Build a small eyepiece collection - suggestions?

I've got a new scope on the way (80ED) and I'd like to consider a new eyepiece or three. I've got a meade 4000 26mm plossl as of now, which I'm pretty happy with. There are a few ubber-cheap plossls which can go without regret.

My criteria are:

1) I'd like to keep the collection small, 3 to 4 eye pieces would do me just fine. Not like I switch them up too much.

2) Affordable is great. I'm still paying tuition bills, so I can't spring for the panoptics or naglers quite yet....YET!!

3) One decent planetary eyepiece - Perhaps an orthoscopic?

4) One decent widefield/low-power eyepiece for some widefield scanning.

5) Something to fit the range in between.

Any suggestions or input on what you would include in the small general eyepiece collection?

The best quality/price ratios around are at University Optics. They specialize in older designs, many of which perform poorly at short focal ratios, but the 80ED is f7.5, which isn't too short at all. The Konigs are superb eyepieces, although they're a little tight at 16mm and 12mm. I used to have a 20mm Super Erfle and it was quite a bargain, and a good general purpose eyepiece (slightly soft at the edges at f8, but not distractingly so). And of course the Orthoscopics are famous for bang-for-the-buck planetary performance.

Helix, a A-M sponsor on the front page, is a good source for U.O. stuff if you want to buy online (U.O. itself being somewhat in the dark ages when it comes to the Internet).

Alternatively, for a little more than most of U.O.'s eyepieces, the Ultimas/Ultrascopics are my personal favorite moderately priced eyepiece - noticeably better performers than the current Meade Plossls.

That's the direction(s) I'd point you. Oh, and don't skimp on a barlow if you get one - that's one place you might want to spend the bucks on Tele Vue, you might even consider the 2.5x Powermate, which is not cheap but won't dissapoint.

Since funds are hard to come by, have you considered the Celestron eyepiece kit. I saw it for sale new at Amazon for $120. You get 5 plossl eyepieces, a bunch of filters, a barlow and a case. To find them, go to Amazon.com and search on "Celestron eyepiece kit". They are not Naglers, but they are not bad and the price is right.

If you are feeling like spending more, the suggestion to go to the Helix website is a good one. They carry University Optics eyepieces and from what I read they are excellent quality. Their latest addition is the Speers Waler line of eyepieces by Antares. According to reviews, these are excellent eyepieces that compete with Televue at less than half the price.

Good luck
Russ

You might consider a zoom eyepiece and a barlow. I recently bought a 7.4-22mm zoom from Apogee. These are supposedly made by Nikon. I use it on my TV-85 and find it does a very good job for the price - $50. The FOV is rather narrow at the low end (40*), but expands nicely at the higher powers. I use it mainly in the 11-7.4mm range on the moon/planets. Combine this with a 2 or 3x barlow and you'd pretty much have the usable range for the 80ED covered. You could also get a 32mm plossl for low power / wide field viewing. All three of these would be about $110.