Celestron Explorascope 114AZ advice

[Storm1]

Hello all, Just bought the above scope and I am totally new to watching the sky at nightime. It comes with a couple of lenses, but does anyone know what the best lenses are for this model? Links to prices would be appreciated too.

[Cosmic Geoff]

The choice of eyepieces is very wide. Any of the 1.25" barrel size should be usable. What is your budget? A typical price for a decent but non-exotic eyepiece is £50, and you might want a set of 3, plus a Barlow lens if you don't have one.  Plossl eyepieces will work in your scope and may be cheaper.

[Naughty Neal]

 The scope is a slower scope at F9 so most eyepieces (ep/s) won't be too fussy with your scope.

Typically look for three 1.25" eyepieces  if upgrading, low, med and high power is the  usual route to go.

114mm aperature one might be able to push the viewing to 200x if the seeing is excellent , other wise 10x the aperature will likely be the optimal  limit.

For a low power approx. 30x mag you will need a 30/32mm ep.

Med power an ep in the 14 -16mm range for 70 - 60x mag.

 High power an ep  8mm - 10mm  for 125x - 100x mag .

Next is budget for ep's,  plossls are pretty cheap at £20 - £30 used and some new , or one can opt to pay up to £60 for some better decent entry ep's. For the   plossls 50 degree field of view is the norm though one can also get 60 degree fov ep/s .

Used meade 4000 plossls aren't too shabby  they come up on ebay .

Cheap new.

Astro Essentials Super Plossl Eyepiece | First Light Optics

 

New vixen npl's approx. £50 are regarded well.

Vixen NPL Eyepieces | First Light Optics

BST starguiders have some followers witht the 60 degree fov.

BST StarGuider Telescope Eyepieces for Sale Online | First Light Optics

Celestron x-cel lx 60 degree fov.

Celestron X-Cel LX eyepiece | First Light Optics

 

 

Or for wider fov one needs to look at ovl.

Nirvana-ES UWA-82º Ultrawide Eyepieces | First Light Optics

 

The piece of string can be  very long .

Anothe rconsideration is do you wear specs.
 

 

 

 

Edited July 10, 2023 by Naughty Neal

[bosun21]

I would also change the 3x barlow that is supplied with your telescope for a more conservative 2x. You will get much more use from this as well as clearer views.

[happy-kat]

Welcome. If you wear glasses then eyepieces with longer eye relief can be more comfortable. Eye relief is the distance above the eye peice where the eye would be to see the whole image in the eye piece, I like between 16-20 mm when wearing glasses though depending on reason for wearing glasses some can observe with out the glasses.

Edited July 10, 2023 by happy-kat