Help me buy stuff!

[Andyfx]

Hi everyone! I have the below scope with a focal length of 500 and want to replace my 10 & 25mm Skywatcher eyepieces and a couple of plossls 6.5mm and 16mm with reasonably priced upgrades. I have just ordered a 5mm BST Explorer and cant decide what to get next.... I am keeping my 32mm super plossl however. Any ideas on brands and mm? 9mm TMB?

[Si W]

Rather than buy loads of Eyepieces have you considered a combination of eyepieces and barlows, below is some info off the net.

The idea is that 2 eyepieces and a Barlow will give you the flexibility of magnification of 4 eyepieces, and will give higher magnifications with less powerful eyepieces. If you use a Barlow with fixed-focus eyepieces, you need to give some thought to a suitable choice. If, for example, you have a x2 Barlow and a 25mm eyepiece, there is little point in acquiring a 12.5mm; it will mimic the 25mm + Barlow. A suitable choice might be 32mm, 18mm, 12m.

How a Barlow Lens works

[ronin]

The 114P is a 500mm scope and so is f/4.4, an eyepiece will have to be pretty good on a scope that fast.

I suspect that getting an eyepiece that will give good results could include an amount of luck, or expensive eyepieces.

If the 5mm works well and if you want more magnification then perhaps a 4mm in the same line. Idea being if the 5 works then good chance that the 4 will be decent.

Otherwise I would go for something like 5mm, 7mm, 10mm and 15mm. With the 32 mm you state that should do most things.

Problem with a barlow is back to your scope being f/4.4, it may not be easy to get one that works well on an f/4.4 scope and so the barlow may simply make any image poor immaterial of the eyepiece.

Types/makes, suppose that the TMP range are good and not overly expensive, would however ask if they are suitable for fast scopes. TV plossl's are said to be good on fast scopes but they are also £80ish.

[Si W]

I have an F4 and a 1.5* 2.0* and 3.0* barlows, and in all case's there is no image quality issues at all, it would only cause an issue with poor quality EP's and bad collimation.

[Andyfx]

Well FLO have said that the x2 Tal Barlow is out of stock now till probably Autumn and I have decided to not use a barlow if possible and get magnifications natively with just eyepieces. So aside from the 5mm BST and my 32mm Super Plossl what should I get inbetween and what brands?

[Damo636]

I can vouch for the TMB at f5.9. I have the 6 and the 9 mm and are both excellent. Not sure how they would perform in your f4.4 though. That's a pretty fast scope.

[Andyfx]

I received my 5mm BST yesterday and must say that I am very impressed with the build quality, what are the TMB's like? I hear that some have rubbers that come off easily...