ES68 24mm - excellent widefield option. ES82 6.7mm or Meade 5.5mm 82o - either will be hard to beat for high power option. The OneSky is a widefield instrument, and a capable one. Maximize the widefield capability with a really good widefield eyepiece and augment it with a high power option.
Super Plossls, Zhumels and lots of others - meh! Just as well use what came with it. This scope does not need a whole bunch of eyepieces. But its optics are good enough to reward very good ep’s. Two very good ep’s will provide very rewarding experiences to an observer. A collector requires more ep’s but an observer should not.
Don’t get too wrapped up in how high a power you can go. Most barlows today are excellent. Buy a good 6 or 7 mm eyepiece and that $40 Barlow if you want to experiment with very high powers.
get a 20-25mm eyepiece for your low power, and a 5-7mm for your high power. Then with a 2x barlow, you’d have the 10 - 12.5mm for medium power and 2.5-3.5mm for optimal conditions. 2 eyepieces and a barlow, then the whole realistically usable range is covered quite nicely.
The cheapy eyepieces might seem like a steal compared to ES or Baader, but compare it to how much viewing you’ll do in your lifetime and whether there are other people in your life you want to do this with, and you’ll see that a nicer eyepiece is worth it. I like the ES82 because its good for looking at deep sky stuff with its nice field of view, and good for planets because I can look without having to constantly nudge the scope.
The ES or Meade 24 mm 68 deg eyepiece will get you the largest true field, and largest afov, in a well designed eyepiece which is perfect for this scope. I now consider 68 deg as a minimal afov for standard use eyepieces. With the higher powered eyepieces below 10 mm, you really will appreciate the 82 deg options.
The Meade series 5k super and ultra wides are comparable to the ES eyepieces. The Zuhmell’s would be a step down. (Zhumell Z Series Planetary Telescope Eyepieces” )
if I was to start all over again.,,I think I could be quite happy with the OneSky.,an ES68/24 and a Baader zoom.
4.7 is the right eyepiece for Planets and Double Stars and better than 6.7mm if your interest is that . 138X is easily achievable for 130mm aperture and usually permitted by seeing. It is ideal starting magnification for any planet. Anything less than that and some features are not visible clearly. Usually all of my planetary viewing starts at 130X and I go as high as 240X as permitted by seeing.
Well, the 4.7mm’s magnification is going to magnify any atmospheric disturbance by about a third, right? Other folks on here have a lot more experience than I do, but I use the 4.7 and like it. That being said, even the 14mm resolves a number of double stars and so on so the 6.7 should be very good too. I suppose it’s a trade off, a third more magnification magnifies not only the object but any interference to the same degree.
For planetary I usually use 5mm or 4mm ( 12mm with 3X Barlow). I like to view planets at 130X and above to see details. This scope is quite capable of reaching that magnification. That magnification won’t work with kids unless you are using a tracking mount or driven EQ mount or a mount with slow-mo controls. The included min dob mount is Ok at low mags but not good for higher magnifications.
I ordered a ES 24mm 68 and 10 days later discovered that EVERYONE has them on backorder. 10 days and no email from the vendor, they would have just left in on backorder
I have the ES 6.7mm 68 and I bought a Swan 20mm 72 and I also have a 9mm TV Nagler Type 6.
,A 32mm plossl will give the same 2.5.,,I have a TV,25mm plossl that gives a very clean 2@26X.,,I also like the ES 14mm82,.1.78@46X.,good luck.,,
I’m also a big fan of the ES 82* 14mm
I’ve liked my 24mm Baader Hyperion in this scope but couldn’t speak to how it compares against the ES 24, a Panoptic, or the Meade 5K 24mm. I certainly prefer it to the Meade 4000 32mm (chinese manufacture) that I used to own.
If I had an ES 6.7mm I think I’d prefer to stick with ES for the 24mm as well. They seem to come up used all the time so perhaps have a little patience and keep scanning the classifieds.
The one thing I consistently recommend is a quality widefield eyepiece: the Explore Scientific 68oseries 24mm eyepiece is as perfect a match for the OneSky as you’ll ever find. We had a club outreach tonight in Caddo Mills and the nearby high school baseball game lit the field worse than my N Dallas driveway but that combo showed a bunch of 6th graders and their families nebulae, star clusters and even galaxy pairs better than I would have anticipated
The reason the ES82 6.7 is the ep I usually use for higher magnification is that I find it a very good balance point, yielding 97x with a still easy to use exit pupil of 1.3mm. My most common use for the OneSky is in outreach and there it is most advantageous to offer ease of use along with fine views. I can put a 3.5T6 Nagler in for 186x if I want but if I’m going to need high magnification for an object I’m probably going to use a larger scope. For strictly my own use, I find the 6.7 is just comfortable and still gives enough magnification for ‘most anything I’m going to view from home. The ES82 4.7 is also very effective in the little scope but it seldom matches my need for a session. It is an excellent choice if your situation indicates higher magnifications may be more often useful for you than they are for me. The Meade 82o 5.5mm is another attractive option.
If I take the little scope to a dark site, it is to take advantage of its great strength as a widefield instrument and on those nights it is very unlikely anything but the ES68 24mm gets any focuser time. The 16” f4.5 Dob’s largest FOV with my ep kit is only 70 arc’! Pairing the OneSky with it gives a valuable widefield option and allows the little scope to play to its strength.
IMO the very best addition to the OneSky is an ES68 24mm and it is a significant addition. It maximizes the widefield capacity, giving a very clear 2.51o FOV at 27x with an easy to use 4.8mm exit pupil. M31/32/110 from a dark site is beautiful in that combo.
There are only 2 ep’s I take out with the OneSky these days, the one above and an ES82 6.7mm. The 6.7 yields 97x and a friendly 1.3mm exit pupil and still frames the moon well in a 51 arc’ FOV. For me that’s a complete kit.
If you already like that zoom then there’s no reason why you wouldn’t be happy using it in the OneSky. I also recommend against using it with a 3x Barlow. A simple 2x barlow will provide you with more useful magnifications. Due the sliding upper tube, I recommend a shorty 2x barlow, many of which actually operate at about 2.2x magnification. GSO sells a nice, low-cost 2x Barlow, that has the lens that can be threaded on to the filter threads of any eyepiece, which acts as a 1.5 Barlow, sort of a 2 for 1 deal. The 24 Hyperion should be great for lowest-power sweeping. If you must have a 3x Barlow, I can highly recommend the Orion TriMag (as good as the TV 3x after many nights of testing). I would stay away from the heavy Telecentric’s (ES TeleXtender, Powermate, etc).
yes the 24-8mm can absolutely be used with a Barlow, though you’d really only want to use it get get to below 8 since from 12mm-8mm w/ the barlow you’d likely see more without it.
Also be aware you do lose some FOV at the upper end. It’s a very good “starter” ep, or like I said for outreach. You can show people how to zoom and focus with it, then they can go through the whole range themselves while you stand back and explain why more magnification isn’t always better etc.
Also, with the 24-8mm, you can pull the rubber eyecup off and it has threads to pair up with a T-adapter which helps get you into astrophotography if you want. Because I don’t care for the helix focuser with wires hanging down from the camera I actually tend to do the focusing for the camera by zooming in or out.
I’ve used the Celestron 8-24 zoom on my library’s Starblast and really liked it. Going to pick one up to use with the AWB. Also want to pick up a 3x barlow to use with it and get over 200x on planets/moon when seeing allows.
you’re starting to introduce a lot of glass into the mix. Zoom eyepieces are convenient, but built on compromises since they don’t excel at any one focal length.. Also, doesn’t the zoom stand a little tall? I Would imagine with a barlow stacked on, it starts to get really tall. Though a 3x Barlow in theory would put you right at the .5mm mark for an exit pupil at 8mm. I’m not sure your field of vision would be at that point though.
There is no more glass in a zoom then there is in any wide field EP.,and my Meade zoom gives views equal to any fixed MM eyepiece of the same class.,it’s even better in the 12-8mm range because it has much better eye relief.,it also is lighter then the ES68/24m ep that everyone likes for this scope.
my Baader and my Meade zooms put up views comparable to my Meade and ES fixed focal length EPs.,,maybe I’m just not to fussy.,,I did notice the Meade was not so good last week in the OneSky. My first “quality” EP was the Baader zoom.,and it blew the astro-tech kit EPs I had right away.,I got the Meade because the Baader was to heavy for my smaller refractors,,and I couldn’t be happier with the decision. I’m glad I found the zooms.,being able to crank up the mag to best meet the conditions is a huge bonus for “ME”.