Mars is one of the most beautiful targets you can observe with a telescope. The more common reflectors, and refractors might require a 2x Barlow lens to focus.īut if you have the budget for it, a binoviewer is going to make more of a difference than almost any eyepiece you could get.įor specific recommendations, the Celestron Stereo Binocular Viewer, or the Orion Binocular Viewer are both great options, and both fit and work with standard 1.25″ eyepiece slots. On top of that, you have to add that since now you have two eyepiece slots, you need two of each eyepiece you want to use.Īnother limitation is they work best, and out-of-the-box with Schmidt-Cassegrain, and Maksutov-Cassegrain telescopes. The optics inside them are complex so they can duplicate the image without adding optical flaws, so they can get expensive. The only problem with binoviewers and the main reason not a lot of people use them is simply their cost. They are better suited for closer objects, in fact, they are mostly used for watching things down here on Earth, like with bird-watching scopes and similar use cases. The advantage of this is that using both eyes allows you to better focus, and puts a lot less strain on your eyes, resulting in both a better image and a better viewing experience. These devices go in the eyepiece slot of your telescope, and what they do is turn this single slot into a dual device so you can use both eyes, just like binoculars. Binoviewers are one of the telescope accessories that will improve both your optics, and viewing experience the most. If you just started stargazing, you might not even know about binocular viewers, or binoviewers for short. Binoviewers/Binocular Viewers: Your best friend for watching planets With that in mind, we can now start looking at specific eyepieces for each of the planets, but first, there’s another accessory not many people know about that can help. The focal length of your telescope can be found in the tech specs. The focal length of the eyepiece is the number advertised when you get it (10mm, 15mm, etc.). For example, a simple home refractor telescope with a focal length of 900mm with a 6mm eyepiece will give you a 150x magnification. You can calculate the magnification of an eyepiece by dividing the telescope’s focal length by the eyepiece focal length. For example, for a 4″ telescope, try the max magnification of a 5″, which would be 255x. If you want to try that, use the max magnification of the next aperture range in the table below. This is because the aperture in these devices is still small enough that the lens rarely has the tiny optical imperfections that inevitably happen during the manufacturing of larger lenses. Please note these are estimates, they might vary a bit depending on the type of telescope you own and its focal length, but for the most part, these are “close enough” estimations: Apertureįor the specific use case of viewing planets, sometimes in telescopes below the 6″ (150mm) range, you can get away with using a magnification slightly higher than recommended, especially when looking at Mars or the Moon. You can calculate your maximum useful magnification with a simple formula, but here’s a quick table for the most common apertures. The exception to the rule here would be telescopes with a bigger aperture than 8″ (200mm) where due to their size, it is hard to get to the highest levels of magnification. For the most part, you can go to the maximum useful magnification your telescope supports, or very close to it. There are a couple of exceptions to this rule, like Jupiter, but we will go into detail about that later. For planets, you want to maximize contrast, colors, and details. Planets in the Solar System are close enough to Earth that plenty of details and features can be captured through the lens of a home telescope, and optical errors like commas are not as much of a problem as with deep space objects. In general, when it comes to observing planets, you want as much magnification as possible. What magnification do you need to view planets? You need to select an eyepiece that pairs well with it so you don’t waste money on something that is too low-powered, or too high-powered for your setup. We have already talked about how to upgrade a telescope, but now, it’s time to delve into the specifics of how to upgrade your eyepieces to get the best views out of the planets in the Solar System.Ĭhoosing the best eyepiece for viewing planets is going to depend mostly on the telescope you already own. It is here when the opportunity to do some optimization presents itself. When you first purchase a telescope, it comes bundled with accessories that are meant in the best case for general viewing conditions, and in the worst scenario, to save money to meet a certain price point. We all want to get the maximum value and the best views out of our telescopes.
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