2" EP in a 6" Scope?

[RikM]

My Skywatcher Explorer 150P comes with a Crayford focuser to take both 1.25" and 2" eyepieces. Do you get enough light with a 6" scope to really use 2" eyepieces? That's a lot of glass. I was looking at getting a SW 32mm PanaView 2" EP. Would I be better with a standard 32 or 40 mm Meade 4000 Plossl?

Rik

[John]

Yes, a 2" eyepiece should work fine with your scope. The 32mm Panaview will show you a much wider field of view than a 32mm or 40mm series 4000 plossl although in an F/5 scope the stars in the outer parts of the field will be distorted a bit - thats pretty much always the case with lower cost, wide field eyepieces and fast scopes.

[RikM]

Is there a maximum quality / price for eyepieces that I should look at for my scope before I don't see any significant advantage?

E.g.

Meade 4000 - okay,

Meade 5000 - better,

Nagler - no improvement because scope optics become limiting factor.

Rik

[John]

There is a law of dimishing returns that means that the improvements you get for spending more money get less and less noticable. Naglers and Pentax XW's offer pinpoint stars across an 82 degree field of view even in fast scopes - but you pay a premium price for that. I've not used them but I understand that the Meade 5000 eyepieces are noticably better than the 4000 series. Baader Hyperions used to offer a good performance / price compromise but their recent price hike makes them seem a bit less attractive - they are not far off the price of some of the Skywatcher Nirvana range which deliver performance close to Nagler quality. Probably a good tactic would be to get a reasonable but not too expensive wide field 2" eyepiece (eg: a Skywatcher Panaview 32mm) and see what it does for you before you decide to dip your toe deeper into premium widefield waters. You might be able to pick one up used if you keep your eye on the "for sale" boards.

Edit: Doh ! - just remembered that Hyperions are not 2" eyepieces !

[Astro_Baby]

The Hyperions stop at 24mm for the wider angle 31mm they come with a dual fit for 2" and 1.25" - as far as I know the 1.25 adapter unplugs from the EP to give it the full view.

I have a Panaview 38mm for my SW200 and the views are very good. It gives a very contrasty view and for wide field objects like the bee hive, Pleiades etc its superb.

I also have the 26mm which while good lacks the 'oooohhh' factor of the 38mm.

I havent tried the 32mm but it should give good views. The price is a bit steeper than I recall. The two I have are VERY comfy to use for me but some people complain that the 38mm is so big that they cant get their eye into it comfortably.

They are pretty good quality for the money and reasonably well corrected for a fast scope, you will see some coma towards the outer edge of the EP but its not terribly obtrusive to the view and most people dont even notice it.

Wide field EPs that are really well corrected usually come with a fairly monster price tag. I'd agree with John - try something a bit cheaper and see how you get on.

[pvaz]

I have some agena's SWAs and they are good value for your money. I sold the 32mm one after buying the 31 nagler which is better corrected but I could very well live with the agena's.

On my scope (f/5.9) they ware well corrected to 80 or 85% of the FoV and start showing some smoothness to the outer edge. Still the image is pleasing, the baffling is as good as the nagler and they are very comfortable to look through.

3 or 4 decent EPs is all you'll use 99% of the time, provided you chose them well. 2 and a good quality barlow is also an option. After reaching this conclusion with cheaper EPs I invested in the nagler and ethos which combined with the 2x barlow give me all mags I really need. I kept the others for other reasons (mainly visitors who won't see the benefit of a Nagler/Ethos and may damage them by accident).

[RikM]

Many thanks for the help and advice everyone.

Rik

[Breakintheclouds]

I have to echo Astro Baby's 38mm Panaview recommendation. I bought one recently - partly because I'd seen her enthuse about it on this board - and I love it. It's a really immersive experience and frankly you'd probably have to be looking for the distortion at the edge of the field for it to bother you that much.

[yeti monster]

Last night I set my recntly aquired 10" SNT up on an improvised mount (sacktruck/breeze block*) with the 0.965" 40mm "nondescript" EP. If the view I got with that set up was (more than) ok, I'm going to have little fluffy kittens when I start spending yer actual money on EPs.

*pat.pend.

[Astro_Baby]

Well I am glad about that breakintheclouds - phew ! I'd feel dreadful if someone did that and was unhappy.

Its a good bit of glass though and I know Matt at Astronomia raves about it as well for its huge views.

[Breakintheclouds]

Astrobaby: the funniest thing is that I got it at the same time as a Baader 5mm ortho. I doubt there can be many other pairs of eyepieces so very different in size...

[Astro_Baby]

Certainly little and (very) large

[phattanglo]

It would be wise to try a few different eyepieces as I tried a 40mm and a 36mm and found I could see the secondary mirror in my explorer 150p whereas a 32mm was fine.

This was a 1.25" Plossl so a 2" eyepiece or another type of eyepiece with a wider fov may give a different result.

[RikM]

Thanks. I'm going to get the 32 mm Panaview when funds allow.

New EP or swiming lessons for the kids...hmmm...? Might have to wait till next month.

Rik