Eyepieces

[TrevorW]

I have a Skywatcher 120mm f/5 scope and several eyepieces however I was wondering if anyone can give me an idea of the best eyepieces for this scope say around the $100 mark each.

Currently I have serveral series 500 plossls from 4mm to 40 mm and one 9.5mm ED eyepiece

[programmer]

TeleVue Plossls, Meade series 4000 plossls, William Optics Swan series.

Or get 1 excellent EP instead of 3 good ones. :)

[Jeff]

G'day Trevor,

My 2 cents worth for value for approx $550 investment (minus what you will recoup for items you sell).

1. For high powered eyepieces for planetary viewing, steer clear of standard plossls (eg.50 deg) unless you have motorised tracking ... otherwise the object drifts out of view way too fast

2. Suggest 2nd hand TV Radian 8mm (60 deg) for planetary (plus 2x barlow for when seeing is great) ~$220

3. Bintel or GSO SuperView 15mm (68 deg) is a good eyepiece at f/5 with flat views ~$50

4. Suggest 2nd hand TV Panoptic 24mm (68 deg) for nebulas and open clusters ~$280

I have purchased/tired a variety of the cheaper Meade, Celestron and Bintel/GSO eyepieces .... but have sold due to poor views (tiny AFOV in the plossls, or major aberrations at f/5 in the low/medium cost wide view EPs). I don't have any experience with other brands.

Hope this helps, and happy hunting!

... back to the IPL Cricket for me!

Cheers, Jeff

[TrevorW]

Thanks for the responses, excuse my ignorance Programmer but what is an EP, also Jeff unfortunately $200-300 for an eyepiece would cause further angst with "she who shall be obeyed" and we all know we have to keep the "war godess" happy (except for those bachelors out there).

[dannat]

trevor EP is eyepiece, also sometimes called oculars, and the big ones - grenades.

[programmer]

Let me know if you can't find the eyepieces I mentioned for < $100...

[fraunhofer]

For a good investment I found the RKE eyepieces from Edmund Scientific are a good choice. Used ones can run about $30.00 US

[TrevorW]

Ignorance aside I was thinking EP referred to a particular sort of eyepiece (EP) too often in this day and age of SMSing understanding abbreviations is taken for granted. I always thought LOL meant "lots of love" until my teenage offspring corrected me. They who can't sting two words together into a comprehensive sentence unless it includes things like LU cu L8. This aside the eyepiece's I have are not bad generally I also have a couple of 2" cheap EP's 26 and 35mm which are great for viewing open clusters and wide open star fields however I'm thinking ocular's that provide the best view of nebula's and smaller FL that provide superb images when viewing planets. Thanks

[Jeff]

Actually, if you buy 2nd hand, then you can pay for a single eyepiece (say $220) in several pieces, with appropriate electonic banking transaction descriptions:
- IceInSpace annual subscription $70 :whistle:
- Environmental awareness fund (donation) $50 :whistle:
- Telescope Eyepiece $100 :D

A modest $20 investment in flowers is also be a good idea, just to be on the safe side.

Hope this helps.

Cheers,
Jeff

[Starkler]

Second hand is theeeee way to buy eyepieces.

They generally only depreciate once, meaning on-selling should carry little or no loss. Second hand eyepieces well cared for are just as good as brand newies :)

[TrevorW]

Anyone have say 2 TV Plossls or others that meet my request, secondhand for sale preferred payment method is EFT.

Thanks

[JethroB76]

Trev, there are other places to try as well (ie the US) for secondhand stuff, but you may want to place a "wanted" ad in the IIS classified section

[fok4tel]

I have a question for JethroB76 and programmer. How does Hyperions perform in your fast scope, ie. lower than f/5? Any coma visible?
Thanks.

[programmer]

Yes there is definitely deformation towards the edge, I guess it's coma? Stars look enlongated to me in the outer 30% or so. If I move my head around a little I can see them resolve better as points, but it's annoying to have to do so.

[TrevorW]

Feedback

Burgess TMB planetary versus WO SPL

Thanks

[wavelandscott]

What scope?

I have nopt used the WO SPL eyepieces but I do have a couple of the TMB/Burgess eyepieces (6 and 8 mm)...While they are not quite in the same league as Pentax/Televue (etc.) they are not in the same price band either.

I believe that they represent good value for money. I got mine on sale 3 for the price of 2...They have ample eye relief, nice size FOV and my samples had a good fit and finish...I think they stand up pretty well compared to plossls in terms of views with better eye relief in the lower focal lengths.

Do be careful as there are a few versions out in the market some a bit better than others in terms of internal reflections...some of the earliest version had some internal reflections (from memory)...

[dannat]

I have recently purchases a spl 6mm & have been very pleased with it for the limited time I have used it thus far(cloudy here in se melb area). I have found it to be sharp across the fov although I do not have a big fast scope.

I really enjoy the extra eye relief, which i find to be very comfortable as cf other ep's. I also don't mind that it doesn't have a big fov ( at ~55) but then i don't really like to move around to take the view in from a widefield when looking at planets or zooming in on a dso.

After speaking with daniel from frontier he said he rated the ep about 90% of a pentax xf, and at the moment they are half the price at $109

They are a big looking ep but only weigh about 150g which is not heavy. I have heard the 3mm is slightly behind the 6 & 12mm

Overall very pleased with it but have yet to use it on someone else's fast big scope - so will have to wait until then to make final judgement.

[dazastar]

go to http://www.kkohki.com/English/kkohkiparts.html

This guy makes the ortho's for university optics, meade, antaries etc and also sells vixens etc direct.

I don't think you'll beat his prices. His service is fantastic, fast turn around on delivery, warranties etc. I usually recieve my orders from japan in 2 days to Queensland Australia