Celestron eyepiece/filter kit

[spaceblue]

Hi guy's
I have a Nextstar Se 4 and I have been considering the Celestron eye piece and filter kit which includes a Barlow for around $500.

Does anybody have any experience with this kit and is it a worthwhile investment for a complete novice like myself?

I am starting to find that I would like to get a little more detail of the things I am looking at as I am still trying to find my way around the sky.

[wavelandscott]

Do you have a link to the kit?

My usual recommendation is to NOT jump in with any "kit". $500 will get you a number of nice eyepieces. Many kits have a few items that are not often used and therefore make them not a good value.

What eyepices came with the scope?

[mental4astro]

I agree with wavelandscott.

Most of the gear, eyepiece wise if average only, and the filters, better be more selective as you will not use them very much.

It is easy to compile a list of better quality gear, for less money, and you'll get more use of it too.

[Lismore Bloke]

I agree with Alex and Scott. Two or three good eyepieces are a great start. Excellent EP's like Vixen LVWs and Naglers can be quite heavy for a small scope. The Televue Plossls are a good choice for those on a budget, and aren't too heavy. Pentax are very highly rated also. It might be worth doing a search of the threads relating to eyepieces, as the question has been asked many times before.

[OneOfOne]

I have to agree with everyone else so far. I bought the "kit" several years ago for my 8" Newtonian. I used a couple of eyepieces, never used the filters and ended up selling it a few years later to various people. I now use Pentax XWs or TVs. I would put the money into a couple of good eyepieces and use them.

[Robert9]

Perhaps its not the eps but the 4SE is too small to achieve what you want.

[Roobi]

Hi there. I have to agree with the others posts also. I have a 5.12 " skywatcher and really wanted to get some new eps to see things at higher mags. Rather than buying expensive ones or a kit (i looked at exactly the same one) I actually put a post in the classefields on here explaining i was looking for some starter eps or barlow to buy if anyone had extras they'd be willing to sell. I now have (thanx to some lovely people here) a 12.5mm and a 4mm on top of my standard 10m ad 20mm. Its been a great way to check out what sort of view i will get and to learn some about eye relief and such. See if you can do something like that maybe. wont cost you much, and youl still get a good idea of what is really going to be benificial to you. Now im just on the hunt for the barlow and il have 7 eps. :)

Cheers
hope you have some luck.

[ManOnTheMoon]

I bought this Celestron kit brand new on ebay for $250 the other week. I think for that price it is was very much worth it for sure. Now I find the 4mm and the 6mm pretty worthless when looking at saturn etc becuase in my 8" dob they are very hard to focus with and when you get them focused they still look abit blurry with loss of contrast. Except with the moon the 6mm is quite good/clear but the 4mm not really any good. But the 9mm, 15mm and 32mm and very good. Saturn in the 15mm with the 2x barlow looks amazing on a good clear night. I use the yellow filter also to look at saturn..I believe these ep's have only 2 elements which I read somewhere are best for looking at planets?

[Dean]

I have this kit on a 130mm reflector. As mentioned by ManOnTheMoon, the 4mm is kinda uselss... the 6mm only just passable, but the other eyepieces are quite good and give me razor sharp images. The 15 and 32mm are very good considering the price. As for the filter I use the moon filter a lot and several of the colored filters. I feel it is a good basic set for beginners and gives you an idea of which eyepieces you use most often, then you can go or the better ones as budget allows.

[Barrykgerdes]

I bought one a few years ago when they were on special at $299 in 2003. I liked the box they came in (not so easy to get then as they are now) and needed a couple of the lenses as spares. The price worked out at about the same price as getting the the three longer focal length lenses and the barlow.

I have found it very useful over the years as a source of lenses for many tests and always carry it with my other astro gear. I cut some extra holes in the foam for extra items.

Barry

[Dean]

FWIW, I am not sure about the older kits but the new eyepieces in this kit are multi-coated, if that makes much of a difference? They seem quite good to me... Can get very sharp images of Saturn and the moon etc etc