Another EP help thread

[DrNeb]

as you're all highly experienced! can you offer any advice to what eye pieces i should be looking into?

my budget, per eye piece would probably be 100 or under per EP.

I've had my eye on the Meade Series 5000 Super Plossl from FLO. the 14mm in this case. pairing that with a tal 2x barlow for close ups on the planets.

also a baader hyperion 17mm for the clusters.

i haven't taken into consideration anything to do with "exit pupils". Currently quite uneducated on the subject, i need to do some bed time reading.

sorry to be a bit of a leach! maybe one day i'll know enough to actually give back to the community!

Any opinions?

Cheers

[rawhead]

These seem to be highly rated and come well under budget:

1.25" 15mm 58 Degree TMB designed Planetary eyepiece on eBay (end time 29-Dec-10 19:04:21 GMT)

Your scope is fast so it will be fussy with a widefield EP. That said the Hyperions should be fine if you're not to fussy about the outer edge of your field of view. (I never got on with the 17mm. Lots of peeps here do though...)

This one is defo worth a look: Meade 16mm super Wide fishes eyepiece (1 ¼ ')

Cheers

Jon

[NGC 1502]

Do you really need a 14mm and a 17mm eyepiece ? It's a matter of opinion,

but I do think that they would be too close in terms of what you will see.

I wouldn't worry too much about exit pupils at the medium power eyepieces

you are considering. Thats more of an issue when choosing low power eyepieces,

and the over large exit pupil they may deliver with your 250px, if you go too low.

Best regards, Ed.

[DrNeb]

Good point.

Wouldn't really need both a 14 and a 17. would it be best to go for something like an 8mm version of that TMB eye piece from the link? or get the 16 and barlow it?

would barlowing reduce the overall quality of viewing? an 8 with my scope would give me an exit pupil of 1.9mm? is that a good or bad thing?

i'm looking for a good wide field eyepiece and a good planetary eye piece.

[Mr Spock]

I used to have a 250P and my most used eyepieces were 13mm (galaxies and clusters) and 5mm (planets).

[DrNeb]

Cheers for the info Mr Spock!

what are the Telvue plossl range like? i keep hearing great things about telvue, but i have noticed the price jump vs the Nagler and Radian range.

they are only around 70 quid a go which puts them in the same price bracket as the hyperions.

any thoughts?

[NGC 1502]

TV Plossls are excellent. Only downside is the 50 degree apparent field, less

of an issue with a driven mount, and tight eye relief on the higher power models.

Some folk are more bothered than others with eye relief.

Hyperions have excellent eye relief and a wide FOV, but are a bit soft at the edges

with fast scopes, again, some are more bothered than others.

HTH, Ed.

[DrNeb]

so it might pay for me to go for a high power hyperion and a low power telvue...

*strokes beard*

cheers for your help!

[DrNeb]

Argh! sorry to bump this.

But! should i be worried about astigmatism when using any of these eye pieces due to my scope being a fast F4.8/5?

Thanks!

[NGC 1502]

You've mentioned that your scope is F4.8.

If you are concerned with a sharp view right to the edge of the

field of view, then you have two choices. You could spend large

sums on premium eyepieces ( Televue, Pentax, Vixen LVW etc )

or spend less and live with less edge of field sharpness.

You dont need a huge number of eyepieces, 3 or 4, to give low

medium and high power. Opinions vary, but with my 10" Dob

I find a 27mm, 13mm and 8mm (44x, 92x and 150x) is enough

for 90% of my viewing time.

Best regards, Ed.

[Moonshane]

I'd recommend Radians. They work in scopes to f4 and have a nice field of 60 degrees, great eye relief and excellent sharpness and contrast - what's more they sell used for around £100. Try one and you'll be hooked.

Otherwise TV plossls or Baader Genuine Orthos are superb - just as good as Radians (and other TV's) but less eye relief and field. I use all of the above with my manual dobs and even a Nagler zoom with a 50 degree field to 500x occasionally. Tracking's not really an issue but I accept at such powers a tracking system would allow more detail to be seen.

[John]

Argh! sorry to bump this.

But! should i be worried about astigmatism when using any of these eye pieces due to my scope being a fast F4.8/5?

Thanks!

Unless you spend lots of £'s or avoid wide angle eyepieces, you will get some astigmatism towards the outer parts of the field of view at F/4.8.

If you do spend lots of £'s you will then get an opportunity to see what coma looks like - but that's produced by the fast newtonian optics, not the eyepiece.

Then you invest in a coma corrector ...... more £'s of course

[LukeSkywatcher]

You've mentioned that your scope is F4.8.

If you are concerned with a sharp view right to the edge of the

field of view, then you have two choices. You could spend large

sums on premium eyepieces ( Televue, Pentax, Vixen LVW etc )

or spend less and live with less edge of field sharpness.

You dont need a huge number of eyepieces, 3 or 4, to give low

medium and high power. Opinions vary, but with my 10" Dob

I find a 27mm, 13mm and 8mm (44x, 92x and 150x) is enough

for 90% of my viewing time.

Best regards, Ed.

I agree,HOWEVER........i am currently working on building a collection of Vixen EP's. They dont cost a small fortune. The Vixen NPL range sell for about $50 brand new and the the NVL sell for around $80 new.

They are so sharp right to the edge of field and the contrast between light and dark is stunning.

Well worth the investment.

I have yet to try a Vixen LVW.

The Vixen EP's i have work amazingly well with my TAL 2X.

The EP's have a 50 degree FOV but i have to say that in my f5 scopes the FOV feels BIGGER.

[DrNeb]

Thank you all!

a wealth of information right there.

Very intrigued with those Vixen NPL EP's Luke, I'm not going to be a penny pincher as i expected this was going to be an expensive hobbie, but it can't hurt getting some bang for your buck.

the radians are a little pricey for me at the moment, i've just started with this hobby, so hopefully my equipment will get better over time.

i think i'll grab one of those TV Plossls to start with! and i will definitely keep an eye out for those vixen EP's.

Thank you everyone.