LER Kit

[mayberts]

Hi All,

as some of you will know I am new to astronomy and I have recently purchased a SW explorer 130p.

I have noticed that OVL have an offer this kit Skywatcher Newtonian Reflector Telescopes - Reflector Telescopes by OVL

my question is as a newbie is this worth getting?

thanks in advance,

Nick

[LukeSkywatcher]

Revelation do a really good kit.

[starstalker]

yeah im thinking about taking this offer up,or maybe gettting the hyperion mark3 zoom instead of a kit, will watch this thread with interest

[John]

Hi Nick,

I've tried a few of the Skywatcher LER eyepieces and was not too impressed I'm afraid.

You would be better to buy 2-3 eyepieces as separates that you will definately use than a kit where some of the items will not be much use.

[paraman]

I think that I would be inclined to give the kit a miss and invest in high medium and low power ep's and a barlow. I havent tried the Baader zoom but their reputation is good.

[Astro_Baby]

Not all eyepiece kits are bad news for beginners but the SKywatcher LER set isnst very good I'm afraid. The eyepieces arent Skywatchers best and the 2mm would be almost unusable in most scopes.

It also misses out a good wide field eyepiece of around 30mm. Take a look around for the Celestron or Revelation kits which are better if you want to buy a kit of eyepieces.

[great_bear]

The general consensus has always been that the Sky-Watcher LER kit is not worth getting - even at the 50% discount offer price.

[mayberts]

Thanks for all the advice I was under the impression that the more EP's you had the better, so far I have a superwide 25mm, 10mm and I have a 2x Barlow which came with my scope.

why would a 2mm be unusable in most scopes?

[Astro_Baby]

The maximum magnification of any scope is usually 2x the size of its primary optic. So for a 130mm scope it would be a maximum power of x260. THst the theortical maximum to which a scope can perform.

Magnification is a function of the focal length of the scope divided by the focal length of the eyepiece. The Skywatcher 130 has a focal length of 650mm so if you divide that by 2mm you get x325 - the scopes maximum power however is only x260 so you are magnifying way past the scopes capability.

Although a scope can in theory go to x2 its aperture in reality a lot of scopes will start to lose quality as you approach the maximum. This differs scope to scope. For instance my Nexsra 4SE and my TAL 100RS will take far higher magnifications past their theoretical maximum than my Skywatcher 200 will. The reasons for that are more to do with atmosspeher and a fast F ratio than any inherent quality issues I suspect.

On top of all that in the UK sky conditions will seldom permit seeing beyond about x230 and very often less than that. I mostly use only about x200 in a scope with a theoretical max of x400 and often sky conditions limit me to x135.

As if all of that wasnt all bad enough a 2mm eyepiece will be hard work to use. Like peering through the eye of a needle. For all those reasons a 2mm wont be a great choice for many scopes ( and none that I own for sure).

Actually you dont need that many eyepieces. I have quite a few but mostly because I need to keep 3 scopes all equipped and they all have different needs. If I were using only my 200P I would stick with something around 32mm with something like a 70' Field of View (FOV) for widefield, something in the 13-15mm range with as wide a field of view as possible and then something of around 4-5mm for close ups of planets. The 5mm is the tough one and I have yet to find something I really like in that range.

Between those three you are pretty well covered - obviously you need to take your own scopes capabilities into account and also what you are happy using. Eyepieces are a very individual thing nd what works well for one person wont be to someone elses taste.

[mayberts]

Thanks astro_baby that makes perfect sense now, sorry for the newbie questions, but I maybe back soon with more.

thanks again everyone

[Astro_Baby]

No worries - ask away. Good heavens dont apologise for asking stuff.