I bought an 8'' dobsonian like 10 years ago, and now i am starting to use it again and considering spending a bit of money in Astronomy
I currently have a 2'' Bintel SP 26mm and Bintel 15, 9 and 6 mm plossl eyepieces that came with the scope
I mostly use the SP26 mm and the 15 when i want a bit of magnification. i cannot stand the 9 and 6 mm, because of the narrow field of view and very short eye relief.
I was thinking on spending up to 400 dollars on a good 10 to 15 mm eyepiece with good eye relief and wider field of view and a 2x Barlow lens to combine it with it
Are the Bintel BINTEL Premium Long Eye Relief Eyepiece any good, or a Baader Morpheus will be much better ?
Is there any good 2x Barlow under 200 that can recommend
I like my 12.5mm Morpheus and it will be very good for general viewing. Globulars will show very nicely with this EP.
Re a barlow, I found that a 2x Shortie barlow works well. Besides being less expensive, the shortie also have an advantage of no needing less refocusing when using/ not using. Similar barlows can be brought cheaply from Amazon.
It may sound slightly crazy, but I have used my 12.5mm Morpheus with two such barlows in series (pictured) and the view was still impressive. However, that arrangement would be a high magnification (almost 400x) with ur scope and that brings its own problems.
Do you know of any of these shortie Barlows in Amazon that can have the lens cap removed so it can also be used as a x1.5 .
What would become handily for me to have a bigger variety of magnifications
Unfortunately $400 doesn't get you much these days if you look for anything even remotely high end. If you get a Baader Morpheus you wont have enough for barlow.
That being said, for your 8" dob which is F6 I presume? I would recommend the 9mm Morpheus. It will give you ~135x magnification which is very useful magnification for most deep sky objects - even some planetary nebula. At 1.5 mm exit pupil, image brightness will still be decent with a darker sky background than the longer focal lengths for better image contrast. Finally, the true field of view should allow you to (just) fit the entire moon into the eyepiece.
I've always thought my Baader Hyperions were pretty good value. 20mm eye relief and wide field of view for around $200 ish. I've seen them advertised at Ozscopes. Views in my refractors are fine, I can't remember what they were like when I had a couple of F5 reflectors though.
The only plossl I still use is a 26mm 60 degree super plossl (Meade) that I bought maybe 10 years ago - I find it quite good but I probably still use the Hyperions more. I had a 27mm Panoptic which was a little better than the Hyperions but not worth the extra for my eyes. I have a Delite which I find a little flatter/cleaner image than the Hyperions but again, it's not a huge difference. Keep your eye on the classifieds.
Another thought: ProAstroz in Australia sells the Starguider Dual ED Eyepieces for $75 each. They have 20mm of eye relief with a 60 degree field and are a very good improvement over basic EPs.
I brought a set (pictured), but favour the 12 & 15mm most. What I did notice is that the 12, 15, 18 & 25mm are parfocal, but the 5 & 8 mm require a few mms of refocusing. I also like using these with a shortie barlow, which only requires a modest amount of refocusing.
Ok, U should be able to tell by now that having a parfocal range of EPs is important to me. The good news is that the four Starguiders recommended are also parfocal with many good EPs if U extend your range later. These include Pentax XWs, Morpheus (except the 17.5mm), Tak & Fuju orthoscopics and Vixen NPL plossls.
My most used EP is a 30mm Vixen NPL plossl which I use for low power and navigation purposes. There is one for sale in the classifieds.
If U also buy the 12, 15 & 18mm Starguiders and shortie barlow, then U will also have good, widefield 6, 7.5 & 9mm options.
I have order a cheap Barlow from Amazon, should be here next week
Now for the other Eyepiece I Think I have shorten my list between
DUAL ED TELESCOPE EYEPIECE - 12MM
Baader Hyperion 13mm or 10mm
I would prefer to give it a try at the DUAL ED, but since they are in Sydney i don't think they will be able to ship before new Year. On the other hand i can pick up any of the Baader Hyperion locally from ozscopes on 30th and use it on my planned trip the first nights of 2021 to some dark skies (weather permitted)
The Duel Ed's seem to be getting favorable reviews from a little reading: https://www.cloudynights.com/topic/5...adigm-dual-ed/ From reports, the eye relief seems to be around 15mm - 16mm which is probably borderline for my glasses. I think the Hyperions have 19mm eye relief give or take a mm.
