Need for low power eyepiece?

Right now my lowest power eyepiece is a 26mm plosel, I have pairs of Stratus 21's and Nagler 13's for use in a Denk. My scopes are an 80mm W/O refractor and an Orion 11" SCT. I do about 70% observation, and 30% imaging with the Orion and about 90% imaging with the refractor. I seem to want to get a 30-36mm wide angle eyepiece,(Meade qx or W/O SWA, but I'm not really sure if I have a need for one. Any thoughts.
Thanks,
Joe

Joe Moskowitz said:
Right now my lowest power eyepiece is a 26mm plosel, I have pairs of Stratus 21's and Nagler 13's for use in a Denk. My scopes are an 80mm W/O refractor and an Orion 11" SCT. I do about 70% observation, and 30% imaging with the Orion and about 90% imaging with the refractor. I seem to want to get a 30-36mm wide angle eyepiece,(Meade qx or W/O SWA, but I'm not really sure if I have a need for one. Any thoughts.
Thanks,
Joe

I think you definitely need a longer FL eyepiece, particularly for the 11" SCT! Right now your 26mm Plossl only lets you see about .48deg TFOV. If you popped a 2" 40mm Paragon in that scope you'll almost double the TFOV to just shy of 1 full degree (.94). I'd say that would be worth it alone!

In the 80mm, not sure which one you have, but if it's the Zenithstar at f/6.8-6.9, then the 26mm Plossl gives you about 2.45 deg TFOV and the 40mm Paragon would give you 4.77 deg TFOV while still keeping your exit pupil at only 5.8mm!!!

So if you like star cruising, I think a good 35mm or 40mm 2" would be eye opening for you

-Bill

You could use one for the 11" SCT, but the 80mm probably does not need lower power than 18x provided by the 26mm. However a wider FOV would be good, but using a shorter f/l EP with a wider FOV would provide a nice image in the 80mm.