Should I upgrade to 2"?

04Stefan07 (Stefan) · #1 11-04-2017, 03:57 PM

I currently use two Celestron 1.25" X-Cel LX 25mm and 9mm eyepieces for viewing but since I have a 2" diagonal I was wondering if it's worth getting rid of these and buying a few 2" eyepieces.

Telescope I use is in my signature below.

Thoughts?

Bart · #2 11-04-2017, 07:42 PM

Hello Stefan. I went through this a while ago and Ive got to say that I am unable to justify the cost increase. Compared to my 1.25" eyepieces, the only advantage I found was that I had more real estate around my objects, it didn't make them any better, brighter or larger etc. If you have really dark skies and want to view extended objects, it may help. If you have a large aperture telescope that makes the objects appear bigger in your eyepiece, the extended field may help there as well.

I love my very beautiful 2" WO dielctric diagonal, but for now, it's 1.25" for me.

MortonH · #3 11-04-2017, 08:39 PM

In a C8 most objects will fit in the field of a 1.25" eyepiece but sometimes the view can feel a little restricted and sometimes it's just not wide enough. I currently have a 2" 30mm Paragon (68 degrees) on loan and it's great in my C8. I'm now considering a 2" 30-35mm eyepiece of my own.

Bear in mind that for an f/10 system like the C8 you don't need to buy the most well corrected eyepieces like Panoptics and Naglers and therefore don't need to spend a fortune.

Camelopardalis (Dunk) · #4 11-04-2017, 09:44 PM

I can second the Paragon suggestion, they're pretty lightweight too for a 2" eyepiece.

So long as you can look past a little field curvature and a dash of coma you can eek out about 1.4 degrees from a C8...it just won't look the same as an apo

04Stefan07 (Stefan) · #5 19-04-2017, 12:29 AM

If I can get my hands on a cheap 2" eyepiece I might give it a go, or even have a borrow of someones at a star party. As mentioned given the price increase I didn't think I would need new barlows and filters as well so I might stick with 1.25" for now.

It is a good topic to talk about though and I think it should keep being discussed as everyone has a different viewpoint and contributes to the wider discussion.