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Accessories for telescopes are endless...a good thing for
a gadget freak such as myself! All this neat stuff to drool over, and
sometimes I even buy it.
Eyepieces
 When I purchased my Meade LX-90, Meade was offering an
Anniversary Eyepiece set that was attractively priced (US$99/CDN$150), so I
went with that. I ended up with a complete set of Meade Series 4000 Plossl
eyepieces to observe with for very little expense. I have since sold or
given away several of the eyepieces, but I have kept some.
 | Meade Series 4000 Plossls - 6.4mm, 9.7mm,
15mm, 20mm, 26mm, and 32mm.
I like most of the eyepieces in the set. The ones I use most are the
9.7, 12.4, 20, 26, and 32, with the 9.7, 20 and 32 being the sweetest of the
bunch. The 6.4mm eyepiece is
good to have when I need to collimate the telescope, but the 313x power is
just too much for most conditions I normally use the scope in. |
| Nagler 9mm & 13mm (Type 6) - these are my
everyday eyepieces that get used more than any others. These eyepieces
are expensive, however the represent the best in optics and user comfort. |
| Panoptic 15mm & 24mm - used mainly in my binoviewer (see below),
however they also make great monocular eyepieces to deliver that space walk
effect so often talked about with premium wide angle eyepieces.
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| 9.7mm Antares Plossl illuminated reticle - I use
this eyepiece when sighting stars during the Autostar setup with my LX-90.
The reticle can also be used to keep a star aligned during a manually-guided
piggybacked camera astrophoto session. |
| Meade Series 5000 26mm Plossl - this eyepiece is
supplied with the LX200R, however despite using a 5 element design and
delivering a 60° field of view, I don't really consider this a very good
eyepiece. Stars smear into little arcs in the outer third of the FOV. |
Filters
| Lumicon Deep Sky - a light pollution filter
which darkens the sky behind most emission nebulae |
| Lumicon OIII - a more aggressive light pollution
filter which darkens the sky behind emission nebulae, and greatly benefits
visual observation of a half dozen celestial objects. |
| Antares NPC-1 - a specialized filter used mainly
on achromatic refractors, which reduces the violet fringe apparent on brighter
objects. I found this filter to also be very useful for observing Mars
through my LX-90 in the Summer of 2003. It seemed to cut down the glare
from Mars just enough to enhance the planetary detail, without altering the
colour of the planet like coloured filters do. |
| Antares Light Red - the traditional filter used
for enhancing contrast and planetary detail, especially for Mars. The
filter certainly performs as advertised, but I dislike the deep red colour
cast. |
| IDAS LPR - I use this light pollution filter
when taking astrophotographs, especially when I'm at my light polluted home
base. Refer to the
Hutech website for graphs and discussion on how this filter is so
effective in reducing the effects of light pollution when taking
astrophotographs. |
Binoviewers
 At first glance, using binocular viewers on a telescope
which only has a single optical tube may seem pointless. Nothing could be
further from the truth! Using a binoviewer with a set of two eyepieces
yields incredible views of celestial objects, especially planets, the moon, and
star clusters. I use the
Denkmeir Standard
Binoviewers attached to my LX200R telescope using a William Optical 2" SCT
diagonal. The binoviewers also attach to my TV-76 aprochromatic refractor with
the SR adapter mounted inside the Everbrite 2" diagonal.
The following parts of the Denkmeir kit increase the
flexibility of the binoviewers:
| StarSweeper™ 0.5x Focal Reducer fits on the 2"
nosepiece of the binoviewers and when used in combination with the Panoptic 24mm eyepieces yields expansive 1° views of the night sky. |
| 2x Multiplier - essentially a custom designed Barlow or
Powermate for the binoviewers, giving maximum magnification for those nights
of exceptional seeing. |
| The 2" nosepiece can also be used alone, yielding more magnification and about a 15'
field of view. |
Using the Binoviewers brings new excitement to observing
the Moon, even for experienced observers. It is like you are in a space
capsule orbiting the moon, looking down on it to see endless detail on the lunar
surface. Using the StarSweeper™ gives a full disk view of the Moon, and
removing the StarSweeper™ gives the impression you are in a Lunar Lander, and
you are on final approach to a landing on the surface.
Binoviewer viewing is so comfortable that most observers
tend to gaze at celestial objects for very much longer than they otherwise would
when compared with monocular viewing. The human brain is designed to use
two eyes, so the observer's brain is much happier with the binocular view, and
often ends up seeing more detail. This, despite the light being split
between the two oculars, resulting in each eye only getting half the light they
would otherwise see through a monocular view.
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