A few years ago I bought an entry level 130mm reflector telescope. I've been dragging it out more and more. Its an Orion 130st reflector. Right now I'm using a Plossl 25mm 1 1/4 eyepiece. Can I upgrade the eyepiece to enhance performance? Last night I found Saturn and was a bit disappointed. Couldn't see the rings it just appeared football shaped. How much better would an 8 inch reflector perform?

Well don’t give up on your scope. Try to find yourself a 10mm or 12mm eyepiece and try again.

Saturn is a tough target because it rarely lives up to expectations.

Thanks. Jupiter is a bit more fun with all the moons.

That EP is a little broad so pop in a 6 or 7mm in there. Even so, your seeing, which is related to atmospheric conditions, may have been poor. Saturn is relatively easy to resolve as a ringed planet.

The scope came with a 10mm eyepiece. It seemed to me the 25mm gave a larger look with more magnification. I'm trying to locate it. So, the millimeter designation is the hole of the eyepiece I'm looking through and has nothing to do with overall magnification?

quote:

Originally posted by goose5:
The scope came with a 10mm eyepiece. It seemed to me the 25mm gave a larger look with more magnification. I'm trying to locate it. So, the millimeter designation is the hole of the eyepiece I'm looking through and has nothing to do with overall magnification?

https://lookatthesky.com/calcu...on-of-any-telescope/

Look at above site to calculate magnification. Remember, smaller number eyepiece gives more magnification. Larger number gives a larger star field.

Plossls are inexpensive eps (eyepieces) normally bundled with introductory telescopes. You might be well advised to go to www.cloudynights.com and see what others with a similar telescope have found work best. To ask questions you need to join which is no biggie. Great site.

Look for a local astronomy club. Members are usually quite friendly and helpful, and often will lend you out some things to try.

Our local club has a lot of loaner telescopes on hand, and at no charge.

It just started yesterday, but you should plan to go next year to the Okie-Tex Star Party, held way out in the middle of absolutely nowhere in the far corner of the Oklahoma panhandle, very close to where Colorado and New Mexico, and Texas meet. Super dark sky, great viewing, no light pollution, good accommodations and food, etc. There will be a lot of scopes set up, and people will insist you look at and through theirs. You'll learn a lot.

OKIE TEX STAR PARTY link

Looks like you are a 3 hour drive away.
.

My absolute favorite eyepiece is a 15mm long eye relief.
It's like the Swiss Army knife of eyepieces.
I picked up a SVBONY for $35 and it's actually a sharp eyepiece.
I've VERY impressed with it.
I like it so much I got a 9mm also.
It's the one with the red stripes around the barrel.

I used them on my 90mm Meade EC90- Mak.

quote:

Originally posted by bald1:
Plossls are inexpensive eps (eyepieces) normally bundled with introductory telescopes. You might be well advised to go to www.cloudynights.com and see what others with a similar telescope have found work best. To ask questions you need to join which is no biggie. Great site.

Joined and thank you. Going to take some time to chew through all that before I start with the stupid questions.

I located my 10mm eyepiece. If memory serves the 25mm piece made Jupiter larger over the 10mm. Going to try it out again in the next couple of nights. The 10mm is about half the size. I remember once I tried the 25mm I left that one in the scope.

Looking at eyepieces they can get pretty spendy. Doubt if I'll go over 100 dollars for the scope I have. Anything to these zoom eyepieces? If this works as advertised I think a 3x Barlow just might keep me with my current scope for awhile.

goose5,

I have a scope with similar aperture to your Orion: a 127mm (5") Micro-Intes Maksutov Newtonian.

I also have a 6" Dynascope RV6 reflector and Celestron C90 3.5" Maksutov.

Over the years I've acquired quite a few eyepieces (eps), each with strengths and weaknesses. I've flipped many as well such as a set of University Optics Orthos which are well loved by many but just didn't "do it" for my old eyes.

Here is my current "battery" of both 1.25" and 2" pieces. The back row eps are what I use (32, 24.7, 22, 19, 13, 10, 7-21, and 5-8mm).

The others in the front row were kept for a variety of reasons such as having been bundled with a scope such as the RV-6.

The eps I have range from 32mm to 4mm and include a pair zooms (5-8mm and Svbony 7-21mm). None are the mega expensive uber high end glass. Rather I went for bang for the buck performance and have been well served. Many of these are long ago discontinued / out of production.



My most used high power would be my 5-8mm Speers-Waler (1st Gen) which has excellent glass, eye relief, and somewhat uncommon wide field of views for this range. My 13mm and 19mm Gary Russell Konig eps are overachievers and much used. My Speer-Waler 24.7mm (also 1st Gen) is a favorite but I also have a newer Astromania SWA (super wide angle) 22mm "hand grenade" that is very immersive as well. And for wide expansive views of the heavens a good 32mm (Apogee-Meade 4000 Super Plossl) delivers the goods. Also shown in the snapshot is a TeleVue PowerMate 2.5x which works with 1.25" eps. And yes, less expensive Barlow lens also can be worthwhile.

I can't think of the last time I used a 4mm or 6mm Plossl or Ortho. Decades most likely. They have aggravatingly short eye relief and narrow fields of view making them not suited at all for older eyes. >>> Don't fall into the trap of thinking higher powers will deliver more or for that matter thinking your scope will deliver images like you see in magazines. Not gonna happen. Oh and averted vision* can be your friend <<<

*https://www.skyatnightmagazine.com/advice/how-to-master-the-art-of-averted-vision/

This message has been edited. Last edited by: bald1,

Thanks bald1. I guess eyepieces are like holsters are on this forum. One thing I've already picked up by kicking around on that forum is for the big money optics your paying for an additional 10 percent of performance.

quote:

Originally posted by goose5:
Thanks bald1. I guess eyepieces are like holsters are on this forum. One thing I've already picked up by kicking around on that forum is for the big money optics your paying for an additional 10 percent of performance.

Exactly! If you've got a mega buck exotic refined telescope, then use it with the best eps available.

But for we mere mortals, stuff like those from independent individual maker Gary Russell http://www.russell-optics.com are such bargains and overachievers. They look like crap given their non-metal bodies to most but after they look through them...

Again you're proceeding the right way with due diligence researching. There are many diamonds in the rough to be had. And if you find something isn't what you hoped it would be, more often than not you can flip it without taking a financial hit.

quote:

Originally posted by bald1:

quote:

Originally posted by goose5:
Thanks bald1. I guess eyepieces are like holsters are on this forum. One thing I've already picked up by kicking around on that forum is for the big money optics your paying for an additional 10 percent of performance.

Exactly! If you've got a mega buck exotic refined telescope, then use it with the best eps available.

But for we mere mortals, stuff like those from independent individual maker Gary Russell http://www.russell-optics.com are such bargains and overachievers. They look like crap given their non-metal bodies to most but after they look through them...

Again you're proceeding the right way with due diligence researching. There are many diamonds in the rough to be had. And if you find something isn't what you hoped it would be, more often than not you can flip it without taking a financial hit.

Wow thanks for that link bald1.

We just upgraded to an 8" Dob from a cheaper 127. The difference is substantial!

We had some surprisingly good views in relatively crappy conditions. It seems like having the right eyepiece makes all the difference. I'm about to give Gary some money. Those are really good prices for 2" eyepieces!

quote:

Originally posted by DoctorSolo:

We had some surprisingly good views in relatively crappy conditions. It seems like having the right eyepiece makes all the difference. I'm about to give Gary some money. Those are really good prices for 2" eyepieces!

As said I have his 13 and 19mm. Bought them probably two decades ago. Were I in the market now I'd go for his 18 "Research Grade" instead of the 19 simply because of the quality of the Japanese glass he uses for it.

Had his 7 and 9mm 1.25/2" combos. They were very good as well but duplicated my Speers-Waler 5-8mm zoom that I found I used more often so I accepted an excellent offer and sold them.

Which ones are you looking to get?

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Here's an older shot that shows all my Russell eps as well as the University Optics Orthos I had.
And yes, that Speers-Waler 5-8mm zoom is HUGE especially when extended. LoL

Thought I'd share this old post from CloudyNights. And yes I've done this as well stacking my Speers-Waler 5-8mm zoom on top of my Televue 2.5x.

Holy crap.

And, Russell Optics site bookmarked.

My smaller scope is a 114mm Orion XT(4.5") dobsonian. W/ the right conditions/seeing, it can do all the Messier objects. The rings of Saturn are easy w/ the 25mm Plossl. The 10mm eye piece is generally much better for planets here in Michigan but it also magnifies the poor seeing we often have here.
The best of both worlds for me is the 25mm in a x2 Barlow. It doubles the magnification but somewhat maintains the beautiful wide view.

I picked up a 7mm? Plossl and realized I should have put my money into the other direction. A high end 32mm would have been a better investment.

quote:

Originally posted by bald1:

...Which ones are you looking to get?

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I have my eye on the 7mm, 12mm, and the 8-16mm zoom. I'd like to increase the magnification while taking advantage of better glass.

I was wondering about the l8mm one though. On clear nights that could be great,

Right now I'm using a 1.5" 25mm and 9mm Plossi with a 2"-1.5" adapter. We like the 9mm more, which is why I'm looking at higher magnification.

The lower power eps with good edges in a wide view are extremely enjoyable as you can feel like you're "swimming" in the night sky. Your 8" dob would be outstanding for this.

That 22mm I picked up a couple years ago was available under numerous brands. It was universally praised as an outstanding ep on Cloudy Nights. (Really didn't need it as I had a 24.7mm already but it was a 2" and the former was 1.25".) It along with my very good 2" 32mm give that deep wide sky presentation. No not good for objects except perhaps something like Andromeda but still. Mid range eps often make excellent compromises. dsiets comment about higher power eps magnifying less than stellar seeing conditions is spot on rendering them somewhat useless on such nights. And many will tell you that high power ep observations are restricted to the rare nights of excellent seeing and specific targets only so they get much less usage.

Having a balance of powers makes an evening observations enjoyable as you change up targets. I probably use my midrange 10, 13, 19mm the most. But as previously mentioned, eye relief and wide fields of view lessen any chance of eye strain and further enhance the evenings fun.

It also goes without saying that lousy edge performance and optical flaws contribute to unnecessary frustrations. Due diligence and reliable sellers are insurance against ending up with such lemons.