Hi there,
I've got an 200mm (8") f/6 Saxon Dob. I've had a lot of fun with it. It came with 25mm and 10mm multicoated Plossls.
http://www.saxon.com.au/eyepieces/ey...eyepieces.html
I was thinking maybe I should get a 2x barlow, but as everything in the optical path is only as good as the weakest link, I wonder whether the scope and eyepieces are 'good enough'. Put it this way, no-one's lusting after a Saxon eyepiece. If I were to replace my two eyepieces, I couldn't justify spending $300 on a Pentax XW or a Tele. I could spend maybe $170 AUD max per eyepiece. But since researching, I've found out that multicoated Plossls are a pretty good design and since the ones that came with my scope are about $70 ea, I wonder if the difference would even be all that great?
I've also read that different scope designs create focus planes that are concave / convex to varying degrees, which is why it's important to get an eyepiece that works well with your particular scope design. For example, an EP that works great on a reflector (convex FP) could look terrible on a refractor (concave FP). But as AFAIK, EP manufacturers don't even publish that kind of data. I assume it would also depend on the scopes individual F ratio too
And then factoring in that Barlows can correct optical anomalies of the EP's themselves, I assume that again, it depends on the design of the EP and scope for it to work in harmoniously.
Even if it's best to wait for a bit and save up, I wonder what the second tier EP's are. I typically find that in most things second tier is the best value for money with 95% of the quality at a much better price.
Any thoughts gratefully received. I should also add that I'd like to move towards doing some astrophotography (looking at a skywatcher AltAz/EQ5 mount) so something to keep in mind.
Markus