Eyepiece and telescope pairing
Best eyepiece for the Celestron C8 optical tube
Which eyepiece gets the most out of the Celestron C8 optical tube, chosen by exit pupil rather than by guesswork.
- Aperture / focal length
- 203 mm / 2032 mm (f/10)
- Deep-sky pick
- Celestron X-Cel LX 25mm: 81x, 2.5 mm exit pupil
- Low-power pick
- Celestron Omni 56mm Plossl: 36x, 5.59 mm exit pupil
- Focuser barrel
- 2 in (both eyepieces fit)
For deep-sky detail, the Celestron X-Cel LX 25mm is the pick of the eyepieces here: at 81x it lands near the 2 mm exit pupil where faint-object contrast peaks in the Celestron C8 optical tube. For wide low-power sweeping, drop to the Celestron Omni 56mm Plossl at 36x.
An exit pupil near 2 mm is the classic sweet spot for teasing detail out of faint deep-sky objects, because it concentrates the light while keeping the image bright enough. In the Celestron C8 optical tube the Celestron X-Cel LX 25mm lands there, at 81x with a 2.5 mm exit pupil and a 0.74 degree field.
For a low-power finder-and-framing view you want a wider exit pupil, around 5 mm. Here the Celestron Omni 56mm Plossl gives 36x, a 5.59 mm exit pupil and a 1.3 degree field, the widest true field of the eyepieces that fit this focuser.
Eyepieces to buy
Search Amazon for Celestron X-Cel LX 25mmaffiliate searchFind Celestron X-Cel LX 25mm on eBayaffiliateSearch Amazon for Celestron Omni 56mm Plosslaffiliate searchFind Celestron Omni 56mm Plossl on eBayaffiliate