Skymax 127 eyepiece help

[star girl]

I haven't had my Skymax 127 very long but have discovered that the eyepieces supplied with it, especially the 10mm, are not particularly good. Anybody got any advice about which brands/focal lengths I should be looking at getting. What are your favourite eyepieces used with this scope?

Thanks for your help.

[OzDave]

The only EP that I still use from my Skymax 127 is the 25mm, the others are all garbage. I decided that I would invest in a couple of good quality EPs and bought the Pentax XW 10 and 20mm. These are pretty pricey but the difference is astonishing!

If I were buying another, I might go for something around 5-6mm which is about the useful limit for the scope, but I can just use my 2x Barlow with the 10mm instead at the moment.

I also have a 0.5x focal reducer, which allows me to get an effective 40mm EP out of the 20mm. This is sometimes useful for looking at wider fields, since the scope has such a long focal length that it's hard to fit some objects into view. For ages I was looking at stuff like the Beehive cluster and wondering what the fuss was all about, until I saw it in a 9x50 finderscope and realised that I'd been zoomed in so close that I could also see a small percentage of it.

I expect that there are much cheaper, but decent quality EPs available than the Pentax, but I wanted to be able to use them with future scopes and so forth. I do find the focal lengths useful with this scope though.

What sort of budget did you have in mind?

[Jove]

I have a set of "Revelation" Plossl eyepieces - 9mm, 12mm, 15mm, 20mm and 40mm (instead of 32mm). I don't have much to compare them with but they're better than the eyepieces that come with the scope.

I'm not sure how useful something around the 5 or 6mm end would be - I find the 9mm has a tiny field of view and quite poor contrast. When I first started out I used high powers all the time, now I find myself reaching for the 40mm and 15mm most frequently. The 12mm is sometimes useful, but I only really go to higher powers than that when splitting doubles these days, and the barlow covers that (Barlow + 12mm gives 250x, about the useful limit for the scope IMHO).

I use the 40mm a lot - for star hopping (I'm not a goto person!) and looking at bigger objects, like open clusters. But then I am eyeing wide field scopes these days

Hope this helps

[ezza123]

I have the Same OTA as you and went for the revelation eye piece kit from FLO, they are IMO fantastic!

[star girl]

We were advised to avoid a set as we would mainly just want to use about three eyepieces and therefore the rest of the set would be a waste. The problem is that we therefore can't try different focal lengths to see which would suit!

I am aware that my scope is reasonably forgiving of not-so-good eyepieces but my husband has a SW 200PDS and we want to use the eyepieces for both scopes. We are therefore happy to spend more if we are getting decent eyepieces. TV Ethos - no! but maybe Panoptics/Naglers if they are worth it. Are the Pentax eyepieces similar quality to these?

[BazMark]

I have a 6mm TS planetary HR which in my view pushes this scope to its limit in my location (a light poluted Essex sky in the UK).

I also have a Kson 16.8mm orthoscopic which gives nice views both on it's own and barlowed 2x with the SW Deluxe barlow. This would no doubt be improved with a better barlow but it works for me.

Lunar viewing with the Kson is superb.

[Capricorn]

Throw in my tuppence worth. As you want eyepieces for 2 scopes I would simply suggest collecting TV plossl's.

Good performance and you have the choice of 8, 11, 15, 20, 25, 32 and 40mm offerings. Price range seems to be £70-90,

They are par-focal so no (great) refocussing when swapping eyepieces. They will be usable on both scopes.

For your 127 I would start with the 11mm and see how it performs. Basically replace the 10mm you have. If good and you are happy with it then perhaps the 20mm afterwards. Fill in the gaps or expand as time goes on.

8mm is as small as I guess the 127 will handle if conditions are good, and I suspect it could not be used as much as people hope/expect.

The problem I could see is that plossl's tend to not have a great degree of eye relief and if this is a factor for either of you then perhaps eyepieces that have longer eye relief may be considered.

Telscope house appear to sell the full range of TV eyepieces and I think that SCS Astro do the Orion eyepieces and (I think) one of their designs has long eye relief, LER.

[Neon]

I'll just wade in and agree with Capricorn. I've got a couple of Tele Vue Plossls and they are very nice eyepieces, which barlow well. Plus, if you buy one off eBay it'll pretty much hold it's value and you can sell on if you don't like it. As has already been said, go for the 11mm one.

The only downside with the TV plossls is they've only got a FOV of about 50 degrees. Not a problem with GOTO or with a properly set up equatorial mount, but can be a bit trickier at high magnification with a ALT-AZ.

[Capricorn]

Just to add more confusion :evil6:

How about the 3 WO SWANS, 9, 15, 20mm

Performance seems good, heard not a lot stating they are poor and equally not a lot stating they are exceptional. Guess that means they do the job they were intended for.

At £59 (FLO) they would make a set for just under £180 and give wider views. One thought is that being just 3 not sure if that is a sufficent range for use on 2 different scopes. Would like to have seen a 12 and 30mm as well.

There are clones of them about that are less expensive.

[star girl]

My husband has bought an ex demo 13mm Televue Ethos so our eyepiece collection is now underway!!

I'm thinking of a 35mm Panoptic as these seem to be very highly rated and then a 8/9mm for higher power. Any thoughts on this combination? We will have a bit of time as we need to save up for the next purchase!

OzDave - you mentioned a focal reducer. Is this for use with a Skymax 127? What make is it? I have been trying to find out about one for with this scope and haven't had much luck.

Thanks.

[OzDave]

OzDave - you mentioned a focal reducer. Is this for use with a Skymax 127? What make is it? I have been trying to find out about one for with this scope and haven't had much luck.

The focal reducer I have was supplied as a "gift" when I bought the scope. It is an Opticstar 0.5x focal reducer. It has a 1.25" barrel and just screws onto the end of any 1.25" eyepiece. The whole lot then goes into the scope and your scope magically has half the normal focal length and thus half the magnification that you usually get with the eyepiece you are using.

I wouldn't say the optical quality of the reducer is brilliant, especially not for photographic uses, but it does work ok for visual use and is sometimes useful. I'd probably look for something better quality if I were wanting to buy something similar again today.

Hope this helps,

David