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Eyepieces - the very least you need.


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I have a question about a brand.

TS-optics, is it any good?

Wery low prices even if you compare with Celestrons EP´s.

Any one with TS-optics experience?

/Christian

Edit:

I have ordered a Sky Watcher 7.5mm super plossl and a Celestron omni barlow 2x.

Next up is a 32mm plossl. Man this is a fun (but expensive) hobby.

Edited by albusdlx
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Hi guys

I was wondering if any of you could recommend a descent Barlow lens for my Skywatcher Skymax 180 Pro.

I'm really not sure which are the best for price.?

Celestron 'Ultima', Televue and Tal barlows have received good reviews. You might also consider the Televue 'powermate' (which preserves your EP's eye relief) as an alternative to a traditional barlow.

- Pete.

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  • 3 weeks later...
  • 4 weeks later...

Hi, interesting read.

I wonder if you could help me with some advice?

I'm half way through building a 6" F8 Dobsonian Reflector.

I have purchased a primary mirror and secondary mirror rather than try and grind my own (time constraints)

The primary mirror has a 1200mm focal length and 1/4 pv, it has a high lux coating.

The telescopes body is made from 12mm marine ply and is rectangular in shape.

Now, I'm struggling to find a flat based focuser and I'm flumuxed when it comes to choosing eye pieces.

Any advice would be much appreciated.

p.s. Im a novice in every sense of the word.

Thanks

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  • 2 weeks later...

I have just ordered my first scope and would like some eyepiece advice. It's an 8" DOB with a focal length of 1200mm , ratio f/5.9

and one eyepiece: Sirius Plossl 25mm (1.25"). I know I need a few more eyepieces and I've read Warthog's great post. I want to buy some pretty decent eps ($100-$200 each) so i can only buy one at a time. Which size and ep should I buy first ?

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I have just ordered my first scope and would like some eyepiece advice. It's an 8" DOB with a focal length of 1200mm , ratio f/5.9

and one eyepiece: Sirius Plossl 25mm (1.25"). I know I need a few more eyepieces and I've read Warthog's great post. I want to buy some pretty decent eps ($100-$200 each) so i can only buy one at a time. Which size and ep should I buy first ?

if its your first scope then i really really wouldnt go spending 100-200 dollars on an eyepiece.

tmb clones can be picked up cheap enough and give quite a good quality visual.

a 10mm will give you 120x, a 5mx will give you 240x, which is probly a little too high for most nights, so look for a 6mm?

id go for a 15mm, a 10mm and a 6mm. just my 2 cents.

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Thanks Warthog, I am a new member and received my first telescope last week. Quickly finding the budget EPs to be no good I used your writeup to help me buy two nice Skywatcher plossls. So I now have a decent high power and low power EP.

Thank you!

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Great guide, Warthog! As a newbie, I figured out from posts here that the EPs are every bit as important as the primary, but did struggle to make head or tail of it all, this really does help.

I've the plunge and decided to go for a Celestron Skyscout 90 refractor as a first scope (heard good things about the optics, seems reasonably portable, for good price) and and been looking at the specifications.

The scope is f7.3 (90mm aperture, 660mm focal length) and comes with 10mm and 40mm EPs, but don't know the type. I don't have much in the way of budget, so instead of getting a 6mm and 15mm (as the guide suggests) I am thinking of using the included EPs with a decent 2x barlow which would give me comparable ranges (5mm and 20mm) to those recommended.

My real questions are:

* Are the EPs included with the SkyScout 90 any good? Obviously, I'm not expecting miracles, just something that's actually usable either by itself or with a 2x barlow for planetary viewing.

* I've heard a lot about "cheap" EPs being a waste of money, but am not sure what counts as cheap. TAL Barlows seem to go for around £40, and Televue for £85! :D

But I have also seen Skywatcher for £12 - £15, and SW is usually regarded as a decent brand???

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Just got me a 35mm Skywatcher Aero ED SWA 2" eyepiece for my birthday the other day and haven't had chance to use it due to the poor weather were having. Just wondered if anyone has one of these and how good it really is.?

Also is there anything out on the market that I could make this fit onto a 37 mm thread to fit my camcorder.?

Any info would be great.!

: Andy.

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As I understand it, the Aero ED eyepieces are clones of the TMB Paragon design, also sold under the TS brand as Paragons. I have a TMB Paragon 40 mm and have always been very pleased with it. The quality is excellent, and the EP is one of the easiest to use, in terms of sensitivity to eye position (black outs, kidney-beaning). It is very forgiving even for inexperienced observers (like the kids or the missus, in my case).

If the Skywatcher quality control is OK, you should have a very nice EP there.

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  • 3 weeks later...
  • 3 weeks later...

I have an old Meade ETX90EC with Goto. It is 1250mm. I recently purchased the Celestron Accessory Kit for $140 which comes with a barlow and 6mm, 8mm, 13mm, 17mm, and 32mm plossls made in China. I am new to stargazing but plan on doing it for awhile, so I'm wondering if I should return the accessory kit, and spend that $140 on one really nice televue or high quality eyepiece, and then just upgrade to a few different really nice ones over the next couple of years, rather than have the 5 Celestrons which might be of less quality.

Will a $150 televue eyepiece really make a difference over the ones I just got?

Edited by spooksmcgee
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  • 2 weeks later...

good advice here, thanks :)

i currently have 4 eyepieces and a barlow to use with my newtonian, and 3 of them could do with being replaced.

20, 12.5 & 9mm

given that i have a limited budget, what would be the best one to replace first ?

thanks

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hi,

This is my first post, so please be gentle with me!

I am a keen photographer and have just purchased a 600mm Canon FD refractor lens.

I know very little about astronomy but am keen to start experimenting. I partially justified buying this lens to myself with the hope that I could also use it as a telescope. Of course I can use it as is with a camera on the end, but to get some real magnification I'm hoping that fitting a telescope eyepiece would work well - note I'm not talking about photography here, just using my eye. I'm interested mainly in our moon and the planets.

Various posts on the interweb have suggested that this is possible, but I'd like a bit of advice please?

I have read suggestions that adapters that will fit FD lenses are available but I have't managed to find anything. Most adapters seem to be to allow FD cameras to be mounted on telescopes and I'm looking to mount an eyepiece to an FD lens.

I'm happy to try and manufacture something myself, but I need to buy an eyepiece. With the 600mm lens what sort of focal length should I go for? Also could someone advise a relatively inexpensive brand/model please?

There are plenty of cheap eyepieces available and I don't want to spend a fortune, but I don't want buy something that isn't up to the job.

Also I don't have an equatorial tracking mechanism. For planetary observation is that going to be a real pain, or is it for deeper observation that it becomes really necessary?

Please feel free to say if you think I'm wasting my time here, I want to get a good image!

Thanks very much

Olly.

.

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Im a newbie. With my recently purchased skywatcher Explorer 150P I got a 10mm, a 25mm and a 2X Barlow, all of which appear to be unbranded and a bit flimsy/poor quality. Recently purchased a 32mm and 17 mm Possl which although still in the budget bracket are way better quality. My sope is an f5 750mm length with 150 mm aperture - would the more experience amongst you agree with these eyepiece sizes or recommend something else more suitable?

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Thanks for this post and thread - as a complete newcomer this has been very helpful in understanding the way the telescope works and if I should bother getting any new eyepieces.

I have just been given a secondhand bresser skylux - the smallest focal length EP is 4.5mm, I now understand why it is so difficult to use!

Cheers

Martin

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