High power EP's

[simon84]

Please accept my apologies for probably repeating something that has already been answered. I found something on it the other day but I cant for the life of me find the page I'm after so if someone could point the way or can answer my query I'd be grateful.

I have an f5 scope, am I better off getting around a 6mm EP and then using my 2x barlow if I'm ever able to use max magnification or am I better off getting a reasonable 3mm and only get it out when conditions allow?

Again apologies for repeating.

[John]

Personally I'd probably use the barlow + eyepiece approach. I can't see a 3mm eyepiece getting much use in your 12" F/5 scope TBH - I've never used my 3.5mm Nagler in my 12" F/5 - the conditions have simply never been good enough for 435x !.

John

[Astro_Baby]

I started off by aiming for high power but conditions in the 2 years I have been back in the hobby have never been good enough for much above x200 magnification for visual.

I prefer wide angle EPs for most DSO targets myself - almost never under 13mm. I dont do much planetary viewing but generally never go under 8mm myself. Have only used my Barlow once in a the last year and that was just to let someone else try the Barlow with their own EP.

[simon84]

Thanks for the tips, I've got the 10mm that came with the scope, not had a chance to look through it yet but the build quality seems ok.

Think I'll just wait till I can have a go with what I've got and maybe go from there.

I think I've got the "must have one of those" bug.

Was very happy with the view of Orion that I got last night with the bins so I can only imagine what that 10mm EP will do.

Thanks again.

[John]

Don't be in a hurry to up the magnification - the most rewarding views often come at low to medium powers, especially with deep sky objects. A scope is first and foremost a light collecting device rather than a magnifying one in my opinion.

The theoretical maximum magnfications that a given aperture can support (around 600x in the case of a 12" scope) are lagely unused for scopes over 6" in aperture as our atmospheric conditions just won't allow such power to be used. In practice 250x seems to be as much as you can use most of the time.

John

[Whippy]

I used to own a 3.5mm Baader Hyperion eyepiece and it got used once in the two years I owned it. 99% of the time the conditions just don't allow anyone to get the near the theoretical maximum of what your scope can do.

Personally, I've found a 5mm eyepiece is generally the shortest eyepiece I can use on most nights. 6mm and upwards should be alright.

Tony..

[arad85]

I agree with others on here - no more than about 250x. I know you want to start by upping the mag, but there is another thing you need to consider - field of view. There's no point getting all the magnification if you're looking down a straw and only seeing the central portion of the DSO you're looking at. Stick with the ones you have at the moment and just see whether you want higher mag, wider field (which is the same as lower mag if the field of view of the two eyepieces are the same) or lower mag.

This is a pretty good read too: http://stargazerslounge.com/beginners-help-advice/80772-eyepieces-very-least-you-need.html

[simon84]

Thanks again all for the tips. I will give what I've got a go and see what happens from there......now into getting The Sky and my new EQDIR module communicating......