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Starter eye pieces

Started by Garrick, 12/20/2004 04:04AM
Posted 12/20/2004 04:04AM Opening Post
I just acquired a Skyquest XT 10" Dob to replace my crummy 60mm junk refractor. Now I have plenty of telescope for a while, but am short on eyepieces.

It came with 25mm and 10mm Orion Sirius Plossol (1.25") eyepieces. I don't have a fortune to buy eye pieces, so what should I buy next?

I was thinking of first getting a good star map and a laser colluminator.

Next I was thinking a 2X barlow and then a 30-32mm 2" eyepiece.

I thought that would give me one wide FOV eyepiece and using the barlow 25, 12.5, 10, and 5mm eypieces. This would give a magnification range of ~40X to 240X. Is this a good inexpensive way to start? If not, what would those of you in the know out there recommend?
Posted 12/20/2004 04:37AM #1
You might consider a Russell 32mm SWA, cheap but nice EP.
What is the f-ratio?
Floyd

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Posted 12/30/2004 08:41PM #2
At F4.7, many/most of the cheap widefield eyepieces have serious distortions for a significant portion of the field (the outer edges, all the way around). This bothers some people more than others (it bothers me).

I have a Meade SP4000 32mm that isn't bad, but I like the Celestron Ultima 30mm better (the Parks Gold and Orion Ultrascopics are often alleged to be the same as the Celestron Ultimas). These are 1.25 inch eyepieces but they have a relatively narrow field of view (50-52 degrees) and are not limited visually in any way by not being 2 inch eyepieces.

I would personally get one of these rather than a mediocre 2 inch wide field, but others will disagree with me, and the best way to tell what is right for you is to look through one, if possible. If you can't find someone else's to look through for free, I suggest buying used on AstroMart, and if you don't like it, sell it to somebody else the same way.

For a laser collimator you will want one of the new ones that allows you to see a grid from outside the tube - it is much easier to collimate this way. You still need a cheshire and I like to have a sight tube also. Lots of people get by with these and don't use a laser. I find a laser helpful but I use the caveman tools (cheshire/sight-tube) to get things close first.

For barlows, the GSO 2-inch 2X barlow seems well liked. You may not really need a 2 inch barlow, in which case the Celestron Ultima Barlow or Orion Shorty Plus are well regarded (I have the latter). The University Optics Klee barlow is also liked by many.

My comments about buying used on AstroMart apply to all of the above, by the way.