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Good quality plossl eyepieces

enigma

By enigma
in Discussions - Eyepieces

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John

John

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The GSO plossls have a good reputation. I believe the ones in the Revelation Eyepiece set are made by GSO.

The Meade 4000 series are also quite good and can be purchased used at very reasonable prices. The newer 5000 series have their fans too.

I like the look of the Vixen NPL's but I've not tried one yet.

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great_bear

great_bear

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Bear in mind that only the TeleVue are tested to F4, and that others (such as GSO/Revelation) will show slight astigmatism at the edges at F5 (seagull effect).

That said, that doesn't happen when the Barlow is used with them (or indeed, with any other reasonable Plossl).

Aside from that, there's really not much to choose between the TV, Meade 4000, and GSO/Revelation Plossls.

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Moonshane

Moonshane

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there are of course options to plossls which are about the same prices as GSOs such as the BST Discoveries and TMB type eyepieces (new from Skies the Limit on Ebay) which have a wider field and better eye relief than plossls and are probably as good as most things non-premium.

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andrew63

andrew63

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I here a lot of favourable comments on the 32mm revelation - to be perfectly honest, whilst in general TV plossls are a solid recommendation, my televue 32 has the worst field stop of any eyepiece i own - still a nice view though!

andrew

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John

John

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John - not as sharply defined - just not clear cut an edge as say with my meade 26mm plossl. I have heard that the older smoothside is a better lens?

I've not owned a smoothside 32mm but I've owned 3 of the current design ones and the field stop has been sharply defined in those. I dislike fuzzy field stops so it's one of the 1st things I check with an eyepiece :(

I wonder if there is a little issue with yours ?. Quality control with Tele Vue is generally top notch :)

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Damo636

Damo636

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I had a couple of the Japan marked Meade 4000 series 26 and 15mm and they were both excellent. Not sure if the more recent china manufactured versions are as good but as far as i know the Meade's and the Revelation are both made by GSO and are all optically identical.

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great_bear

great_bear

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I was thinking about something like the Smart Astronomy Sterling Plossls or the Astro-Tech High Grade Plossls.

When I spoke to the manufacturer, Long Perng, a few months back, it turned out that there was no-one here in the UK that were importing/selling these eyepieces unfortunately.

Is there a particular reason you want to go for Plossls? They were once the eyepiece of choice, but times are changing...

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enigma

enigma

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Is there a particular reason you want to go for Plossls? They were once the eyepiece of choice, but times are changing...

No other reason than being of good quality and value. Are you aware of other eyepieces with a similar focal length range available in both 1.25" and 2" sizes that perform equally well in both slow and fast telescopes at this price?

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great_bear

great_bear

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Are you aware of other eyepieces with a similar focal length range available

Ah well... That's just the point though, isn't it? :) i.e. is it desirable to have the same eyepiece design across all focal lengths? I'd argue that it isn't.

For Plossl focal lengths less than 9mm, you really have to start forcing your eye against the eyepiece to see the whole field of view, because there is so little eye-relief. For me, the 9mm Revelation/GSO Plossl is just-about OK, but the TeleVue 8mm definitely isn't.

Conversely, for focal lengths above 20mm, Plossl eye-relief becomes too much and ideally the designer has to lose some somewhere. The Meade 26mm Plossls do a really good job of this, the lenses being deep down in the barrel - however, many longer-length Plossls are not like this, and they require you to hover your head somewhere in front of the eyepiece in order to get a good view, and many people - including me - find this hovering experience uncomfortable.

Of course, at the end of the day this is about personal preference. For me, I now prefer a barlowed-something-or-other for eyepieces less than 9mm, and a widefield eyepiece for 24mm, full-field 1.25" viewing...

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great_bear

great_bear

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Yes, GSO are Guan Sheng Optical, and they make astronomy components for all of the big companies like Sky-Watcher, Meade etc. Sometimes its an entire assembly - like an eyepiece - other times it's just a single component, like the mirror in the 16" Meade Lightbridge scope.

Normally their products are re-branded. Their Plossls for example are rebranded as "Revelation" for distribution by Telescope House. However in recent years they've been releasing things under their own, "GSO" brand name and sold by people such as 365Astronomy.

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John

John

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Actually the above is an accidental thread merge due to the re-organisation of SGL. I wasn't actually recommending Konig's for yourself (they're maybe more of a collectors thing?) :D

I've moved the 2 posts on the Konig's to the "Heads Up" section of the Astro Lounge - sorry if their temporary inclusion in this thread caused any confusion :)

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