Skylux 70 from Lidl

Hi,

I'm just a beginner :shock: in all this and just bought one of those telescopes from Lidl for €59.99 I've set it up etc it was too cloudy to see anything tonight but hopefully I will, just been reading through some of the posts and noticed people suggesting changing the eyepieces on the scope could you please advise as too what type and where to get them from?? and will they make such a difference..

Cheers
Lexi

Hi Lexi,
welcome to IFAS!

Eyepieces do make a difference. Its down to the quality of the glass used, or even in some cases, the lack of glass. A good eyepiece would feel heavy. The casing is nearly all metal, and encases the glass so that if it was ever dropped, the chances of it cracking are small.

The glass itself in nearly all good eyepiece manufacturers names, are coated. You might have seen this with many binoculars these days. What the coating does is that it minimises the surface reflection of light hitting/passing through it - basically, it allows for more collection of light.

The eyepieces of the Skylux fit neither of these characteristics really. Thats not to say they are useless. I took my future brother in law out last night to use his for the first time, and we were actually able to make out Saturn low on the horizon through the fog. The only difference with a better eyepiece would have been the brightness (though under the viewing conditions, this could have been almost negligible).

A good test for an eyepiece is to train it on a bright star. when your eyes are fully adjusted to the dark surroundings and are not watering, you should see an almost pinprick of wobbly light at best focus. However, I have found with the Skylux eyepieces that I don't get the pinprick - there looks like to be a 'jet' from the star. Also, solid small bright objects like Jupiter and Venus will show some aberration - a rainbow tinge effect to the edges of the disk seen. You might notice it with the Moon, but its brightness may actually hide it.

I bought second hand Celestron eyepieces, mainly for the 8" I'm rebuilding, but they fit the Skylux too, so it works out for me. Try sites like www.astromart.com and browse for example prices. Or pm me and I'll give an email address of a friend (Gerry Moloney) who deals with second hand astronomical equipment - thats where I got my eyepieces from, and they were like new, but half the price.

Best of luck with your new 'toy'!

Seanie.