[masraum]

Originally Posted by Superman

Well, I see a 3mm for $269 and a 2.5mm for $58. The 2.5mm eyepiece would magnify better than the 3mm one, right? So why would I pay the higher price? Sure, optics are presumably better but I'm just trying to see something larger than a spec on a black background. School me.

And what I can I expect from this 102mm telescope? Will I ever see the red spot on Jupiter?

THere's so much to EP that it would be easy to get analysis paralysis.

There's a huge difference in the views via different EP. And going to more expensive EP on the whole really does lead to much more pleasing views.

On that scope (and honestly most scopes) most of your viewing will max out at <200x, and for your scope, I'd initially max out at around 150x. Your best views will probably be in the 70-150x range. You may rarely be able to push up to around 200x, but that's rare for most folks due to "seeing" which is disturbance due to atmospheric conditions. (the "bad" seeing is like looking over the top of a hot street in the summer how the air shimmers and dances and distorts things in the background). The same thing happens when you're looking through the atmosphere which has multiple layers of different temperature.

I big part of the difference in price (other than the engineering involved in the lens layout, and the fit and finish of the build) is how wide angle the view is. I've had 2 different EP with my current scope such that they both had the same magnification, but one only showed part of the moon, and the other was able to show the entire full moon.

Then there's other details like is the view sharp only in the middle 50% of the view or almost the entire view.