eyepiece

I tried my GSO 30 in my XT10i and loved it. Only negative thing is that it doesn't have enough focus and I must lift the ep. Nebulas looked nice in it. What eyepiece should I get so I could see star cluster's and galaxy's better? I was guessing around a 15mm for a 1200mm scope? At higher magnification, will a wide angle work good or am I better of just buying plossls(I can't spend too much)? Will any inexpensive wide angle(like the 1.25" 15mm GSO wv) in a fast scope(4.7) be ok or will I still run into distortion problems similar to the cheaper 2" 30ish wide angles?

As for the GSO 30, you can get an extender for you focuser fairly cheap. Re your other question, the center of the field will be good to excellent in just about any of the eyepieces sold today. It's the edge of the field that will suffer in a fast scope. In your dob, you may want the extra field of view, however, just to make it easier to keep your object in view. But realize the edges won't be sharp with an economy eyepiece.

Harry Vanderburg said:

I tried my GSO 30 in my XT10i and loved it. Only negative thing is that it doesn't have enough focus and I must lift the ep. Nebulas looked nice in it. What eyepiece should I get so I could see star cluster's and galaxy's better? I was guessing around a 15mm for a 1200mm scope? At higher magnification, will a wide angle work good or am I better of just buying plossls(I can't spend too much)? Will any inexpensive wide angle(like the 1.25" 15mm GSO wv) in a fast scope(4.7) be ok or will I still run into distortion problems similar to the cheaper 2" 30ish wide angles?

The eye relief on Plossls is pretty short. If that's a problem for you, you may prefer something like a Radian, where all of the various eyepieces have the same eye relief. Alternatively, you could use a Barlow. Barlows are generally considered to reduce contrast slightly, though most of today's Barlow units are quite reasonable, optically speaking.

Coma is rather noticeable in a f/4.7 reflector. Tele Vue's Paracorr will reduce that significantly and make it possible to use less exotic eyepieces and still get good edge performance. It also increases the effective focal length by some 15 percent, to about 1400 mm on your telescope.

Unfortunately, wide-field eyepieces that work well with f/4.7 scopes are gonna cost at least a little bit of money. If you can find a used 13mm or 21mm Orion Stratus, that may work for you. You can find them on Astromart for $75-80. Comments on excelsis seem to indicate these work well with Orion XT10 scopes:

http://www.excelsis.com/1.0/entry.php?sectionid=22&entryid=629

http://www.excelsis.com/1.0/entry.php?sectionid=22&entryid=648

The 21mm will put your exit pupil right at 4.46mm.

The 17mm will give you 3.47 mm, the 13mm 2.76 mm

Harry Vanderburg said:

I tried my GSO 30 in my XT10i and loved it. Only negative thing is that it doesn't have enough focus and I must lift the ep. Nebulas looked nice in it. What eyepiece should I get so I could see star cluster's and galaxy's better? I was guessing around a 15mm for a 1200mm scope? At higher magnification, will a wide angle work good or am I better of just buying plossls(I can't spend too much)? Will any inexpensive wide angle(like the 1.25" 15mm GSO wv) in a fast scope(4.7) be ok or will I still run into distortion problems similar to the cheaper 2" 30ish wide angles?

Harry
I have to admit owning the 20, 15, & 10mm GSO Superviews. They do not perform well in fast dobs and will likely leave you wanting. They are all gone. The center 50% of the field is reasonably focussed, but the rest is poor depending on the scope used. In your price range, you may want to consider the Hyperions at $99 from Alpine and cheaper on Astromart. Try the 13mm first then if your skies will support the higher mag go to the 8mm. Resist the temptation to buy cheaper unless you have the opportunity to try something before buying.

I use both wide fields and orthoscopics in my f/8.3 refractor and like them both for different reasons. If cost is a factor then you may want to think about 12.5mm orthos or similar sized high quality plossls. You will see fine images but will have to adjust your dob more often to keep them in view. Unfortunately if you want wide field it is expensive for quality at f/4.7.