Eyepiece help

[ian h]

Taking advantage of good clear skies. Earlier on this evening I managed to use a 9mm with a x2 barlow which gave me a surprisingly crisp clear view of Jupiter.

I did not think a 6mm would be any good for my scope , but am now considering getting one.

Which would people recommend as the better eye piece, Either.

TMB 6mm planetary (Type II) 1.25" eyepiece

Or

Vixen NPL 6mm eyepiece

or another similarly priced EP ?

[jamespels]

Hi Ian,

do you wear glasses? If so, I can definitely recommend the TMB. I have exactly this model and the eye-relief is excellent, making a very comfortable EP to use, and the view is great.

I cannot speak for the Vixen though they do have a very good reputation.

Hope this helps,

James.

[Egor Blimey]

You don't say what kind of telescope you have.

I tried out a 7mm 'TMB designed' planetary eyepiece earlier tonight that I'd received in the post this morning from Skys the Limit. My 'scope is a Skywatcher 150mm F5 achromatic refractor (bought to look at DSOs after 20 years of using a Vixen 4" F9.8 achromatic refractor).

These fast refractors aren't renowned for lunar or planetary viewing but as the TMB eyepieces are so cheap (£36) I thought I'd try one anyway and use it with my 2" ED barlow if necessary.

At 6pm Jupiter looked clear with the naked eye but was still too low for good seeing. I did see banding clearly, but the edges were fuzzy using the barlow due to the unsteady atmosphere. The Moon was pin sharp however, being much higher, especially using a moon filter to reduce the glare and increase contrast. The TMB was definitely better than any of the other eyepieces I tried (although they are not expensive ones) for clarity and especially field of view. The view of M42 over my rooftop was not discernibly worse than views I've had using a SW aero 2" 30mm eyepiece!

I am extremely impressed with the 7mm which I chose because like you, I thought that an even shorter focal length eyepiece would be too extreme for my type of 'scope. Now I'm not so sure: and I believe the BST Explorer eyepieces are slightly more highly thought of, but only come in 5mm and 8mm I think, which is why I plumped for the one I did.

I'd say that if high magnification performance is this good on an F5 achro refractor, it would be even better on most other (slower) 'scopes. Buy one!

Barry.