Celestron - Eyepiece & Filter Accessory Kit

[mwill76]

Am new to astronomy and am looking at purchasing this eyepiece kit.

Have got an 8" skywatcher dob, do you think that this set would be a suitable option?

Details are:

1.25" accessory kit includes five Plossl eyepieces (4, 6, 9, 15, & 32mm), a 2X "short" Barlow Lens, six colored filters, a moon filter, and an aluminum carry case.

Are celestron eyepieces ok?

Thanks in advance,

Michelle

[[1ponders] (Paul)]

Hello Michelle.

I bought exactly the same kit a few years ago and at the time it did me fine. They are not the best lenses in the world, but they will certainly do the job. Apart from the moon filter I really didn't find any benefit with the other filters and even the moon filter wasn't used that much.

Eventually I replaced the eyepieces with better quality ones (thought I don't do a lot of observing), I still have the 32mm, which was probably the best of the eyepieces and the case (which was the best bit overall ). The 15 and the 9 were ok. but I rarely used the 6 and the 4 prefering to barlow the 15 and 9. The barlow does an ok job but I found it to have a fair bit of colour fringing, being an achromatic, but initially it wasn't objectionable.

It depends on how much the asking price is for the kit. If it is only in the $200 range then I'd definately be thinking about it. Much more than that I'd be considering geting some better quality eyepieces and a good barlow.

What eyepieces do you have at the moment?

[taminga16 (Greg)]

Better ep's are to be had at Bintel or Andrews (GSO or Bintel branded) and then you can pick and chose you required focal lengths.
Regards Greg.

[mwill76]

Sounds like it's best to hold off and buy some better quality ones, don't want to spend money on an inferior product only to have to buy more down the track.

Cheers!

[OneOfOne (Trevor)]

I also bought this exact kit (several months before I found IIS) and found I used 3 eyepieces regularly. The Moon filter a couple of times and the rest rarely. I think I paid about $500.

In hindsight, the bits I used probably made the purchase worth about $150 for the stuff I actually used. Since then I have picked up a Pentax collection and haven't used much out of the kit since then. I have moved the filters into my eyepiece case and I will be selling the remainder of my kit in a few weeks time now that I have my C11. One day I even hope to take it outside and look through it!

So I would make the same recomendation, buy what you think you will use rather than buy a kit of stuff you won't use much.

[snug]

Hi Michelle

Im in the same boat...new and know very little about eye pieces. After reading posts I decided on this kit from Bintel

https://www.bintelshop.com.au/welcome.htm ..Its $185 which suits my current limitted budget..Ive been looking at the Naglers and dreaming but realistically the Bintels are what i can afford at the moment. I already have a 2x Barlow so that helps a bit.

Down the track I will put the money into better quality but it will be when i have far more experience and have looked through heaps of other peoples..

Snug

[snug]

Sorry the link didnt go to the eyepieces...but click on the left colomn and its on page 3..Hope that helps...Snug

[mwill76]

Thanks Snug, I did see that kit but I have no idea as to whether the Bintel's are any good or not, so didn't get any further than that.

I'm now looking at getting a couple of GSO eye pieces and also a Barlow lens, now just have to work out what sizes would be best to go with the 25mm and 10mm that came with the telescope.

It's all a bit confusing still, but we'll fumble through!

M

[KG8]

It's a real jungle out there and you have to be cunning when it comes to accesories I think Michelle. I bought a C11 a while back and it came with a celestron 40mm EP. I looked around soon after and bought a pair of cheap GSO superviews, a 20mm & a 50mm 2" at $50 each, then a jap 13mm for $180 (reduced to half price) then a meade 9mm plossil for $120. There a good mix and the expensive ones give better views than the cheap ones but since those ones are all high magnification I don't use them nearly as much. I find that I use the 40mm celestron that I got with the scope most of the time. It gives the best overall view, though it does have a qwerk, you have to keep your eye dead centre or I get a kidney bean effect.

It's good to have a range but it seems that all the EP sets bar the most expensive have ones in them that are really just ordinary and like most have said above, you probably wont end up using them all. A waste of money in other words. I'd read around, read reviews and pick only the best ones from these ranges. I bought the 20mm GSO superview because I had looked through one at saturn and it was ok but when I put it to use on deep sky objects it was flat and lifeless. The 50mm though was very nice, gave a true 3D sort of effect like I get from my 40mm so I was happy with that one.

It's all very confusing at first I found so I'd say take your time and look around.