New EP recommendation

[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

[AG Hybrid (Adrian)]

Hi,

Well Ive got the same 150x1000mm Skywatcher newt as you. I'm pretty sure you don't have a 2 inch focuser unless they have been updated as of late, so a 40 mm eyepiece is practical or even useful. A 32 mm plossl, or 24 mm 72 degree(See Televue Panoptic) or I think 18mm 82 degree (see Televue nagler and friends(clones/copies)).

Yes quality costs money, and to be honest the Skywatcher 150x1000 is a modest scope, but decent eyepieces really bring it too life. If your willing to look overseas you can find decent eyepieces for much cheaper when what you can find in Australia. Check out Astronomics or Optcorp for eyepieces from other brands that arn't sold in Australia.

I'll tout the horn for ES eyepieces. The 6.7mm and 14mm both 82 degrees and 1.25 inch barrel sizes really brought my 150mm newt to life. They only costed $99 at the time too. Bloody good value for the money spent.

[Damienandwendy (Damien)]

Thanks Adrian,

Originally Posted by AG Hybrid

A 32 mm plossl, or 24 mm 72 degree(See Televue Panoptic) or I think 18mm 82 degree (see Televue nagler and friends(clones/copies)).

I think I may have been getting myself confused looking at all the specs and trying to work out what eyepiece to get based more on focal length instead of looking at the complete package of focal length and FOV. Had just plugged a few of the values you suggested into Stellarium with interesting results. I was surprised how a particular EP could increase magnification and almost double the FOV.

Looks like there is a lot more reading/searching to be done.

I have also noticed the Orion Stratus EP's on Bintel. For about $170 they give a solid 68 degree FOV. Has anyone got opinions on these ? Or for an extra $30 would I be better off looking at Hyperions ? I think at the moment $200 is really my upper limit with around the $120-$150 being preferred.

cheers

Damien

[Liz]

Ooh, you could have tried a few of my EPs Damien, and Daves ... and sue and Lexes at the weekend ..... They love the Vixens.

Eps are my downfall, I am always on the lookout for better ones. I do enjoy the ES Eps too.

Keep a lookout in the for sale section here for more.

I dont use 32mm EPsmuch, my fav is my Panoptic 19mm, but like the higher mag EPs. Also like the wide angle. The Explore Scientific (ES) are getting good reviews, check them out.

I have a 32mm and 40mm Televue Eps that I rarely use, and could be talked into lending/selling them.

[Damienandwendy (Damien)]

Thanks Liz,

It was really only after looking through one of Roy's Vixen's late on Saturday night that I remembered I had a few EP questions.

I am also a little nervous about handling someone else's expensive pride and joy.

cheers

Damien

[dannat (Daniel)]

The stratus & Hyperion seem to be essentially the same ep. They are a decent mid range eyepiece. I would prefer them to the nlv, the extra fov helps. In your scopes I would be looking around the 19-24mm mark & 6-9mm mark for more magnification.
Buying used will save some, the hyp/stratus can usually be had for something near $100, if you can wait

[AG Hybrid (Adrian)]

Originally Posted by Liz

Eps are my downfall, I am always on the lookout for better ones. I do enjoy the ES Eps too.
The Explore Scientific (ES) are getting good reviews, check them out.

Eps are my downfall too. I'm at a cross roads at the moment. Do I buy a 4 inch APO for Christmas or the 3 100 degree ES eyepieces. Hmmm, APO vs eyepieces hmmm, hmmm ,hmmm

[Damienandwendy (Damien)]

The Explore Scientific EP's look quite good. Unfortunately $100+ for postage for two EP's is a little hard to swallow.

Looks like I will just keep looking ....... and keep an eye on the classifieds

cheers

Damien

[Liz]

Originally Posted by Damienandwendy

The Explore Scientific EP's look quite good. Unfortunately $100+ for postage for two EP's is a little hard to swallow.

cheers

Damien

Ooh, there are cheaper rates around then that Damien ... keep looking. I will check out some too.

[Liz]

Originally Posted by AG Hybrid

Eps are my downfall too. I'm at a cross roads at the moment. Do I buy a 4 inch APO for Christmas or the 3 100 degree ES eyepieces. Hmmm, APO vs eyepieces hmmm, hmmm ,hmmm

I am saving madly at the moment (but have still bought 2 EPs off IIS classifieds of late) ..... so dont want to even look at the ES 100 dg. Good luck to you though with that lovely choice Adrian.

[Rodstar (Rod)]

Hi Damian,

As I understand it, you have a 6 inch newtonian with a focal length of 1000mm (f/6.6), and an 80mm refractor with a focal length of 400mm (f/5). Yes?

You will come across plenty of amateur astronomers with a large array of eyepieces, but usually experienced observers will spend 90% of their timing using just one or two eyepieces, which fall into the sweet spot of their scope. I would encourage you to identify the sweet spot in your scopes, and choose two good eyepieces accordingly.

Finding the sweet spot is something you may wish to experiment with through trying other people's EP's.

I have an 80mm refractor which does not see much light admittedly, but you cannot see much detail in any object, even M42, without a reasonably short focal length EP. You probably need to get down to single digits, such as a 9mm EP or lower, to begin to really enjoy the views. I suspect something around the 7mm mark might be about right. A 7mm EP would give you magnification of 57x which should be quite useful for that level of aperture.

Your newtonian has a focal ratio which is slow enough not to suffer too much degradation from coma, but you will find the stars are a little tighter, and so more detail will become apparent, with a better quality eyepiece. If you used a 7mm EP in this scope, you would get a magnification of 142x which is probably a little high power for ordinary conditions. Something which gives you about 100x power is likely to be about right. This would mean something around the 10mm mark.

Both of your scopes are light weight, and you will suffer from balance issues if you go for heavier EP's.

I am a huge fan of the Nagler T6 series. They are not prohibitively expensive. They are lightweight, with 82 degree FOV, and so you will enjoy the spacewalk feel. I would suggest you see if you can borrow a 7mm Nagler T6 to try in your refractor, and an 11mm Nagler T6 to try in your newtonian. I think you will be happy with the views.

This is a link for the 11mm Nagler. http://www.bintel.com.au/Eyepieces-a...oductview.aspx

[Damienandwendy (Damien)]

Originally Posted by Rodstar

As I understand it, you have a 6 inch newtonian with a focal length of 1000mm (f/6.6), and an 80mm refractor with a focal length of 400mm (f/5). Yes?[/url]

Hi Rod,

Yes specs are as you stated.

I like the look and specs of the TV Naglers, but as they cost more than each of my OTA's I think they might be a bit of a stretch with my current setup. I know that good EP's are keepers but I still don't know if these are my first or last telescopes. I would like to think they are my first but who knows.

At this time I would really like to restrict my next EP purchase to around the $150 mark. I accept that these may not bring out the full potential of future scopes but I think they will be quite adequate for what I have right now. I also realise that setting a "low" limit will greatly restrict what types of EP I can go for. The Orion Stratus EP's have my eye at the moment, with favourable reviews and a decent 68 degree FOV.

Thank you for your feedback.

Damien

[Rodstar (Rod)]

Damien,

I owned an Orion Stratus when I had a f/10 Schmidt Cassegrain. It performed quite nicely and had good eye relief. The Orion Stratus are nice and solid and comfortable to use. The FOV is quite pleasing.

My only reservation is whether your faster focal ratios may cause some coma. I guess time will tell. Good luck with the purchase!

[brian nordstrom (As avatar)]

Hi Damion , I was in the same boat as you about 5 years ago , I had a 125mm f8 mm newtonion and a 60mm refractor , My eyepieces were as good as I could afford at the time , but ! I discovered the ED line up and got ( still have and use ) from the 3.7mm up to the 21mm , and for the price they are a close 2nd to the sweet Vixen lanthium's . and they have the 20mm eye relief.
Andrews has them right now for $49 each , For that price Grab 1 and try , I am sure you wont be dissapointed.
Brian.

Originally Posted by Damienandwendy

Hi Rod,

Yes specs are as you stated.

I like the look and specs of the TV Naglers, but as they cost more than each of my OTA's I think they might be a bit of a stretch with my current setup. I know that good EP's are keepers but I still don't know if these are my first or last telescopes. I would like to think they are my first but who knows.

At this time I would really like to restrict my next EP purchase to around the $150 mark. I accept that these may not bring out the full potential of future scopes but I think they will be quite adequate for what I have right now. I also realise that setting a "low" limit will greatly restrict what types of EP I can go for. The Orion Stratus EP's have my eye at the moment, with favourable reviews and a decent 68 degree FOV.

Thank you for your feedback.

Damien

[Sammy]

I own a couple of the Explore scientific 82* eyepeices. They are a pleasure to use, highly reccomended. They come close to the televue naglers and panoptics imo.

[brian nordstrom (As avatar)]

Yes Sammy , I also have the TV Panoptic, Radians and Naglers , not all of them , but the ones I own are really good , but! ......
Some people cant afford $200 plus on one eyepiece ,

Its taken me years to get the eyepieces that I want and use often.
My favorite eyepiece on the planets is still a 6mm .965inch Unitron , with a straw field of view , but mate it shows detail on jupiter , mars and saturn like no other . But it aint very good on deep sky .
Thats where the TV's come in .
Brian.

[Damienandwendy (Damien)]

From OPT in the states, Baader Hyperions are going for $129 and Explore Scientific 82 degree EP's for $99 or $119. I still don't understand, with strength of the Aussie dollar, why we are paying such a premium to by things from a local supplier. The cheapest Hyperions I can find here are $199 .... that's a 50% markup. Postage for two EP's is only $40 so I think I am fairly settled on where my next purchase will be from.

Thanks to all for recommendations and advice.

cheers

[Suzy]

Hi Damien,

I've bought from OPT before and there customer service is fantastic. Any inquiries and they will get back to you a.s.a.p. Delivery was received within 7 days (actually beat another astro order I had placed within Australia within the same week), and they packaged my order extremely well. Very impressed with every aspect of dealing with them.
My Pentax 7mmXW cost over $700 here in Aus, but from OPT I got it for only $300 + $30 shipping. So go figure how the Aussie retailers can get away with that- it's just crazy! .

Suffice to say, that's where any of my further orders will be placed from.

I've been hearing lots of good things about the Explore Scientifics for some time now.

All the best with whatever you decide on.

[brian nordstrom (As avatar)]

I hear you Suzy . It really does pay to shop around , that was a good buy on the Pentax . love to hear how does it perform?
Brian.

Originally Posted by Suzy

Hi Damien,

I've bought from OPT before and there customer service is fantastic. Any inquiries and they will get back to you a.s.a.p. Delivery was received within 7 days (actually beat another astro order I had placed within Australia within the same week), and they packaged my order extremely well. Very impressed with every aspect of dealing with them.
My Pentax 7mmXW cost over $700 here in Aus, but from OPT I got it for only $300 + $30 shipping. So go figure how the Aussie retailers can get away with that- it's just crazy! .

Suffice to say, that's where any of my further orders will be placed from.

I've been hearing lots of good things about the Explore Scientifics for some time now.

All the best with whatever you decide on.