Best daytime eyepieces

What are the best eyepieces for daytime observing, if money is not an issue,
- for an 5" refractor?
- for an 8" SCT or Mak?

And why?

Dmitri

Do you need eyeglasses?

I do, so I use Pentax XL 21/14 and 8-24 zoom. Other favorites include the classic 18 Ortho (Celestron/Vixen Circle-V) which has no rectilinear distortion. I also have a Borg flip/turret which holds a set of featherweight Vernonscope Brandon plus the 2" 30 WideField in straight-through. These are all classic EPs that are/were sold with spotting scopes (Pentax ED, Celestron SS80, Questar Field, Brandon Birder).

Generally speaking, you need longer focal length EPs for longer focal length scopes. And avoid eyepieces that have a tendency to "black out", since day-time pupil is going to be smaller.

-- William

I'm in the middle of the AL Sunspotter program and have been using my usual collection of Radians for close up sunspot work. I'm using my old NexStar 5 rather than the NexStar 8. I also have made one observation with a 10" Dob.

I usually wear glasses at night, but have been using the adjustable feature on the Radians with the extended (rather than folded) eyecup.

Pete

Dmitri Kulginov said:

What are the best eyepieces for daytime observing, if money is not an issue,
- for an 5" refractor?
- for an 8" SCT or Mak?

And why?

Dmitri

The 2" 32mm widefield Vernonscope is a good daytime eyepiece. So are the 1.25" Brandons.

I also like the Nikon 7mm and 9-21 zoom. These were made for the Nikon Fieldscopes, but you can get adapters give them a standard 1.25" barrel.

What are the best eyepieces for daytime observing, if money is not an issue,
- for an 5" refractor?
- for an 8" SCT or Mak?

And why?

Dmitri
====

Dimtri: Here are some thoughts after having owned and used various scopes for terretial viewing...

I do a lot of bird watching with small refractors, for a long time it was a Pronto, now it is the ED-80. I have also used other scopes like a C-5 and other larger scopes. In general the atmosphere does not cooperate during the day, normally one is looking horizonally so heat waves etc are real killers.

Expecting to get nice sharp views with a larger scope is unrealistic in my experience, small refractors seem to provide the best views because they do the most with the least.

That said, I like fixed focal length eyepieces as well as a widefield of view. Normally I am not concerned about curved fields of view or field flatness because most of the field of view will not be in focus anyway, it is rare that I look at a something where much of the FOV is the same distance, so only the center will be in focus anyway.

So, normally I just use my normal widefield eyepieces, TV widefields and old Naglers. The Orthos and Plossls are decent but the wider field of view adds to the scene and makes the targets, most often birds that are moving around, much easier to find...

With an 8 inch SCT, minimum magnifications are pretty high (over 60x) and if you use a focal reducer to lower them, the central obstruction's hole in the exit pupil becomes a problem. A 32mm plossl for example in a C-8 with an F6.3 focal reducer will have a 5mm exit pupil. With a 35% CO, the hole in the exit pupil will be about 1.75mm, during the day, this will be definitely a real problem.

Main thing IMHO, get out and see what works for you...

Jon

Dmitri,

I like my Ultimas the best, because of their lack of rectilinear distortion and great color correction, sharpness, contrast, yadda yadda.......

However, the GSO Plossl really does a good job for the price in the 15mm to 32mm focal lengths where they are the most comfortable.

There is generally not a real need for short planetary focal lengths in daytime viewing even with an f/6 scope in most instances. Thermals get rid of any need to go over about 50X most of the time.

Phil