Meade 5 Piece MA Eyepiece Set?

[mylatestwhim]

Hi - I am a beginner and have recently bought an Orion TX8i with one eyepiece.

I am a newbie but also understand about false economy and I want to buy the best kit my budget will allow. Do you think this kit will let down my good scope?

Meade 5 Piece MA Eyepiece Set

Do you think I will be dissapointed with the above? Should I look to double my outlay and go for say a celestron kit?

Thanks for reading.

Confused

[russ]

Do you think I will be dissapointed with the above? Should I look to double my outlay and go for say a celestron kit?

In a word....yes. You would definitely be disappointed. The Meade MA is not a good eyepiece by any stretch and £70 for 5 of them is not good value. There are better sets around and not just the Celestron offering.

Or perhaps a better idea would be to buy two highly rated eyepieces for £80 , that would work well very with your XT8i. It may not seem like such good value only getting two for £80 but there's no real reason to have more than 3-4 eyepieces anyway. Presuming you already have a 25mm Sirius Plossl (a good eyepiece btw) that came with the XT8i, that would give you a good coverage of focal lengths.

The eyepieces i would recommend are the BST Explorer ED (15mm or 18mm) and TMB Planetary clone (6mm or 7mm). Both are £38 plus £2.50 p+p. The 15mm BST will give you 80x and a 0.75deg true field, the 18mm 67x and 0.89deg. While the 7mm TMb would give 171x, the 6mm would be 200x for lunar/planetary viewing.

Here's a TMB Planetary 6mm (genuine not clone):

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/planetary-eyepiece-1-25-inches-6mm-/130506037658?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item1e62c4199a#ht_936wt_1125

And here's the Explorer 15mm:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/1-25-15mm-60-Degree-Explorer-Dual-ED-Eyepiece-/380329904326?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item588d6dc8c6#ht_4141wt_972

[mylatestwhim]

In a word....yes. You would definitely be disappointed. The Meade MA is not a good eyepiece by any stretch and £70 for 5 of them is not good value. There are better sets around and not just the Celestron offering.

Or perhaps a better idea would be to buy two highly rated eyepieces for £80 , that would work well very with your XT8i. It may not seem like such good value only getting two for £80 but there's no real reason to have more than 3-4 eyepieces anyway. Presuming you already have a 25mm Sirius Plossl (a good eyepiece btw) that came with the XT8i, that would give you a good coverage of focal lengths.

The eyepieces i would recommend are the BST Explorer ED (15mm or 18mm) and TMB Planetary clone (6mm or 7mm). Both are £38 plus £2.50 p+p. The 15mm BST will give you 80x and a 0.75deg true field, the 18mm 67x and 0.89deg. While the 7mm TMb would give 171x, the 6mm would be 200x for lunar/planetary viewing.

Here's a TMB Planetary 6mm (genuine not clone):

planetary eyepiece / 1.25 inches , 6mm | eBay UK

And here's the Explorer 15mm:

1.25" 15mm 60 Degree Explorer Dual ED Eyepiece | eBay UK

Perfect Russ - thanks for taking the time to reply,

Things are getting clearer now (No pun)

Unfortunately the vendor sold the original eyepieces so it only came with a celestron 9mm plossl. (Enough to give me some great views of the moon and Saturn last night though...)

[russ]

The Celestron Plossls are good eyepieces. So no surprise it gave good views.

Maybe also be worth saving for a 2" widefield eyepiece to make the best of the 2" focuser on the XT8i. Being an F6 scope you'll get good views from the Skywatcher Panaview 32mm:

http://firstlightoptics.com/proddetail.php?prod=Skywatcher_PanaView

or slightly better value with near same performance but lower grade finish, one of the Ascension 2" 32mm Super Wide Angle 70° eyepieces from Opticstar:

Ascension Super Wide Angle Eyepieces.

Scopes'n'skies do it cheaper but you really need to call and make sure they have it stock:

Adler Optik Adler Optik Skarp 32mm 2" fit 5 element SWA Eyepiece

[mylatestwhim]

Thanks,

How does the Celestron Omni Plossl range compare with other more expensive ep's in terms of optimization of the XT8i reflectors?

They seem good value

Sorry for all of the questions,

[russ]

Others have reported liking the Omni. I had 3 of them which i bought cheaply from another SGL member and wasn't so impressed. Not a patch on the more expensive Celestron Nexstar Plossl. I would have a hard time recommending them to be honest but others may disagree.

[mylatestwhim]

Others have reported liking the Omni. I had 3 of them which i bought cheaply from another SGL member and wasn't so impressed. Not a patch on the more expensive Celestron Nexstar Plossl. I would have a hard time recommending them to be honest but others may disagree.

Thanks for your help!

Andrew