Eyepiece advice for Celestron 5SE

[Bugdozer]

I currently have the following eyepieces with my Celestron Nexstar 5SE (f/10, 1250mm focal length, 5 inch aperture):

25mm Celestron Plossl (came with the telescope)

9.7mm Meade Super Plossl (about 24 years old, used to use with my previous ETX scope)

2x Barlow Lens

I have no complaint about the quality of these, but as they're the only ones I have used with my current scope, I don't have any basis for comparison either!

When I use the 9.7mm for planetary observing I get a nice clear view at around 130x. However, adding the Barlow pushes this up to 260x which is right at the limit of the telescope's resolving power and to be honest the images sometimes seem TOO magnified and I end up taking the Barlow out again. However, I'd still like to have a slightly closer view sometimes.

So, would I be better to get a slightly shorter length eyepiece, such as 6mm? Or would I be better off using a lower power Barlow, like 1.5x? I am prepared to spend some £ to get good quality, I'm not on a very tight budget. I will admit I don't fully understand the impact of things like eye relief and field of view in a practical sense.

My second question goes the other way - is there any benefit to getting a a longer length eyepiece than the 25mm for deep sky observing? I do have trouble getting things like the Pleiades and Double Cluster completely into the field of view, and if there's any benefit to brightness or clarity from a lower power eyepiece then I would consider anything you might recommend.

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

In my Celestron C8 I find that I generally work at focal lengths of 7 to 10 mm for planets, equivalent to an exit pupil of 0.7 to 1.0 for an F/10 scope. A 6 mm can work under good conditions, and if conditions are outstanding, I might go for a 5 mm, but that only on moon and Mars. You might want to consider the Pentax XF 8.5 mm (I used to have one, but replaced it with a Tele-Vue Delos 8 mm). The Pentax XF 8.5 is very good value for money, I feel. There are plenty of other choices. In my light-weight travel kit I have Vixen SLVs of 5, 9, and 15 mm which are all excellent, Pentax XW quality for a much lower price, at the cost of a smaller FOV (50 deg vs 70 deg). If you don't mind the short eye relief, a Plossl or Ortho of around 7 mm   would work

[Mr Spock]

I'd suggest a 7mm, that would give you x179 which is perfect for Jupiter and Saturn. I'd recommend one of these: https://www.firstlightoptics.com/ovl-eyepieces/nirvana-es-uwa-82-ultrawide-eyepieces.html Great value for money and the 7mm is very sharp.

I believe the 5SE can only accept 1.25" eyepieces, so for low power you are limited to a 32mm. A good Plössl will do fine. If you have unlimited funds you could replace your 25mm with a 24mm Panoptic. That would give you 1.3° instead of  1° and is as wide as you will get with that scope. A 32mm Plössl will give you the same 1.3° field of view but at a lower magnification.

[bomberbaz]

As michael says above a panoptic would give you max FOV but at a price, for roughly half the price the stellalyra UFF gives you almost the same at just 3 degree reduced afov StellaLyra 24mm Ultra Flat Field 1.25" Eyepiece | First Light Optics

On the planetary side I would go zoom all day every day, much more flexibility on the day for conditions and still gives you near x180 Hyperflex 7.2mm-21.5mm Eyepiece | First Light Optics