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Televue EPs...are they worth the (extra) money?


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Hi All,

I'm new to telescopes (not to Astronomy), and should be getting a 102mm APO from Altair (via Tring Astro) over the next month or so.

I posted here earlier about EPs, however there seems tobe a lot of 'talk' about TeleVue EPs. New they are way out my price range, but forum

members say used and checking around they can be had for around £170...depending on the model, mm etc.

Are they really leaps and bounds ahead of the competition? I mean the likes of Vixen, ES, Celestron and so forth?

Basically are they worth the extra?

Cheers for any thoughts,

Nick

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Very difficult to say in many respects, it also depends on which TV it is and what it is that you want it for.

It used to be that the TV plossl was the recommended upgrade.

Reason was that they were a lot better and with TV getting a poor one is rare enough to be unknown in many respects.

So a TV plossl meant much better and safe. Never heard of a poor TV plossl.

Then TV upset it all by making a price increase - they had not done so for a few years - and the jump was significant.

So they lost out on recommendation, and BST and X-Cel's came out and sort of took over.

To be honest the TV next up from the plossl had some poor reports, CN reckoned the BST/Paradigm was as good. Forget the range but they were phased out if I recall.

A Delos is a 72 degree EP, an ES82 is (as expected) an 82 degree EP.

Heres a question: Would an ES 82 stopped down to 72 be as good?

In effect does the ES lose out on the edge only.

Buying used is fine, if you have the time, and if you are to one to get the eyepiece. More then you will go for the eyepiece.

Otherwise it can be a long wait.

Equally I bought all my TV plossl's used, but it took some time sort of 18-24 months, maybe more.

Bought all the BST's new and it took 6 weeks. 2 at first, 2 more, then the last 2.

Do you go to any clubs where you could try out an eyepiece or two?

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Poor seeing, poor transparency, tired eyes and a lot of other things can affect the views more than the quality of eyepieces. Personally, I have a case full of TV eyepieces and believe that they are worth the extra money. They allow you to get the most from the conditions and you rarely feel like you are 'missing out'. That said, they won't generally show much more than a budget eyepiece, just present it in a more aesthetically pleasing way. Occasionally, you do see a slightly fainter star or a slightly fainter galaxy with better quality but with a 102mm apo, you won't be getting that deep anyway I suppose.

To me they (and other quality brands) are worth it. To you, they may not be. Each person has to gauge for themselves I feel. A TV plossl is no worse (or as good as) a TV Ethos albeit with a smaller field and tighter eye relief. Where balance is critical then the plossl wins due to low weight. This is why I have both plossls and wide fields like Naglers in my eyepiece case.

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As with anything, it depends on what you're comparing them to. I have quite a few Tele Vue plossls all bought second hand, and I personally find them better than my Meade Series 3000 plossls or Tal plossls(both also very good). The difference is noticeable, and that's in an f/10 scope, they simply have less aberrations of any kind. I can't speak about wider TVs but I guess you would find most people say the same. Does that make them worth the extra? Only you can decide that. Of course, there are many other eyepieces that perform as well, or in some cases even better than Tele Vues, but there's probably a compromise involved - price, AFOV, availability etc. Oh, they also have good resale value especially if bought second hand.

But are they leaps and bounds ahead? I would say no.

Hope that helps

Roy

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The performance gains get smaller as the eyepiece costs increases so you will not see a quantum leap between say a £50 BST Explorer and a £250 Tele Vue Delos. The subtle gains are sought after though especially if you start to use faster scopes. Have a look through the long running "Show me your eyepiece case thread below" and you will see plenty of Tele Vue eyepieces in folks collections. Astronomers are quite shrewd and fussy people I reckon so an expensive product that did not deliver really satisfying results would have fallen out of favour years ago:

http://stargazerslounge.com/topic/57027-show-me-your-eyepiece-cases/

Today though the competition for Tele Vue is stronger than ever so there is plenty of choice of product / brands that will enable the hobby to be enjoyed immensely without a Tele Vue in your eyepiece case :smiley:

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As with anything, it depends on what you're comparing them to. I have quite a few Tele Vue plossls all bought second hand, and I personally find them better than my Meade Series 3000 plossls or Tal plossls(both also very good). The difference is noticeable, and that's in an f/10 scope, they simply have less aberrations of any kind. I can't speak about wider TVs but I guess you would find most people say the same. Does that make them worth the extra? Only you can decide that. Of course, there are many other eyepieces that perform as well, or in some cases even better than Tele Vues, but there's probably a compromise involved - price, AFOV, availability etc. Oh, they also have good resale value especially if bought second hand.

But are they leaps and bounds ahead? I would say no.

Hope that helps

Roy

Thanks for the sound advice Roy.

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Poor seeing, poor transparency, tired eyes and a lot of other things can affect the views more than the quality of eyepieces. Personally, I have a case full of TV eyepieces and believe that they are worth the extra money. They allow you to get the most from the conditions and you rarely feel like you are 'missing out'. That said, they won't generally show much more than a budget eyepiece, just present it in a more aesthetically pleasing way. Occasionally, you do see a slightly fainter star or a slightly fainter galaxy with better quality but with a 102mm apo, you won't be getting that deep anyway I suppose.

To me they (and other quality brands) are worth it. To you, they may not be. Each person has to gauge for themselves I feel. A TV plossl is no worse (or as good as) a TV Ethos albeit with a smaller field and tighter eye relief. Where balance is critical then the plossl wins due to low weight. This is why I have both plossls and wide fields like Naglers in my eyepiece case.

Thanks for the advice.

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If ultra wide field of view is not important for you, you can get some cheaper EPs working very well even with a medium fast telescope.

Vixen slv are an example. Still compact and very comfortable to use

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It's hard to understand why people buy expensive ep's in slower scopes for observing eg F 10 but when in a fast scope eg F4 it's no contest for me...it has to be TV

Not really, if I were to buy a faster scope in the future I would already have a set of EPs that would work in it. It's cheaper in the long run to buy quality from the beginning.

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Hi Nick,

To me both the TV and ES 100 range are just not worth it due to the cost!!. However that does not mean they are not good value to others. And it is because others upgrade and are early adopters that some of the older TV and ES ep's  appear in the classifieds at reasonable cost. This enables me on occasion to pick up a classic ep.

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Impossible to answer it has to come from within. I am the sort that wonders, what if? Well with the collection I still have I know, there are a good few more I have let go.

For me if you have a high quality and I do have a 115mm high quality APO, it is worth it to me, but there is no way this will tick the right boxes for everyone, cost of them is a major factor even S/H. Though Radians are out there and not much with touch them for about 100 quid like for like.

If you buy S/H you can try it and then if you don't like it or are not over impressed you can sell it on for the cost of postage. I said all sorts of things before I owned TV eyepieces, like you must be an idiot to pay that and what the hell does anyone need a 82 degree FOV for, yes that is the truth, now I have 30 but this is for a  large cross section of scopes from fast to slow and a big difference in F/L's.

Are Televues worth the money, new probably no, but S/H I would for me a big Yes. BTW I bought about 14 of the ones I have had new and I took the hit selling a couple of them.

Alan

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Our fast 20 inch Dob (F4.1) gives incomparably better views with TeleVue than with budget eyepieces. It's that simple. As for the many firms who copy TeleVue (since it seems it is nigh-on impossible to patent eyepieces) I neither know nor care. When the copycats push the envelope for themselves and offer observers something new I'll take an interest but, while they just follow TeleVue, I'll reward TeleVue with my custom. If you insist on taking a more mercenary view then you might reflect on the fact that nobody ever found it hard to sell a TeleVue eyepiece. TeleVue also know what customer service means. 

Olly

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It's hard to understand why people buy expensive ep's in slower scopes for observing eg F 10 but when in a fast scope eg F4 it's no contest for me...it has to be TV

This is why i love my scopes, they are happy with medium price eyepieces

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all eps will work to some degree, if you never look through a premium ep such as tv you might not think bad of lesser eps. if your happy with say a bst then stay with it. but if you look through a tv you might regret it. as said by estwing if your viewing through a scope of f7ish and slower you dont need premium but buy once and they will last you a life time. other great brands to look for are sw myriads and nirvanas very close to tv, and for doubles and planets and pn pentax are very hard to beat :grin:

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I love my TV's, the hyperwides in particular and to me they are worth the money. This is not to say other EP's don't offer good views as they do. Because I think a lot in terms of contrast I have to humbly disagree that TV's are not beneficial at slower f ratio's. The contrast offered by TV Ethos is unmatched (almost) in any scope, slow or fast.  Of course this is just my opinion.

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As it has been pointed out if you have a fast scope you need a quality eyepeice, with F10 scopes there is considerably less demand on the quality of the eyepiece, and a standard range eyepiece will be fine and you can by a set of them for thew same price as a TV.

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As it has been pointed out if you have a fast scope you need a quality eyepeice, with F10 scopes there is considerably less demand on the quality of the eyepiece, and a standard range eyepiece will be fine and you can by a set of them for thew same price as a TV.

While what you say is true regarding the demands of slower scopes I would say that a standard range of eyepieces would not perform as well as Tele Vues. Having a long focal ratio might help with colour correction and give a flatter field, but does nothing for edge distortion (I can see this by comparing my 8mm TV with 9.5mm Meade S3K) or contrast.

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Hi Nick, for my money, the ES82 series are as good as the TV's for a lot less, no loss or astigmatism at the edges.  I think they give TV a run for their money.

Many thanks, the ES are ones I'm interested in. Nick

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

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As it has been pointed out if you have a fast scope you need a quality eyepeice, with F10 scopes there is considerably less demand on the quality of the eyepiece, and a standard range eyepiece will be fine and you can by a set of them for thew same price as a TV.

How about an F7? TV worth investing in?

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

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Not really, if I were to buy a faster scope in the future I would already have a set of EPs that would work in it. It's cheaper in the long run to buy quality from the beginning.

Ditto. But even at F/10 the difference between TVs and others is striking.

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Hi Nick, for my money, the ES82 series are as good as the TV's for a lot less, no loss or astigmatism at the edges.  I think they give TV a run for their money.

Thanks Robin, I am looking at the ES range....they are in my budget.

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