So save yourself this future unnecessary expense and just buy a Plossl. I also struggled to see features on both (gas bands on Jupiter and clear rings on saturn). To get the best performance, you have to be willing to pay the price. The field of view of a p Plossl eyepiece is typically 60 to 120 degrees. This number can range from 30 degrees to 120 degrees. If you had to choose 1 low-power 2 EP for chasing deep sky objects (again, at 600mm f7.5), what size piece would you go for? Consider something between 35 and 40 mm in focal length with an AFOV of 65 degrees or wider for your lowest power eyepiece for your telescope. If you look up transparency and seeing in the context of telescopes you can learn more about how atmospheric conditions will affect what magnifications you will choose on any given night. i still use the binos. I often recommend a 32 mm Plossl as a good low power wide view eyepiece for scopes with a 1.25 focuser. I can recommend these with confidence. Being a total novice, I love the StarSense app and technology. Kellner and Plossl- both are two different types of eyepieces for telescopes. I would like to know what is best for a 7 year old that would be getting his first telescope. If you cant use 2, that 32 mm Plossl, which has a 50 degree AFOV, will give you about as wide a field of view as you can get in a 1.25 eyepiece. At least you'll have one budget eyepiece that will give you a larger part of the sky at low magnification. This general purpose design gives good colour correction and an adequate feld of view at reasonable cost and they are often bundled with new telescopes. Plossl eyepieces have an eye relief equal to about 80% of their focal length. They are not that expensive I would pay about $100 for both eye pieces. Lenses are fully multi-coated for excellent light transmission and reduced internal reflections. We will now discuss the specifications of eye relief and apparent field of view. Besides fov, How would you compare the optical quality of the Celestron to the Baader? If that is the case, it will give me another reasonably good, inexpensive zoom to recommend to beginners. The atmosphere is typically the limiting factor as we get to higher magnifications. It costs three to four times as much as the Celestron Zoom, but if you have the budget, this is the one to get. Plossl eyepieces have wider fields of view than Kellners. And that is pretty much what Super Plossl are today. Many approach the quality of the premium brands. We are a team of active amateur astronomers, here to help you with all your astronomy and science related needs this is anything, from reviewing the latest telescopes to be released to talking about gravity and neurons. If we want to get VERY specific to a combination then inherent aberrations of this scope and that eyepiece could produce a unique result. https://www.amazon.com/Orion-8879-1-25-Inch-Enhanced-Telescope/dp/B000BMPBLK/ref=sr_1_8?crid=3KKUJRXYYN7DI&dchild=1&keywords=telescope+diagonal+1.25&qid=1610887695&sprefix=telescope+diagonal%2Caps%2C512&sr=8-8, Excellent article and very good recommendations. Just give yourself some time to learn the app and to understand the scope. If you are on a strict budget, this is a good choice as a zoom eyepiece. Perhaps another review would be helpful. It has made learning the Constellations and star-hopping more fun and engaging for my whole family exactly what I was hoping for. Goldline series of eyepieces provides the best value in this price range, better than Plossls. To achieve these benefits, they may use special glass and more costly manufacturing. You have selected a very good starting telescope that will serve you for many years to come. It had one of the best fields, edge to edge, in my SCT that I've ever seen. For one thing, a wider field of view is almost always more pleasant. Best Telescopes For 10 Year Old Kids: Reviews and Buying Guide, The Complete Guide to the Planets You Can See With a Telescope, The Best Barlow Lenses: Reviews and Buying Guide. I purchased the Celestron Starsense 102mm refractor, focal length 660mm, stated highest useful magnification is 240x; it should arrive in about 2 weeks. Take the AFOV of the eyepiece (provided by the mfg) in your case 82 degrees As a result, this can cause aberrations in the image as you move from the center of the view toward the edges. Your email address will not be published. But just because an eyepiece is 2 doesnt mean it has a wider field of view than one that is 1.25. The Plossl design has become the mainstay of the modern ocular business and probably represents the best value in terms of performance and price, especially in medium and long focal lengths. The 26 and 32 are usually the first ones I reach for. You can do that by using this long focal length eyepiece. If you are going to wear your glasses when you observe, you want at least 18 mm of eye relief and 20 mm is better. They have a 50-56 degrees field of view, better eye relief, and cost more than Kellners. Theres a reason Plossls are usually kept at 52 degrees. In your case, I would do this for the 30 and the 20. I want these as possible as wide, magnification and astrophotography purpose. I generally use my 40 to search for DSOs so Ill probably replace that one at some point too. I have Celestron and the Baader Hyperion. Thank you so much for taking the time to provide all this information! But I think you will feel more confident about your purchases and be less likely to be disappointed if you read through the guide. now it all makes sense, you did a great job explaining all this information it was a lot to take in but i have it now. 3. If you wear glasses when observing, you probably want 15mm or more of eye relief, which the 20mm Plssl provides, but the shorter fl ones dont. As new anti-reflection coatings were developed, it became possible to actually make use of complex lens arrangements (not just in relatively simple 4-element systems but also in convoluted, extreme wide-field eyepieces such as the TeleVue Nagler). However, your budget must guide your purchases. Plossl eyepiece is good for astronomy and microscopy. They deliver sharp images in almost all telescopes. That said, I should also tell you that not all Plossls are created equal. Lets just say that once you get below F5, it is really hard for the eyepiece to deliver a clean image to the edge. Kellners are the other popular design for amateur stargazing, go ahead and check out that article if you want to dive deeper into the subject. This is where the cheap eyepiece will frequently fail to deliver a good image, around the edges. This can be debated 100 ways, but that is my advice. Those that still come with Huygens and Ramsdens are generally cheap and low quality, since practically the only reason to use those designs in modern times is that they are extremely cheap to manufacture. Soft rubber eye guard that's custom fitted . Pentax K-70 Astrophotography: The Ultimate Camera on a Budget! SVBONY Telescope Eyepiece Set Telescope Accessory Kit with 2x Barlow Lens 4 Element Plossl Design 6.3mm 32mm 40mm for Astronomical Telescopes. That is a really interesting picture. The Plossl is a good all-around eyepiece design, is well suited for generic use and is relatively inexpensive to make. A super Plossl eyepiece is a top-performing eyepiece that can be used for a variety of tasks, from viewing objects in the distance to looking at microscopic things. Poorly chosen eyepiece might give you poor experience and sometimes even make stargazing difficult. I have used both Kellner & Plossl eyepieces and a few others, and I can tell you that they all are quite different from each other in terms of the quality of the image that they produce. For astronomical observations, such as viewing craters on the moons surface from Earth, high-magnification models are preferred because they offer more detail. The original design for Plossl eyepieces has existed since 1860. You will get varying opinions on this but I would not worry too much about this. They are also really sharp. 32mm (20x & 40x). I want to help you select the best eyepieces for your budget and your telescope. . The difference isnt that severe, and I often track more often than is strictly necessary to keep the object centered anyway. So your 600 mm example (f/6) becomes, in effect, an 1800 mm focal length, f/18 but it does not change the focal length of the eyepiece. However, because they have more glass elements than other designs, like Kellners, their manufacturing becomes extremely important to get high-quality optics. If you are just testing the waters or on a tight budget, get the Celestron, which is still pretty good. IF you like your Hyperions , you could get a 2 inch visual back and 2 inch diagonal / or 2 inch SCT diagonal and add the 31 or 36 Baader eyepieces in 2 inch . Unless you are a professional astronomer or extremely demanding, you can select your eyepieces based on magnification, the apparent field of view, eye relief, and price. Meade went back to the drawing board and they removed the fifth element, keeping the original Plossl design, however, they kept the Super Plossl brand and added some premium materials. Both solutions offer somewhat similar mag-fov-er-price. Then there is the rule of thumb to avoid duplicating focal lengths when acquiring eyepieces. This is my all-time favorite eyepiece and the one I use more than all the others put together. Orion SkyQuest XT8 Intelliscope Review These are highly sought after ep's, and hold their value well. You will see these under many brands, including Orion, Celestron, GSO, and others. https://telescopicwatch.com/best-astrophotography-telescopes/. My love affair with space began in a field in India at the age of 7, when I looked up at the Milky Way for the first time. Over $250, I will label premium eyepieces. These sizes have become the industrys standard sizes. This is why we recommend you try to locate the object first at low power, then use a higher magnification if you likethe wider field of view on the sky provides more context in terms of asterisms and reference stars and makes it more likely that youll catch the object you are looking for. But the one I am recommending here is the Tele Vue Nagler series. The third choice of eyepieces is the Orion 12 mm Sirius Super Wide Angle Correct Image Eyepiece. Thanks so much. Optics manufacturers began selling and popularizing Plossl eyepieces, albeit with a generally simplified design where each achromatic doublet had the same focal length. This type of design provides for both total magnifications as well as an erect image with little distortion. While it covers the same range as the Celestron zoom, it offers better optics, better mechanical operation, and a wider field of view. Other eyepieces of more advanced design can have better eye relief and field of view. I once had to use a 6mm Plossl to attempt to perform a star-test collimation for a telescope at the observatory. High-quality Plssl eyepieces provide high contrast and sharpness across the entire field of view. So, if your scope is F6 or lower, you may want to consider some of the higher priced, better corrected eyepieces if you want the best image to the edge of the field. Some brands will add better lens coating, darker edges, or a higher quality case to their Super Plossl products, but strictly for performance, there isnt a difference between the two. The basic design hasnt changed much, but the real costs of manufacturing have dropped. Question: would an 18mm Baader Classic Ortho mostly used for Moon and planets loose sharpness and contrast if used with a short F5 telescope like the Celestron Astro-Fi 130? In general terms, the higher the AFOV number, the more the eyepiece will cost. So, I think it worth your while to try the Plssls. They also offer a generous 16 mm of eye relief which is most important in the shorter focal lengths. I can say that most of my plossls have been replaced by other eyepieces for various reasons. The computerized pad and motor work on AA batteries which can last you a few hours. In 1849, Carl Kellner invented the Kellner eyepiece, which is essentially a Ramsden eyepiece where one lens has been replaced with an achromatic doublet made of two different types of glass. You can use the same eyepiece on planets and deep-sky objects (DSOs). These eyepiecesproduce a 'standard apparent feld of view' of between 50 and 56 with most set at around 52. My other eyepieces, ES and Meade 82 degree, stayed in the eyepiece case most of the time. I wont go into all the types of aberrations that can be there. thanks for all your help. PayPal, cash, bank transfer are all acceptable. Now we can establish a target magnification range. Some reviews also suggest replacing the diagonal. Plssl's were top of the line at one time, and are still being sold today, so that says something too. Super Plossl eyepieces are generally a little smaller than this at around 16-20 mm in size, which is why theyre sometimes referred to as wide-angle or low power plossls. Or, if you are buying from an online like Amazon, then look at the eyepieces I recommend and see if any suit your needs. If your scope uses eyepieces that are closer to 1, then you have an old style .965 that is now obsolete. Perhaps you should seek out help from your local astronomy club. But you need to know, first, if you will be wearing glasses when you observe. But dont fear that you will waste your investment as eyepieces are standard sizes. As you learn more about astronomy and you gain more experience with time, you may want to move to Plossls or even higher-quality eyepieces. Lets illustrate with an example using a 1200 mm FL telescope. Interesting points Philip. And I continue to read excellent reports on the AT Paradigm and similar under different labels. The design uses a planoconvex, two cemented-element eye lens and a large convex field lens. Kellners tend to have narrower apparent fields of view (40 degrees rather than 50 or 52 degrees in a Plossl), and in short focal length telescopes (focal ratio f/5 or shorter) they can have more false color fringing, but for the most part it is hard to notice the difference between a well-made Kellner and a well-made Plossl in terms of image quality. These "other" ones I speak of, aren't technically that, they are a 5 element eyepiece, of a different design. Celestron's 4-element Plossl eyepiece features include blackened lens edges to minimize internal reflection and maximize contrast, fully multi-coated optics for maximum light transmission. You can find the eyepieces I use and recommend in this article. Explore Scientific 68 34 mm or ES 82 30 mm would also be good choices at a significantly higher price but with better edge correction. I had a TV 20mm Plossl once. This type of eyepiece provides you with wide-field views without any distortion due to its use as an achromatic lens system which reduces chromatic aberrations by combining two lenses made from different types of glass materials together on each surface. The field of view of the eyepiece has a few effects when it comes to actually using it in the telescope. A decent barlow might cost as much or even more. You can build a full set of these with good results, but be aware of eye relief, especially if you wear glasses. That is why I suggest, if you can use 2 eyepieces, you will want one or two low power wide view 2 eyepieces. I have four telescopes, but I use the same eyepieces in all of them. Another way to look at it is that a 30 mm eyepiece in a 3X Barlow works like a 10 mm eyepiece. This is where the second formula comes into play. So you ended up with: It doesnt matter what type of telescope you have, as long as your scope takes these standard sizes. The Wiki article(s) were very good if anyone else is confused. A four-element eyepiece was made by putting together two achromatic doublets with different focal lengths. A Plossl eyepiece lens provides more eye relief than anything else out there! I wants to install one in house(fixed place) another I need movable. 8.8 = 240 = .34 You can email me also. If youre still wondering between a Kellner vs Plossl, my advice to you would be invest a little extra cash and go for a good quality Plossl. Even though both eyepieces are very common in beginner telescopes, it has become harder to find Kellner eyepieces on their own in the last two years, whether they come from a brand name or the original equipment manufacturer or a reseller. What should one opt for a 2 EP over a 1.25? However, if you want to optimize your viewing experience, youll need to invest in a better-quality eyepiece. How do you focus - I would have expected helical focusers in the eyepiece holders but don't see any? The TFOV of the Hyperion will be greater than the TFOV of the Plssl, but the magnification will be about the same. This has nothing to do with your scope or eyepiece. Kellners can be as little as half the price of a Plossl in the same focal length, but they are generally very comparable, especially in recent years as telescope prices have fluctuated in response to changing supply chains and demand.