TMB Planetary II - are all in the UK clones ?

[Rigel-7]

...and does it matter. I understand that if you have capital MM then you have a clone and if it is lower case it is original. I have seen a number of these in the UK for sale at dealers and on eBay - all are in capitals.

Are they still good value for money ?

[E621Keith]

I think both clones and originals came from the same factory. I heard something went wrong between the TMB estate and the manufacturer and the the latter is now marketing that eyepiece to others in order to recoup losses.

[John]

I think that a number of manufacturers in China are making eyepieces to this design and appearance now. The degree to which they achieve the originally specified design and quality parameters will vary between manufacturers and even between production runs I think.

From the ones that I have tried, the TS Planetary HR versions sold by Telescope Services in Germany and Modern Astronomy in the UK are the best performing and closest to the original Burgess / TMB Planetaries.

[cs1cjc]

So far as I can tell, there is no current UK supplier of TMB Planetary eyepieces which match the appearanxe of those authorised by TMB Optical and sold by Astronomics and High Point Scientific.