Planetary Eyepiece advice

[209herschel (Herschel)]

Hello everyone,

I'm looking to get an eyepiece to the moon and planets. I'm uncertain as to whether to get one immediately and get something in the $150-$200 category or perhaps wait and get something better at the end of the year. Any thoughts on comparisons would be appreciated.

I have a 10" Dobsonian, f5.

In the $150-$200 category, I'm looking at the:

Explore Scientific 8.8mm.
Baader Hyperion 8mm
Orion Stratus 8mm

If I wait, I'm looking at:

Televue Delos 8mm
Pentax XW 8mm
Televue Nagler t6 9mm
Vixen LVW 8mm

My question is whether the more expensive categories are significantly better than the first group? I usually wear glasses when viewing but my astigmatism is slight so I could get used to not wearing glasses.

If you think there are some other ep I should consider alongside the above, I'll certainly value the advice.

Thanks very much.

[GrahamL]

I had a pentax XF 8.5 for quite a few years and found it a great planetary eyepiece, go so far to say its a better buy than quite a few of those on quality alone , even better its a cheap to buy !

have an 8.8 es now , great little eyepiece too, love the *82
planets I'd still go the XF over a lot of others,, great eypiece.

[brian nordstrom (As avatar)]

Hi Hershell , over many years I have owned and liked nearly all of these except the Pentax XW , which everyone agrees is a great eyepiece and if I was in your budget range I would go for the Vixen LVW , it has a great 20mnm eye relief that will be good for being a glasses wearer , is light and easy to look thru and most importantly is a very , very good eyepiece to use as it just dis-appares when using it , I found all Vixens do this really well a nice thing when viewing intricate detail on the planets .
Oh yes personally I like the slight yellowish ? tinge ( that's VERY , VERY SLIGHT ) all the Vixens I have owned over the years , about 20 of them .
Try to get to a viewing night and ask for a look thru as many as possible , we amateur astronomers are friendly people and like showing off our gear ,, well I do anyway .

My 5c worth .

Brian.

[cydonia]

Hi Brian

HD Orthoscopic eyepieces are the best I have ever used on the planets. Narrow field of view but they are sharp right to the edge and contrasty. I also have a Pentax 10mm xw which is very good but I mostly use the Ortho. If I remember they are about $120 or so from Frontier Optics

[Profiler (Profiler)]

Hi Herschel

As another suggestion you could simply buy one of your listed "quality" eyepieces 2nd hand right now (instead of waiting for the end of the year)

[MortonH]

I wouldn't use the Hyperion or Stratus for planetary unless your Dob has tracking. Edge performance will be quite poor. I had the ES 8.8mm and it is good. I now have the Pentax XF 8.5mm.

Are you sure that 8 - 9mm will give you the magnification you need for planetary? I might have thought that something in the 6 - 7mm range might be better, depending on the seeing conditions where you observe. Explore Scientific does an excellent 6.7mm model.

[David Niven (David Niven)]

My favourite is the ES 6.7 and the XF8.5
Both are exceptional and very affordable.

[brian nordstrom (As avatar)]

Yes Orthoscopics are probably the best planetary eyepieces made and I had a full set of CircleT volcano tops at one stage as well but I don't think they would be very good in this case as the OP wears glasses for astigmatisim and the eye relief of the ortho's might be a little tight for that .
Brian.

Originally Posted by cydonia

Hi Brian

HD Orthoscopic eyepieces are the best I have ever used on the planets. Narrow field of view but they are sharp right to the edge and contrasty. I also have a Pentax 10mm xw which is very good but I mostly use the Ortho. If I remember they are about $120 or so from Frontier Optics

[MattT]

How about Vixen NLV? Only $129 at Myastro shop 20mm ER with 50º AFOV. When I compared the 9mm NLV and XW 10mm I couldn't see any difference except the TFOV. I'm tempted to get the 4 5 and 6mm in the NLV. All my scopes have tracking.

[209herschel (Herschel)]

I'm definitely keeping my eye open for a second hand one in the classifieds. I was about to buy an ES 8.8mm a couple of weeks ago but the eye relief worried me so I held off. I've since been out without my glasses and I think it'll be fine to keep them off. So I'll probably go for that if it shows again. Cheers.

Originally Posted by Profiler

Hi Herschel

As another suggestion you could simply buy one of your listed "quality" eyepieces 2nd hand right now (instead of waiting for the end of the year)

[209herschel (Herschel)]

Hi Matt, I was actually looking at those. It's just I thought if I was going to buy something I'd use for long time for planets and the moon, it might be great to have the extra FOV. Now I've read some people's thoughts that a wide AFOV isn't really needed on high magnification on planets and the moon. I'd be keen to hear your thoughts on that. Cheers.

Originally Posted by MattT

How about Vixen NLV? Only $129 at Myastro shop 20mm ER with 50º AFOV. When I compared the 9mm NLV and XW 10mm I couldn't see any difference except the TFOV. I'm tempted to get the 4 5 and 6mm in the NLV. All my scopes have tracking.

[209herschel (Herschel)]

Thanks for the advice. I was originally going for the 6.7mm but I recently bought a Bintel 2x ED barlow so I thought I'd use the 8.8 then barlow if I made it out to a dark site. I'm undecided because I'm in my yard in Inner Sydney most of the time so the 6.7mm might get more use? Cheers.

Originally Posted by MortonH

I wouldn't use the Hyperion or Stratus for planetary unless your Dob has tracking. Edge performance will be quite poor. I had the ES 8.8mm and it is good. I now have the Pentax XF 8.5mm.

Are you sure that 8 - 9mm will give you the magnification you need for planetary? I might have thought that something in the 6 - 7mm range might be better, depending on the seeing conditions where you observe. Explore Scientific does an excellent 6.7mm model.

[MortonH]

It's worth trying to figure out what kind of magnification is useable in your yard. Of course the seeing conditions are different every night but you may be able to figure out what eyepiece you can use most of the time, and save the Barlowed high mags for the nights of exceptional seeing.

I have no yard but two balconies - one faces East and one faces West. On the East facing one I can use 200x most nights in my 8" Newtonian. However, the other side looks over a busy road and the air turbulence limits me to 150x or less.

If your scope has a focal length of around 1200mm you would get 200x with a 6mm eyepiece, so that would be my starting point. But 8.8mm or 8.5mm would be good too, and could be Barlowed on those great nights when you really want to crank it up.

[MortonH]

There's a nice TMB 6mm planetary eyepiece for sale here

http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/s...d.php?t=123354

[Renato1 (Renato)]

An 8mm eyepiece would only give you 159X - hardly worth the effort in my opinion.

You'd want at least a wide angle 5mm for around 250X or 6.3 mm for 200X.

If you Barlowed or Powermated that 8mm eyepiece that you want, then you'd get 320X, which might be okay on some or many nights, depending on where you live. But it might be frustrating too.
Regards,
Renato

[209herschel (Herschel)]

Originally Posted by Renato1

An 8mm eyepiece would only give you 159X - hardly worth the effort in my opinion.

You'd want at least a wide angle 5mm for around 250X or 6.3 mm for 200X.

If you Barlowed or Powermated that 8mm eyepiece that you want, then you'd get 320X, which might be okay on some or many nights, depending on where you live. But it might be frustrating too.
Regards,
Renato

I'm now thinking that the 8mm magnification won't be enough. I've got a 9mm plossl and while the better quality, greater AFOV might be great, I guess it won't increase the size of the view.

After reading a few things and getting some responses along the same lines as yours, I'm now thinking of something in the range of 5-7mm. If I can get by without glasses, I'll definitely go the ES 6.7mm. I'd love to get the Vixen LVW 5mm. Then if I hold off, the Delos 6mm at the end of the year would be my ultimate choice. Would you agree that the quality runs in this order?
+

[casstony]

Originally Posted by 209herschel

If I can get by without glasses,

If you're not completely comfortable without your glasses hold off for something with longer eye relief - you'll have a much more enjoyable time at the eyepiece.

[MattT]

Now your talking! Can you use the 9mm plossl without glasses?
If yes then anything is usable. I don't have astigmatism in my eyes but I believe it only shows up in longer FL eyepieces for those who do. I guess your dob doesn't have tracking so 70º+ eyepieces are probably the go….can be expensive though. Pentax XW's barlow well so get the XW 10 and 7 + a 2X barlow to give 5 and 3.5. Meade HD5000 60º eyepieces are pretty good too, cheaper than XW/Delos, with 17mm ER worth a look. As my scope has tracking I get away with narrow FOV Ortho eyepieces.
Matt

[MortonH]

Originally Posted by 209herschel

After reading a few things and getting some responses along the same lines as yours, I'm now thinking of something in the range of 5-7mm. If I can get by without glasses, I'll definitely go the ES 6.7mm. I'd love to get the Vixen LVW 5mm. Then if I hold off, the Delos 6mm at the end of the year would be my ultimate choice. Would you agree that the quality runs in this order?
+

I agree with that quality order. Don't forget Pentax XW - pretty much the same quality as Delos (some say slightly better).

The Delos are very expensive. I wouldn't pay full price for one. Either advertise for a used one or wait for Tele Vue to have a sale - happens at least once a year. I got my 14mm Delos on sale.

In fact, I wouldn't pay full price for any of the premium eyepieces unless you've tried one. They all have different ergonomics and sometimes that's the deciding factor between different models/brands.

[Renato1 (Renato)]

Originally Posted by 209herschel

I'm now thinking that the 8mm magnification won't be enough. I've got a 9mm plossl and while the better quality, greater AFOV might be great, I guess it won't increase the size of the view.

After reading a few things and getting some responses along the same lines as yours, I'm now thinking of something in the range of 5-7mm. If I can get by without glasses, I'll definitely go the ES 6.7mm. I'd love to get the Vixen LVW 5mm. Then if I hold off, the Delos 6mm at the end of the year would be my ultimate choice. Would you agree that the quality runs in this order?
+

I can't comment on any of those eyepieces, since I haven't tried them.

If you are pushing your dob around though, you'd definitely want something with at least a 60 degree or better field of view. The 50 degree ones are do-able, but do get annoying.

The other factor that isn't mentioned much is the size of the sweet spot in an eyepiece. The eyepiece I've used most over the years has been my old 6.4mm 5 element series 4000 Meade Superplossl. When S&T did a comparison, they found that the Televue Plossl was slightly better at the sweet spot than the Meade, but that the Meade had a much bigger sweet spot covering most of the field. See the problem? While better, the Televue would be harder to keep in the sweet spot for the best view than would the be the case with the Meade. So try keep an eye out for this factor in reviews that you read for the wider angle eyepieces -probably the newer Televue eyepieces address this.

Also, a lot depends on where you live, and how quickly your dob cools down, and how well collimated it is. The best views of the planets I've ever seen with any of my telescopes have been through my 14.5" f/4.5 dob - but that was extremely rare and always at the end of a four hour observing session. So - depending on circumstances, you may not actually wind up using the expensive eyepiece that much or you may. Perhaps if you got an inexpensive Barlow and used it with your 9mm, you'd get a good idea of how quickly things settle down, and how often you would use a better quality eyepiece.
Regards,
Renato