Newbie EP assistance

I have just ordered a Celestron 6" Starhopper as a gift for my two young son's and it will be the family's first scope. Being brand new to the hobby I am doind all of the reading/research I can before juming in.

The scope comes with a 25mm plossel as the primary eyepiece. I have heard that Celestron's standard lenses are not the best.

My plan was to purchase a Barlow (Celestron Ultima have been well recommended) at least 1 maybe 2 other eyepieces and a wide field of view eye piece.

My questions are if we will be mainly viewing solar syatem objects and some of the brighter DSO's what additional ep's are suggested to accomplish this?

Also with the 6" Starhopper having a focal length of 1219mm and a f/ratio of f/8 is a wide filed of view ep needed?

Any assistance is appreciated.

Excellent choice for a scope!
That's a great combination of aperture, stable mount, portability, focal ratio and simplicity. Keep that scope in the family. Even if you aquire a more-better one at some future time.


F/8 allows you to get good results from affordable wide field eps. You can shop price, yet stay above the bottom price range for better fit and finish.

You have already determined to get perhaps the most recommended barlow around. Therefore consider an eyepiece/barlow combination that will get you near 200x for a basic upper magnification limit. Something close to 14mm. Your focal ratio allows any number of the affordable four element wide fields to work well. Naglers not required. Really, really nice, but not required.

For a lowest power ep consider one of Paul Rini's long focal length ep's(he is one of our sponsors here). Ask him!