Different eyepiece designs allow for a wide range of features, depending on the needs of the observer. Orthoscopic and Plossl designs can provide a great quality image with a standard field of view, but may be difficult to use at higher powers while wearing glasses due to the short eye-relief. Long eye-relief designs have more elements and can be more expensive, but work very well with glasses, even at higher powers. Wide angle designs provide a larger view of the sky at the same power as a standard eyepiece. More complex designs can combine all these attributes together in a single eyepiece.

The edge-to-edge angular diameter of the light emerging from the eyepiece as seen by the eye. It is an inherent specification for a given eyepiece type or design. The apparent field of view of an eyepiece is directly related to the true field of view seen through the telescope; for a given focal length eyepiece, the greater the eyepiece's apparent field of view, the greater area of sky will be seen.

The distance, measured in millimeters, between the observer's eye and the eyepiece lens in which the entire field of view remains visible. Eye relief varies with the optical design but generally increases with decreasing magnification. Long eye relief is advantageous for observers who wear glasses, as they don't have to put their eye directly on the eyepiece to see the entire field of view, nor do they have to remove their eyewear.

Lenses are coated with an anti-reflective material to ensure that as little light as possible is reflected away, thus more gets to your eye. Good lenses are at least "fully coated," with a single layer of magnesium fluoride applied to each air-to-glass lens surface. Multiple layers of coatings are even more effective; the term "multi-coated" means one or more lens surfaces have multiple coatings. "Fully multi-coated" is superior because all lens surfaces are multiple-layer coated. Mirror star diagonals are coated with a reflective material similar to telescope mirrors in order to reflect the light into the eyepiece. Standard aluminum coatings reflect between 88%-92%, and enhanced aluminum reflects 97%. Dielectric coatings use a different process to deposit a coating that reflects 99% of the light. In addition to the higher reflectivity, Dielectric coatings are much more durable than aluminum coatings, so they last longer and can be cleaned with less risk of damage.

Parfocal refers to an attribute of an eyepiece set where little to no focusing is required when swapping out one eyepiece for another.

The barrel security recess is a shallow groove or depression cut into the 1.25" or 2" barrel of the eyepiece. In the event the thumb screw holding the eyepiece in the focuser becomes slightly loose, the eyepiece will not fall out because the tip of the thumb screw will catch on the lip of the security groove.

Blackened lens edges in eyepieces and refractor lenses prevent unwanted light scatter inside the tube. This results in higher image contrast.