Which eyepiece for Meade 12" lightbridge

[Ashhhhh]

Hey all,


Ive picked up this scope cheap and used, my experience all lies with Astrophotography and refractors, I know nothing about observational stuff nor eyepieces.


So, what EP's would be best suited to this scope?
It came with the standard 26mm and a Bintel 9mm Plossl.


Just wondering if there is something in the middle that would be recommended?


Cheers
Ash

[astro744]

Budget? Not sure how much you’ve spent on your astrophotography hobby but you could buy two or three high quality eyepieces for likely a lot less.

Have a look at the advice section on the Tele Vue page for an eyepiece primer.

See https://www.televue.com/engine/TV3b_page.asp?id=154

You have to decide what is more important to you in an eyepiece, e.g. eye relief (if wearing glasses you want 20mm eye relief) but Tele Vue do sell Dioptrx for astigmatism or do you prefer extra wide field of view such as 100 deg or is 82 deg plenty or do you prefer less?

Tele Vue are corrected and tested with a flat field telescope to f4. You will find they perform equally well in Newtonians, refractors and catadioptrics. In fact I’m yet to find a telescope where a Tele Vue eyepiece doesn’t perform well and I’ve used a few different types in many different telescopes.

If they are well above what you want to spend, that’s fine, have a look at their web site anyway especially the advice section as well the the section on the eyepieces as it is very informative. https://www.televue.com/engine/TV3b_page.asp?ID=2

[mura_gadi]

Hello,

I agree with what was said about the Televue and it also maintains good 2nd hand resale value. The ability to use on the EP's on any scope, esp. fast ones gives them great utility.

However, if your not migrating to really fast scopes there are more budget friendly options that offer very high performance. There are brands of 100degree EP's that would perform exceptional well at F5+ and can be had for $450 posted. That's about $200 less than a similar performing ES ep and $500+ cheaper than Televue. You will lose some of the correction afforded by televue but at F8 its not relevant, at F4.5 it gets extra weighting.

So, it depends on how you want to view the investment, the ability to migrate between scopes and the resale value of Televue is a strong feature imo. But spending hundreds extra is the draw back.


Steve

[Ashhhhh]

Thanks guys.


Frankly, this was a cheap scope and observational viewing isnt really something I want to commit a bunch of money into. (who knows, that might change once I get a look through this thing!)

This rig is mainly to enjoy some viewing with family and friends while I also have my astro setup running.

Ill likely be shopping in the "bintel range" of EP's which seem to get a decent rap for the money.
As I say, im mainly interested to know what would be considered the best addition to the EP's I already have, for planetary and general viewing.


I dont wear glasses but family does, so yes, at least moderate eye relief would be useful.



Ill have a read of that Televue website, thanks.

[astro744]

Note with glasses if anyone is only long or short sighted then they simply refocus the telescope when viewing without glasses. The 20mm recommended eye relief is then not critical and less is usually fine for most people. If anyone requires glasses for strong astigmatism then that person needs to keep the glasses on when viewing otherwise the image will exhibit astigmatism and this is where 20mm eye relief is recommended.

Many people have mild astigmatism without even knowing it and images without glasses are quite acceptable. Any low cost eyepiece will work in any telescope (provided it fits) just some exhibit more aberrations than others and some are a better fit (optically to do with curvature of field) to a particular ‘scope than others. Have a look at the Bintel site and then give them a call. They will steer you right I’m sure.

Whatever you choose, enjoy!

[mura_gadi]

Hello,

For $75 a pop the Starguider 18mm would be a strong suggestion if it reviews well at your scope speed, it might not.
For around $130 the celio series got a mention recently.
If you're happy with the 52 degree and 16mm of eye relief the 15mm ES.

As always your mileage may vary, and look for reviews based on a similar scope of similar speed that you are choosing the ep's for.


Steve