Yet another, another eyepiece thread

[ChrisV (Chris)]

Dear all,

Sorry to bore everyone with probably the same question you see over and over. But I am new to this game and can't really see an answer to my question in the forum.

I've just got an (old?) optex 150mm newtonian (f5 I figure) on a GEM. Got it for next to nothing, so no great loss if I find stargazing is not for me. The mirrors look good, no marks etc, and I've collimated it (I have experience with lasers and microscopes - not telescopes).

But the caveats.
1. The stellarview mount it is on hardly worked. I've stripped it down, cleaned the gears and tubes (or whatever they're called). The grease in it was like glue, and there was piles of grit. Re-lubricated the bits, replaced rusted screws etc. This was piles of fun before I even used it ! Its working nicely now - the mount runs smoothly and easily with little play in it (after a lot of fiddling).

2. It didn't come with eyepieces ! I've just been using the eyepieces that are on my son's celestron 60cm reflector - 10 & 20mm - no idea what type they are.

On the few decent nights I've had (between clouds and back-burning) I've poked around the moon, saturn and have even started to figure out how to use an equatorial mount and learn what's up there - which is great fun.

So my question is: what eyepiece(s) should I buy to get started ? I don't want to spend a fortune - as this is just a first go to see if I enjoy stargazing (and I'm a cheapskate).

I've been looking at the GSO plossls (am I allowed to mention brands ro vendors?). Maybe get 2 to start ?
- For low power a 32mm super-plossl or a 20mm wide view, and
- For higher power - a 10mm super-plossl.

Does this makes sense ? I've been using stellarium to figure out what I can (theoretically) see with different eyepiece sizes. I'd be starting with planets and hopefully some easy DSOs (I'm in way northern Sydney suburbs so ambient light not too bad ?).

Thanks in advance, Chris
Please - any help greatly appreciated

[Wavytone]

For your f/5 newtonian, the shortest you could use (high power) will be 4-5mm, the longest (low power) 30mm.

For budget ones try www.andrewscom.com.au, under Optical/Telescopes/Guan Sheng there's a reasonable range for $39 apiece.

Plossls are usually surprisingly good with Newtonians, the other thing to watch for is a set of Edmund RKE's (8...28mm) if you find a set secondhand, these were designed to match small newtonians around f/5. You can still buy them new from their website.

[N1 (Mirko)]

The 28 RKE works really well on my f/5 and f/6 GSO newtonians. Very affordable "spacewalk" experience.
32mm plössl works fine too.

[ChrisV (Chris)]

Thanks Guys,

Iwas going to try Andrews- but they are on holidays. Ended up going to Bintel and talked to them about what I had. Ended up getting a 20mm superview (said I couldn't go too much lower power as my old eyes would be able to do it) & a 9mm plossl. Tried it tonight - wow !

Chris