Eyepiece recommendations for Celestron C8?

titanif (Giovanni) · #1 16-10-2023, 07:25 PM

Hi all,

Just acquired a C8 set-up as the first real telescope for our family. It came without eyepieces, so looking for recommendations for some that will let us view either the moon / planets, or deep space objects.

I know next to nothing about the gear, other than that we'd need different eyepieces for these, so any pointers would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks in advance,
Giovanni

m11 (Mel) · #2 16-10-2023, 08:23 PM

Hi Giovanni,

Nice scope to start with for sure.

I would say don't go to hard and start with some plossls. With your SCT the field of view will be more narrow, so a wider degree of view eyepiece would be worth getting later on.

To work out the magnfication you get the focal length of the scope and divide by the focal length of the eyepiece.

https://skyandtelescope.org/observin...pe-calculator/

Have fun.

Dave882 (David) · #3 16-10-2023, 08:58 PM

Congrats on the new scope. There’s heeeeaaaps of options and a big limitation will be your budget. Please do yourself a favour and bypass the stock celestron eyepiece set as these really don’t bring the best view, and just be sure to google reviews when considering a purchase.
As was previously mentioned you will benefit from a longer focal length eyepiece (say 24-30mm) for many deep space objects, but for planets or small planetary nebula look for something around 6-12mm range. And then maybe something in between in the 18-24mm range. The wider fov eyepieces will be more expensive, but even something around the 60degree mark is going to be quite satisfactory. In my opinion it’s best to get 2-3 quality eyepieces instead of a heap of cheap ones. I love the explore scientific range which are not quite as expensive as some but provide very nice views for longer focal length scopes such as scts.

By.Jove (Jove) · #4 23-10-2023, 09:46 AM

For high power in an SCT I find 9-10mm works well much of the time, 7mm is rarely if ever useful in average seeing. You won't need 6mm. These days I only use 30mm, 15 and 10mm and little else.

Merlin66 (Ken) · #5 23-10-2023, 05:58 PM

I agree with Jove!
That would be a good collection