Telescope Reviews: Mediocre Scope--High-end EP?

Basically, as some have said, it comes down to what you see yourself doing in the future. If you believe you are in this hobby to the end then get some decent quality eyepieces and avoid the lower quality eyepieces.

Think of it this way.

Lets assign a number for errors added to the image at each stage.

When the light that you are viewing is on it's way to the scope it is as perfect as possible for that time. Error equals 0.

Optical problems with the first optical element start to hurt the image. Lets say it is an average lens so give it a value of 4. There are dogs out there that could rate much worse but most currently made telescopes have at least OK optics for their design. In that reguard we live in a very good time. A great objective will have a vallue of 1 and an average lens a value of 4 with a poor lens maybe going as high as 8 or (god forbid) a 10.

Once the image has been damaged by that first element it will never be as good as it was. Currently the image is a 4.

Now, each element that follows will do additional damage to the image. Lets take a decent diagonal. Not great but not bad, so we give it a 4. There are not alot of truly bad diagonals on the market so it is likely yours is at least OK. When you decide to upgrade, if you have a 2" focuser, then get a 2" diagonal. It can be used with any eyepiece and is likely to have a larger nearly perfect region than a 1.25".

Ok, Now the image has a cumulated error of 8.

Now, eyepieces can be really bad or really good. So, lets give a range to the eyepiece, 1 to 10. 1 is great, 10 is horrible.

So what will the total error be? If we use a truly excellent eyepiece we only get an error of 1 giving a total of 9, but, if we use an eyepiece that give a poor image we end up with an 18.

In the end, you are not seeing an image that is as bad as the worst component in the optical path, but rather you are seeing an image that is the result of the cumulative damage done to it by all the optical elements. If you strive to get the best you can at each point then in the end you will get the best image you can.

If you get great quallity eyepieces to begin with then you will not only get the best quality image you can out of your current scope, but you will also get the best possible image from that same eyepiece in any scope you get in the future. Doing this, you will feel less need to upgrade eyepieces in the future.

Eyepieces can be expensive. They are more expensive when you buy them over and over again though than they are when you start with quality so you do not have to buy over and over again.

Ok, lets wrap this post up. In the end, you really only need a few eyepieces to have a good collection for viewing. At the wide angle, low power side, you should strive for something with an exit pupil of about 6-7mm's. This will give you a wide angle eyepiece that will make a great finder eyepiece and a great sweeping eyepiece for looking at large areas such as along the Milkyway star clouds. Next, you should try to get a decent mid power eyepiece. Something that will give you about 2mm exit pupil. Last, for high power and planets, I really think the Baader Hyperion Zoom is a great eyepiece. It offers excellent images with a large power range that can be very desirable at higher powers while not being so expensive as to break the bank for most people. With a collection of three eyepieces like this you could go through a truly large number of scopes without needing to upgrade much at all.

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Daren
Covington, GA