It has made learning the Constellations and star-hopping more fun and engaging for my whole family exactly what I was hoping for. If your scope uses eyepieces that are closer to 1, then you have an old style .965 that is now obsolete. Super Plossls offer a smaller field of view, which makes them good for close-up views and examining small objects. If that is the case, it will give me another reasonably good, inexpensive zoom to recommend to beginners. This series of eyepieces may provide better value in this price range. I foolishly destroyed it while experimenting with solar projection, because I hadnt realized the metal-and-glass construction was aided by a plastic retaining ring on the field stop, and I hadnt realized you do not need to change the eyepiece focal length when doing solar projection. An Austrian inventor Georg Simon Plossl came up with the Plossl eyepiece design in 1860. 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. Eye Relief: This refers to how close your eye has to be to the lens in order to see the full field of view. Thanks in advance I really appreciate it! A Plossl eyepiece lens provides more eye relief than anything else out there! You can find the eyepieces I use and recommend in this article. This wider field of view will make it easier to find your targets, allow you to view larger deep-sky objects, and provide a more immersive experience for everything that you view. Even if we were next-door neighbors this would take weeks of discussion and planning. Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links and I may earn a small commission (at no extra cost to you) if you click through and make a purchase. In 1860, Georg Simon Plossl invented the Plossl eyepiece. This is a fairly inexpensive zoom that I wanted to try. Plossl against Kellner eyepieces in a previous article, 5 Budget Telescopes That Are Sneakily Powerful. Field of view, is about finding, framing, drift time, and context. The Big Bang Optics also participates in affiliate programs with Clickbank and other sites. Number of Lenses. a Celestron 8-24 Zoom with a 2x Barlow Orion 12 mm Sirius Super Wide Angle Correct Image Eyepiece has a rubber eyecup that holds in light, which enables you to enjoy this powerful telescope eyepiece at night without glare or reflections from any external sources. However, some eyepieces have an eye relief as short as 5 mm. I have seen wider-field Plossls. The downside to this type of lens is that they can cause chromatic aberration which creates colored spots around bright objects such as planets or stars due to the different wavelengths not going through equally. In my scopes a simple zoom eyepiece like the Celestron 24-8mm or the Baader has replaced the higher powered plossls. In the beginning, you are not going to know what the atmospheric conditions might be in your area. They are all 4-element Plossl eyepieces, and most have a 52-degree field of view that is common to the Plossl design. Plossls are extremely versatile and can be used for all use cases. As long as you take good care of them, Plossls can last you a lifetime, and you will be able to use them with your next telescope if you upgrade at some point. Higher priced eyepieces usually include more elements in the optical path that are there to help reduce or eliminate aberrations that can be seen around the edges of lower cost eyepieces. condition as described, a good transaction. is pretty forgiving of eyepiece faults and a wide variety of eyepiece designs will work just fine in it. In the early days of telescopic astronomy, refractor telescopes were designed with a single lens at the front and a single lens at the back. Depending on how fussy you are about having a completely clean image across the visual field, if you have a lower focal ratio scope you will want to look for eyepieces with a reputation for being better corrected in low focal ratio scopes. Higher values are slower and lower values are fasterthis is a holdover from camera lens terminology and has to do with exposure times.). These are matters of individual preference and budget. A Plossl eyepiece has a field of view thats very wide, so if youre looking at the full moon or some other object in space with it, chances are youll see the entire thing. 1200 mm FL scope / 10 mm FL eyepiece = 120X, 40 degree AFOV / 120X = .33 degrees (less than 1 full moon wide), 60 degree AFOV / 120X = .5 degree FOV (about one full moon with no space around it), 82 degree AFOV / 120X = .68 degree FOV (about one full moon with a star field around it to frame it). I also just bought the Celestron Starsense 102mm refractor (650mm focal length, f/6.5) as a first scope for me and my kids. Remember that visual and AP have very different requirements, so plan on at least two different optical tubes. However, I have eyepieces that have larger exit pupils than 7 mm and they work well. If you just want a quick answer, skip to the conclusion at the end of the article. I also like to have my face physically in contact with the eyepiece (or the eyepiece cup) so the tight eye relief of the shorter focal lengths actually works really well for me. When selecting the best eyepiece for you, consider: Eyepieces are standardized so whatever investment you make today, the eyepieces will continue to serve you in any future scopes you may own. Orion Sirius Plossl 1.25" Telescope Eyepieces The Celestron Omni Plossl eyepiece range offers a nice entry-level range into the higher quality 4-element Plossl design. Dont worry about the math, as its simple stuff you can do with any calculator, on paper, or perhaps in your head. > Click here to jump to the Best Eyepieces section. She has been looking at the sky for years and hopes to introduce more people to the wonderful hobby that is astronomy. Another way to look at it is that a 30 mm eyepiece in a 3X Barlow works like a 10 mm eyepiece. Its quite long but that is what we are aiming for and hopefully, it was useful to you. If you do not have your Hyperions yet I recommend you wait until you have these and try them out before you buy the Plossls. The design uses a planoconvex, two cemented-element eye lens and a large convex field lens. I started with the Celestron zoom. Offering a wide 52 apparent field of view, these 10mm, 17mm, and 25mm Orion Sirius Plossl Telescope Eyepieces provide extremely sharp images of impressively high contrast. Now we can establish a target magnification range. If your focuser/diagonal will accept 2 eyepieces, then I will suggest you get one or two 2 eyepieces for your low power wide view eyepieces. A 15mm Plssl might be worth it, if you dont wear glasses. 32 mm = 18.75X12 mm = 50X8 mm = 75X6 mm = 100X4 mm = 150X3 mm = 200X. While eyepieces with relatively complex, proprietary, or bespoke designs are becoming more commonly available in the beginner price bracket, there is often good reason to choose a much simpler design. 17mm Plossl, unbranded, used, no caps, in bolt case; previous owner said it was a very good EP; $18 25mm Plossl, Orion Sirius, fully MgF2 coated on every air-to-glass surface; used; $23 (these are a step up from . Features : 5 superior-grade Plossl eyepieces: 1.25-in, 4-element design with a 52 AFOV (32mm has 44)4mm, 6mm, 9mm, 15mm, and 32mm . Required fields are marked *. Stargazinghelp.com is a knowledge hub for professional and amateur astronomy and astrophotography enthusiasts. This design has some advantages over other designs, such as the Kellner eyepiece or Orthoscopic eyepieces. The original Meade 5-piece Super Plossl hasnt been in production for decades and at this point is more of a collectors item than a high-performance eyepiece. I currently own a Mak127 ( that can't use 2"eyepieces) and a 80ED ( that one can hold 2"eyepieces). They work great every day and get you where you want to go, but dont have what the higher priced models have. They are also really sharp. I can recommend these with confidence. Generally, Plssl eyepieces are best suited to Newtonian and fast telescopes. The basic design hasnt changed much, but the real costs of manufacturing have dropped. Press Esc to cancel. The combination of high-quality optics and accessible prices have made them the favorite design for amateur astronomers and even professionals. And, in general terms, the higher the AFOV, the harder it is to make an eyepiece that will present a good image all across the field of view, which also drives up the cost. As the clear cut worlds best eyepiece manufacturer, their name should at least be mentioned in an article like this. Kellner vs Plossl eyepieces for dobsonians? : telescopes - reddit Why not go back to the people who sold you the scope and get their help. We will use 10 mm as the eyepiece focal length, but we will look at three different 10 mm eyepieces, each with a different apparent field of view, AFOV. Later in the article, I will also give my top recommendations for both the best Kellner as well as the best Plossl eyepieces. I dont have a specific diagonal to recommend and I am not aware of any specific issues with the one that is included with the scope. I usually recommend a 32 mm Plossl type eyepiece as that provides about the widest view you can achieve with a 1.25 focuser. Thanks all. Not really. So, basically a Plossl eyepiece is a type of eyepiece that enables the viewer to see a wider field of view than would normally be the case, but at the cost of him/her having to physically put his eye very close to the lens of the eyepiece. ORION SIRIUS PLOSSL 10mm telescope eyepiece 1.25" - $17.01. Good evening everybody. I am very near-sighted, barely see the big E on the vision chart without glasses. This can be especially helpful in telescopes of focal ratios below F8. But those EPs mentioned were all great too! But I have one little niggle. And since this article is intended as an aid to beginners rather than a rigorous optics lesson, I think the context I provided works well enough. Hi, I have recently bought a Orion XT8 and am trying to work out which eyepieces to add to what is provided with the scope. At least you'll have one budget eyepiece that will give you a larger part of the sky at low magnification. Lets illustrate with an example using a 1200 mm FL telescope. To determine a magnification range, we will start with the aperture of the telescope, the size of the front lens, or the mirror in the back. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Stargazing Help came into existence when some young minds got mesmerized by outer space while camping. None of my fancy EPs have enough contrast for this application. The ocular for your highest visual acuity - for viewing deep-sky objects and the like - should have an exit pupil around . Again, it only costs $30 to $40 to find out, so the education is not that expensive. The view being presented to your eye in a low power eyepiece minimizes everything from optical aberrations in the telescope, to distortions from thermals or atmospheric conditions. The stock 9 and 15mm Omnis were very good. With regards to budget, whatever works well and is on par with the quality & capability of the telescope. Both will provide the same magnification. Are Plossl eyepieces any good? Choose three focal lengths. These have the advantage that the front section with the optics can be unthreaded and threaded on to the filter threads of a 1.25 inch eyepiece. The 50 apparent field of view is plenty for me. Understanding and using a Barlow Lens The Plossl's are very easy to modify, allowing me to use the bino-viewer on, all my refracting telescopes without having to cut down the tube length, p.s.