Lenses for dob 8?

[pcool2 (Patrick)]

hey everyone,

I love looking at planets with my saxon dob 8 but i want to view them the best way possible. any sugestions what lense/s i should buy. should i get a 2x or 3x barlow or what? budget is up to 300. thanks

[mental4astro (Alexander)]

I just replied to you thread on this in the 'Observational' forum.

If $300 is your limit, I'ld recommend the following:

* Meade Series 5000 Super Plossl 5.5mm, 'bout $125

I have one of these little rippers. What I like about it is it has good eyerelief, meaning you don't need to put your cornea on the eye lens to see into it, something high power EP's are notorious for. It also has a good field of view, 60degrees, meaning the object will be visible for longer as it drifts through the field of view.

I've used this EP in an 8" dob. It worked very well with it. On one occasion last year, we spotted 5 of Saturns moons in the one field of view. My 17.5" dob at the same time showed 6 moons. I was very impressed with the view through this 8" scope.

This eyepiece will give you just over 200X magnification, which is usually the best the atmosphere will allow. If you do want more, then invest in a barlow, the GSO one is less than $30, and will work well with this Meade EP. But you will get very little productive use from it as 400X is a rare creature to get a good image from due to limitations of the atmosphere.

Getting a higher power EP than this will mean bigger bucks for a quality unit with the same eyerelief and field of view. And then you will not get much use from it at all. You really won't.

Mental

[that_guy (Tony)]

the barlow in andrews com for 20 dollars, is that good or is it too cheap to be any good?? also how much is the postage from andrews com to the gold coast??

[mental4astro (Alexander)]

I saw the GSO 2X barlow for $29. It is actually decent. I've used one a couple of times one my 15mm Supreview, it did a nice job. Andrews charges $10 for express post frieght.