Yet another eyepiece advice request

[AndyB]

I recently purchased a 6 month old Skywatcher 130P Supatrak(f5) and am finding it a super bit of kit for helping me learn the skies (together with a copy of Turn Left at Orion). But.....I'm not sure that I have good eyepieces as I feel I am struggling to get large enough or detailed enough views through the lenses of targets such as Jupiter and I am also struggling with the total viewing area through the lenses as when I move slightly, I lose sight of everything.

After reading Warthog's post about eyepieces I have deduced that ideally I need the following:

High Power: 2xBarlow

Med/High Power: 7.5mm

Med/Low Power: 15-20mm

Low Power: 25mm

I have some 'stock' lenses which came with the scope which are all unmarked brand:

2xBarlow

Super 25mm Wide Angle Long Eye Relief

Super 10mm

Am I being unecessariley critical about the quality and viewing area of what I see, am I suffering collimation, should I keep the lenses I have and learn to use them properly, or should I replace my 'stock' lenses with something of a higher quality?

Any advice, as always is greatly appreciated.

[resonator77]

AndyB, I am a novice myself in stargazing, but I recently discovered that if you do not have experience in telescopes and finding stars, then buy yoursself goto telescope such as Schmidt - cassagrain celestron. Better tube quality, no collimation required for longer time use and clearer optics and eyepieces. Newthonian I presume your telescope, which is little tricky to use. Had the same problem recently, got rid of My 130 EQ Celestron.

[Whippy]

I think it maybe be better to try and collimate your scope and then see if you feel the need to upgrade. Have a look at this: Collimating a Newtonian . FWIW, some nice plossl eyepieces would be a good upgrade as they offer good performance for not a great deal of money.

Tony..

[resonator77]

Tony

could you advice me on skyalign of celestron SE series?, I am having a problem aligning it using 3 stars ;-(

[Astro Adj]

Hi Andy,

I've got the 130PM, and am also really enjoying it! I was tempted by the GOTO options but, now that I've 'found' my first DSO myself, am really happy I perservered with learning the night sky and moving the scope myself.

I have the same EPs as you and am also thinking about upgrading them. However, it woul be worth checking the collimation on your scope first, just in case that is part of the problem.

I also bought a wide angle 6mm EP, which is my favourite by far. It gives clear views of Jupiter and by using the 2x Barlow we can get up to around 216x magnification. I'm now thinking I might either upgrade the barlow (as the image seems to lose contrast when I use it with any EP) or perhaps invest in an even higher-powered EP (around 3.6mm) so that I can observe the planets without using the barlow at all.

Please let me know what results you attain if you do change anything as I am in the same boat! :-)

[The Warthog]

You might want to go ahead and get a 7.5mm ep. If you can afford it, get something with a little better FOV and eye relief than a standard Plossl, but a Plossl will do you fine, too.

If you are finding that you lose your field of view when you move your head, you may simply be moving it more than you think; it's hard to tell in the dark, or you may be getting a little 'kidney beaning' which is an effect seen in some eps. Parts of the FOV are suddenly covered by a blackout, often in the shape of a large kidney bean. You have to keep your head very still if your ep is subject to this.

[AndyB]

Thanks for all the advice. I attempted my first collimation yesterday and after initially thinking I had ruined my scope (as I could not get any alignment at all) I persevered and got it pretty much aligned. It was touch and go for a while!

I brought the scope out last night to have another look at Jupiter but found I couldn't get as much detail as usual, but I think this was mainly down to not letting the 'scope cool down before I used it.

So, my next viewing should be either this evening or tomorrow evening, with enough time to let it cool down before hand, I'll let you know how I get on.

Again, thanks for all the help.

[Vulpecula]

Schmidt - cassagrain celestron. Better tube quality, and clearer optics and eyepieces.

Just to clarify: This may have been true for you, but as a general rule, Schmidt-Cassegrain telescopes do not have intrinsically clearer optics than a Newtonian, and the eyepieces are no different.