[codemonkey (Lee)]

Hey guys,

I'm in the process of selling off my astrophotography rig that has kept me well occupied for the past 6-7yrs and I'm thinking about moving to the dark side (visual).

I've never really done visual at all and so I'm reaching out for some advice on what eyepieces I should pick up.

I currently have an 8" F4.5 Newtonian and a Paracorr Type 2, which makes it effectively an F5. Said scope is up for sale and if it sells I may buy a bigger dob with the money... if it doesn't, I'll probably convert that to a dob. I'm unlikely to go faster than F4.5

I guess the biggest question is: what do I want to look at? Unfortunately, I have no idea! Having never done visual, I don't know where my interests are. In imaging, I was most fond of galaxies, but I have the feeling that globs and open clusters might be more visually striking?

I'm thinking of no more than 3 eyepieces to start and I'd like to keep the investment modest. Definitely no Ethos, not prepared to invest that kind of money having never tried it before. Maybe DeLite, or Baader Morpheus? That's probably as much as I'm prepared to invest right now, ideally cheaper, or better yet, second hand. That said, I don't want to go so cheap as to put me off the hobby by using equipment that's just not up to it.

So if you had to pick 1 eyepiece to start with, given the scope I mentioned above, what would it be? And then what would your second and third ones be?

If relevant in deciding which eyepieces, I live on acreage under Bortle 3 skies.

Cheers,
Lee