Only one eyepiece at the moment

[Jaybee76]

Hi all,

I now have (finally) my first scope! I decided on an Orion XT8 (8" Dob.), and am well chuffed with the product.

I only have 1 lens at the minute, a 25mm ploss, land am already looking for more out my scope. It is fair to say I have had a bit of a gutfull of the moon, and there isn't much planet action to be had at the moment.

I would really like to get more out of M42 in Orion, which at the minute is little more than a small, faint cloud. Also, the Eta Carina nebula, which to date I cannot even find...

On my immediate list is a Barlow (maybe 2x), and on a limited budget I was looking to buy just one lens to keep me going for a little while (i.e. get some structure and a little color in nebulae)

I guess the notion of wide-field sounds appealing, so I suppose I would like to get one of them? At what focal length would be best for such an application?

Any advise would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers,

JB :question:

[dannat]

Jason if it was me I would be looking at something in the 9-11mm range to give you mag. Bit over 100x ( your 25 would be just under 50)
I would avoid plossl ( unless its televiue at this mark) & look for an orthoscopic type instead. Depends on what you want to pay though, orthos <100, if you want to spend a little more you prob can't beat the televue radian on sale at bintel at present, they will have good resale also

In the next 2 wks there are 2 star parties, one at snake valley & the Asv messier party near heathcote for you to visit & goggle over ep's

[barx1963]

Well done Jason those are lovely scopes.
The 25mm plossl that comes with these scopes is usually not a bad piece of kit, nothing special but not bad. Cheap shorter length EPs tend to be just that, cheap and hard to use. My 12" came with 5 EPs, really I only used the 32mm and 25mm. I had an 8" dob for about 6months that had a 25mm and a 10mm, I could count on one hand the number of times I used the 10mm.
Don't get sucked into getting one of those eyepiece kits, you'll probably find the shorter EPs in the kit will just stay in the box anyway.
Keep an ear to the ground if any TV Panoptics or Naglers come up, IMHO a nag of 12/13mm or a Pan at 19 or 24mm are great EPs. Otherwise save up for them, you won't regret the $$$ spent!

[barx1963]

Yeah Jason, come to Snake Valley and see some EPs in action!

Malcolm

[that_guy]

Your telling me! I have no eyepieces!! (I lost them... dont judge me :P) luckily thanks to awesome IIS members, I'm getting an eyepiece for free and I'll be buying a few cheap plossels :) so generous i think :D

[mental4astro]

Hi Jason,

Congrats on the new scope.

One word on plossls. When they were first introduced, they were the bees knees on eyepieces. Today, even inexpensive new designs leave plossls for dead both in eye relief (how close your eye needs to be to the eyepiece to see into it), and field of view (how wide the image appears to be).

If you are on a budget try the following (they are in my eyepiece case too):
Low and mid power- GSO Super View 30mm (a 2" EP) and 15mm (1.25"). They are fantastic in an 8" f/6 dob! Andrews has them for $49 & $29 respectively, making them excellent value.

High power- forget a barlow if you are on a budget. They put more glass between you and the universe, absorb precious light, and make for an extra bit to stuff around with in the dark. Try the TMB Planetary Type II 6mm. Sylvain here on IIS is offering this EP to IIS members for $49. Have a read of the reviews on this EP and its 9mm brother in the thread he started on his offer: http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/showthread.php?t=66161

You can always save for more expensive EPs. Yet, you may feel once you've got these you may not want to get more expensive ones. I know the Super Views have limitations, particularly with a fast scope like my f/4.5 17.5", but I'm still not rushing to get better eyepieces either. Yet in your 8" f/6 they are brilliant, and are great value to get going with.

Mental.

[irwjager]

Hi Jason,

The 25mm should be quite usable and should get you a nice view of most nebulae and clusters out there. You might even want to go a bit longer (I also pretty much exclusively use a 32mm eyepiece in my 8").

Don't forget that going deeper will make things fainter but bigger. Going the opposite will make things brighter but smaller.

You seem to live in Melbourne, which I'm guessing is ruining at least some of your viewing pleasure by its lightpollution. I've found a cheap LP filter made a fair difference looking at nebulae from Melbourne.

If you're pretty sure you've seen everything there is to see of the Orion Neb, then move on to to Eta Carina (you'll find her eventually, even under heavy light polluted skies). A moonless night definitely helps, but it's not a must.

Also, don't forget some of the star clusters that are easy to spot. I never thought they were that interesting until I had a good long stare and kept discerning more and more stars. And each cluster is different with its own characteristics.

The tarantula neb is a bit harder to spot, but still very much doable.

Of course, if you want to give yourself a break, go to a dark sky site and you'll be be amazed with what you can see.

Hope this info from a fellow 8" owning Melburnian helps!

[ballaratdragons]

Hi Jason,

according to the Distance label in you post (top right of each post) you are only 109k's away from here.

As Malcolm and Daniel have already mentioned, on the 4th till 8th March there will be around 40 or more of us ready to help you try different eyepieces at our Snake Valley Astro Camp up here at Snake Valley just 20 minutes west of Ballarat (about 1.5 hours from Melbourne).

You would be most welcome to either pop up on any of those days/nights to try EP's, or just ask questions, or even book in for a night or 2, or 3, or 4 :lol:

If you can make it, info is here: http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/showthread.php?t=71024

There is NO CHARGE to visit.

:thumbsup:

[Jaybee76]

Wow! Thank you all very much for your support and advise :)

I am very keen on visiting Snake Valley, and if I can fit it in with work, and get a leave pass from the 'Minister for Domestic Affairs', I will buy some bells to wear ;)

Thanks once again... you guys are awesome!

.... btw, my scope was damaged in transit from the US. Not a problem as far as getting it replaced, as Ron from Sirius Optics is a legend, and has already arranged a replacement. However, is it likely to impact the quality of my veiwing experience? There is a ding in the side of the tube, approximately 12" from the top of the tube, that is probably about 3/4" deep, extending across about 6". Should this matter do you think?

Kind regards,

JB

[dannat]

a ding won't usually affect viewing -if you look down does the ding cover any part of the mirror, a small bit will be no hassle

[Jaybee76]

No mate, the ding doesn't really seem to block the view of the mirror that much. If I look down the very edge of the tube where the ding is I lose vision of about 1/4 of the mirror, but looking straight into the tube the whole mirror is easily seen...