Posts Made By: Rich Creager

a word of caution if you plan to observe when it's cold- don't expect a meade goto gem to work below freezing. rich

Brian- a 24mm panoptic and 2.5x powermate would give you a great base. Working effectively at f/10, if cost is a factor you might add a uo12.5mm ortho for planets, and something like a 16mm uo konig, 18mm meade swa or 19mm televue widefield. All can be found on astromart, easily except for the televue, for around $45/60/100/110 respectively. If the seeing and your optics permit, the addition of a 5x powermate would bring the uo12.5 to 50 power per inch of aperture and give you nice views in a very broad range of powers. Hope your skies are clear.

Dave- With a big SCT, the one eyepiece that matches up best is the 20mm type 2 Nagler. Rich

Tom- Meade mounts also have the reputation of failing in cold weather. Rich

John- I also observe with an 8 inch F10. I would not buy a set of premium eyepieces, but rather buy one or two, use them for a while, and see what you end up wishing for, i.e. more power, better eye relief etc. You might start with a 19mm panoptic. My most used eyepiece is a T.V. 19mm Widefield, similar to the panoptics, but with poorer edge sharpness. It provides a decently wide field, and the 19mm focal length frames deep sky objects pleasingly, gives a nice image scale, and is forgiving of mediocre seeing. It is also light enough to avoid balance problems, and has great resale. I also use it for Saturn and the Jupiter system. Clear skies. Rich