Starting out equipment advice

[BenM (Ben)]

I've recently just bought my first scope ever Celestron 8SE and I'm having an amazing time with it. I'm still an absolute beginner. I live in an area with possibly some of the worst light pollution possible but still manage pretty well to see stuff and blow my mind each night. Im interested in increasing my ability to see everything in more detail and closer up eg planets and nebulae. I've seen a lot of different eye pieces and barlow lenses available and wasn't sure where to start?? Can anyone offer me some advice??

And I'm currently planning a dark sky trip soon to really test out my new scope.

[barx1963 (Malcolm)]

Hi Ben and welcome.
Glad you are enjoying your new scope!
What eyepieces do you have at the moment? That will help to clarify. If I am not mistaken they come with a single 25mm ep, that would give at 2000mm fl 80x. That is OK for most deepspace objects. If you obtained a 15mm or thereabout ep that shoud yield 133x which makes planet look better and can help with the smaller DSOs.
Pushing much beyond that will require good seeing conditions.
As to choice of eps, the more expensive ones have wider apparent fields, which can be a great help at shorter focal lengths, high power plossls can be really hard to use at the eyerelief is very short and exit pupil is tiny.

Malcolm

[BenM (Ben)]

Thanks for the reply. The eye pieces i have at the moment are only the stock standard ones that came with the scope Celestron 25mm PLOSSL, and Star Diagonal 1/4" (from what is printed off the side of them). If there is specific brands or specific lenses you or anyone would recommend i would be grateful to hear

-Cheers Ben

[brian nordstrom (As avatar)]

Nice 1st scope there Ben , you wont be looking at an upgrade any time soon .
Have a look at the 15mm or 20mm 'GSO SuperView's' from Andrews Communications , these are a hybrid type of Plossl , give a nice wide 68* field , and get a good review by lots here at IIS , and at only $39 each for the 1,1/4inch , 15mm or 20mm they are a steal .
I grabbed one ( 15mm ) for a friend up here for his 125mm Meade ETX and I was astonished at the quality of views for so little money , it even performed very well in my SKY90 at f5.5 and thats no mean trick .
Have a look , these are a jem of an eyepiece . .
15mm = 133x
20mm = 100x
A good spread of magnifications with your 25mm .
Brian.

[BenM (Ben)]

That looks considerably cheaper then i was expecting as id seen some prices into the hundreds. Thanks very much for the heads up much appreciated!! Andrews Communications doesn't seem to do online orders which is as much as a surprise as it is a shame, and are not open on weekends. I guess ill give them a call and ask them how anyone with a job that works normal hours buys anything off them.....

thanks again.