EyePieces

[Nortilus (Josh)]

Ok, what are the differences between eyepieces, like between a plossl and a nagler for instance.
I know it has something to do with like how many lenses and stuff they have in them, but to a noob like me, who is looking into getting a few more EP's, i would like to know.
At the moment i have a 4mm, 9mm, 12.5mm and a 25 mm Plossl EP's. I am thinking of getting a 40mm EP for wide field. But then I hear of high mag widefield EP's. (I could be wrong about that.)

Any ideas.

[Striker (Tony)]

PRICE.......$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ $$$$$

You already have a large range of eyepieces...depends what you want it for.....planetry - DSO

Nagler's are know for their 82 degree field and their sharpness right to the edge of the field....meaning widefield.

Plossl's dont have the widefield.....around 50 degree's....

Making eyepieces with widefield while still keeping their sharpness right to the edge is a costly exercise.

[Starkler (Geoff)]

Before anyone can make informed recommendations about eyepieces, we need to know what scope you will be using them in, and what your budget is.

[Nortilus (Josh)]

8" gso dob.
And i don't know enough about EPs and price and stuff to know really...

[Starkler (Geoff)]

If you buy a 40mm eyepiece, it absolutely must be in 2 inch format to give a large field of view. The 1.25" barrel size restricts the maximum fov so that for a standard plossl, anything over 32mm is a waste.

With the equipment you already have I would just add an Orion Shorty-Plus barlow for $150, and a GSO superview 30mm 2 inch for $99.

You can spend a LOT of money on eyepieces and best way to learn whats worthwhile is meet up with others and look through theirs

People buy Naglers and the like because they are getting wider fields of view, whilst maintaining sharpness across the field.
This just doesnt happen with cheap eyepieces.

[MintSauce (Gordon)]

It's all APARENT field of view, not actual. The Naglers have 82 APPARENT fov, which means you almost feel in space (that's their motto anyhow - spacewalk) I have an 80degree 30mm on the same scope and I love it Don't get confused with actual fov which is like .2degrees for a high mag eye piece or something

G.

[MintSauce (Gordon)]

oh and my 30mm is a 2" andrews 80degree eyepiece which was 150bucks; it's ok sharp towards the edge, not real sharp tho given a slightly fast scope - but the feeling of loads of space around whatever your looking at is amazing.

[rumples riot]

Naglers have seven elements in them Plossels have 4-5 elements in them.

For Viewing nebula's and galaxies I recommend Panoptics by televue, I have one of these on order and they are made for this purpose.

There are many good quality eyepieces to choose from, some of which are the televue and pentax and by the look of it the Meade series 5000. Do some research and find the ones that you want, then see if you can do some viewing through one at an observing night.

[ving (David)]

there are plenty of EP reviews around too at places like cloudy nights .