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I have a Bushnell Voyager Reflector telescope. It came with 2 eyepieces: k4mm and k20mm. And I am trying to find additional eyepieces to zoom in further on planets and stars, but the bushnell website doesnt offer any. I am unsure if other brands will work with the telescope. Or is my teleacope not powerful enough to look further out.

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    $\begingroup$ 4mm is already a very short focal length. If you must have more magnification, a Barlow (2X or 3X) is likely your only choice. Switching from Kellner to Plössl eyepieces might improve image quality. $\endgroup$ Jul 26, 2018 at 14:30
  • $\begingroup$ I'm voting to close this question as off-topic because asking for specific equipment is not of general interest $\endgroup$ Jul 26, 2018 at 14:33
  • $\begingroup$ astronomy.stackexchange.com/questions/8788/… $\endgroup$ Jul 26, 2018 at 17:46
  • $\begingroup$ I think if it was reworded/re-interpreted as wanting to get extra magnification for planets, then it could be of more general interest; planets are a pretty popular topic for amateur telescopes. Bushnell telescope also seem to be a popular low cost option. In general though, high magnification is rarely usable due to atmospheric turbulence ("seeing"). $\endgroup$ Jul 31, 2018 at 15:49

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First of all, any eyepiece of the correct diameter will work with your telescope. Typical diameters are 1.25" and 2".

The eyepieces you have listed tell you the focal length of the lens. This relates to the magnification - the focal length of the telescope divided by the focal length of the lens will tell you the magnification. So the 20 mm eyepiece will give you lower magnification than the 4 mm eyepiece. Thus to work out the magnication you will need to know the size and focal length of the telescope for starters. A Google search showed there are at least a couple of models but your owner's manual will give you this information.

Now a caveat: Forget (at least a bit) about magnification. Many telescope brands will [try to] sell the magnification, because this is a big selling point. BUT higher magnification might just turn a small fuzzy blob into a bigger fuzzy blob.

The most important features of a telescope are the aperture (diameter) and lens/mirror quality. Bigger aperture means more light means easier to see faint stuff. And a quality lens means the difference between a fuzzy blob and a crystal-clear image.

You will probably find that the mirrors in your telescope are reasonable quality; the lenses are usually where the sellers save on cost. I am confident that if you buy a good quality lens in the 10-15 mm range and one in the 20-25 mm range you will see very nice, clear images of the Moon, the planets out to Saturn, nebulae and star clusters.

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  • $\begingroup$ My particular one is a 700x76mm telescope. But with the one that "zooms in" more, I can get a clear shape of mars, but its extremely hard to see. Because its is so small in the eyepiece that its still extremely hard to see. Should I invest in more eyepieces? This is my first telescope and I am still learning everything! $\endgroup$
    – Brittato
    Jul 26, 2018 at 10:25
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    $\begingroup$ IMO the best investment without going overboard would be a good quality 15 mm Plössl eyepiece. This will be something that you can use in the future if you ever upgrade and is a good general-purpose eyepiece. Mars is small anyway, but you should be able to see things like the rings of Saturn clearly, even if a bit small. You can always buy smaller (than 15 mm) in the future, but practically, smaller than 6-7 mm is getting too small. $\endgroup$
    – Mick
    Jul 26, 2018 at 11:44

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