New Eyepiece

[jwallis]

After a really great night out with a local group i asked what sort of upgrade i could get on a wide view eyepiece. At the moment the largest i have is a 32mm Celestron Fully Coated Plossy. The scope is a f5 300p skyliner.

I dont want to spend much more than say £170, max would be £200. What would you guys and girls plumb for. Its a lot of money so i do need help on this. Will the views from a better eyepiece make a lot a difference on the views?

Thanks in advance. Jon

[NGC 1502]

Hi Jon, the Baader Hyperion Aspheric 36mm gets good reviews, as do

Skywatcher Aeros. If you go too cheap, then the view towards the

edges of the field of view would be poor with your F5 scope.

The 36mm Baader would give 42x and about 1.7 degree field with your

300p. The ultimate would be something like a Nagler 31mm or Panoptic

35mm, but way outside your budget.

Other options too, maybe from further posts.

HTH, Ed.

[russ]

Jon, you could place a wanted ad for a secondhand Panoptic 35mm as that should fall within budget. One was for sale today for £175. It would be a great eyepiece for your scope. Some may argue about exit pupils but i'm dubious of that argument. never seen any detrimental effect.

31mm Nagler or 30mm Pentax XW would be the Ultimate low power eyepiece but they are both seriously outside your budget.

Another two contenders could be the Meade 5000 30mm UWA or the William Optics 28mm UWAN. Both should just fall in budget as secondhand buys. And would satisfy the exit pupil argument, if you buy into that.

Brand new you are talking about the eyepieces Ed mentions, which will be a step down in quality, as you would expect. But will be brand new. Another worthwhile mention for a brand new eyepiece is the last of the Meade 5000 SWA's still available from a German supplier. They have the 28mm SWA still in stock for an amazing price. But in may not have the field of view you are after. The 34mm i had was an absolute cracker in my 12" f5. I was never really that disappointed to hand back Shaun's 31mm Nagler.

As we discussed in the field on Saturday night, it will definitely be worthwhile going the 2" widefield route to get the most from the 300P. Which ever one you get, it's going to be a good improvement over the cheaper 32mm and 40mm Plossls. M31 just lacked that impact with the lack of fov in both Plossls but with the 2" widefields, as witnessed by Tim's 41mm Panoptic, its totally different ball game.

[Moonshane]

I totally agree with Russ. The 35mm Panoptic is superb and would give a field of 1.5 degrees compared with the 1.0 degrees of your 32mm plossl (which you could sell to part finance the Panoptic after you secure one). I got a mint one for £200 a while back. Be patient, your 32mm will serve you well for the time being.

The view will be wider and almost certainly sharper all round and more detail possible and more contrast (although as the 32mm gives slightly more magnification the contrast might be the same). It will not be a magic bullet that transforms the images you get with the plossl but it will be better. It's a heavy eyepiece so you might need to rebalance your scope before use with it (usually only the one time).

[John]

If you can't find a Panoptic then the Skywatcher Aero ED's are pretty good for their cost (around £130 new).

I agree with Shane though - your 32mm Celestron plossl is not a bad eyepiece by any means so no need to rush this.

[russ]

I agree with Shane though - your 32mm Celestron plossl is not a bad eyepiece by any means so no need to rush this.

It's not bad at all.....it's all i have now. But im not going to kid myself, I seriously miss the 34mm Meade. All the Plossls at the shorter focal lengths are fine but for low power it has to be a 2" widefield. I'll be snapping up the first Adler that appears. A new Aero 35mm would be good if i had the money.

[jwallis]

A nice balanced load of replies,thank you. I am not going to rush into buying one, but,,,,,..... if i see a second hand,,more than likely buy it. Panoptic 35mm sounds good. Choices,choices, choices. Why did i improve my scope,ahhhhhh......

Why i never took this up in my younger years i will never know, but i wish i had!!!