mmm and 25mm are on their way! That's this month's pocket money spent, now all I need is something to aim the scope at...

[bomberbaz]

With your scope being F10, most eyepieces will give you a pretty small exit pupil.  If you do wear glasses, then you may get away with not needing them. I personally find that once under a 3mm exit pupil I can remove my glasses and view without.

The 8mm you just purchased is going to be useable on good nights with a steady sky for your planetary and lunar viewing. Nearly always good for lunar but maybe not always so on the planets.

I would suggest something in the 14-12mm range will cover your planetary viewing and also smaller DSO such as planetary nebula on a more regular basis. Exp Scientific 14mm/62 degree would be a good starting point but a step up in price.

Now you want to move into DSO hunting, a lot (not all) of DSO respond well to a larger exit pupil (light gathering) and to that end a 32 or even 40mm plossl would be advantageous. to that end you have a message from me. 

HTH

Steve