Have FZ30 camera & C80ED F/7.5 Refractor scope. What 2” Eyepiece? (1 Viewer)

Looking for a 2" eyepiece, that take full advantage of the telescope and camera, with a large diameter lens, long focal point and eye relief for hopefully around $100, for all around Astro/Terrestrial viewing first and second trying to get into digiscoping.

Telescope: 80mm aperture and 600mm focal length. (Celestron C-80ED APO Refractor) F/7.5
Epieces, that I have:

William Optics 1.25 " 45 Deg. Erecting Prism
Orion 2x 3-Element Barlow, 2" Shorty-Plus
Antares 1.25" W70 Series Widefield Eyepiece - 8.6mm
The Orion 2" diagonal & adapter
The scope comes with a Plossls 25mm EP and a
1.25” 45 degree erect image diagonal (Diagonal no good for astro use)

Camera: Lens 37mm dia. and is equivalent to a 35 - 420mm focal length lens. (Panasonic DMC-FZ30)
F2.8 to F3.7 with Leica 37mm Dia. solid lens Dc Vario-Elmarit 1:28-3.7 / 7.4-88.8 ASPH.

Lenses I have been looking at, to name a few:

WS 70 & 80 Degree 2" Oculars 70 Degree field 32 mm $89.95 ea (University Optic)
Antares 2" W70 Series Widefield Eyepiece - 34mm Our Price: $99.00
WS 30mm 80 degree field 2" Oculars Wide field? $69.95
Willian Optic = SWAN 40 = $118.00 SWAN 33 = $118.00
Orion Telescopes = 32mm and 38mm Q70 2" Wide-Field Eyepiece $99.95
30mm or 42mm GSO Superview 2" EP $63 and $65.

Or any other suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

I don't have any 2" eyepieces but I use a 17mm Baader Hyperion on my Skywatcher 80ED. Very nice eyepiece for looking through and digiscoping plus it's threaded with two different threads at the eyepiece end to allow easy attachment to cameras via various adapters,step rings etc. Very nice eyepieces the Baader's, nice wide field of view and they are supposed to be the best value for money in this sort of price range. I also have a William Optics DCL-28 which is also a 1.25" eyepiece. Nice for looking through but some edge distortion noticeable when digiscoping.

Paul.

Thanks for the info Paul.

Yes, your Baader Hyperion eyepieces sounds very interesting and I read they are great for the money. The only reason I am looking for a 2”good all around eyepiece, is the 37mm lens of the camera.

After a review done in 2005, the camera & scope combination should work good together if you get the right 2” EP. http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1033&message=15542061

The William optics DCL-52 worked great in this test but it is more like a macro lens than eyepiece. It works great as adapter for digiscope but not as eyepiece for visual observing.

Quote from review:
Maxview II is a great eyepiece but unfortunately doesn't work with FZ30 well only at full zoom.(and not great)
If I could suggest William optics could even improve the eyepiece, like building it with longer tube.
To Scoptronics I would suggest to build an eyepiece with even longer eye relief and longer focal length like 50 or 60mm. The optics in Maxview is excellent already.
End quote:

As it is now March 2008, can anybody tell me, if any of the new eyepieces fit the bill, at a price around the $100 mark?

Greetings
ahed

I guess not, I thought it was quite a straight forward question? ;-(

Most be in the wrong forum or formulated the question wrong. This is not a very good beginning trying to get started with digiscoping.

I read a lot about the different eyepieces for the last few weeks. But I always seem to run into a dead end as it doesn’t seem to be any standard specification between the different eyepieces, so it is therefore impossible to compare.

My last hope was the forums, wrong again. ;-( Can’t really afford to just pick an EP and hope for the best.

So now what do I do?

Have a nice day to you all
ahed

Ahed, Please have some patience. Try Cloudy Nights with this question if you find no answer here.
Regards,Steve

Have a look at this thread, link below. This guy is using the FZ50 on a 2" eyepiece with his astro scope for digiscoping. Not sure what the eyepiece is or i it will suit your needs so you may need to send him a message via pm or email. The FZ30 and FZ50 are basically the same.

http://www.birdforum.net/showthread.php?t=94062

Paul.