Looking to upgrade my eye piece ... Please Help.

[StarGazing (Alex)]

Hi All,

I purchased a Skywatcher 10" dob(F=1200) a 10 months ago. Had some great views of planets and the deep space beyond. The eye pieces I have are the generics that came with the dob(20ml and 10ml plossil) and have found the quality to be average,,,,,, lots of coma and no clarity. Looking to update them, any suggestions would be appreciated. Also I have heard that a paracorr by Televue work great for dobs, what do you think.

Clear skyes to all, Alex.

[norm]

Hi Alex, welcome to the forum.

I'm no expert, but he's my 2 cents worth.

1. Your scope is likely to be an F5. I don't think you will really need a visual paracorr. If it was faster say F4.7 lower it might be worth checking out.

2. Invest in premium eyepeices. Better to have only a few (literally) good/high quality eyepieces than a multitude of average eyepieces.

You will need to let us on a few things:
1. do you wear glasses ? Eye relief maybe a factor in your choices.
2. what do you like seeing planetary/lunar, DSO, nebulas? All above and some?
3. Do you have a budget in mind.

I've got a set of GSO eyepeices thru' a prize and compared to my 2 premiums, they don't compare at all.

I've only got a 24mm Panoptic and a 10mm Pentax XW - great eyepieces and I wouldn't trade them in at all.
I am planning to get maybe 2 more to complete the line up and its a toss up between the 17mm Ethos or Nagler, possibly 20mm Ethos or - not sure as yet.

My recommendation is to go to a astro meeting or viewing session and check some out before purchasing.

Good Luck.
Norm

Remember - buy quality!

[mental4astro (Alexander)]

Hi Alex, to IIS, mate.

First thing to ask is how much do you want to spend? Unfortunately quality means $$$.

Still, there are some good options. I've been looking for them too for my dob. Here are a few ideas I've found:

1: TMB Paragon 30mm & 40mm. Had a fang of the 40mm in my f/4.5 17.5" dob, bloody unreal! Really, really good. Looking at getting one for myself now. Around $300 from Frontier Optics.

2: Agena Super View 32mm 70 degree. Identical to the Orion Q70 & a couple of others. Modest price and not too expensive, though shy of the TMB in quality. About $AU120 imported from the USA.

3: GSO 15mm Super View 68 degree. Surprisingly good in my dob. No discernable coma and very inexpensive, around $50 from Andrews.

4: Meade series 5000 Plossl 5.5mm. My latest EP. Ohh, do I like it or what. Nice eye relief, brilliant image, relatively inexpensive new from Bintel, $130.

[norm]

GSO 15mm Super View 68 degree.

Yeah - have to agree with Alex - that one is an exception to the rule. I only tried it on moon and it was surprisingly sharp, crisp, no color fringes on the edge. no sure about Globulars....must pull it out and try again.

Cheers, Norm

[StarGazing (Alex)]

Thanx for your response guys, I was hoping to buy 1 quality EP to start of with. Heard so much of the Televue range in particular the Ethos, Has anyone had any experience with the range. I am intersted in DSO's and Nebulars.
Cheers, Alex.

[Waxing_Gibbous (Peter)]

Hi there Alex. New here m'self so Welcome.
I've looked through 3 Ethoses (2 13's & an 8)and while very impressed, I found that, at those focal lengths a lot of "nebulousity" got washed out. Also they are a bit of work I found myself craning my neck to try and get the whole view.
If you were to start of with ONE premium eyepiece I would chose from:
30mm Pentax XW
27mm Panoptic
24mm Panoptic
19mm Panoptic
22mm Vixen LVW
20mm Pentax XW
16mm Nagler (same FOV as 19 Pan, but higher mag)
All of these will give excellent wide to mid-wide Field of Views in an 1500mm f5 dob.
These are the only EP's I've had personal epxerience with and there are loads of others some maybe better, some a good deal worse.
If its in the budget ,a good quality 2x - 2.5x Barlow lens or Power-Mate will allow you to double the magnification though you'll loose some eye-relief.
Or: Just type "eyepiece reviews" into Google and see how quickly you can become confused !
Happy hunting
PJH

[taminga16 (Greg)]

Hi Alex,

I have a 10" Dobsonian telescope and have to agree with Peter regarding Vixen Eye Pieces, in particular the 17 and 22mm LVW's both great on DSO's. Look at prices in the US (www.optcorp.com).

Regards,

Greg.

[Paddy (Patrick)]

Originally Posted by StarGazing

Thanx for your response guys, I was hoping to buy 1 quality EP to start of with. Heard so much of the Televue range in particular the Ethos, Has anyone had any experience with the range. I am intersted in DSO's and Nebulars.
Cheers, Alex.

I reckon that this is the way to go. If you make the first ep you get a low focal length one, you can add a good barlow and effectively have 2 premium eps. I am very fond of my 24mm panoptic and find it barlows well with 2x 1 1/4" TV barlow. I know some people report problems (eg http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/s...ad.php?t=43646 ) with a barlow 24 mm pan, so I'd chat to the people at Bintel beofre investing. I'm also very happy with my 17mm Vixen LVW and when barlowed, it gives views as good as my 9mm Nagler, but with smaller field of view. If you have a bit more cash, a 17mm Nagler type IV is one that people rave about. It would give you a mag of 70x with an AFOV 1.17 deg -nearly as much as the 24mm Pan (50x 1.36 deg) or 22mm LVW. Again it might be worth checking how these go with a barlow - I have no experience of this. So many more options!

Also it's well worth a visit to a star party to have a look through some eps - Snake Valley would be a good opportunity.

[Wavytone]

Hi Alex,

There are a few factors to consider and a big one is what you want to use this for, and your expectations. Some want the "wow" factor of an ultra-wide field - the "head-in-fishbowl" effect, while others are more critical about image sharpness, contrast and transparency (light loss). Personally, I am in the latter camp.

The upper limit for focal length is your eye pupil (about 6mm) x the focal ratio of your scope. In your case 30mm.

The lower limit (giving maximum magnification) is about 1 to 1.5 X the aperture, in mm.

IMHO eyepieces fall into two camps - low power wide field stuff, in which the widest TRUE field of view is what counts - as wide as the barrel allows. While I know there are those what yearn for the "stick your head in a fishbowl" experience of the Naglers and Ethoi, IMHo its nicer to see really sharp stars to the edge, sparkling like diamonds hanging in space before your nose. Is a huge FoV worth it ? Not always, IMHO. The downside is that the bigger the AFoV the more elements in the eyepiece - and light losses and internal reflections. In this respect I'm happier to use a really sharp eyepiece with a modest AFoV rather than over-wide ones where the images are somewhat unsharp for the outer 20% of the field.

At the low power end, there are two eyepieces that are very underrated - the TMB 30mm as Mental indicated, and the Vixen LV 30mm which has a 60 degree AFoV. The LV30mm should not be confused with the Vixen NLVW 30mm, which I have and is a different eyepiece at about twice the cost.

You can find a TMB 30mm secondhand on Astromart, they do appear at about 1 a month but you have to be quick. I missed on two TMB 40mm eyepieces before I bagged one at third try (the one Mental is referring to). The Vixen 30mm LV is still around new, but is in short supply as it is end-of-life.

I also have the Vixen LV50mm but this will not suit your scope, it is fine at f/15 but the focal length is too long for your scope (and it really does weigh as much as a brick).

[StarGazing (Alex)]

Hi guy,

Thanks for all your time and efforts for helping me choose the right eyepiece. I have decided that I am going to buy a Nagler, either the 17 ml type 4 or the 26 ml type 5( I think ) . The guys at Bintel have a sale at the moment and I think the type 17 could be had for $490 or so, that represents good value I think. Not sure yet ....... Maybe you guys could share your thoughts with me. I will definitely look at getting a powermateX2 at a later stage.

Much appreciated, Alex. Clear skyes to all.

[marki]

Originally Posted by StarGazing

Thanx for your response guys, I was hoping to buy 1 quality EP to start of with. Heard so much of the Televue range in particular the Ethos, Has anyone had any experience with the range. I am intersted in DSO's and Nebulars.
Cheers, Alex.

Hi Alex and welcome. I have a 17mm and 10mm ethos. The 17mm is a jewel, one of the best EP's I have used. The seeing has not been good enough (in between clouds) to use the 10mm so I cannot really comment on that. I also have a 14mm XW pentex EP. This is also a ripper and well worth the money. I also have some vixen LV's but don't like these much as the ones I have suffer from ghosting. If you are going to buy EP's save yourself the hassle and just buy top of the shelf, it's cheaper in the long run.

Mark

[dpastern (Dave Pastern)]

Just a question then - I presume the reason to go for an Ethos over a Nagler is the fact that it's 100º views vs 83º views, correct?

Dave

[marki]

Nah, I just saw them for sale in the EP forum and decided I needed them . Dave I use F10 and F15 scopes so any improvement on the FOV is welcome. I have never looked through a nagler so I cannot comment. The previous owner preferred the 19mm panoptic to the ethos which is why he sold them. I have yet to try the 17 and 10mm through my refractor but will do so tonight. First impressions with the 17mm were "how sharp is that" not " I can see the entire sky at F15". The detail on the moon was unreal and jupiter looked pretty smick (lots of bands) as did 47tuc (wide field great here). Unfortunately the seeing was crap so the ten was useless that night. I also use a pentex XW 14mm which has a 70 degree field. This is also a super EP and well worth considering as it gives really sharp views with very good contrast.

Mark