The telescope only plays a single part in your cosmos observation. The eyepiece is an important part. It is not only responsible for delivering the gathered light into your eye, but it also gives you magnification power. You can transform the viewing experience completely by switching the eye-pieces. You can change it based on your goal.
In this article, you will find the best budget telescope eyepieces under $200, under $100 and under $50.
Best Budget Telescope Eyepieces Under $200
1. Celestron 1.25” Eyepiece and Filter Accessory Kit – 14 Piece Set
Five 1.25-inch Plossl eye-pieces with a fully coated focal length of 32 mm, 17 mm, 13 mm, 8 mm, and 6 mm are available in the Celestron accessory set. These eyepieces include a variety of magnifiers, including a wide 32 mm range for the lower power, a medium power range with a little more precision of 17 mm and 13 mm, and a high magnification between 8 mm and 6 mm.
This package contains also a 2x Barlow lens, one of the most important elements of a telescope accessory kit as it extends your options considerably.
This is a good range of enlargements for a small telescope. Strong finder and large field of view magnification from 23x to the rarely used but good to have 250x for lunar research.
Six planetary color filters are available: yellow, orange, red, green, and blue. Each filter will have a somewhat different effect, and you will like experimenting with it. For lunar viewing, the Moon filter is an important accessory. It blocks excessive glow and enables you to look more closely at the Moon without hurting your eyes.
This pack comes with foam padding in a damn difficult-faced carrying case to keep it packed and secure.
Features:
- Good range of decent eyepieces at a low price
- 52-degree field of view
- The sturdy case offers adequate protection
- Includes Barlow lens
2. Gosky 1.25-Inch Premium Telescope Accessory Kit – 15 Piece Set
The Gosky 1.25-Inch Premium Telescope Accessory Kit is a choice worth considering to customers who want a set to provide eyepieces for every condition and space object you wish to observe. The kit comprises 5 Plossl ovaries for differing planetary and lunar observations, star clusters, and nebulas with different focal lengths.
You get not only 5 color planetary filters but also a polarizing filter that can be used to highlight Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn’s colors. Filters are essential because they allow you to display and even photograph characteristics and information that otherwise would be difficult to discern without them. In addition to the colored and polarizing filters, you also get a Moon filter, which is important for any astronomer.
The Gosky solution comes with a case to make storing and shipping simpler. It is also fitted with extra space for other objects, a laser pointer, a diagonal, and other small attachments, not only to keep your eyepieces.
Features:
- Good optics
- Plössl eyepieces, Barlow and T adapter are included
- It comes with lunar filter
3. Celestron Luminos 19mm Eyepiece
The Celestron Luminous is one of the best telescope eyepieces on this list. It comes in 19 mm, 23 mm, and 31 mm (all are sold separately). This is better than your standard option, which is apparent in the retractable eyepiece. This is not the right option if you are looking for something small and portable. But with this telescope eyepiece, you’re going to get incredible clarity more than any other eyepiece.
The reason why there are so many lenses inside a professional eyepiece like this is that they work together to reduce issues with imaging. So you’ll find very little ghosting with the luminous range (reflection between lenses), astigmatism or field curvature (spherical aberration).
See Also: Best Telescopes for Viewing Planets
All Luminos eyepieces are multi-coated to improve light transmission by means of multiple lenses, which means a better image at your eye and the edges of the lens are blackened to improve contrast.
This happens because the darkened edge stops light escaping through the eye barrel and bouncing around free, keeping the picture bright.
4. Meade Instruments Ultra Wide Angle 20mm 2-Inch Eyepiece
A Meade Ultra Wide Angle 20 mm eyepiece is a tool that you need if your telescope is designed for less than a 2-inch barrel. It is not also disappointing if your passion is based on deep-sky observations.
Nebulae, clusters, and many other deep-sky objects are brought into life in this large field of view. You can even see observations and explore the whole Jovian system from a wide-angle perspective. The piece is well relieved, although the eyes may not be the most convenient design.
Best Budget Telescope Eyepieces Under $100
1. Celestron Zoom Eyepiece 8mm-24mm
Celestron Zoom Eyepiece 8-24mm is a unique telescopic eyepiece. This eyepiece telescope combines several eyepieces in one: 8 mm to 24 mm. This means that you can move from one length to another without changing eyepieces and focusing again. You only need to focus once with this telescopic oyster and then use the rubber barrel to multiply your viewing range seamlessly. You lose versatility and durability by using many eye-pieces and sometimes adjusting them during your astronomical tours.
This eyepiece has premium quality and is completely covered to provide you with a true, colorful, and clear image.
If you want to take astronomical pictures, you can also connect a camera to this eyepiece on the eye threads.
2. Celestron X-Cel LX Series Eyepiece 5mm-25mm
This eyepiece is designed to ensure that objects can be seen clearly. The view is very good. A field of 60 degrees will provide great expansion, and even the edges will give you a clear, crisp shot. Therefore, on brighter days, it helps you to see great celestial bodies with minute measurements.
The threaded rubber grip is non-slip, so even though you have a glove in your pocket, you get a good grip. Even the barrels have filters. It comes with a pop-up rubber eye guard for improved vision and convenience.
It has a 16 mm eye relief combined with a flexible pop-up eye vial, making it even through long sessions conveniently and easily controlled. This helps you to adjust your eyepiece with minimal to no readjustment.
For 1.25-inch telescopes, this fits well and is suitable for light colors and moon filter adoption. This telescope eyepiece is inexpensive and fits in a comfortable package that lasts.
3. Meade Instruments 07199-2 Series 8mm-24mm
This special eyepiece is known for its attractive constancy. The purpose of this technique is to ensure optimal ease and stability for users.
It provides long eye relief, and this makes it very user-friendly. It never fails to impress you with a high-quality vision due to its extra sharpness and a wider perspective.
It provides you with a choice of five different sizes. Just switch the band of the eye to change the focal length of 8, 12, 16, 20, and 24 mm. The part works well to align binary stars and to observe the dark sky.
See Also: Best Telescopes for Viewing Planets
Best Budget Telescope Eyepieces Under $50
1. Celestron Collimation Eyepiece
Celestron Collimation Eyepiece is another outstanding Celestron item with a good price. It is light so it is very easy to switch from one point of view to another. This eyepiece is mostly designed for Newtonian telescopes, which often provide blurred images when collimated precisely. Installation, deployment, and usage are simple. And it is great for beginners as well as experts. It doesn’t work for batteries or laser beams.
Celestron Collimation Eyepiece works with the 1,25-inch telescope and almost all Newtonians work well. It provides a clear picture and is suitable for any kind of astronomical imagery. It’s long-lasting and inexpensive.
2. Orion 8728 32mm Eyepiece
Another impressive eyepiece is the Orion Sirius Telescope eyepiece. Most astronomers who use the eyepiece recommends it to other astronomers easily because its findings are what every astronomer needs.
This eyepiece has high visual stability. Once you focus on your target, it remains there without interruption or further changes for a specific time. The 32 mm focal length eyepiece is multi-coated for ideally white, transparent, and clear photography at the highest level of contrast.
Orion 8728 32mm Eyepiece has a 52-degree clear field of vision. Because of it, you can see the moon, the planets, the nebula, the stars, and the objects in the dark sky. This eyepiece field of view is designed to bring optical effects to the vision, making it an outstanding choice for amateurs and beginners.
3. Meade Instruments 07177 Super Plossl 40mm Eyepiece
Another great eyepiece from Meade Instruments is the model 07117-02. Its field of view is the best thing about this telescope eyepiece. It combines depth and sharpness amazingly. This eyepiece has a 44-degree field of view.
The Telescope Eyepiece Meade 07117-02 is all you need for your astronomy to reach your next level. It is ideal for viewing deep-sky items, planets, and the moon and easily fills any 1.25-inch telescope.
Telescope Eyepiece Buyer’s Guide
Focal Length
In optics, the focal length is the distance to the point where the light is focused from the primary mirror or lens. This is the point at which an image is made. The focal length of your eyepiece and telescope is important because it determines the eyepiece’s magnifying power. The length is measured in millimeters.
Magnification
It is important to understand the magnification, so you can get the best of your eyepiece range. A low magnification creates sharp and bright but small images. High magnifications create bigger pictures, but they are dimmer and can be blurry as the magnification limits are pushed.
Field of View
The apparent field of view is an indicator of how well a window fits into the optics. You can see a number written in degrees if you look at your eyepiece. An eyepiece with a narrow field of view focuses on a smaller part of the sky than a larger-viewed eyepiece. The viewing area can range from very narrow (25°–30°) to very wide (80°+).
Eyepiece Sizes
The size of the barrel is one of the things you may overlook when you buy an eyepiece. While the quality and form of views depend on the eyepiece’s focal length, the dimensions of the barrel indicate the diameter of the tube. The focal length is not affected. It literally tells you whether it fits into the barrel of the focal length of your telescope.
Eye Relief
Eye Relief defines the distance between your eyes and the eyepiece lens. Traditionally, the eye relief is proportionate to the focal length: the shorter the focal length the shorter the eye relief. In addition, the more modern eyepiece designs help people who wear glasses get more long-eye relief. Eyepiece eye relief is an important specification to consider for those who want to keep their glasses on when using a telescope.
Use a Barlow Lens
Using extra optics can often give you a new perspective in stargazing. The problem is that those Barlow lenses are costly.
It is good to have the Barlow lens when you are starting out, since it allows you to gather better and different eyepieces. Barlow lenses are useful for beginning telescope users who own scopes with smaller apertures. However, as soon as you move up to more expensive scopes and eyepieces, Barlow lenses are unnecessary.
The use of Barlow lenses, which increase magnification of the object being viewed, should not be recommended with larger and better telescopes, such as 12″ and higher quality eyepieces. For instance, when you purchase inexpensive or low-quality eyepieces, you will likely only end up buying 2 or 3 eyepieces.
Types Of Telescope Eyepieces
Plössl
Plössls have wide field of view (around 52°), which can be used well for astronomical observing. The short eye relief makes shots with focal lengths of less than 12mm is an issue. “Eye relief” means the distance between your eye and the eyepiece at which you can see the entire field of view.
We do not reccomend Plössl eyepieces. You can get better eyepieces for the same ammount of money or less.
Orthoscopic
The benefits of these eyepieces is hight quality, but sadly, the apparent field of view is reduced as these eyepieces are with a small angle of view. These are possibly used by people with glasses due to their large eye relief. They are especially useful for observing the Moon and planets.
Aspherical
This eyepiece is simply a wonderful one to have. They have very good picture quality with wide apparent field of view. They are not expensive, and that’s why everybody should own one.
Nagler
The most impressive quality of the Nagler is its huge field of view. It has an ultra-wide 82° field of view.
Frequently Asked Questions
How Do Eyepieces Work?
An eyepiece takes light from the telescope and makes the image more visible for us. You can have a clear view of the celestial objects if the eyepiece can absorb light effectively.
A little bit of light is taken away when it travels through the lenses of your eyepiece. To prevent the light loss, the lenses are often coated with layers of substances such as magnesium or calcium fluoride.
How Many Eyepieces Do I Need?
There is no “optimal” number of eyepieces you should own, but you can improve your chances of observing the appropriate power for the sky conditions at the time by using a few different telescope eyepieces. To get an object in the field of view of the telescope, you will often start with low power (25 mm or 30 mm focal length).
If you want to see a clearer image, try a smaller-power (shorter focal length, for example, an 18 mm or 15 mm eyepiece) eyepiece. As long as the higher-power eyepiece yields the right amount of light, size, and detail, try to keep adding more powerful eyepieces until you find the perfect combination.
What Diameter Eyepiece Should I Buy?
The eyepiece’s diameter depends on what your telescope focuser supports. Most of the telescopes are built to hold eyepieces of the following sizes: 1.25″ and 2″ with interchangeable adapters.
To begin with, you should limit yourself to a particular barrel length. As you would be buying more costly deep-sky filters in the future, you would prefer to purchase one eyepiece (not two, for 1.25” and 2”).
On the night sky, you need to use two eyepieces that are 10 mm and 24 mm to see 90% of the objects. When it comes to eyepieces, 1.25″ barrel eyepieces are better because they are more popular and the barrel sizes do not have a price difference. Even so, 2” deep-sky filters are almost twice the price.
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