Eyepieces for Telescopes

Video Transcript

"One of the first things you'll want to consider after you purchase your telescope is the eyepieces. This has added a lot of enjoyment to me. Now, eyepieces are kind of intimidating 'cause there are so many types, so many field of views, the prices vary from as cheap as $29 to over $600 for an eyepiece; it's not necessary that you buy a $600 eyepiece. The eyepiece is one of the most important parts of your telescope. This is where your -- the focal link, the focus beam of your telescope comes to and we're going to take a small piece of that focus beam, that focus area and we're going to magnify it with our eyepiece. These are very critical to the performance of your telescope. They don't have to be expensive, like I said before, but they are very critical. Some things to look for on these, first of all make sure yours is not plastic -- the eyepiece is glass. And then look for your coatings; they should be nice and dark. A lot of people look for color in the coatings and they think that's a good multi-coat; that's actually not. If you're seeing a lot of color, you're seeing a lot of reflection. If you cap the eyepiece on the bottom, you should see a mostly black color to the coatings. This indicates that you're not getting any reflections off of it. Now, as I said, eyepieces don't have to be expensive. You can get Kellners, you can get Plossls; they run usually in the 45 to 50 degree range -- that's angular distance, angular. They're excellent eyepieces. The Kellners and Plossls will work with most types of telescopes. We mentioned the refracters before, a refracter will perform very well with a Kellner, usually run about $20 to a Kellner, to about $59 for a Kellner. You can go to the Plossls, which is a four element eyepiece as opposed to a Kellner is a three. Again, look for the same features; nice coatings, glass not plastic. They vary from about $29 to about $79 for a Kellner. This will cover to about 50 degree field of view. Once you go from those, there's some wide angle eyepieces; it's a general family of wide angle eyepieces. This is a 60 degree right here; they're $59. This will give you a 60 degree field of view so as things drift out, they'll stay in longer 'cause the field of view is wider. It's more natural. When you use a narrow field eyepiece like the Hugons that come with a lot of telescopes that are plastic, you'll look like you're looking through a toilet paper roll; the field's very narrow. These are very natural, 60 degrees is very comfortable for the eye. And like I said, once you get the telescope, this'll be your next purchase to get you some quality eyepieces. They do not have to be expensive; there are dozens of places to get them in the United States and out of the country. Look for a quality Plossl, quality Kellner, and then you can look for your wide angle eyepieces. There's ultra wide angle eyepieces, in the 70 to 80 degree range. New eyepieces coming on the market have even a wider field than that. You'll see 100 degree field eyepieces, and even larger than 100 degree field eyepieces. They're generally very expensive, but one key here is that they'll actually show you nothing more than the 50 degree field Kellner or Plossl, just more area in the eyepiece at a time which makes it a little more comfortable. Again, key thing -- eyepiece quality -- you'll want to collect several eyepieces. You'll want to get a range. You want an eyepiece that gives you magnification for the planets, depending on the focal length, you divide the focal length of the telescope by your eyepiece. You'll want something that produces about 30 to 50 power out of your telescope. Your telescope will have a label on it telling the focal length; divide that by the eyepiece number. Say, you've got a 1000 millimeter focal length and you buy ten, okay; you've got a hundred power out of that thing, and if that's say a four-inch telescope that's a very good power for planets. And then you want a lower powered eyepiece for looking at deep sky objects, and then you might even consider one of the two-inch eyepieces; this is an inch and a quarter format, consider one of the two-inch formats eyepiece -- they're larger, even giving you a larger field of view as possible with those. And those can run as low as under a hundred to several hundred dollars, but you'll definitely enjoy your telescope a lot more with a quality eyepiece."