How do you choose a quality telescope eyepiece on a budget?

Question

My primary interests are currently in planetary viewing. I have a 5" aperture, 1000mm focal length, Newtonian reflector scope.
I prefer image quality followed by eye relief. I'm interested in 4mm, 6mm,12mm, and 40mm optics. Minimal focusing when switching lenses is also important. I'm looking for eyepieces under $100 each, for now.

What manufacturers/brands, series, and types best meet my needs? Why are they the best for my needs? Also, is the Celestron Accessory kit worth buying?

I have come across some helpful resources: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orthoscopic_Eyepiece#Eyepiece_designs and have determined that I like Celestron's Ultima X-Cel line (http://www.celestron.com/c2/category.php?CatID=37), which can be bought at a good price ($62 each) at www.telescopes.com

Answer 1

Injanier has already given you an excellent answer, and I agree with all that he has said. In addition to the orthoscopics he recommended, I would recommend Orion Ultrascopics and Tele Vue Plössls. The latter are very reasonably priced and are significantly better quality that the generic Chinese Plössls everyone else sells. The Celestron kit is a waste of money. The eyepieces are all second rate, and the filters not much use. Instead get a couple of good quality eyepieces and you'll be a lot happier. With your scope, I'd recommend something around 5 to 6 mm, giving you 167x to 200x, a good magnification for planets. If the short eye relief is a problem, either go to a Barlow lens and a 10 to 12 mm eyepiece, or look at the Orion Stratus series, which offer excellent qulaitity, wide field of view, and long eye relief. Be sure to get a decent Barlow, like the Orion Shorty Plus or the Tele Vue, as the cheaper Barlows are junk.

Answer 2

The best relatively inexpensive eyepieces for image quality are Japanese-made Abbe orthoscopics, available from a number of sources - http://www.universityoptics.com/125inch.html . Their eye relief is a little better than Plossls, though not much, and their apparent FOV is less than 45°. Cost is $60 or less each. For a wider (60°) FOV and decent (16mm) eye relief, I like the Burgess/TMB Planetary eyepieces - http://www.burgessoptical.com/EPs/Planetary.html at $99 each. These have gone on sale at 3 for $200 a couple of times in the past.

If you are buying 1.25" eyepieces, don't buy a 40mm. You will get the same field of view in a 32 or 35mm Plossl. The 32mm TeleVue Plossl and the 30mm Orion Ultrascopic are excellent in this size, though slightly over $100. I highly recommend buying used eyepieces on Astromart (http://www.astromart.com/ ) . Carefully used eyepieces can be bought for maybe 70% of their new cost and resold for the same if they don't work out for you.

Answer 3

You might want to buy used eyepieces.

You can usually find them at http://www.astromart.com in the classifeds.

That would also be a good place to ask opinions on different equipment.