Next Eyepiece for Meade 12 LX200

Hello all. I sold my Meade Super Plossls that I purchased with the Meade 12 LX200 I recently purchased. I bought a 22mm Nagler. I was a bit uncertain about selling the Meades. They were nice eyepieces. I only have had one opportunity to try the Nagler, but it was totally worth it. Really quite amazing. The Meades were like Toyotas or Hondas--very good quality, better than Fords and Chevys, but the Nagler is like a fine luxury auto. It was great to look at Saturn.

I would like to get another Nagler. I was looking for some advice. The 22mm Nagler gives me 138x. I was thinking of a 17mm Nagler (179x) or a 16mm Nagler (190x). Is the 17mm Nagler a big enough jump in power that it is worth it? The 16mm? I also was thinking of skipping this middle range and getting a 14mm Meade UWA or 13mm Nagler. These would provide higher powers and probably less "usability" here in central Maine. I had tried a UO ortho 18mm and sent it back. I felt it was equal or lesser to the Meade Super Plossls of 15mm and 20mm.

I would appreciate any suggestions, especially in terms of how often I will be able to use powers approaching 200x or more.

I also thought of a 15mm Panoptic as a compromise.

I do general viewing. I would like to be able to use my eyepieces on deep sky stuff and the planets.

Finally, I was thinking of getting a high powered plossl or UO ortho to check collimation. Is this a good idea?

Thanx.

Gregg
Augusta, Maine

Gregg,
I am glad you have discovered the benifit of great EPs. The cost is high but the rewards are great.
I feel that the 12mm-13mm Nagler might be your better bet for the next step. I have the 17mm and the 20mm Nagler and they are pretty close together.
The 14mm Meade UWA is another fine choice. That is the one UWA that I don't have as yet, but would like to have.
If you have a barlow, use that with an EP for collimation and it would do fine.
Naglers and the UWAs are better corrected than the Panoptic and are a better value in my opinion.
I think your pushing 200X and more should be very often, but of course the viewing conditions would be the limmiting factor.
I use up to 400X with my 15" DOB and sometimes that high with my 8" SCT. I use over 200X all the time on both.
I have a few Naglers and UWA Meades that work very nicely.
My EPs are as follow,
31mm Nagler-20mm Nagler-17mm Nagler-12mm Nagler-8.8mm UWA-6.7mm UWA-4.7mm UWA-14mm XL Russell(Pentax Lenses)-15mm Orion Ultrascopic-40mm&32mm Celestron Plossl, 26mm Meade Plossl, 2X Big Barlow 2", 2X Celestron barlow.
Some are for star parties and some for personal use. I use the Naglers for my self and the plossl at the star parties to avoid fingers and eyelashes. ;^)

Floyd