Eyepiece selection - Kit or one by one...

[andras]

Hi Guys,

I need help on selecting my next EyePiece(s).

I have a Celestron NexStar 4SE (f/13), and I have realized that I need more eyepieces.

So here is what I have been offered at my "somewhat local" dealer.

First there is the Eyepiece and Filter Kit which is an inexpensive choice (on sale at the moment), but you have to buy everything at the same time, so actually this makes it my most expensive choice for the wallet right now.

This set has a 4mm, 6mm, 9mm, 15mm, and 32mm. (already have 25mm)

In addition there is included:

- A Barlow Lens 2x

- 6 color filters

- Moon filter (which I currently own)

This means a total of 12 magnification variations (with my current EP included), and a lot of extra colored viewing options (which I don't know when to use yet).

Another option is an eyepiece multicoated Ultra Wide 66° angle (SkyWatcher).

They are available in 6mm, 9mm, 15mm and 20mm. Here is link to this option.

Here, I could buy one at a time, but if I buy all four sizes, then eventually it would cost me more than the kit.

Also, the kit gives an view angle of 52° (32mm has an angle of 44°).

What do you think? Are the EPs in the kit of good quality (I assume that the others are)?

And what about FOV? 66° compared to 52°, is that a huge difference?

Any suggestions are welcome

[Revs]

Hi Andras. You'd be better off with the Revelation kit (below) with your scope as it has a long focal length and the smaller EP's in the Celestron kit will simply give you too much magnification. The smallest in the Rev. kit, the 9mm, will be on the limit. You don't want anything smaller than that. Also the Rev kit comes with the camera adapter, which can be really handy. But yes, the kit is the best option in my opinion

Eyepiece Sets - Revelation Photo-Visual Eyepiece kit

[JB80]

I have just ordered this eyepiece and filter set. I don't have any of it's contents and not entirely sure if the 2mm and 5mm will be much good for me at all but the filters and LED light are going to be useful at least.

Anyway it's ordered now so I guess I'll know more when it arrives.

[Bizibilder]

You only really NEED two or three good quality eyepieces and maybe a Barlow lens as well (effectivly giving you six combinations). I would suggest reading Warthogs Eyepiece thread and asking for specific advice from the forum and suppliers. If you choose well and buy wisely you will have a selection that will last you for years.

Sets (and I do own one!) tend to have lots of reasonable but cheap stuff in them, much of which you will seldom, if ever, use.

[brantuk]

The Revelation kit represents best value for money - the ep's are a useable range and the photovisiual bits are an added bonus.

I wish I'd bought that one instead of the Celestron in which two of the ep's (6mm and 4mm) are virtually unusable. The viewing lenses are tiny - about the diameter of a small pea.

The barlow is average, and the only 4-element ep is the 32mm - so it's a misleading advert as 4 of them are just a single lens. The filters I havn't used so wont comment - the only good bit is the case I reckon.

Hope that helps

[Keiran]

sorry to hijack this one, but what about EP kits like the meade 5000 kits, ie the swa and the super plossol...

I am normally on the side of buy one at a time and at that good ones, but i have just bought a 20mm meade 5000 swa and i think its amazing?

[Astro_Baby]

I can see both sides of the argument on this one. On the one hand knowing what I know now I would have selected 2-3 expensive bits of glass straight away and avoided the kit. The problem is I only got to know what I know now by having the kit.

I think kits can be good for beginners as it gives you arange of eyepieces to use, all of which are probably better than anything you got with the scope, it also gives you a decent Barlow and a some filters to play with.

With my own Nexstar 4SE I Seldom go below a 10mm eyepiece (although I have gone as low as 5mm in really good seeing).

One of the issues with a scope like the Nexstar in the situation is you may well invest in eyepieces to suit the scope, which cant accept 2" EPs, and then later on upgrade the scope and end up buying even more stuff to suit a different scope.

I think in this hobby you almost always end up buyting more stuff anyway

The Nexstar is really happiest on bright objects like the moon, planets and double stars so I'd buy with that in mind plus a decent widefield eyepiece. The Vixen NPL in 32mm is quite nice.

If you want to go slowly and buy one at a time I'd sugget getting something in 9mm, another in 15mm and one at 32mm and buy the best you can afford for the scope.

[brantuk]

I have to admit - making the mistake I did on the kit made me focus on what I really wanted out of ep's, and it was probably a sound lesson in what to buy. Astrobaby is entirely right about that.

If you go the single ep route then you need to know focal lengths, magnification factors, exit pupils, field of view widths, focal ratios, etc, and how they all match up to your particular scope and it's use (observing or photography).

Also which brands and prices. I get mostly s/h ep's now and I'm dead fussy which ones lol

[andras]

Thank you so much for the info. It looks like I might go for the revelation kit - after all it's not as expensive as the Celestron kit, and it gives added bonus. Alternatively I will buy EPs one and one.

But I think this thread has adviced me to be carefull with the Celestron kit. It's a lot of value for the price, but I might end up with a lot of "somewhat useless" pieces for my scope, that won't be used, and not as good quality as some of the ones you buy seperately.

One last question though, when will I use the color filters anyways?

[Revs]

I'm by no means an expert but I know the light blue (82A) brings out detail in Jupiter, and the ND96 Moon filter is pretty much essential when viewing the Moon. I'm yet to try the filters on other planets.

[Astro_Baby]

The moon filter is the most useful the others - theres a link here to an excellent article by Gaz and Andrew

http://stargazerslounge.com/primers-tutorials/84192-primer-understanding-choosing-filters-visual-use.html

[LukeSkywatcher]

I cant praise eyepiece kits enough for beginners. They offer you up the best views that money can buy when you really dont understand the difference between good or bad EP's.

The Revelation EP kit certainly seems the best investment.

I bought the Celestron kit when i started out and i only use the 10mm,15mm and 32mm (the 32mm died a few months back)

[Revs]

I love the 32mm EP in this kit. Even after using the Hyperions for the first time the other night, going back to the 32mm put a smile on my face. Really good contrast and sharpness and works great with a barlow.

[dmahon]

I have just ordered this eyepiece and filter set. I don't have any of it's contents and not entirely sure if the 2mm and 5mm will be much good for me at all but the filters and LED light are going to be useful at least.

Anyway it's ordered now so I guess I'll know more when it arrives.

If anyone has recently bought a skywatcher scope, you can get that kit for £69 from the distributers here.

When I asked about it on this board very recently, the advice I got was not to bother - even at that price. I also asked about kits in general - the answer to that was more indecisive, but I think the majority suggested I would eventually replace the lot so if I could afford it, or be patient and take my time building up a collection, I may as well get good ones straight off.

[great_bear]

It's a bit uneducated to write off ALL eyepiece kits as "lesser quality" - or to assume that the contents are poorly selected.

Although it's true that the Sky-Watcher kit is not well-liked, the Revelation Eyepiece Kit contains well-respected Plossls from GSO. Whilst not the best choice for F5 scopes, these work very well in a scope such as the F13 NextStar 4SE.

And if you don't use every eyepiece in the box - so what?

- it's not like you're out-of-pocket.

I've got eyepieces by Meade, Tele Vue, William Optics, Circle-T, and Baader - but my trusty Revelation Eyepiece Kit still sees plenty of use, because the eyepieces are good and are known to be good. It's just ignorant to assume otherwise.

I will never sell them.

[great_bear]

I just wrote a long rant about the Revelation Kit and then deleted it because I'm tired of sounding like a broken record.

Suffice it to say that its an excellent kit containing very good quality Plossls

However, since I have a 4-inch Mak in regular use that's similar to yours and astro_baby, I agree that her suggestions of 9,15 and 32mm focal lengths are good choices. I'm even more conservative - just an 8mm TMB-style planetary and 24mm Meade 4000 Plossl with that particular scope - but that's just me being minimalist, knowing that I've got lots of other eyepieces I could pack into the bag if I wanted to.

Don't forget too, that an F13 scope is kind to eyepieces so you do not need to purchase the most expensive eyepieces to get excellent results.

[Freff]

This has now become my present stumbling block, deciding on upgrading my EP's to the most suitable. I'm presently digesting the very useful Sticky writen by The Warthog.

[great_bear]

Actually, deciding on the focal lengths is pretty easy - choosing the make and models of them all is a lot harder I think.