Most practical EP

[Cosmic (Daniel)]

Hi team,

Just a quick run down of my situation. I'm near the end of paying off my Bintel N200 EQ6 Pro https://www.bintelshop.com.au/Images/Stock/8164X.jpg and im going to start off with just visual, get to know the skys first.

I'm really keen to get a more powerful EP than the 9mm/111x the package comes with. Now my question, what would be a max practical size. I was looking at a 3mm/333x or 4mm/250x then what are my chances of 2.5mm/400x or do those nights only come once a blue moon?

Budget $200

Cheers,
Cos

[The Mekon (John Briggs)]

I have a scope of similar focal length and can say that you may be looking in the wrong direction.
My first set of eyepieces were the following
4.8 Nagler 215x
9mm nagler 113x
32 Plossl 32x

I still have these but do not use them so much.
Now I use
7mm Nagler 146x
13mm Nagler 80x
27 Pan 38x

I also use a 2x ultima barlow, which I can highly recommend to you.
To me its all about field of view - not just the magnification.
Even with an Apo refractor, I do not use high magnifications much.
The conditions are just so rare to enable their use.

If you only have a decent 9mmm perhaps you should look at something like a 19 panoptic.

If you are determined to go high mag, how about a 5mm Radian?

[Cosmic (Daniel)]

Ok then, see where your coming from. My expectations of seeing detail of 300+ maybe out of the league of practicality lol..bugger.

The other EP that comes with this TS is a 25mm bintel type FYI.

I like to have a good field of view as well (big screen TV effect) as well as detail. So the Orion Stratus 03.5mm or 5mm with field of 68° 20mm eye relief @ $179 oorrr the Radian 5mm 60° @ 269.

So..... Radian vs Orion Stratus. Spend more or not, im in this hobby for the long run Could you really tell the difference in clarity/quality of images between these two brands?

[koputai (Jason)]

Don't waste your time and money on anything like a 5mm, you will rarely (like once or twice per year) get a chance to use it. Go for a good quality 9mm, or longer.

The 13mm Nagler is fantastic in that sort of scope.

Cheers,
Jason.

[GrahamL]

Hi

Like others mention those nights that seeing supports 200x upwards
are not very common no matter what quality eyepiece you use.

The 25 (40x) & 9 (111x) are usefull focal lengths
I got both these eypeieces with my first scope and also the
rollaround 4 mm, thats all its ever done, roll around in a drawer someplace, the poor things been missing for years

I found the supplied 9 mm (111x) fairly uncomfortable to use
I can recomend the pentax 8.5 mm xf as a huge step up in quality
and It barlows well
http://www.cloudynights.com/ubbthrea...4/Main/4119810
bintel used to sell them but I don't see them there anymore ?

Barry does though and hes good to deal with.
http://www.kkohki.com/English/kkohkiparts.html

Both the supplied eyepieces will work ok in your new scope
As you havn't got the scope yet ? , you may be able to swap out the supplied one with differant choices , I'm sure I've read of others doing that..

Good luck

[Waxing_Gibbous (Peter)]

I have the same 'scope and found that anything under 6/7mm is a waste of time except on nights with exceptional seeing. Bigger images yes, but less detail and much dimmer.
To fit Sir's budget:
7 and / or 9mm TMB Planetary II. A little hard to come by here but available from the US at about $65 each.
Meade 6.7 UWA - Surprised at how good this is.
Televue 8mm Plossl
Orion (Stratus?)/ Vixen 8mm LVW
WO SPL 6mm

A little more dosh will get you:
7, 9, 11 or 13mm Naglers. My 13 practically lives in the 'scope and takes barlowing extremely well.
Takahashi 7.5 LE or 10mm LE. Tighter FoV ( about 50*) but super-sharp with no colour or ghosting.
WO 7mm UWA.

I don't get on with Radians or Pentax XWs because I find you have to get your eye positioned 'just-so' or you get severe blackouts.
Were I you, I would pop for the 13mm Nagler and a good barlow (TV or Celestron Ultima) and never look back.
Happy hunting!
Peter

[The Mekon (John Briggs)]

Plenty of votes for the 13mm Nagler

It usually the first in and the last out of my scope on observing nights (and they seem so long ago right now).

This (the type 6 one) is the best eyepiece I have ever owned.

[casstony]

Daniel, you really need to discover your personal eyepiece preferences and explore your local atmospheric conditions before you can make an informed decision. It could be that skies in Darwin are more stable than at other latitudes and you might prefer more eye relief than is available with the type 6 naglers (or not!).

A barlow lens is probably the best purchase to start with so you can find out what higher magnifications your skies can usually support. Any chance of getting together with other observers in Darwin to try out different eyepieces?

[Cosmic (Daniel)]

Awesome, thank you all for your inputs!!

It would be now safe to rule out 4-5mm EP at this stage of the game for me....thank you all.

So I have this National Geographic TS 60mm that I have had for ages and currently getting my fix until my new TS comes. Its actually not to bad. I have been viewing Saturn(one brown band) and its 3 visible moons with at a 8mm @ 69x...I just thought we could go bigger with more aperture than just a 13mm (77x) or 8.5mm (118x) its just not much of a jump....o well. So from what I can gather, magnification isn't the most important thing but aperture to reveal objects.(correct me if I'm wrong)


Having said that ill be looking at a 7-8 and 13mm that will give me 125-143-77X. At least ill be playing it safe at one of these magnifications. From here on in I just its just a matter of buying the best brand really...Reviews indicate the Nagler is a consistent winner

Tony your very right, I do need to discover a personal eyepiece. Its the wet session and darksite gathering wont kick off till March next year, I may just have to wait till then. But I will go ahead and get one quality EP at least that's guaranteed to be a safe purchase.

Thanks again for all your comments. I'll do some research of my own with the give information you guys have provided me with . I will be posting back when I have purchased and tested the new EP!