Eyepiece recommendations

thefrogulox (Al) · #1 24-02-2011, 06:06 PM

Hi all

I'm getting sick of my crappy quality eyepieces and wishing to upgrade.

I could spend around $1000 (but could be convinced to spend more!) and would ideally like a relatively decent range of powers.

I have a Skywatcher 120ED which has a focal length of 900mm.

I prefer 2" eyepieces, but I can be swayed.

I would also like a quality barlow/powermate.

Any advice? Thanks in advance!

anj026 · #2 24-02-2011, 06:19 PM

How about Naglers?
31mm t5 29x, 2.67 degree field of view
13mm t6 69x, 1.12 degree field of view
5mm t6 180x, 0.44 degree field of view

To be frank eyepieces can be very subjective and you are best served by trying before buying. Do you use glasses when observing? Do your local conditions allow high magnification. Others will have their own opinions but only you can say what suits you best.

Join the local astro society and go to a few observing sessions and try other peoples to get a feel for what you like. Be prepared for many different opinions.

Andy

sopticals (Stephen) · #3 24-02-2011, 06:47 PM

Hi thefrogulox I would suggest a Baader 8mm-24mm click stop zoom.This item is not too expensive and provides 8mm,12mm,16mm,20mm as well as 24mm focal length. It functions particularly well at 16mm down to 8mm (having 70degree field at 8mm).Reviews are excellent and it compares well with premium fixed focal eyepieced particularly at the shorter focal length end.

GeoffW1 (Geoff) · #4 24-02-2011, 07:51 PM

Hi,

I agree with Stephen. I've got separate Baaders and love them. All the same I wish I'd tried this zoom model because it's visual only here.

I might yet do that

Cheers

casstony · #5 24-02-2011, 11:40 PM

A possible combination:

Low power: Nagler 31mm

Middle powers: William optics Binoviewer (comes with 20mm wide angle eyepieces and a barlow nosepiece). Also buy a GSO 2" barlow, unscrew the nosepiece and screw it to the nose of the diagonal (would give about 3x I think).

High power: Pentax XW 5mm.

troypiggo (Troy) · #6 25-02-2011, 12:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sopticals

Hi thefrogulox I would suggest a Baader 8mm-24mm click stop zoom.This item is not too expensive and provides 8mm,12mm,16mm,20mm as well as 24mm focal length. It functions particularly well at 16mm down to 8mm (having 70degree field at 8mm).Reviews are excellent and it compares well with premium fixed focal eyepieced particularly at the shorter focal length end.

Quote:

Originally Posted by GeoffW1

Hi,

I agree with Stephen. I've got separate Baaders and love them. All the same I wish I'd tried this zoom model because it's visual only here.

I might yet do that

Cheers

COUGH COUGH

dannat (Daniel) · #7 25-02-2011, 01:26 PM

I would go for the 27 pan for 2" w/f.
Probably one of sylvains tmb's 6mm for planetary , or aTV radian as they a on special
Then you need something in the middle, maybe a 13 or 17 nagler or perhaps vixen lvw.

GeoffW1 (Geoff) · #8 25-02-2011, 03:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by troypiggo

COUGH COUGH

sopticals (Stephen) · #9 25-02-2011, 06:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by casstony

A possible combination:

Low power: Nagler 31mm

Middle powers: William optics Binoviewer (comes with 20mm wide angle eyepieces and a barlow nosepiece). Also buy a GSO 2" barlow, unscrew the nosepiece and screw it to the nose of the diagonal (would give about 3x I think).

High power: Pentax XW 5mm.

Hi Al I use the click stop baader zoom with my 14" f5.1 dob and like casstony have the 2" GSO barlow which used in conjunction with the zoom eyepiece gives down to an equivalent of a 4mm focal length high end eyepiece (of course seeing would have to support the resultant magnification). I also have the Williams optics binoviewer (which works a treat) the barlow supplied is 1.6x and should come to focus with your scope as the light cone is not too steep.The supplied eyepiece pair is 20mm and wide angle (66deg). I have since obtained 32mm and 25mm plossl pairs to use with binoviewer and these work well also.

Stephen

AstralTraveller (David) · #10 27-02-2011, 10:37 PM

I upgraded over the past few years and now have a set I'm happy with. I have two types of eyepiece: ultra wide angle for deep sky and orthos for planets and moon. The wides they are in a series with a ratio of about 3:2 between sizes 28, 20, 13 and 9. The smaller three are all Naglers and the 28 is the WO UWAN. I haven't compared the WO to a Nagler of similar size but judging it next to the 20mm Nagler suggests it is very good. The orthos are a Zeiss Jana 10mm and 7 & 5mm UO HDs. Nothing I've seen can match orthos for sharpness and contrast - and the UOs are pretty cheap.

Of these eps only the 13, 7 and 5 were bought new; the rest were second hand here on IIS. The trick is to know what you want and why then check the classifieds at least daily. If it's worth having it will go very quickly. (BTW it seems to me that there is less good stuff coming up at the moment.) When planning a 'budget' I kept in mind that good eps will last forever (well longer than me anyway) and since the expenditure was spaced out over 2+ years the pain wasn't too great.

toc (Tim) · #11 28-02-2011, 10:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sopticals

Hi thefrogulox I would suggest a Baader 8mm-24mm click stop zoom.This item is not too expensive and provides 8mm,12mm,16mm,20mm as well as 24mm focal length. It functions particularly well at 16mm down to 8mm (having 70degree field at 8mm).Reviews are excellent and it compares well with premium fixed focal eyepieced particularly at the shorter focal length end.

I love my 8-24, but I wish it had a wider field of view at 24. Other than that, its a great bit of kit.

AstroGuy · #12 10-03-2011, 06:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sopticals

Hi thefrogulox I would suggest a Baader 8mm-24mm click stop zoom.This item is not too expensive and provides 8mm,12mm,16mm,20mm as well as 24mm focal length. It functions particularly well at 16mm down to 8mm (having 70degree field at 8mm).Reviews are excellent and it compares well with premium fixed focal eyepieced particularly at the shorter focal length end.

Hi Stephen,

If you don't mind me asking, what's the primary lens aperature and exit pupil aperature on those Ba'ader 8-24mm zoomers, and are they 2" or 1.25"?

I have a Long Perng 8-21mm 1.25" small primary aperature, larger exit pupil aperature (can't remember exact specs at the moment) nice construction, fairly good quality and value at $120 AUS. Really only good for moon, some closer planets and use in a spotting scope setup though.

Regards...

sasup (Stacey) · #13 12-03-2011, 08:26 AM

I run a wide range. I am playing with a panoptic 24 and higher power ethos 17mm, neglar 20, neglar 17mm and a 13 mm ethos. will update

Suzy · #14 12-03-2011, 09:56 PM

Hi Al,

I feel you need to be a little more specific otherwise you can have every eyepiece that everyone likes thrown at you and you may not achieve your true desired goal- of getting exactly what you want. From what I gather, you already have a fair experience with eyepieces, therefore you should by now be knowledgeable on your requirement list.

What's important? What are the f/lengths your afer? How fast/slow is your scope? Will it be used for detailed observations where every bit of light through put matters? How important is the size of fov? How important is ege sharpness. And you want 2", how old are you, will the exit pupil at a longer f/length cater to your requirements. etc etc etc. Unless you know any of this, wait a bit and see exactly what it is you want. As it's a lot of money you are willing to part with...

And I'll throw in my 2c with Tony (Castony) and suggest the Pentax xw 10mm and down for high power. If these requirement suit you, of course.

thefrogulox (Al) · #15 14-03-2011, 05:18 PM

Hi Suzy,

Thank you for your comments. When the post was first made, I was unsure of what exactly I was after. However, with further research I've become clearer as to what my actual requirements are.

At this stage, I primarily interested in a wide FOV. To this extent, I currently have my eye on a Nagler 31mm, but I am concerned that under my relatively light polluted skies of suburban Perth, that the contrast would not be up to par.

Does anyone have any experience in this regard? I suppose I could go as low as a 20mm Nagler but I do not wish to sacrifice too much fov.

As stated in my original post, I have a f/7.5 refractor with a focal length of 900mm. Oh, and I am 26 years old

Comments?

casstony · #16 14-03-2011, 06:56 PM

If the focuser can handle the weight, a 31mm Nagler makes a very nice 19mm Nagler when used with an Antares 1.6x barlow - it has much more eye relief than a 20mm Nagler too. When I use the 31mm alone I flip the eyecup down; when it's in the barlow I flip the eyecup up.

For medium magnification views of nebulae and globular clusters the best thing you could do is buy an 10" or 12" dob.

The 120ed with 31mm nagler will have a washed out but wide FOV in town - still good if you want the wider low power field, but if you want contrast too you need to get to about 60X magnification (15mm eyepiece) but then DSO's are getting a little dim due to the restricted aperture.

If I had your scope I'd use it for widest, low power FOV and for moon/planets if I couldn't be bothered setting up a bigger scope. For DSO's, especially from in town, you really need a larger aperture.

Hope those thoughts help rather than confuse

Wavytone · #17 19-03-2011, 10:35 PM

My pick would be the TMB Paragon 40mm, Vixen LVW 17 and LVW 8 mm, spanning the useful magnification range of your scope. There is an LVW 5mm but you'll never use it.

If can find them, Vixen LVW's are better in your scope than the Baader Hyperions, and similar to TV Radians. For low power though, the TMB Paragon 30 or 40mm, instead; both are MUCH sharper edge to edge than the Vixens or Hyperions. The TMB40 has lots of eyerelief, OTOH the 30mm has a wider apparent FoV and less eyerelief. These eyepieces are no longer available new, but do come up occasionally on Astromart. Both the 30 and 40mm is useable on your scope; the 40 is about the longest useful focal length.

Finding used LVW's is also hard.

PlanetMan · #18 23-03-2011, 12:26 PM

I am running on the assumption that price is not a factor here but for a low power eyepiece which I have been remarkably impressed with and yet don't seem to get as much attention as what they desere are the Televue Panoptics and in particular the 19 or 24mm with 68 TFOV. I agree that the Vixen LVW's are great eyepieces and would actually rate them better than the Televue radians. However, once again if you want the best and can stretch the budget that little bit further in terms of pure optical performance I would actually rate the Pentax XW's (and even the old XL's) better than the Vixen LVWs. However, once again there are significant incremental price differences between all of these eyepiences.