Related: Telescope Magnification Explained
Twenty years handing people their first look through a telescope, and I'll tell you the dirty little secret of this hobby: most beginners blame themselves for not being able to find anything, when the real problem is they have no idea what to do with the little pieces of glass that came in the box.
The telescope itself is usually fine. The mount is usually fine. What's usually not fine is that the owner never got a straight answer about eyepieces, so they're stuck at 50x magnification wondering why Saturn looks like a star.
I'm Sam. I run a public observatory, I've tested more budget refractors than I can count, and I've watched about half of new telescope owners give up within a year. A big chunk of that attrition comes down to confusion at the eyepiece stage. So let me fix that.
The Short List
Celestron Omni 1.25" 32mm Telescope Eyepiece for Expansive Star-Field Views |...
Wide field, comfortable eye relief, great for finding objects
Low magnification means objects look small
Astromania Zoom Eyepiece for Telescope 8-24mm Zoom Telescope Eyepiece 1.25" |...
Sharp at high power, brings Saturn's rings into view
Eye relief is tight, you have to press your eye close
Celestron X-Cel LX 2X Barlow Lens for Telescope Eyepieces – 1.25" | Doubles...
Doubles your eyepiece collection instantly
Adds wobble to budget mounts at high power
SVBONY Telescope Eyepiece, 20mm Focal Length 68° UW 1.25" Redline Eyepiece
Sharp across the whole field, easier than the stock eyepiece
Its strength is narrow; the better pick covers more of the job.
Prices and availability were captured from Amazon Creators API and may change.
An eyepiece does one thing: it takes the light cone coming out of your telescope and spreads it so your eye can focus on it. That's it. The number on the side (9mm, 20mm, 25mm) is the focal length of the eyepiece, and smaller numbers mean higher magnification. A 9mm eyepiece gives you more power than a 25mm eyepiece, period. Always.
To figure out what magnification you're getting, you divide your telescope's focal length by the eyepiece's focal length. A 700mm focal length scope with a 25mm eyepiece gives you 28x. The same scope with a 9mm eyepiece gives you 78x. With a 2x Barlow lens stacked on that 9mm, you're at 156x. The math doesn't lie.
But here's what the spec sheets don't tell you: more magnification is not better. It's not even usually what you want. At 200x on an 80mm refractor, you're looking through a pinhole and every wobble of the mount becomes a violent shake.
The atmosphere also smears things together at high power, so on most nights anything over 120x on a small scope is mush.
Beginners read "up to 300x!" on the box and assume that's the goal. It's not. The goal is a steady, sharp view.
Plossl vs. the Rest of the Zoo
Walk into the eyepiece aisle and you'll find Plossls, Kellners, wide-field, ultra-wide, and a dozen other names. Most of what you'll encounter on a budget scope is a Plossl, and that's actually good news.
Plossl designs date back to the 1800s, they're cheap to make, and they're sharp across most of the field of view.
The downsides are narrow eye relief (you have to get your eye close to the lens, especially on short-focal-length Plossls) and a narrow apparent field of view (around 50°, which means a tight tunnel effect). Kellners are the older, simpler design, often found in the lowest-cost eyepieces that ship with department store telescopes. They're softer at the edges but more forgiving on eye placement. For a kid who's still figuring out where to put their eye, a Kellner can be easier to use than a Plossl.
Then there's the wide-field category, typically 68° or 82° apparent field. These give you that "looking through a porthole into space" feeling instead of the "looking through a paper towel tube" feeling.
The Celestron X-Cel LX line and the Meade Series 5000 are common 60-80° eyepieces. They're better than Plossls for finding objects because you see more sky around the target, but they cost more, often $60-120 each.
What I Actually Use Night to Night
Most nights at the observatory, I'm running a 25mm Plossl or a 20mm wide-field for finding things, then dropping to a 9mm or 10mm for a closer look. The pattern is the same for the budget refractors I review on this site: low power to find, high power to inspect.
A 32mm eyepiece is the lowest-power option in most eyepiece sets, and it's the first one to grab when you're hunting for the Andromeda Galaxy or sweeping across the Milky Way. The Celestron Omni 32mm Plossl runs about $30 and gives a wide, comfortable view.
The downside is the magnification is so low that a galaxy looks like a faint smudge, which is accurate but not exciting.
This is the eyepiece for finding objects, not for impressing yourself.
A 9mm eyepiece is where the magic happens on a budget refractor. The Meade Series 4000 9mm has been a workhorse in the amateur community for decades, and it's still about $25 new. With a 700mm focal length scope, you get 78x, which is enough to see Saturn's rings as a clear oval, the cloud bands on Jupiter, and craters on the moon that you can't see at lower power.
The Meade is sharp, the eye relief is tight but tolerable, and it holds its collimation well. After two years of using one for outreach events, mine still performs like new.
The catch on any 9mm eyepiece is eye relief. On shorter eyepieces, you have to get your eye close to the lens, and if you wear glasses, you basically can't. I don't wear glasses when I'm observing, but I've watched plenty of visitors struggle with the "where do I put my eye" problem.
The solution: bring your face close until the view snaps into focus, then hold steady. There's no trick to it, just practice.
Barlow Lenses, Explained Without the Hype
A Barlow lens is a multiplier. You put it between the telescope and the eyepiece, and it doubles (or triples, depending on the Barlow) the magnification of whatever eyepiece you use. A 9mm eyepiece becomes 18mm effective focal length, so a 700mm scope goes from 78x to 156x. The Celestron X-Cel LX 2x Barlow runs about $60 and is the best mid-range Barlow I've used. It maintains image quality at the doubled magnification, the build is solid, and it threads onto the bottom of your eyepieces. For anyone with a small collection of eyepieces, a Barlow effectively doubles your lineup. Three eyepieces become six magnification options.
The catch: every weakness of your scope and your mount gets amplified too. If the focuser wobbles at 78x, it'll wobble twice as much at 156x. If the atmosphere is unsteady, the Barlow will show you exactly how unsteady.
Beginners who buy a Barlow and crank up to 300x usually come away disappointed because the view is a blurry mess.
Use the Barlow on nights when the air is calm and the target is bright. The moon at 156x through a 90mm refractor is a fantastic sight.
The Orion Nebula at 156x through the same scope is a dim, fuzzy blob. Match the magnification to the target.
What Comes With Budget Refractors
Most budget refractors in the $100-200 range ship with two eyepieces and sometimes a Barlow. The Celticbird 80mm kit comes with a 20mm and a 9mm, plus a 3x Barlow. The MEEZAA 90mm kit ships similarly. The stock eyepieces are functional, sometimes surprisingly good, but they're the first upgrade target for most owners.
The SvBONY 68° 20mm is about $22 and a noticeable upgrade over the stock eyepiece that ships with most budget refractors. Wider field, sharper edge-to-edge, and the 68° apparent field is more comfortable than the 50° of a Plossl.
For a $22 investment, it's a no-brainer. I've handed one to first-time users at outreach events and watched them find things faster because the field of view is wider, which means more sky around the target, which means less hunting around in the dark.
The build is mostly plastic, but the optics are good. At this price point, I wouldn't expect metal. I own two of these, one for the grab-and-go refractor by the door and one that lives in a case at the observatory. They've held up fine.
Focal Length Matters More Than Aperture for the Right Eyepiece
Here's something nobody told me when I started, and I wish someone had: the eyepiece you choose has to match the telescope. A 4mm eyepiece in an 80mm refractor is useless because the exit pupil (the beam of light coming out of the eyepiece) becomes so narrow that you lose brightness and the view gets dim.
The rule of thumb is to keep the exit pupil between 1mm and 5mm for daytime targets and 2mm to 4mm for deep-sky targets.
The math: exit pupil equals eyepiece focal length divided by the focal ratio of the scope. For an f/9 scope, a 9mm eyepiece gives you a 1mm exit pupil, which is on the edge of useful.
For the same scope, a 25mm eyepiece gives you a 2.8mm exit pupil, which is in the sweet spot. For a fast scope like an f/5 Newtonian, a 32mm eyepiece still gives a 6.4mm exit pupil, which is too big. You'd want something around 15-20mm. This is why eyepiece selection is so confusing for beginners: there's no one-size-fits-all, and the right answer depends on the telescope.
The Eyepiece Drawer at My Bench
My converted two-car garage has a roll-top desk covered in eyepieces, and I can tell you which ones actually get used. The 25mm and 20mm get pulled out first, almost every night, because they're the finders and the wide-field sweepers.
The 9mm and 10mm get used for planetary detail when the air is steady. The Barlow comes out maybe twice a month.
Everything else, the 6mm, the 4mm, the 32mm, mostly sits in the case.
If you're building a starter kit, get one low-power eyepiece (20-25mm) for finding things, one medium-power eyepiece (10-15mm) for general inspection, and one high-power eyepiece (6-9mm) for planetary detail.
That's three eyepieces, total cost around $60-80, and you'll be able to handle 90% of what a beginner wants to see.
Add a Barlow later if you find yourself wanting more magnification on the planets.
Don't buy a kit of five eyepieces for $40. Those kits always include focal lengths you'll never use, the optics are mediocre, and you'll outgrow them in six months. Three quality eyepieces beat eight cheap ones every time.
What I Don't Recommend
Set of 5 Plossl eyepiece kits for $40-50. You know the ones, "5-Piece Telescope Eyepiece Set, 1.25-inch, 32mm 25mm 12.5mm 6.5mm 3.6mm." The 3.6mm is useless in any small refractor. The 32mm duplicates what your scope probably came with.
The build quality is the minimum that ships. I've tested several of these kits over the years and the sharpest eyepiece in the bunch is usually the 25mm, which is the one your telescope already came with.
Filters sold as part of eyepiece kits. Color filters, moon filters, polarizing filters, they all sound useful. Most aren't. A neutral density moon filter is the only one I'd recommend for a budget refractor, and even then only if you find the full moon uncomfortably bright. The color filters are designed for planetary detail on large scopes and will do nothing for you on an 80mm.
The Honest Bottom Line
Three eyepieces in the 20-25mm, 10-15mm, and 6-9mm range, all Plossls or better, will cover what you need for years. Add a 2x Barlow when you want to push magnification on the planets. Skip the kit deals, skip the filters, and spend the money on a steady mount instead. The mount is the telescope. The eyepieces are just how you look through it.
If you've got a budget refractor collecting dust because you couldn't find anything, the problem probably isn't the scope. It's the eyepiece in the focuser right now. Swap it for a wider-field one and try again.