46 replies to this topic

[Mike Hosea]

Even if you don't have a lot of money to spend, over a period of years an eyepiece set can change and upgrade substantially. $300 may seem like a lot of money, but it's also about what you'd spend on fast food over a year if you bought it just once a week. The point is that maybe only relatively wealthy people can afford everything all at once, but maybe even the majority of premium eyepieces are owned by people who would not fit the description, and buying everything thing at once isn't the way most people do it. (And I probably shouldn't admit it, but I do sometimes just look at my eyepieces. )

[ngc6475]

Mike,

That's right! Plus, if you watch venues such as Astromart and the new CN Classifieds very carefully, you will be able to fill your case with excellent eyepieces at 20-25% less than the new prices. Most amateurs take very good care of their equipment, making these purchases very good deals, indeed!

[Gardner]

As of today...

5mm, 6mm, 7mm, 12mm and 18mm Celestron Orthos
6mm Radian
8mm TV plossl
13mm T6 Nagler
19mm and 27mm Panoptics
TV 2x barlow

Use 'em all as much as I can.

[jfaaz]

I have 10,8 & 6" Dobsonian telescopes and a 4" Achromat. The eyepieces I use th LEAST are the Plossls. I perfer wide views.


Celestron 32 mm Plossl
BW Optic 30mm 2"
GSO 30mm 2"
29mm Erfle
Meade series 4000 26mm Plossl
Orion 25mm Plossl
Orion Highlight 20mm Plossl
Burgess 20mm WA
19mm Panoptic
Burgess 17mm WA
Orion Expanse 15mm
13mm Nagler T6
Burgess 12mm WA
Orion 10mm Plossl
Astrola 9mm Polssl
Burgess 8mm WA
7mm Nagler T1
Proxima 2" 1.5x Barlow
Orion Shorty 2x Barlow
TeleVue 3x Barlow

[David Knisely]

I feel so inferior from all these posts.... If I had as many high quality eyepieces as some of you I would probably either: 1. do nothing at all but sit on my floor, give them all names, and walk them around like they were royalty. 2. I would be not stop bragging about how many kick *** eyepieces I own on every message board I could find. 3. Spend all my time switching eyepieces and never look through any of them for more then a few minutes, If I owned that many nice eyepieces I would feel obliged to at least get a glance through everyone... and for some of you that would take awhile. Okay my jealous rant is over

I guess I am sorta lucky I have not had the oppertunity to view through such premium eyepieces or I might join the 20 eyepiece club. But if any of you want to donate to my exploration of other eyepieces with one of those Naglers I would be very thankful

Take Care Everyone,
Tom

Well, while I have a bunch of eyepieces (mostly in the "bargan" class), the trick is to find the select few you end up using the most (and to do this without "breaking the bank"). Last night, I had my NexStar 9.25SCT out and I mainly used only *two* of them: the 30mm WideScan III and the Meade 14mm Ultrawide, (a.k.a. "The Glass Hand Grenade"). The Ultrawide is my "premium" eyepiece (ie: the most expensive), and the 30mm gives me my widest field at the lowest power (78x). I used my 5-8 Speers Waler a couple of times to try and resolve a couple of really tight globulars, plus my old 24mm Koenig in an experiment involving a filter, but mostly, it was the 30mm W.S. and the 14 Ultrawide. Clear skies to you.

[half meter]

Even though I have no eyepieces shorter than 13mm (8-24mm zoom not counted), I have recently been tempted by the TMB Super Monocentrics. I tend to be attracted towards extremely fine, narrow purpose items such as these low dispersion planetary eyepieces.

For Lunar observing, 265x requires my 24mm Panoptic and a 2.5x Powermate. Let's see, that's a total of 10 elements and 16 glass-to-air surfaces, compared with the 10mm Super Monocentric's 3 elements and 2 glass-to-air surfaces. Hmmm...

[MikeRatcliff]

I'm hoping this is it for a while:

1. 35 mm Panoptic
(often first used, 1.1 degree FOV, good finder, a bit too large of exit pupil of 7mm)
2. 17 mm Nagler T4 (110x, 0.7 deg FOV, most used, 3.5mm exit pupil)
3. 12.5 mm UO Ortho (160x good for lunar/planetary/globular, still easy to track by hand, usually good seeing)

Might try a 9mm UO Ortho.


rarely used, for public star party:
26 mm Sirius plossl

I had a series of TV plossls (32, 25, 20) and a 2.5x Powermate. These shows stars very well, have good eye relief, and I would recommend them as a less expensive set, but I like the wide field views better.

Mike Ratcliff

[Starman1]

Wow! I feel like a lightweight! I would own >300 if I had kept all the eyepieces I've bought over the last 41 years, but now I own only 7:
Meade Ultra Wide Angle 14, 8.8, 6.7, 4.7(used on f/5.5, f/10, f/13)
Nagler T4 22mm (used on f/5.5)
Meade Super Wide Angle 24.5, 18 (used on f/13 MCT only--not corrected enough below f/8)
I like and use them all every month, sometimes several times. My average observing session is 6-8 hours, so they get a lot of use.
My overall favorite? 14mm Meade UWA. As I tell friends: "If you don't want to buy one, don't borrow it".
Don

[Rusty]

I have:

TV 8x24mm Zoom
5mm Radian
2x12mm Radian
2x18mm Radian
2x21mm Pentax XL
27mm Pan
35mm Pan
40mm Pentax XL
40mm Celestron Plossl
55mm TV Plossl
85mm Russell Plossl

2" 2x Powermate

And for the binoviewers, a Twin X 0.5x/1.0x/2x

My favorites tend to be the Radians and the XLs in the binoviewer. The only one that sees very little use is the 55mm plossl. The 27 Pan tends to be migratory - it spends more time on others' scopes than mine!

[Dave Mitsky]

Far too many:
35mm Tele Vue Panoptic
30mm Celestron Ultima
26mm Tele Vue Plössl
25mm Celestron orthoscopic
25mm no name Kellner
19mm Tele Vue Panoptic
17mm Tele Vue Plössl
13mm Tele Vue Nagler Type 6 (new)
12.5mm Edscorp orthoscopic
12mm Tele Vue Nagler Type 2 (for sale)
11mm Tele Vue Plössl
9mm Tele Vue Nagler Type 6
9mm PMO orthoscopic
8mm Tele Vue Radian
8-24mm Tele Vue Zoom (for sale)
7mm Tele Vue Nagler Type 6
3-6mm Tele Vue Nagler Zoom
2x Celestron Ultima Barlow lens
2.5x Tele Vue Powermate

Dave Mitsky

[Mike28]

Wasnt this question asked on CN before?
Well for last time:
TelVue:
31mm Nagler
26mm Nalger
24mm Pan
20mm TV
17mm Nagler
12mm Nagler
9mm Nagler
6mm Radian
3.5mm Nagler
Meade:
56mm superwide whatever...
12 mm Plossl
9mm Plossl

Celestron:
40 mm Plossl
5 EPs from set I purchased.
18 EP's in all. Now If I purchase a Binoviewer does this mean I have to double my EP'S?

[Craig Simmons]

EPs I use regularly:
Pentax 40mm XL
Pentax 14mm XL
Pentax 10.5mm XL
Vixen 8-24mm Zoom
Ultima 2x Barlow
GSO 30mm (recent but good EP)
GTO 2" Proxima 1.5x Barlow

EPs I use sometimes or for birding with a Ganymede G185 ST80:
Vixen LV 6mm (used to use this one alot more)
GTO 15mm Plossl
GTO 10mm Plossl
GTO 2x barlow

EPs I hardly ever use.
GTO 40mm
(2) 25mm Plossls that came with XT10 and Antares 10 Dobs.
(2) 9mm Plossls that came with XT10 and Antares 10 Dobs.
20mm unknown EP that came with Ganymede G185 ST80.
10mm unknown EP that came with Ganymede G185 ST80.
6mm Orthoscopic that HOO sent me for free.

[LivingNDixie]

Celestron Ultima 35mm
Celestron Ultima 30mm
Celestron Ultima 24mm
Celestron Ultima 18mm
Celestron Ultima 12mm
Celestron Ultima 10mm
Celestron Ultima 7.5mm
Celestron Ultima 5mm

Other then the 10mm, I bought all these used (and with the 18mm and 12.5mm I had to buy a bino set just to get one!). I find I like the ole Celestrons the best, when factoring performance vs price.

[dgs©]

Original Equipment:
25mm Sirius Plössl (40×; 80×)
10mm Sirius Plössl (100×; 200×)

Added:
Orion 2× Ultrascopic Barlow
3mm Radian (333×)
4mm Radian (250×)
27mm Panoptic (37× + wider FOV)

Least used is the 10mm Plössl... eye relief is uncomfortably short.
Most frequent are the 2 Radians during planetary season. I have only looked thru the Panoptic one time. Stinking clouds.

I'm thinking I am through with eyepieces for a while. Next up may be filter(s)... OIII &/or UHC.
Oh, I forgot an eyepiece yet to be acquired... Meade MA 12mm Astrometric (or perhaps the Celestron equivalent, I hear it may be better).

[Craig L]

21

Panoptic 35mm
Nagler 31mm
Panoptic 27mm
Panoptic 22m
Nagler 16mm T5
Nagler 12mm T2
Pentax 10.5mm SMC XL
9mm Nagler T6
7mm Nagler T6
3.5mm Nagler T6
3-6mm Nagler Zoom
Speers Waler 5-8mm
Televue (Vixen) 8-24mm

Coronado Cemax set:
25mm
18mm
12mm
Cemax 2x Barlow

Televue 2x Big Barlow
Televue 2.5x Powermate
Televue 4x Powermate

32mm GTO Plossl (5 lens elements)

The 3.5mm Nagler and 4x Powermate will go shortly. The rest do get used, some more than others depending on the 'scope in use. The 32mm Plossl is my chief finder EP in the ETX, for instance.

Cheers,

- Craig

[rboe]

My humble but workable collection (incomplete at last measure - I want to add more).
40mm Optilux, the only 2" in my set.
40mm TV plossl
32mm TV plossl
25mm RKE
20mm TV Plossl
12.5 UO ortho
8mm TV Radian
Unknown cross haired EP of about 15mm.
2x TV Barlow
5X TV Powermate (had money burning a hole and the 3X was out of stock)

32mm TV is my most used EP followed by the 12.5 Ortho

[Darren Drake]

40mm Apogee
31mm Nagler
26mm Sirius
22mm Nagler
20mm Meade RG Erfle
17mm Orion superwide
14mm Meade UW
13mm Orion superwide
10mm Pentax XW
8.8mm Meade UW
4.9-8mm Speers Waller Zoom
7mm Pentax XW
7mm apogee ortho
10mm apogee ortho
apogee 7-21mm zoom
25mm Edmund plossl
15mm Edmund Plossl
3.8mm Ultrascopic
2x, and 3x barlow 1.25 inch
2x barlow 2 inch
tunable paracorr
a few more cheepies
The tackle box weighs about 23 pounds!

[Rinaldo]

Wow, some very big collections here. I use the following on two scopes, one is a 10" dob w/ 1200mm fl, the other is a 5.1" refractor at 780mm fl...

41mm Panoptic
35mm Panoptic (might sell this soon)
31mm Nagler
20mm Nagler T2
17mm Nagler T4
12mm Nagler T2
8.8mm Meade UWA
7mm Nagler T1
4.8mm Nagler T1
4mm Radian
3mm Radian

I rarely use the 4.8 or 8.8. I use the others quite often.

[F.Meiresonne]

WOW, everyone seems to have a lot of eyepieces.

My collection is more humble

25 mm Plössl
20 mm Plössl
10 mm Plössl
7,5 mm Plössl
6,3 mm Kellner

These all came with my scopes

15 mm LV Vixen
8-24 mm LV Zoom Vixen
5 mm Ultrascopic

The Lv Vixen i use the most frequently, it is a good ep.
The ultrascopic i acquired only recently but it seems a real winner.

[F.Meiresonne]

I've just bought my first 3 eyepieces.

32mm Orion Highlight Plossl
25mm Orion Sirius Plossl
10mm Orion Sirius Plossl
7mm UO Ortho
5mm UO Ortho

2x and 3x Barlows

The 25 and 10 came with my first scope. So they've both seen a lot of use. The other 3 just arrived this week, so I'm still figuring out how they work.

If I sold all 5, and got full retail, I *still* couldn't afford one Nagler. Well, maybe one...

Jimbo

How's that 32 mm Highlicht doing, it is noticebly better then a 32 mm Sirius.I think i might want one....