[DobDobDob (Ron)]

Okay, so I just got a very nice telescope, 2 wet and rainy days ago and eventually I know I will look through it and I can also imagine it's going to be great. I have one eyepiece on it only, a Plossil 40mm eyepiece. I have been reading every thread of this forum and there is a vast amount of discussion about eyepieces and associated filters.

Here's my question, what is the real story about eyepieces, not from a marketing point of view, brands and cost are not what I need to know. I need to know what it is intrinsically from eyepiece to eyepiece that makes you want to have a range of them.

Is it that different power or strength of eyepiece, gives various resolutions, do you see better, clearer, bigger? If you look at an object, with excellent seeing, do you go through a process of selecting the lowest size eyepiece up to your largest, if so, why not just start with your biggest?

Is it far more subtle than that, do you have different eyepieces for different types of objects, a galaxy as opposed to a single star for example? Generally speaking, without technical explanations, do you need different size eyepieces to see better quality, larger (or is that more dependant on the telescope), what does having 6 eyepieces give you that you can't get by having 3 or just 1?

This is a serious question, I expect that it is obvious that more expensive or better made eyepieces give better results, this is the same in anything that is mass produced, but why is there a need for so many eyepieces? Does it come back to changing conditions, different objects require different eyepieces, or is it just a culture where having more, bigger, more expensive is a status symbol, what is the real truth and why?