Thread: Eyepiece kit
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Old 08-02-2016, 08:47 AM
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mental4astro (Alexander)
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mental4astro is offline
 
Join Date: Jun 2008
Location: sydney, australia
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Jedd,

Short answer, no, that eyepiece is not one for your Newtonian. That particular eyepiece is not an optical match for Newtonians.

A better match are these TMB Planetary Type II line. They are a much better optical match for Newt's, and do not cost the earth:

http://www.aliexpress.com/wholesale?...t=tmb+eyepiece

Just be aware that the 6mm is the weakest of the line. It is still miles better than a 6mm plossl, but compared to its stable mates, it has some flaws.

As a comparision, I've attached a photo of my 9mm TMB Planetary Type II with a 9mm plossl. There is a big difference in ease of use and image quality. Plossls are a design that is over 100 years old. It was a brilliant design for its time, and is still very good in slow Newtonians that it was designed for. For todays' fast Newtonians, the plossl design struggles. Also, the shorter the focal length, the smaller the eye lens gets, and the closer you need to put your eye to the eye lens to see into it, until you need to park your cornea on the eye lens to see into it. The TMB Type II is a contemporary design that makes use of new exotic glass types that allows for the eye lens to remain large across its whole focal length line, and the eye relief is excellent and the same long amount again across all focal lengths. For the price, these are very, very good.

Give me a little time to prepare a more detailed reply. Your question is very similar to others here, and it relates to the relationship between eyepieces and scopes, and what an optical match between the two is necessary to produce a good image. I really don't want to give you just a dumb 'get this' or 'get that' reply. Better if you understand a little more of what is going on, then recommendations can be had, and you can make a better purchasing decision. Not everyone can afford a $1000 eyepiece. Some people need to stick to a budget of around $100. No good me offering $500 suggestions if they are out of reach. But a carefully considered $70 eyepiece may do if you understand the aberrations you see and are prepared to accept some small amount of aberration in the final image.
Attached Thumbnails
Click for full-size image (TMB 9mm vs GSO plossl 9mm.jpg)
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Last edited by mental4astro; 08-02-2016 at 10:04 AM.
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