Controversial, "I don't get buying lot's of eyepieces."

[Guest]

3 hours ago, Mr Spock said:

I don't get why people have telescopes and don't look thought them 😜

Its the time of year.  Mostly cloud cover with the occasional clear night..... Usually mid week.  Observing during the work week doesnt happen much 

[Guest]

Without counting I have a dozen to fifteen eyepieces inside of twenty if you count barlows.  Now as to the why.  Because i like the views that certain eyepieces give me.    But for me there is a light at the end of the tunnel, at least at this moment.  Only one eyepiece I have to get and one I may get. 

[JeremyS]

4 hours ago, ollypenrice said:

Talking about extremes, a friend about 20 miles away uses a 31mm Nagler for planetary observing. I have to stand on a box to reach that eyepiece...

lly

Is that the new Nespresso latte machine?

[Sunshine]

Look at those pneumatic piston thingies that close the mirror covers, like something right out of a sci-fi movie.

Edited December 29, 2022 by Sunshine

[Louis D]

As I've said in other related threads, keeping my older eyepieces works well for my budding amateur astronomer daughter.  I've already loaned her my eyepiece sets I bought just to compare them (Paradigms/Starguiders and HD-60s) along with lower end retired eyepieces such as the 30mm 80° Widescan III clone and 40mm Meade 5000 Plossl.  As she progresses, I'll eventually loan her my retired 27mm Panoptic and 12mm/17mm Nagler T4s.  She may also end up with the 40mm Lacerta ED or 40mm Pentax XW-R at some point.

Yes, I've dropped over $600 on step-up eyepiece sets just to see how good or bad they are, and then report back here on them for your collective edification.  You're welcome. 😄

[niallk]

11 hours ago, Nigella Bryant said:

OK, I'm going to get some flack with this. I see many post's about new eyepieces arriving and pic's with all the others they have. The cost of some more than some of my scopes, lol. 

I confess at the beginning, I either use my Astro cameras to view on the computer screen or image with same camera's. I don't get why so many eyepieces and sometimes expensive one's. I own about three eyepieces but invariably use just the 32mm sometimes to centre an object before inserting the camera. 

So, may the controversy begin, lol. 

😂 somewhat agree!

Visual only, and my set was a 24Pan, N13T6 and a N7T6- plus a PM2.5x.  Tbh, could have stuck with that 3 EP set and been very happy in my 250px.  Full confession- I also have 2x 15mm TV plossls for binoviewing.

Then I got a 15" dob, and succumbed to the allure of 100° afov, and now use another set: 17-10-6 Ethos, with an 8E and a N31T5 thrown in.  It was complete indulgence... I could have stuck with my original trio, possibly adding an N9T6 and be done - being totally honest.  I just fell for the huge afov experience- a nagler felt narrow after trying it!

 

Edited December 29, 2022 by niallk

[Don Pensack]

11 hours ago, Nigella Bryant said:

OK, I'm going to get some flack with this. I see many post's about new eyepieces arriving and pic's with all the others they have. The cost of some more than some of my scopes, lol. 

I confess at the beginning, I either use my Astro cameras to view on the computer screen or image with same camera's. I don't get why so many eyepieces and sometimes expensive one's. I own about three eyepieces but invariably use just the 32mm sometimes to centre an object before inserting the camera. 

So, may the controversy begin, lol. 

If you were a visual observer, you'd appreciate that:

There is a lowest power that works in the scope.

There is a highest power that works in the scope.

The range of usable magnifications is likely a 15:1 range or larger.

Seeing conditions often limit the maximum to a lower power than the highest.

You want the magnification changes to represent a noticeable difference when you move up in power.

Objects in the night sky come in a huge variety of sizes, from, perhaps, an arc second up to over 14,000 seconds.  needless to say, the magnification for one is not the right magnification for the other.

So, to yield a reasonable range of magnifications, you will need around 6-8 eyepieces.

And if planetary observing is a featured use, due to the seeing conditions, many like to have several high power eyepieces close together to accommodate the fact each night may have a different highest power usable.

 

I think people build up much larger collections of eyepieces because they have multiple telescopes, or because they simply don't get rid of older, unused ones.

 

[Elp]

3 hours ago, Sunshine said:

Look at those pneumatic piston thingies that close the mirror covers, like something right out of a sci-fi movie.

I was gonna say it looks like a new Death Star secret weapon, a real planetary and deep sky killer.

[IB20]

I have 1200mm, 800mm and 570mm focal length scopes. I live in the UK and really enjoy planetary, binary stars, lunar and WL solar observing. I need a lot of eyepieces! 😅

[Highburymark]

For many visual astronomers, it’s equally mystifying that people buy telescopes without intending to look through them Nigella! Anyone who has a hydrogen alpha solar scope and hasn’t tried binoviewing is missing the most extraordinary views.

[Nigella Bryant]

4 minutes ago, Highburymark said:

For many visual astronomers, it’s equally mystifying that people buy telescopes without intending to look through them Nigella! Anyone who has a hydrogen alpha solar scope and hasn’t tried binoviewing is missing the most extraordinary views.

I do get extraordinary views on the computer screen of the solar activity, especially when there's a lovely active flare or prominence over a few minutes. Image's of just five mins of activity. Obviously I'm seeing all the in between bits of it ebing and flowing until it dies down. 

Edited December 30, 2022 by Nigella Bryant

[Highburymark]

Beautiful shots! But it’s the live view through the eyepiece that fires up visual observers.

Having said that, I enjoy night vision astronomy which upsets some of the purists, so always best to adopt a ‘live and let live’ approach…….
 

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

15 hours ago, cajen2 said:

Why have a lot of EPs? For the same reason as so many people have a lot of scopes! Which scope or EP you use depends on what you want to see, the observing conditions, etc etc. I have only two scopes:  6" and 8" dobs so I need a variety of EPs for different targets and conditions. I'm a dilettante and love a wide variety of targets (planets, DSOs, double stars, etc). Also, my two 2" EPs won't fit my 6" dob, so I need a couple of 1.25" EPs to fill the low mag gap. Oddly, the bits of kit that would obviate the need for a variety are the ones I use the least - a zoom and two Barlows. I just find good fixed f/l EPs are better. I have nine of those....😉

Having lots of EPs and having lots of scopes are not mutually exclusive

I have 2 8" SCTs (a classic C8 and a tri-band SCT with tri-band ERF integrated in the corrector plate), a Meade 6" F/5 Schmidt-Newton, and APM 80mm F/6 and a Coronado SolarMax-II 60 mm. I recently donated the 4.5"mini-Dob I built for the kids, with its 3 EPs to the daughters of a colleague, thus I only have 5 scopes (the 70mm F/5 achro is a finder for  the C8, so that doesn't count, and neither does the 60mm guide scope , honest). Having 18 EPs for 5 telescopes isn't excessive at all (3.6 per scope).

Oh, and then there are various binoculars,

and cameras, and filters, and filter wheels and focal reducers, and telecentric lenses, ... 

Stuff accumulates over 44 years of astronomy hobby

[RobertI]

26 minutes ago, Highburymark said:

best to adopt a ‘live and let live’ approach……

In both senses of the word!! 🙂

[Highburymark]

Indeed it does accumulate.
I have three different solar set ups. 85mm frac with two 70mm Ha filters.   
120mm frac with Baader/Solar Spectrum filter. And same scope with Herschel wedge. 
The pairs of eyepieces I need for solar binoviewing are:      
40mm, 32mm, 25mm, 20mm, 15mm, 11mm. With barlows, that gets me from 35x to 250x - 12 eyepieces. Mostly orthos and Plossls for solar. And that’s before I start thinking about night astronomy.

 

 

[Peter Drew]

"Guilty as charged".        😀

[Nigella Bryant]

26 minutes ago, Highburymark said:

Beautiful shots! But it’s the live view through the eyepiece that fires up visual observers.

Having said that, I enjoy night vision astronomy which upsets some of the purists, so always best to adopt a ‘live and let live’ approach…….
 

I understand that it's the live view through the eyepiece that fire's up visual observer's as I get the same looking at the live feed on my screen. I'm 64 so appreciate being in the warm and the scopes under the sky. Especially at this time of year in the UK too. 

[Highburymark]

1 minute ago, Nigella Bryant said:

I understand that it's the live view through the eyepiece that fire's up visual observer's as I get the same looking at the live feed on my screen. I'm 64 so appreciate being in the warm and the scopes under the sky. Especially at this time of year in the UK too. 

Comfort - that’s one aspect of the hobby that visual astronomers lose every time. 

[Mr Spock]

If you are going to look at a screen, why not just subscribe to one of the many telescope feeds out there 

[Ian McCallum]

A camera can't capture the dynamic brilliance, colour and magic of a view through the eyepiece.  For the time being, a 'live' view can't be matched on bright objects like stars and star clusters, etc.

[ollypenrice]

20 hours ago, vlaiv said:

actually that depends.

Take planetary scope - one with long focal length, and take budget EP in form of plossl or ortho at good focal length for planetary (with long FL scope you'll have enough eye relief to feel comfortable) - and then compare it with any sort of premium eyepiece that is not of good focal length (either too much or too little magnification).

 

OK, in my 14 inch I would, ideally, like a range of 13mm to 40mm. At the moment I have only 13 and 26. (Members please note that my birthday is Feb 12th. )

With 3 EPs I would have, say, 13, 26 and 40mm. If I were to narrow the gaps by adding another three, what would they be?  I do have a good 15mm in my box but it's not as good as my 13mm Ethos and I just don't use it. So how about 20?  This would be a DSO eyepiece. Is it worth finessing on DSOs between 20mm and 26? Not for me, personally. The same applies to the gap between my 26mm Nagler and my (imaginary) 40mm Pentax.

I'll concede that planetary buffs (which I'm not) would like a fine range to locate the optimal maximum magnification. I'd go for the simple life, 13, 26 and 40.  That's the good news. The bad news is the price of the 13, 26 and 40 in question! 🤣

Olly

[ollypenrice]

27 minutes ago, Ian McCallum said:

A camera can't capture the dynamic brilliance, colour and magic of a view through the eyepiece.  For the time being, a 'live' view can't be matched on bright objects like stars and star clusters, etc.

Colour? Come now, that is precisely what a camera can capture. These are natural colour RGB.

 

Olly

[Franklin]

I wouldn't want to tell this guy he can only have 3 eyepieces!

 

[RobertI]

13 minutes ago, Franklin said:

I wouldn't want to tell this guy he can only have 3 eyepieces!

 

I think someone just has!

[Louis D]

27 minutes ago, ollypenrice said:

The same applies to the gap between my 26mm Nagler and my (imaginary) 40mm Pentax.

For the 14" SCT, I'd get the 40mm Lacerta ED.  At f/6, it's nearly as good as the 40mm Pentax XW-R, with a bit less eye relief, but 3/4 the weight.  At f/10, it should be nearly indistinguishable.

Here's my comparison image at f/12 from my 127 Mak: