Telescope Eyepieces

Choosing the right eyepieces is important, but beginners tend to think the most expensive is always best, but that is not always the case. Each type of eyepiece for the astronomical telescope has its own use. What you need to spend will be determined by your particular needs.

There are different designs and lenses for different views. Buying eyepieces which suit your own viewing is important. So, knowing what you want to observe is a valuable guide to the eyepieces you add to your telescope. In most cases, beginners need only two or three different telescope eyepieces at most. Here is some information about the different eyepieces and relative costs involved.

For general viewing use, Orthoscopic lenses have been considered the best. Using four elements and having a 45 degree field of view, they are excellent for viewing planets. A lens of this type will set you back by $40 to $100.

Kellner is also a good general purpose lens and one of the cheapest at just $30 to $50. Its drawback, though, is its 3 element design limiting the viewing range to 40 to 45 degrees.

The Ramsden and Huygenien have a two element design with a limited field of view, but are good for observing the sun. They are also the cheapest lenses costing just $25 to $40.

A very popular choice in telescope eyepieces are Plossl lenses. With four or five elements it has a wider field of view than a Orthoscopic lens, ranging from 50-52 degrees. Though they are more expensive costing between $50 and $150.

Barlow lenses double or triple the magnification of your eyepiece, but cost between $60 and $100. Erfles are not as popular as they once were, but offer a field of view of between 60 and 65 degrees having 6 elements. They run between $75 and $150.

Televue has come up with a rival to this eyepiece with their six element Panoptic lense. It has a 67 degree field of view, but costs between $200 and $400. The seven or eight element Naglers has a 82 degree field of view and is cheaper at $175 and $425. Pentax also makes a seven element lens, the SMC-XL, that costs about $250 and can possibly exceed the Televue in performance.

As you can see, you can easily start viewing the skies with an inexpensive telescope eyepiece and than get higher quality lenses as your understanding of your needs increases.

Note that the actual prices of these eyepieces mentioned here are sure to change, as time goes by, but their comparitive prices will probably remain the same. The Meade telescope eyepiece and Celestron telescope eyepiece are other brand names to check out.

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