eyepiece quality/price ratio

[matt c]

Hi there generaly speaking which make of eyepieces give the best quality/price ratio i notice a lot of naglar pieces on ebay and in posts on this site. I've just started astronomy and use GSO pieces which seem pretty good to me compared to the ones i got with the scope. I'm interested in pieces 25mm and under as the exit pupil is within limit without wasting light. Opinions and advice on the subject would be very much appreciated as i will be building an eyepiece collection in the coming years

[pvaz]

Well I'm quit new to the hobby too so I can't really compare many EPs.

After reading a lot I found some nice cheap ones. The brand is Agena and their SWA set is the same as the Orion Q70 but under a different label and a better price. I notice a bit of distortion in the edges when I first got them but a couple of nights ago I found that by adjusting a tension knob on the focuser there is a "sweet spot" of focus where the image seams almost perfect edge to edge. I plan to buy 2 TeleVue or Pentax EPs for the mags I use the most in the near future.

For planetary I have 2 Baader Orthos and they are superb. The difference in detail on planets when compared to the 10mm plossl I received is very clear. It feels like I'm using a completely different scope. The ortho design haves a very short eye relief and, in the long run as my vision degrades, they may become uncomfortable to use.

[FLO]

Generally, Plossls and orthoscopics offer the most performance-per-£

They are also readily available secondhand. You do however need to be careful with some of the cheaper Plossls, they can suffer from internal reflections/ghosting.

I don't think I have ever come across a bad orthoscopic.

HTH

[John]

I think you should be able to go up to 30mm without having any problems with an excessively large exit pupil.

If you are happy to stay with eyepieces with "normal" fields of view, that is 45 degrees - 60 degrees, then you can get some very good eyepieces at remarkably low prices, especially 2nd hand. With a "fast" scope (ie: F6 or less) and desire to move to wide field or even ultra wide field eyepieces, that's when it is worth considering investing a bit more as the cheaper wide fields don't do so well in fast scopes - as the saying goes "wide field / low cost / works well in fast scopes - pick any 2".

Personally, I've now built up what I consider to be a really good set of wide field eyepieces and these will move from scope to scope and are likely to perform well in a wide range of scopes I hope.

John

[matt c]

Thanks for the feedback people probably get some orthos for general observations. And get shorter focal length baader to tease more detail out of mars and mercury if i get the chance to see it in future