Advice wanted: Eyepieces in Celestron Eye Piece & Filter Kit

[dag123]

Hi,

My first post here, I hope you, the readers, can help.

I have just received the Celestron Eye Piece & Filter Kit, purchased from Amazon.

The description from the website states:

Box Contains

5 x Superior Grade Plössl Eyepieces - 1.25” (4mm,6mm, 9mm, 15mm, and 32mm)

Barlow Lens - 2 x 1.25”

6 x Colored Eyepiece(Lunar and Planetary) Filters - 1.25” (Kodak Wratten #12, #21, #25, #56, #58A, and #80A)

Moon Filter - 1.25”

Aluminum Carrying Case

However the kit I have received contains the following eyepieces:

6mm, 8mm, 13mm, 17mm and 32mm.

The rest of the kit is fine.

My first thought was that, this was not what I ordered.

However I am wondering if this selection of eyepieces is acceptable.

I am a beginner with a three-week old Celestron Astromaster 130EQ. This comes with a 10mm and 20mm eyepiece.

I have only had a few nights outside due to the weather and only one so far with the new eyepieces. My first impressions are that my views of the moon were amazing, but views of stars and Jupiter were blurred. I have read on this forum that this blurring might be due to the scope not having cooled down enough as it was being kept inside. The tube is now stored outside in a shed, so maybe when I next have clear skies things will be better.

Anyway, I would be grateful if anyone can offer any advice about my new eyepieces, should I return them and get what I was expecting, or is what I have a reasonable or better alternative?

Thanks

dag123

[russ]

I wouldn't worry too much. I think you ended up with a better selection of eyepieces. The 4mm Plossl is not a pleasant eyepiece to use, really short on eye relief. The kind of eyepiece that never gets used.

What you have instead are some sensibly chosen Plossls which combined with the barlow give an excellent selection for the Astromaster 130. My guess is Celestron have tweaked the set to make it more useful.

[Merlin66]

I'd keep the set as received.

The chances of using the 4mm are pretty low! It would give an extreme magnification! - You can always use the 8mm with the barlow to give you the same result.

I found on my 6" f8 that the 10mm (or sometimes the 12mm), 25mm and 32mm were the most used.

[Porl]

Hi dag123,

I have the exact same set up, Celesetron Astromaster 130EQ and the eyepiece kit and I know exactly what you mean about say jupiter seeming to be blurred.

Some people have said that the best views of jupiter have now kinda gone for the year ( ?) but I thought it would be a little better. Is there much light pollution where you use your telescope? I use mine at a farm just outside of a town and there is some light pollution and im not sure wether its been good viewing conditions or not. Im waiting to head out to the peak district to try it out to see if there is much difference.

I've found that the most used lenses for me are the 32mm which is one I love!!! Its got such a good viewing field, fits the Pliedes in perfectly and looks the bee's knees to boot , the 15mm and the 9mm. I've tried using the barlow but I used this to view Jupiter and with it looking a little blurred I havent really used it since.

Im really going to give the lenses more of a run and I dont know if you've noticed the difference in build quality compared to the 2 that came with the scope? The 10mm and 20mm that came with it seem a lot dimmer to me than the new lenses. The stars are a lot brighter for me through the new ones.

I've rambled a bit but I hope you get some good viewing with your new lense kit.

Porl''

P.S. I just re-read your post that you got a different range of lenses in your kit. That's weird. They are only a mm here or there out of the kit I have so it shouldnt be too different. doh.

[brantuk]

Wish they'd done that with my set - I just find it impossible to use the original 4mm and 6mm.

[Robthevegetable]

... & mine (and I've only had mine for a few weeks)! I have used the 4mm before, and while the views were good, it was a nightmare trying to look through for any length of time! That combination of EP's seems much more sensible!

[haitch]

I'd agree that the range of F/Ls you received is better than you ordered so if I were you I would keep them. 6, 8 and your existing 10mm will make a good set for planetary use and the 13mm is a classic F/L for smaller DSOs or for nights of poor seeing on the planets. 13, 17 and your 20 are also nicely spaced and don't worry about the gap up to your 32mm as a straight increase in number is a smaller proportional change in magnificiation the higher you go (eg 4mm from 4 to 8mm halves the magnification whereas from 20mm to 24mm is around 20% reduction).

Edit: the 6mm might be a bit much for your current scope in less tham optimum conditions but you can keep your EPs if you upgrade your scope.

[dag123]

Thank you all very much for your advice.

I think I will be keeping the eyepieces I received.

For what it is worth it looks like "russ" is correct, Celestron has changed the kit contents.

A few web-searches are showing the kit to match what I have, including the Celestron site.

So perhaps if anyone else about to make the same purchase, they should double-check if they will be getting new or old stock!

To Porl, agree the 32mm is great, if nothing else it allowed me to locate what I wanted to aim at more easily. I was not having much luck with the 20mm and the red-spot-finder. However with the 32mm in-use lining-up with the finder was close-enough to centre the target with the RA/DEC and move on to a different eyepiece. In fact it was the Pliedes I was using for target practice and I agree the view was amazing with the 32mm.

Thank you all again for your help.

dag123