Quote:
Originally Posted by areyouabus
Unfortunately i cant stretch to a Nagler/Panoptic. Looked at the Baaders, (the zoom for $299 at Andrews sounds interesting).
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Your original line-up was
42mm ($79) + 4mm ($89) + 12mm ($<200) = <$368.
The 24mm Panoptic is $359 and would get the most use and is lightweight and small which is what you are looking for. However you do only get 24mm focal length until you can save for a Barlow.
The Baader 8-24 Zoom is getting a lot of good reviews and will give you the focal length range you are after in one eyepiece.
I do not have the Baader zoom but do have the 24mm Panoptic and it is a wonderful eyepiece.
You could also consider staying with quality Plossls such as the Tele Vue range and get the 25mm ($119), 15mm ($109) & TV 2x Barlow ($139), (Total $367). This will give you 25, 15, 12.5, 7.5 plus the 20 & 10 you already have.
Another option is the Tele Vue 32mm Plossl ($139) and 8mm ($109), Total ($248). This will give you a very nice low power (38x) sweeping/finder eyepiece and a 150x (Planetary) eyepiece. Note the 8mm is a litle tight on eye relief but OK if you do not wear glasses.
The Tele Vue Plossl series would make a fine collection and will provide quality views. An alternative would be the Meade Series 4000 Plossl eyepieces which are very well priced and perform quite well.
The Plossl has a 50 degree apparent field and the Panoptic has 68 degrees.