Finally, my eyepiece buying days are over

[Moonshane]

Well, OK maybe not but they are for now. I had a wonderful Christmas with the family who kindly ordered some eyepieces for me (well, OK I ordered them and handed them over so I was not tempted to use them before Christmas!) and a dobsonian book by Berry and Kriege to help with my future projects - hence mo money for other purchases for a bit - everything's going into the 'scope fund'.

I now have a comprehensive collection for both planetary use in the 6" f11 and for wider field in the 12" f5.3 dob. The Radians obviously overlap and I am sure I'll use many of the eyepieces in both scopes to combat the various targets and seeing conditions we all have to contend with.

Here's a couple of pics of the whole gang. The 15mm TV plossl, 7mm BGO and 9mm University Optics Ortho were for Crimbo. One day I might actually use them!

All the vest best to everyone.

[barkis]

Well, it's a lovely family photo, that's for sure.

Of course you'll use them, it would be sacrilege not to.

I hope you are at Lucksall, and have them all with you, so I can share the Wow of the views they supply.

Ron.

[spaceboy]

Great collection there Shane..You definitely have a comprehensive collection to choose from that's a fact......but I bet you will soon be toying with the idea of adding more

Congratulations on the Christmas Presents have a happy new year!!!

SPACEBOY

[perrin6]

Eyepieces - mmmmmm lovely ! Somehow though I feel the desire for new eyepieces is really a substitute for wanting a new telescope that will show us something different. As we already have one or more 'scopes, we buy a new eyepiece in the hope it will show us something different. (Or it's just 'sour grapes' from me because I can't afford an ethos ! - however despite having a large dob for faint fuzzies and reasonable views of planets & v. close double stars, I do still yearn for something like a 6 inch planet killer or 8 inch SCT for the more perfect images they give. My ZS 66 tantalizes me with it's beautiful 'renditions' of double stars with lovely near-perfect & steady images. Saturn looks incredible through it, although small).

[NGC 1502]

On several occasions I have thought that my eyepiece

buying days were over................

Good luck !! Ed.

[Moonshane]

Well, it's a lovely family photo, that's for sure.

Of course you'll use them, it would be sacrilege not to.

I hope you are at Lucksall, and have them all with you, so I can share the Wow of the views they supply.

Ron.

cheers Ron

I have every intention of being there. The only things that scuppers it slightly is that it clashes with Mother's Day. Determined to make at least one night and two days though.

Great collection there Shane..You definitely have a comprehensive collection to choose from that's a fact......but I bet you will soon be toying with the idea of adding more

Congratulations on the Christmas Presents have a happy new year!!!

SPACEBOY

Cheers Nick

A Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you and all too! No doubt I'll be looking to add to them but in all honesty my next project will make wider fields (the only reason I'd consider another one in the future) will be unnecessary when I build my equatorial tracking platform for my planetary dob! I reckon for under £50 I can make something which will track visually OK at high mags (well higher than we get in the UK anyway).

Eyepieces - mmmmmm lovely ! Somehow though I feel the desire for new eyepieces is really a substitute for wanting a new telescope that will show us something different. As we already have one or more 'scopes, we buy a new eyepiece in the hope it will show us something different. (Or it's just 'sour grapes' from me because I can't afford an ethos ! - however despite having a large dob for faint fuzzies and reasonable views of planets & v. close double stars, I do still yearn for something like a 6 inch planet killer or 8 inch SCT for the more perfect images they give. My ZS 66 tantalizes me with it's beautiful 'renditions' of double stars with lovely near-perfect & steady images. Saturn looks incredible through it, although small).

I agree Alan - I think that a desire for more kit whatever it may be is ever present for Astro nuts!

On several occasions I have thought that my eyepiece

buying days were over................

Good luck !! Ed.

ha ha

no doubt about it Ed!

[Kef9]

What a lovely happy family!

[pvaz]

Great collection!

[Nick P]

Lovely set of eyepieces Shane - out of interest which ones do you use the most?

[Kef9]

Yes I'd be interested to know.

Also how about a pic of the whole gang together as one

Finally is this really it or do you have some more upgrades lined up for distant future. What would be your ideal collection or does this hit the mark?

[Moonshane]

Great collection!

cheers Paulo - probably too many but hey - they're eyepieces and I have two scopes!

Lovely set of eyepieces Shane - out of interest which ones do you use the most?

I'd say 22mm Panoptic and 13mm Ethos for wide field and then 12.5mm BGO for planetary (this gives 128x which shockingly has often been the most I can get out of Jupiter with seeing lately) and the Nagler zoom for lunar. In truth though I tend to work my way through the orthos/plossls and see what looks best.

Yes I'd be interested to know.

Also how about a pic of the whole gang together as one

Finally is this really it or do you have some more upgrades lined up for distant future. What would be your ideal collection or does this hit the mark?

No more upgrades for now as I am now in serious saving mode for an 18" mirror. I am really happy with this set and suspect I may only change when settled into the new scope and if any gaps rear their heads. I suspect this set will serve any future scopes I will get though.

If you pushed me then a 27mm Panoptic or a 26mm Nagler would be a fine addition as my home widest field given local LP.

Once I build my equatorial platform (and assuming it works) I'll be locked onto targets and won't need the mega wide fields any more. This was part of my move to orthos and plossl for planetary rather than a single further Ethos for the price of seven other eyepieces.

[Nick P]

I'd say 22mm Panoptic and 13mm Ethos for wide field and then 12.5mm BGO for planetary (this gives 128x which shockingly has often been the most I can get out of Jupiter with seeing lately) and the Nagler zoom for lunar. In truth though I tend to work my way through the orthos/plossls and see what looks best.

Interesting, like you I like starting of with a relatively high mag and have just added the 19 panoptic and completed my initial collection of 3 EP's plus barlow (19pan, 11nag, 8plossl) and finding the jumps between them (1.7x and 1.4x) to be about right, to be honest haven't needed the barlow recently due to poor seeing but the views all have nice dark skies - not bad considering the LP down here!

Keep us posted with progress of the 18" monster!

[Moonshane]

cheers Nick

We are not too far away in terms of our eyepieces and scopes - both mine are 1600mm focal length so my mags are 73x for the 22mm (although I also use the 35mm when struggling to find something - 46x), 123x for the 13mm and then 128x for the 12.5mm and say 267x for the Nagler zoom.

Yours would be 47x (19mm), 82x for the 11mm and 112x for the 8mm. In reality anything about 200x is moon only where I am currently.

I'll be starting a thread once I start the big dob. It will be a long slow process though! The good thing is that my father in law is a retired joiner and can also weld steel no problem so half the battle is sorted.

[Nexus 6]

Terrific collection Shane, looks pretty comprehensive. Hope you get plenty of use of them

Alan