[Damienandwendy (Damien)]

I have an 80x400 achromatic refractor and a 150x1000 newtonian that both came with standard Skywatcher 10 and 25 mm plossl's. Without a whole lot of experience or wisdom I then purchased a Prostar Expanse 6mm EP with the lure of a wider field of view and bigger magnification. The extra magnification was Ok but the visual experience not as good as I had hoped.

I will most likely be playing with these two scopes for the next 12-18 months before I can even think of upgrading so my only real option at this time is to look at eyepieces.

I have posted previously on another EP post that I cannot see the point of paying more for an EP than the scope I am sticking it in, but I do realise that good EP's will be transferred from scope to scope as you upgrade.

I have been looking at a few different sites and for the budget minded astronomer, the Vixen NLV's look good at around $150. From there the Baader Hyperions come in at around $200. After that the staring price for better quality is at the $300 plus mark. I suppose my first question is at what rough pricepoint do you start rating EP's as "good" or "keepers" ?

Once a breed of eyepiece is selected, my next concern will relate more to magnification and FOV. I guess I will go for a "widefield" EP and a higher magnification one though I am not sure which order at the moment. By "widefield" I am suggesting around a 32mm EP on my F6.67 newt. This will give me an exit pupil of about 4.8mm. To go up to a 40mm EP, will give an exit pupil of about 6mm which I believe is wasted on my middle aged eyes with a pupil size of 5mm according to some sites I have visited. For a higher magnification EP I think I would be looking in the range of 15-8mm.

Thoughts and opinions appreciated.

cheers

Damien