Eyepieces

[Llamanaut]

Just been given a Prinz Astral 400 telescope (for free, and you should never look a gift horse in the mouth) It came complete with rubbish wooden tripod, 2x barlow, star diagonal and two eyepieces. I've cleaned it up and freed the mechanism and its working quite smoothly (apart from the tripod which shudders if you so much as breath on it) One of the supplied eyepieces ive noticed has a huge piece of debris between the glass which i can't remove. Do you think these Meade 5 Piece MA Eyepiece Set

would be ok to use with it? Its focal length is 700mm.

[AWR]

I think you might do better with one or two plossls rather than five MAs.

It's a 60mm aperture isn't it? This probably limits you to 120x. Is the barlow any good? If so maybe a 12.5mm and a 20mm giving you 35x, 70x, 56x and 112x.

HTH

Andrew

[Cornelius Varley]

You might also want to check that your telescope accepts 1.25" eyepieces.

Peter

[RikM]

I have a Prinz Astral 400. It only accepts the smaller 0.965" eyepieces. The Tripod sucks but the view is nice and bright and sharp on planets and the moon. I am looking for some small tube rings so I can stick it on my EQ3-2.

Rik

[Llamanaut]

im glad i mentioned this on the forum... i did consider the plossl's but at £79 a pop i figured it was a bit expensive given the telescope model... are 0.965 eyepieces widely available or not? If so any ideas who sells them?

[Llamanaut]

think ive just answered my own question... no, theyre not produced anymore... anyone have any quick fixes or shall i just consign the prinz to the junk heap?

[brianb]

anyone have any quick fixes

The eyepiece with debris in it will almost certainly dismantle fairly easily - just keep an eye on which order bits come out in & the orientation of the lenses. I'm certain it will come apart for cleaning because that's how the muck got in.

[AWR]

You could try using a 0.965" - 1.25" adapter or diagonal.

There is a thread about 0.965" - 1.25" diagonals here. Scopes n Skies sell a cheap one here for £9.99. Just read the advice in the thread before ordering.

im glad i mentioned this on the forum... i did consider the plossl's but at £79 a pop i figured it was a bit expensive given the telescope model... are 0.965 eyepieces widely available or not? If so any ideas who sells them?

£79 for a plossl! Try these skywatcher ones at £20 from FLO.

Andrew

[Llamanaut]

thanks you guys, i knew you'd come up trumps!!!! I'll let you know how i get on!!!

[Llamanaut]

thanks, just ordered the 0.925 to 1.25 star diagonal hybrid and a couple of super plossls... i'll let you know how it goes... thanks all