Sky Watcher Heritage 76mm any good eyepiece recommendations?

[Andrew G]

Hello,

So I just bought a Sky Watcher Heritage 76mm, I know quite small but fitted my current space  well and what not. But anyway does anyone have any good eyepiece recommendations for this telescope so that I can get the most out of it? I know it's not of course going to be Hubble quality because of the nature of the scope being tiny and inexpensive but just any good eyepiece recommendations to as I said make the most of such a cool little telescope. 

thanks,

Andrew.

[Don Pensack]

The focal length is so short, you can get nice big fields of view with 50° Plössl eyepieces, which you can find for very little money.

And because the instrument is f/4, you'll be better off with them than something wider.

You want magnifications from, say, 20x to 75x.  Higher magnifications will be difficult to use because the scope won't move smoothly and the field would be dark and narrow.

So, I'll suggest a 15mm and a 10mm with a 2X Barlow, to give 20x, 30x, 40x, 60x.

If it turns out that you want a higher magnification, though the scope will be a bit more difficult to use, try a 2.5x Barlow instead, to give you 20x, 30x, 50x, and 75x.

 

If you have to wear glasses when you use the scope, Plössls will not work.

In which case, you'll need long eye relief eyepieces, and I'll defer to others' recommendations for inexpensive eyepieces with long eye relief.

Most I'm familiar with will cost more than your scope, each.

Edited July 9, 2022 by Don Pensack

[Ags]

I think that is good advice.

Just to add: you only need to use your glasses if they are correcting astigmatism, and even then you might choose to accept a certain degree of astigmatism and do without the glasses. Long and short sight can be compensated for simply by refocusing. 

[Ags]

Also, I bought one of those 76mm scopes for my grandchildren - and of course had to test it properly before giving it to them... I quite enjoyed using it!

[Louis D]

A fellow stargazer had a couple of these scopes setup on a table near his main scopes at an outreach program.  He was letting anyone use them as they pleased since he picked them up used for $20 or less each.  The hardest part was aiming them since they were low on a table and the table got in the way of getting in the right spot to aim them with the RDF.  I came over and aimed them at Jupiter by shooting from the hip, so to speak.  Once I got them on Jupiter, it was obvious that an f/4 spherical mirror is pretty abysmal beyond the inner 50% of a mid-power eyepiece.  Right in the center, I could make out Jupiter's moons and maybe a belt.  The general public enjoyed the views through them once I got them on target.  However, I understood why these show up so often on Craigslist, FB Marketplace, and in thrift shops for cheap.

[Andrew G]

Moving away  a little as well, has anybody got experience with zoom eyepieces I've saw them just the question is would they work on this?

[DaveL59]

40 minutes ago, Andrew G said:

Moving away  a little as well, has anybody got experience with zoom eyepieces I've saw them just the question is would they work on this?

Depending on which one, you certainly won't want to use one of the larger heavy ones as the focuser may struggle not to mention the little short tube will go right out of balance and want to go nose down all by itself. Then when trying to zoom you've the issue to keep the OTA stable or having to re-find the target.

I have a similar one, the Nat Geo 76/350 which after some fiddling with the focuser and flocking the tube is passable. But as Louis says aiming them is awkward even with an RDF fitted. The alt & az movements aren't that slick either which makes tracking an object that much harder too. Not sure how adjustable the primary mirror is on yours but for the NatGeo there's no real scope to adjust that for collimation so there's a limit as to how well aligned you can get the optics on these too. I picked mine up for a tenner locally so as something to fiddle with and perhaps the grandkids to try out it wasn't much of a risk purchase 🙂 

For eyepieces, not really worth going much beyond a reasonable plossl, 20/25 and down to 10mm or perhaps 6mm I think. I do have an SVBony 7-21mm but never used it in this scope as adjusting the zoom would just be too fiddly with re-aiming etc IMHO.

Edited July 10, 2022 by DaveL59