Help on choosing eyepiece for Saturn

[Canyouguesswhoitisyet]

Hi Fellow members

I have a skywatcher 130P and am now in the market to buy some better eyepieces. I only have the standard SkyWatcher 10mm & 25 and the x2 barlow.

While Saturn is good in the sky right now I just want to see it a bit closer than I can achieve with my current tackle.

What would be the smallest eyepiece to go for that would be of practical use. 8mm? 6.4mm? I just dont know how far I can push the magnification.

also while we are on the subject of eyepieces, in context what does a better quality eyepiece give you? If I bought a better quality 10mm than my basic one, what does it do to the object I am viewing? clearer ? Brighter? ??

I finally got a good night viewing last night as the skies where the best for quite a while. I went back to galaxy hunting and was viewing M94 for ages. It is a faint fuzzy but far better to look at than the whirlpool galaxy close by. I found that last night but could only just make it out.

This is why I want to know what improvements better lenses make before I just take the plunge and buy a few.

Thanks in advance.

[brianb]

For the highest useful power (without a barlow): take four fifths of the focal ratio of the scope. Your 130P is f/5 so that's 4/5*5 = 4mm. With such a short focal length you will need a long eye relief design.

The standard Skywatcher 10mm is inadequate with a fast scope: spherical and chromatic aberration on axis, and fairly severe off axis aberrations will be apparent. A good 10mm will have a sharper image (when the scope is properly collimated & cooled and the seeing is steady), things will remain sharp out to the field stop, the field of view may be wider and the eye relief may be longer (the last two depending on the design).