Which eyepiece make is better?

[phoenix072124]

Hi, i am newbie to this but have always been interested in stargazing, so i went out and bought a Celestron Nexstar 8SE and a 10mm - 25mm and 32mm came with it but i need a barlow and more eye pieces.

So my question please is which out of these barlows is the best one, Meade Series 5000 5x 1.25 OR Celestron Ultima Barlow 2x 1.25?

And out of the eye pieces which make is also the best one Celestron X-Cel Series eyepiece OR Meade Series 5000 Super Plossl. I thinking of getting a 5mm and a 14mm.

Thanks any and all advice is very well welcomed, Louise

[russ]

Definitely the Meade 5000 over the Celestron X-Cel.

[bombassa]

Hi congrats with your scope.

First of all I have no experience with this scope (or this scope design in general for that matter!).

Is your scope primarily for visual use or photography? For visual use I think a 5x barlow would be of limited use because your scope already has a focal length of 2032 mm (I think) which makes it good for magnification.

I see many users based in the UK here claim the seeing often limits useful magnification to around 200x so a 5 mm eyepiece could likewise be of limited use because it would give you a magnification around 400x. Also if you actually end up buying a barlowx2 then barlow'ing your 10mm will give you a 5 mm eyepiece.

On the other hand the long focal length gives you a small field of view but makes the scope forgiving on the quality of the eyepieces. I have seen people on a competing forum recommend the Baader Hyperions, which have an apparent field of view of 68 degrees for this scope. But hopefully the more experienced users have lots of (better) advice. I have no experience with neither the meade's nor the celestron x-cel's.

Do you already have some sessions and a good feel what your current kit can do for you? Otherwise this could be a good start before investing in more gear.

Please forgive my bad english.

[Chris H]

Re the ep's the 5mm is probably going to be too powerful it will give you x400 the atmosphere is rarely steady enough to use that sort of power especially if you are in the UK. Something in the 17mm range would be of more use I feel.

[Demonperformer]

Welcome to the forum, Phoenix.

I have your scope's baby brother (6SE) and they are great scopes.

Out of the options you give, the celestron ultima is a nice barlow, and will give you effective focal lengths of 5, 12.5 and 16mm. From your selection I would be inclined to try to pick up one of these (maybe secondhand) and see how you go with that. If you find you are always going for the 10mm+barlow option, that would be time enough to get a 5mm e/p.

FWIW, most of my visual work is done with a 10mm e/p (a pentax xw, which is considerably more costly than anything you are suggesting!)