SW600 eye pieces and filters

[zumka (Daniel)]

Can you please recommend what filter and eye pieces should I get for my SW600. I want to be able to see planets clearly as well as good deep space view. Friend suggested to buy a set.

Preferably don't want to spend lots of money but the goal is quality.

[dannat (Daniel)]

I wouldn't buy a whole set, but one or two quality pieces.

Look at some others before buying i think - what kind of price range were you looking at

[JethroB76 (Jeff)]

If, by a set, you mean a meade or celestron kit (or similar) in a case, I'd think you'd be better off buying a couple singular eyepieces instead.

You do however need to give your budget

[zumka (Daniel)]

I was recommended to buy a set, it does not mean I will buy a set. That's why I'm trying to get everyones opinion.

I want to have a reasonable quality eyepieces maybe barlow if price allows. Preferably don't want to spend more then $100 per piece.
Forgot to mentioned this is my first scope, I have SW600 with EQ6PRO, my plans are to start with observing then move to astrophotography.
As I mentioned in my previous post I need a good piece for planets and another one for DSO.
Also I'm thinking about light pollution filter and possibly some other filters.

Hope this is enough info.

[bmitchell82 (Brendan)]

well you will need some different kinds of filters to do cirtain jobs. and it all depends on your locations. I have found this is in my experience that filters for visual are very limited in their uses. I have a compleat set that i have access to and i think i used them twice now.

If your in the city, then go the light pollution filters though they are kinda exy it will make a bucketload of difference. maby even a nebula filter.

As for your eye pieces, the skywatcher ones are fine for now. The only things that i would do is get A, 9 or 12 mm illuminated rectical for your astrophotography, a 2x Barlow, and maybe a 32 or 40mm eye piece.

Remember that a barlow for visual observing is a powerful thing as it turns 3 eye pieces into 6. eg if your current set is something like 15, 25, 40mm add the barlow in and you will have 15, 25, 40, 7.5, 12.5 and 20. I wouldn't go too much past that if your main aim is going to be astrophoto. save your pennys for that as that is a expensive arm of astronomy! and a camera you will never beat as you will see so much more of the sky.

Thats my 2 bobs worth

[matt]

Having owned the SW600 and EQ6 combo, I'll jump in here

First of all, $100 per eyepiece doesn't give you much room to move. Like most things, you tend to get what you pay for.

My best planetary views with that scope were with a 5mm Vixen LVW eyepiece.

Best deep space view was with a 20mm eyepiece.

[bmitchell82 (Brendan)]

well the horses mouth just spoke . the other thing to remember with faint fuzzies and the like is that when you go down in size form say 20mm to 6mm you are getting all the light coming into the 20 mm hence things are brighter, and in the 6mm the light is streched over alot more hence duller images this is why Matt uses the higher power on planetarys because they are naturally brighter. and the low power on the fuzzies, But within saying that the eye pieces that he mentioned are a lot more expensive than your 100 rods

[BerrieK]

I have the SW600 but on an EQ5 (a few sandbags on the accessory tray help dampen down any wobbles) with a dual axis motor drive.

I have recently upgraded to Baader Hyperions which seem to perform well even at f5, to my very beginner eyes. They are really crisp on planets, and I find that the reported 68deg FOV give me reasonable views on DSOs. I confess that I did purchase the whole range of Hyperions (from Andrews) and do not use them all. I also have a 2x barlow. The 3.5mm is just at the edge of useful mag for the SW600, but fine on a night of good seeing and viewing.

I agree that a Barlow and 2 or 3 EPs are really all that you NEED, but it always fun to have other mags to play with, particularly with varying viewing conditions.

What I did when I was deciding which pieces to buy I made myself a little table (on microsoft word) incorporating the mags and possible mags with the Barlow, calculated the highest useful mag for the scope, and made unuseful mags red as they were not wanted...then looked at which barlow / eyepiece combos overlapped closely to show superfluous combos. I then did a bit of reading to find suggested mags for planetary viewing and took these numbers into consideration also....but in the end I like toys and bought the lot anyway. As I said I dont use them all.

[matt]

Originally Posted by bmitchell82

this is why Matt uses the higher power on planetarys because they are naturally brighter. and the low power on the fuzzies,

Mate...

I recommended the 5mm for planets.

If you go back to zumka's original post, he asked which ep for 'planets'....not planetarys.

I wouldn't use a 5mm to look at DSOs.

[zumka (Daniel)]

Originally Posted by matt

Best deep space view was with a 20mm eyepiece.

Hi matt I assume you are talking about same Vixen LVW brand.

[matt]

No. Not necessarily.

Vixen only has an LV at that focal length. You'd need a 22mm LVW if you wanted to stay in the LVW series.

I was refering to recommended focal length for DSO viewing with that scope.

If you wanted to stay with the LVWs...either the 17mm or 22mm would be very nice.

But there are other brands to look at. It's all depending on $$$.

[zumka (Daniel)]

what about Meade 4000 QX

[matt]

Don't know about Meade eyepieces, sorry.

Have never used them. Although I do seem to recall a bit of negative comment about that particular range. I could be wrong, though.

[bmitchell82 (Brendan)]

Sorry i did mean planets. hence if you read the whole post it will make sense anyhow.

I have acess and use Meade Series 5000 ep's and i cannot fault them. They always give beautiful views.

The only thing i say about planetarys is that 5mm ep's always have short eye relief, unless your willing to part with $300+ and hence a Barlow with a 20 or 15mm is quite nice, as you get the aparent FOV and eye releif that you get with those kinds of eye pieces.

The problem is also that getting conditions that are good enough for using these high mag eye pieces is not very often and hence unless you are 100% commited to planetary without ever looking past there, buying such an expensive ep for just a hand full of nights I cannot see the value of. But also saying that if i had the money and didn't care, why not buy the best that i could buy

I just hate seing people buy heaps of eye pieces for no reason when what they have is quite sufficient untill they get further into the game. even then i would only be replacing my current Skywatcher eps and barlow with higher quality as they still give me a wide range of mags!

[zumka (Daniel)]

What do u think about Burgess Planetary series are they good quality ?

[wavelandscott (Scott)]

If you are asking if they are as good as the highend Televue, Pentax etc. etc. eyepieces, no they are not...but, I do think that they represent good value for money.

I have TV, Pentax and also the BO/TMB (sourced from our own Frontier Optics) and would rate them as good eyepieces...but not great.

To my eye they are a step up from the typical standard entry eyepieces. They combine reasonable eye relief (much more than high power plossls) and a decent FOV...the views are nice...some versions do show some flaring on bright objects (varies from production trun as the baffles have changed in some)

Some people hail them as the second coming and nearly perfect (this is internet hype)...I wouldn't say that they are perfect but I would place them performance wise in the 89-95% of the high end stuff and a small fraction of the cost. Hence my comment of good value for money.

The build quality is good but they are not in the same league as the Pentax and Televue in my opinion...

[zumka (Daniel)]

Out of 3 which one is better:

TV Plossl
WO Swan
Orion Stratus

[wavelandscott (Scott)]

TV plossl is hard to beat.

The eye relief of the plossls at higher magnification may be problematic...that is where the TMB/BO Planetary Eyepieces come into their own (in my opinion).

[zumka (Daniel)]

I decided to get TMB for my planatery. What is the best size for my scope 4 5 or 6. MyScope is F5 1000mm Focal Length, HIghest Practical Power 470X