Quote:
Originally Posted by wavelandscott
Andrew,
My advice will run a little counter to the other opinions expressed so far in this thread. I suggest that you use what you have for a while and then make sure that you attend a viewing night or two with folks in your area and try out their eyepieces before you spend any of your money on any eyepiece.
Eyepiece preference is often time personal and an eyepiece that I might claim is great to you might actually perform rather average. Generally speaking with all things optical you "get what you pay for"...no doubt there are some good value eyepeices (and other gear) available but you may find that your eyepiece tastes may not be satisfied with the "value" brands.
Alternatively you may find that you can not "see" the difference and the "value" brands are fine.
My observation is that as people get more viewing experience they tend to migrate towards premium eyepieces.
Think of it like wine appreciation...when you are just starting out ""2 Buck Chuck" and "Boxed Wine" fit the bill but as your taste buds "mature" you start branching out into more expensive wine for special occassions and then before you know it top shelf all of the time.
With eyepices some folks like to incremently upgrade and this has them buying and selling lots of eyepieces (or keeping them) as their seeing skills "matures"...others save their pennies and then lash out on the best.
Either strategy is valid and it just depends on you but I would still get a few more nights of veiwing under my belt before I bought any new eyepeices. Once you understand what you like to look (double stars, DSO, planets) some fo the recommended choices become more clear.
No need to be in a rush...well cared for eyepieces will last a lifetime.
Enjoy!
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Well said Scott! I'd hasten to add that you might find you never need to "upgrade" and a lifetime can be spent getting amazing views out of simple plossls. The wine analogy is a good one - for some people the nuances are blindingly clear while for others (like me) it all tastes like plonk. Same with eyepieces, it is an acquired taste. For all that people rave on about the differences, I can't really see much myself, despite having looked through a wide variety of 'hand-grenades' at star parties etc. It's a one-percenter. Bar the very cheapest eyepieces (Huygens etc), all modern eyepieces from plossls up have pretty good optics. If you live in that one-percent the differences are real and huge. If you don't want to engage with the deep-pocketed, this-beats-that set you don't have to. Astronomy's about getting out there and seeing stuff, not gear. But people are strange creatures that need to complicate it and develop a complex structure & ritual around something so pure and simple.
Good luck anyway!
Cheers -
