Eyepiece Question?

I'm thinking of purchasing a high quality eyepiece for some basic first time comparison. I have the LXD-75 10" SN, it's a fast scope f/4. I have the following eyepieces that came with the 4000 series kit.

6.4mm Super Plössl Eyepiece
9.7mm Super Plössl Eyepiece
12.4mm Super Plössl Eyepiece
15mm Super Plössl Eyepiece

32mm Super Plössl Eyepiece
40mm Super Plössl Eyepiece
Televue 3x
Meade 2x
Overall I'm not to impressed with the Meade eyepieces. I find the 9.7,12.4, and 15 are my favorites. I'm really interested in deepspace objects. So I'm hearing that a high quality eyepiece can really bring out the optics of a good scope. Any recomendations?

Chris

Chris,

I have the Orion XT10i (f/4.7). Here are the EPs I find that work very well:

BO/TMB Planetaries - 5,7,9mm 60deg AFOV. Nice and sharp and contrasty to the edge, barlow wonderfully. A bit more contrast for DSO than the Nagler but sacrifice AFOV. But even at 3.5mm BO easy to track DSO in my Dob.

Nagler - 12mmT4 82deg AFOV. Sharp for central 75%, then coma in outer 25%, not too bad though. Barlowed up to 6mm or 4mm all coma is gone and maintains light thruput - so no need for extra Naglers! Basically the 12mmT4+2xUltima equals light transmission of 6mm UO HD. So a 2x and 3x barlow together are cheaper than even one more Nagler. I'm thrifty.

In the 32mm-15mm realm not a lot in 1.25" that is great inexpensive unless you can find the discontinued UO Super Erfles in 16, 20, 25 which all do great in central 75%. All the Plossls work great of course but for those long FLs I want more than 50deg AFOV! If you have the money go for a 24 Panoptic, otherwise wait until early 2007 when the 16, 20, 24 TMB Paragon's in 1.25" are due out with 69deg AFOV. I'm waiting.

28mm RKE - 55+deg AFOV (it seems, they say 45 but clearly not). Actually is excellent for finding things and at only $54 can't argue. Stays nice and sharp over most AFOV and bright!

30-40mm - 40mm TMB Paragon 2". Again, sharp over 3/4 central AFOV like 12mmT4. Very bright and flat flat field. Yes it's a big exit pupil and you lose light, but you get all that extra TFOV which is what you want from a scanning EP. The amount of light you lose from the larger Exit Pupil equates to bringing your 10" down to an 8" I believe if I recall my calculations a while ago. No big deal since I get 2.3deg TFOV from it

So if you don't mind barlowing, get a 2x and 3x 2" barlow, then a 12mmT4 and a 40mm Paragon and from that small combo you get:

40, 20, 13, 12, 6, 4mm a nice spread and it saves bucks and it works wonderfully. Or skip the 12mmT4 and get a 13mmT6 and a 9mmT6 with only a single 2X barlow for a little more flexibility:
40, 20, 13, 9, 6.5, 4.5

-Bill