Best “cheap/mid range” eyepieces??

[Neutrinosoup]

My 13year old daughter sent me a bunch of photos of the night sky tonight (I was oncall at work) but wouldn’t take our “shared” Dobsonian Xmas present out because…..she won’t touch my TVue eyepieces despite reassurance!

We’ve mainly been using my Panoptic 24mm and Delos 10 and 6 with it. 
 

Can anyone suggest two cheap but decent-ish eyepieces I can get for her?  It seems a shame to not encourage her interest here!! 

 

 

[bosun21]

BST Starguiders are a decent eyepiece at a very reasonable price. Also the Nirvana eyepieces are wide field and also reasonably priced. 

Edited January 16 by bosun21
Typo

[cajen2]

+1 for the Starguiders - they're a great EP for the price, though the field of view isn't jaw dropping. Also consider one of the StellaLyra UFF or LER/WA 68° range - a bit more expensive but decent for the price.

[John]

+2 for the Starguiders. Comfortable to look through and decent performance, very decent in the central range of focal lengths.

[Louis D]

Look for a used set of Meade HD-60 eyepieces.  I compared them to Paradigm/Starguider line and preferred the HD-60s pretty much across the entire lines.  Here's my comparison:

I've loaned both sets to my 29 year old daughter to use with her scope.

[Elp]

Vixen NPLs, also slightly higher up price wise Celestron XCel LXs.

[happy-kat]

There's the GSO Revelation eyepieces too

[Naughty Neal]

24mm uff /uf (£109) gets good feed back and a good Panoptic option. Currently one 24mm uf on offer at FLO for< £95.

The above can be had in the UK as Ultima edge, Stellalyra ultra flat and SvBony uf & Skyrover uff via AliExp.  The Stellalyra via FLO likely the cheapest option.

Via Aliexpress the UF 18mm can be had  for £51 delivered in 7 days.

For 10 & 6mm,  Xcel lx's (£50 - £60 via AliExp))  also get good reviews with the 9mm and the 7mm (reported as 6.5mm ) by Earnest as quality views for there pricing.

Starguiders, HD60 & Xcel lx's appear to use the same glass internally , it is just the outers and the price that one has to settle on.  All are 60 degree fov.

Stellalyra LER 9mm (£59) but only 55 degrees also badged as Founder Alien ep's.

Again FLO have  three or four  on offer in the 5- 12mm range, all £45 - £51.

 

 

Edited January 16 by Naughty Neal

[Zermelo]

13 hours ago, Louis D said:

Look for a used set of Meade HD-60 eyepieces

There are a couple in the For Sale section, but I think OP might not have enough posts to be able to see it.

[Naughty Neal]

There are some non badged Meade HD60's on Ali Exp, these appear to be the exact same as the HD60 even with the dark red banding but no Meade name.  Inside the box buyers say there is a Meade warranty card, it is thought these are post production or production models left remaining after Meade pulled them from the market so the supplier has kept on selling them as a no name HD60.

Edited January 16 by Naughty Neal

[mikeDnight]

These are excellent! Who knows, you may even sell your TV's!! 😃

Genuinely though, they really are incredible for the price. The 30mm is breathtaking, and they are available under several brand names.

[Naughty Neal]

2 hours ago, mikeDnight said:

These are excellent! Who knows, you may even sell your TV's!! 😃

Genuinely though, they really are incredible for the price. The 30mm is breathtaking, and they are available under several brand names.

The same 24mm ep   under the Stellalyra brand from FLO is some £90 cheaper and the 30mm , £35 less.

 I picked up an 18mm under Sv Bony name for £51 delivered,   the SvBony 10mm is  silly priced at approx. £25 delivered.

Edited January 16 by Naughty Neal

[jjohnson3803]

I don't know if you'd consider them to be cheap, but I really like my Vixen SLVs.  Nice eye relief if anybody wears glasses.  Not superwide angle.  They do go on sale from time to time or you might be able to find used ones.

[Sunshine]

On the lower to mid range I have never really had a complaint about the Celestron X-cell eyepieces, they are pleasant to look and well made, worth a look.

[Second Time Around]

Many would agree that at around £125 the best value low power eyepiece on the market is the 22mm 70 degree model sold under various names inclufing Olivon and TS.  They're extremely sharp across the field and have long eye relief.

In head to head tests I actually preferred it to the much more expensive 22mm Nagler and 20mm Pentax XW and sold both these.

Edited January 16 by Second Time Around

[Louis D]

15 hours ago, Second Time Around said:

Many would agree that at around £125 the best value low power eyepiece on the market is the 22mm 70 degree model sold under various names inclufing Olivon and TS.  They're extremely sharp across the field and have long eye relief.

In head to head tests I actually preferred it to the much more expensive 22mm Nagler and 20mm Pentax XW and sold both these.

I did the 22mm Astro-Tech AF70 vs 22mm Nagler T4 comparison multiple times, and it was close.  The former won out on eye relief,  lighter weight, and freedom from any SAEP, but the Nagler won out on wider AFOV and being sharp to the edge.  The AF70 goes astigmatic in the last 5% to 10% of the field near the edge.  I ended up retiring the AF70 to the B-Team case with the 12mm and 17mm NT4s that were retired in favor of the 12mm and 17mm ES-92s.  I figure my daughter might want to move up to that case at some point, so I hold onto them.

[Ratlet]

I'd also go for the starguiders.  They're great, or if you are feeling a bit rich the Nirvana's (but not the 16mm as it is pretty awful).  Personal preference will come into it a bit here, but I rather like a 60° fov.  Just peachy for me.

If she doesn't wear eyeglasses and doesn't mind a tight eyerelief and you are looking for high power, get the svbony 3-8mm zoom.  It's brilliant, covers a wide range of focal length and is almost parfocal and different powers.  I also think it works better at 8mm than the best 8mm optically.

Watch for the HD60's on AliExpress as there have been a couple complaints on cloudy nights about quality not being up to par with the originals.

[Mr Spock]

I suppose for me the best mid range eyepiece is the Nirvana. I'm looking at the moon tonight with my 12" and the 7mm Nirvana for x217 and it's very sharp and contrasty. Plenty of detail on Jupiter too. Remarkable for £85 https://www.firstlightoptics.com/ovl-eyepieces/nirvana-es-uwa-82-ultrawide-eyepieces.html

Note: the 16mm is pants.

[Ricochet]

17 minutes ago, Mr Spock said:

I suppose for me the best mid range eyepiece is the Nirvana. I'm looking at the moon tonight with my 12" and the 7mm Nirvana for x217 and it's very sharp and contrasty. Plenty of detail on Jupiter too. Remarkable for £85 https://www.firstlightoptics.com/ovl-eyepieces/nirvana-es-uwa-82-ultrawide-eyepieces.html

Note: the 16mm is pants.

I think that is the range I’d be looking at too. I’d probably start with the 10mm for the 10”, 13mm the 8”.

I saw a 28mm pop up on eBay a couple of days ago for £150 which would be a great choice for (almost) maxing out the fov.

[Captain Scarlet]

I would suggest BST Starguiders too. Very easy to pick up used (£35 going rate). For the price, absolutely superb, and intrinsically, really quite good. And for a young child, not too much of a disaster financially or guilt-wise if one gets dropped onto a patio. Dropping a TV onto a patio on the other hand is not a nice feeling, I’ve been there. When she is ready to graduate to something more up-market, you’ll get all of your £35 back.

[SCANS]

For budget friendly eyepieces, our SkyGuiders have been of great value. After much research, I ended up getting a complete set soon after we got our first scope. They've been terrific aids for learning how to use our scope and observe. They aren't quite as sharp or rich in contrast as the set of Morpheus we recently upgraded to, but from a price/performance perspective I think they'd be tough to beat. They've certainly lived up to their reputation for us and I still enjoy using them from time.

[Neutrinosoup]

Thank you all!

I’ve hopefully secured a 25 BST Starguider from another member here (sale pending) which I’m sure my daughter will be delighted with. I’ll keep an eye out for a higher magnification starguider eyepiece 10,8,5.  Probably an 8mm would pair nicely x48 (25mm) x150 (8mm).

(8 inch Dob 1200m focal length).

[cajen2]

The 8 is a good one too; possibly the best in the range.

[Don Pensack]

On 21/01/2024 at 06:10, Neutrinosoup said:

Thank you all!

I’ve hopefully secured a 25 BST Starguider from another member here (sale pending) which I’m sure my daughter will be delighted with. I’ll keep an eye out for a higher magnification starguider eyepiece 10,8,5.  Probably an 8mm would pair nicely x48 (25mm) x150 (8mm).

(8 inch Dob 1200m focal length).

Focal lengths are, IIRC, 25mm, 18mm, 15mm, 12mm, 8mm, 5mm, 3.2mm, so no 10mm is available.

[Zermelo]

If you particularly want a comparable 10mm, you could get a Svbony SV190 10mm UFF (apparently measured as more like 10.5mm).
They have the same 60 degree field as the Starguiders, they're sharp and have a flat field.  The current Amazon price is just under £50, but it's about half that on Aliexpress for the next few days, if you're comfortable going there (that price may not include tax).