are plossl eyepieces good

For your application and the eyepieces you have or are going to get, you really dont need anything else. Note to spectacle wearers: Plssl eyepieces with 15mm and longer focal lengths are good choices for spectacle wearers. https://telescopicwatch.com/orion-skyquest-xt8-intelliscope-review/. A good modern eyepiece like a BST starguider 12,8 and 5mm are excellent eyepieces. If there is a local club, I would suggest you visit and consider joining. Another really helpful article, Ed. A very good quality eyepiece for a reasonable sum. 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. I would suggest you also get a 2 low power wide view. And certainly, if you are getting into AP you are going to need that big budget. This will give you a lower power and a medium to high power eyepiece, depending on the focal length of your scope. If we combine a Barlow with an 8-24 mm zoom eyepiece, we have an amazing range. Plossl eyepieces are great. A 6mm Plossl has a tiny eye lens. The tradeoff was that each lens surface added another internal reflection, reducing contrast and adding glare. In simple terms, high focal ratio scopes, say those over F6, tend to be less demanding on eyepieces than those below F6. For the price, I think the eyepiece is still a good pick. I am not aware of any such solutions for Newtonian reflectors. Despite one being fundamentally superior to the other in terms of image correction, Kellners and Plossls are generally quite comparable in terms of the image you actually see. So, even if you have a Maksutov-Cassegrain scope, you should get a good experience from this eyepiece. Personally I think they're still worth it. You mentioned regarding ORTHO eyepieces: Excellent specialty eyepieces, usually for planets. But the difference in price to get to the next level is high, and the performance difference may be small. If you are upgrading, avoid ones that say correct image as these add a prism system into the diagonal which can reduce the light transmission. As we continue, what would you recommend adding first? Even if you did need a 4mm focal length (for high powers in an f/4 telescope, of course), neither a Kellner nor a Plossl would have long enough eye relief for that to be comfortably usable! The Hexagon Zoom Eyepiece is made from durable plastic material that resists scratching and it has an eye relief distance of 15mm. Higher than 3X is usually reserved for astrophotography. If you have a longer focal length telescope, your shortest focal length eyepiece will be a higher number than what I have shown here. 1:10 . A Barlow lens will not reduce the CA in a low FR achromat refractor so to speak of it changing the focal ratio would, I think, introduce confusion in most situations. 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. The Plossl eyepiece is a four-element design consisting of two doublets. If you are very demanding and must have the very best, this is where you want to be. As of the past couple years, it seems possible that the choice between Kellners and Plossls has been made for usyou either get what you get with your beginner telescope, or you will have to find a Plossl. Im just starting out with astronomy and this really helped my understanding. Again, I only do this for my low power wide views. At 32mm, a Plssl will give you as wide a field of view as any 1.25mm eyepiece can. It uses two symmetrical pairs of glass elements (one convex and one concave) to pass the light. They are usable, but your eye will be extremely close to the top lens glass. I dont know if they make anything like this anymore, but as a kid, I had plastic slides with images on them (the Milky Way, Horse Head Nebula, etc.) This is where the second formula comes into play. However, sometimes i am at the end of the range of the binocular focus adjustment. 14 = 128 = .6 As for tabletop scopes, dont forget that you need a table, stool, or bench to place them. The price ranges we show here are the typical prices. While many people will stay with and add Plossls to their eyepiece set, I would recommend not going below 10 mm focal length as the eye relief gets quite short. But these are only intended to get you started. a breath of fresh air! Low focal ratio scopes deliver the light rays to the eyepiece at an ever-increasing angle as the focal ratio number goes down. A Plossl eyepiece lens provides more eye relief than anything else out there! 20 = 90 = .8 No price limit? 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. very happy. Orion Sirius Plossl 1.25" eyepieces are ideal for all types of telescopes: reflector, refractor, and catadioptrics such as Maksutov-Cassegrains. A Plssl is probably as good as any 32mm eyepiece in a 1.25 inch focuser. Plossls are available from many suppliers in a wide range of focal lengths in 1.25 and 2 sizes. i dont have 1 of everything, and i bought the best i could afford on a low budget; meade and orion. Over $250, I will label premium eyepieces. None of my fancy EPs have enough contrast for this application. Also, atmospheric conditions can limit how much magnification you can use on a given night. So speaking of the Barlow as if it modifies the FL of the eyepiece, while technically not correct, does provide an easier model to understand the net effect. Us big kids like zooms too. Gold line eyepieces are available in 6mm, 9mm, 15mm, and 20mm focal lengths. These are just a few examples of eyepieces that I have used, and some that I own. When you use a Barlow lens with an eyepiece, you get the magnification, but the eye relief is not affected. This is the link to the eyepiece I am looking at potentially buying, would you recommend this over the Orion one or vice versa do you think? Plossl eyepieces are often included in better telescope packages as the starter eyepieces. Higher values are slower and lower values are fasterthis is a holdover from camera lens terminology and has to do with exposure times.). I want to help you select the best eyepieces for your budget and your telescope. I do not miss beating my eyelashes against a 9.7mm Meade Plossl that I used to own. Youd have to look into more complex designs which include a barlow lens, or simply use a longer focal length eyepiece with a quality barlow. 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. Let us know in the comments if there is anything else you want to ask or share your thoughts on this post, always looking forward to feedback from others who will benefit from it as well! Pentax K-70 Astrophotography: The Ultimate Camera on a Budget! For our experience level, would you recommend changing anything right now? So we say that an F5 scope benefits from better corrected eyepieces more than the F10 scope. Brilliant article and I thank you for it, I was literally really confused prior to reading it. Optics manufacturers began selling and popularizing Plossl eyepieces, albeit with a generally simplified design where each achromatic doublet had the same focal length. Many thanks. 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. One learns by observing. https://www.amazon.com/Explore-Scientific-68%C2%B0-40mm-Eyepiece/dp/B007LMG3F6/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=explore+scientific+68&qid=1606584676&sr=8-1, Thanks for your reply, I think I will go for the Orion Q70 . Very worth it for me, as I like to use bino-viewers. Perhaps another review would be helpful. Choose three focal lengths. Hi Ed, Omni 6mm Eyepiece - 1.25" Learn More. Here's the short answer - Plossl eyepieces are generally better than Kellner eyepieces, but they also tend to be more expensive. Or, you can have three properly sized eyepieces and use a Barlow lens to achieve three more magnifications, which is usually a less expensive way to go. In order to help you narrow down your choices, weve created a short guide that can help you figure out what the best viable option is. You use the 8-24 zoom for the midrange. ORION SIRIUS PLOSSL 10mm telescope eyepiece 1.25" - $17.01. If you are buying your first telescope, and you are choosing between the telescope that includes a Kellner or a telescope that comes with a Plossl, with all the other specs being similar, pick the telescope thats offering you the Plossl, even if its slightly more expensive. For what it is worth, a slow scope like your CPC9.25 (f/10?) With regards to budget, whatever works well and is on par with the quality & capability of the telescope. Plossl eyepieces are very good and fairly inexpensive, typically between $25 and $50 each. Omni 12mm Eyepiece - 1.25" Learn More. We will now discuss the specifications of eye relief and apparent field of view. The image will be reversed left to right so you will need to get used to that. For me personally, even though I don't use glasses to observe, I still don't want to dig out the view through a plossl or ortho eyepiece which tend to have short eye relief. 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. Both will provide the same magnification. a Celestron 8-24 Zoom with a 2x Barlow 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. The Plossl optical design is very good for long and medium focal length eyepieces, delivering a sharp, flat field and an apochromatic image. Thinking in a super ploss 32mm and maybe something between 9mm and 15mm . Just start with 32 mm for your low-power eyepiece. They are also really sharp. Even though there are more sophisticated types of EPs, Plossls hit the right spot between high-quality optics and price. A Kellner eyepiece has 1 double lens and 1 single lens. Since it's such a popular eyepiece and allows for quality, planet-viewing, that makes it a great instrument for attracting newcomers to the hobby, especially children. In addition, the eyepiece would be a Huygens or Ramsden design, where two lenses made of the same type of glass could be combined to yield minimal false color fringing, as long as the focal length of the telescope remained fairly long. Hayppy that now I have more facts to put in my decision. Nice, thank you again for the additional inputs. Better edge correction with a short-focus telescope is one of the things you pay extra money for, and sophisticated eyepiece designs have as many as eight elements. However, there can be a problem bringing the eyepiece into focus. This is not a hard and fast rule, just a cautionary note. If well made, Plossls are bright, with good contrast, and a flat field, and excellent sharpness. The price can run to over $1000 per eyepiece. It offers good color correction and high-contrast images. Choosing the most appropriate can completely change your experience in using telescopes. Explore Scientific, like many eyepiece providers, have higher-priced and budget lines. You will get varying opinions on this but I would not worry too much about this. In essence the design differences between Kellner and Plossl comes down to the number of lenses within the eyepiece barrel. Again, this is more noticeable in lower focal ratio scopes. When you add eyepieces to your collection, you will want to consider what field of view you want and how much you are willing to pay for it. Some accept 2 and have an adapter that allows you to also use 1.25. We will use a 100 mm telescope with a 600 mm focal length that only takes 1.25 eyepieces. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. About Us | Privacy Policy | ContactLittle Astronomy is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com. Again, for no other reason than to compare it to the 17mm Hyperion and draw your own conclusions about Plssls. I have the 38 mm and recommend it often. In 1860, Georg Simon Plossl invented the Plossl eyepiece. Can you give me any specific recommendations on what to buy and from where? The one exception I would keep in mind would be when working with Newtonian reflector telescopes below F5. But the longer FL units are certainly useful. The stock 9 and 15mm Omnis were very good. I am going to use 6. Soft rubber eye guard that's custom fitted . With an f/10 telescope, Plossls are as sharp as any other kind of eyepiece of the same focal length. The Hyperions work well in SCTs and you can't beat that large eyelens and eye relief ,JMO. Poorly chosen eyepiece might give you poor experience and sometimes even make stargazing difficult. If you want to observe the fine details of a specimen, Plossl eyepiece has a higher magnification than an ocular with lower lenses. Do I need an adapter if my scope has a Plossl lens? As for Barlow Lenses, take a look at this article. I must also warn you that some of these bad Plossls may actually turn out to be worse than any run-of-the-mill Kellner. Sony A7III vs A7RIII Astrophotography: Which One to Shoot Infinity! If you were considering a Meade Super Plossl, in that case just get the regular one also by Meade. Plossl eyepieces have 4 lenses that are paired in two doublets. Note that the Explore Scientific 68 and 82 degree eyepieces are also available in 2 size for your low power wide view requirements. By having a range of magnifications, you can optimize the image, which means you need more eyepieces. But dont fear that you will waste your investment as eyepieces are standard sizes. Learn more about our story and the team behind the scene. For super Plossl eyepiece, the field of view is typically 40 to 60 degrees. Can You See The ISS With A Telescope? In terms of eyepieces, my best advice is provided in the article. My 20, 26, and 32mm Plossls will probably stay around. I would wait till you get the scope and use the included eyepieces. To achieve a maximum of 200X (2X the aperture of 100 mm), we solve for the focal length. Combining a cheap eyepiece with a cheap barlow isn't a elegant solution. Your email address will not be published. Question: would it perform well with 1.5/2x and 3x Barlows? We may earn commissions by recommending products on this website. I often had to drop back to about 180X because of poor seeing and transparency. Well-made lenses are expensive though, so in general the more lenses, the higher the price of the eyepiece. Why not go back to the people who sold you the scope and get their help. In the case of the Celestron, you get all the focal lengths from 24 to 8mm in one eyepiece that costs $100. The Big Bang Optics is compensated for referring traffic and business to these companies. 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. i still use the binos. Focal length telescope / focal length eyepiece = magnification or power. Of course, the entire eyepiece must be manufactured and finished correctly to realize the design's full potential. However the package includes a 1.25 to 2 adapter so if you have a 2 focuser you can treat this like a 2 eyepiece leaving the adapter normally included with the scope for use with other 1.25 eyepieces. Plossl eyepieces are typically used for observing and viewing things at long distances, but they can also be useful when using a telescope to provide both magnifying power and erecting the images. They also offer a generous 16 mm of eye relief which is most important in the shorter focal lengths. Once I knew how much I liked the zoom I upgraded to the Baader Hyperion Zoom. Magnification or power = focal length telescope / focal length eyepiece, Focal ratio = focal length telescope / aperture telescope, maximum practical aperture = aperture X 2, Edges of the optics are blackened for increased contrast, which prevents internal reflections, Anti-reflection, fully multi-coated optics provide enhanced light transmission for bright and clear images. I had one and sold it. Between Kellners and Plossls, this means a 32mm Plossl, which maximizes the field of view in the 1.25 barrel diameter format, will show more stars than either a 32mm Kellner with the same magnification but a smaller true field of view, or a 40mm Kellner (or 40mm 1.25 Plossl, which has a 40 degree apparent field of view) with a lower magnification and the same true field of view. This may be enough for many eyeglass wearers. 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 . To estimate the highest practical magnification for your telescope, you take the aperture in millimeters, mm, and multiply it by two. Our previous exchange convinced me to start out with an 80mm refractor. Conclusion. Other brands have joined and have used the Super Plossl label, but they all keep the original 4-piece design. It had one of the best fields, edge to edge, in my SCT that I've ever seen. I have since moved up to a 12 Dob but I use the same eyepieces and the BH Zoom continues to be my most used. There is no shortage of accessories for the Nexstar series. A wide range of focal lengths are available, all in 1.25-inch size. Comparing Orion Telescope & Binoculars options, it appears that a Kellner can be found for almost half the price of a Plossl of the same focal length, although there are also equally cheap Plossls available from various sellers on Amazon that are highly comparable.

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