eyepiece collection

Well, at the risk of being told I've made terrible choices, I like to solicit your ideas on my 1st stab at building up an eyepiece collection for my new 10" XTi f/4.7, f/l 1200mm. My budget is now spent and I'll have to live with these for awhile.

Total cost was $730, all used and in excellant condition.

7mm UO plossl
7mm Nagler Type 1
10mm Sirius plossl
8-24mm TV zoom
21mm Status
25mm Sirius plossl
35mm Panoptic
2x Orion shorty barlow

I bought the UO and then the Nagler came along at a price I couldn't pass up. The UO will be going. Eventually, I plan on replacing the Status with a 19mm Panoptic, getting something in the 12-14mm range, and supplementing the Type 1 with something that has longer eye relief.

Some considerations:

1. Two of the users wear glasses. (I just wanted the Nagler for myself. I know it's selfish, but after I saw the 82 fov I couldn't help myself ).
2. Since I have a dob, I want FOV as large as possible. (And no, I can't afford a bunch of naglers.)


Any comments/recommendations for the future?

Did you mean a UO 7mm Ortho or Plossl?? If the Ortho, keep it!

The 7mm Nagler I have for the same scope...it performs wonderfully. 6 and 7mm seems to be a magic fl for this scope in my viewing area (D.C.).

The 35 Pan and future 19 Pan are great for low powers. Quite frankly, I don't see any need for anything else in between those fls. So the question becomes, the need to fill between 19mm and 7mm, and something a tad higher power perhaps than the 7mm.

I have the 5mm Nagler, and not as satisfied with the image as I am with the 5mm UO HD Ortho, or a 5mm Siebert Star Splitter. But, if you like building a "family" the 5mm Nagler, or 4.8mm T1 is not bad, then you'll have 2 Naglers. But these days I never reach for the 5mm Nagler since the others put up much better images.

If you like the imagry in the TV Zoom, then you are set for that filler between the 19 and 7mm. Otherwise and 11mm Nagler.

So you have some good stuff in the key FL positions there. The Sirius Plossls I personally don't like...actually I don't like Plossls much period...too plain jane performance wise. Would rather have a good Erfle than a Plossl any day.

But anyway, for me the "gems" of your collection are:

7mm Nagler
Nagler Zoom
19mm Pan (future)
35mm Pan

if the UO is an Ortho, then that's a gem also. Looking at the above, I think it still begs for an 11mm Nagler

The rest you can keep and swap as time goes by for variety

Reading the thread to this points made me realize I have to make to corrections.

I have a 7mm UO Ortho and the Barlow is the Shorty Plus.

Thanks for your comments/suggestions.

Unless that 2X Orion Shorty Barlow is the 3-element version similar to the Celestron Ultima Barlow, I would ditch it and get something better.

Otherwise, your collection is a lightyear ahead of what I started with.

Phil