TMB Planetary Originals vs Type IIs

[Mark in Macc]

Has anyone done a proper comparison between TMB Planetary originals vs Type IIs that are available in the UK? I was thinking of buying an original 9mm from High Point Scientific in the US as a friend of mine is living over there and can bring it back without taxes. The price comparison is very close between the UK and US sourced EPs. Is it worth doing this? I already have a 6mm Type II and it seems good.

[Damo636]

I used to own a 6 & 9mm Burgess/TMB Planetary ll and found them very good. Later on i had a 5 & 6mm TMB Planetary ll from a UK seller and was less than impressed with them. The non originals i remember suffered from internal reflections and a lot of glare when viewing bright objects. I would definately recommend going for the original ones from the USA

TMB Planetary II series

[AndyH]

I had a few of the Burgess/TMB's when they first came out. After the shiny retaining ring problem was fixed, I was very happy with them. They were bought from SCS, who was the official importer(I think) back then.

Can't comment on these new ones, although looking at the pics on this thread....

http://stargazerslounge.com/discussions-eyepieces/173884-tmb-planetary-eyepieces-genuine-vs-uk-sourced.html

the internal barrel finish is quite obvious.

If it were me and I was going for this range of eyepieces, I'd get em from the states, like Damo suggests.

[Mr Spock]

I don't think the QC is so good on the type II. I bought a 6mm second hand and first impressions were poor. On checking it I found the field lens was very loose. Once that had been tightened it started to perform, stiil, you shouldn't have to do things like that.

[Damo636]

I also remember having to tighten the retaining ring on one of mine. A simple procedure but agree its something that the end user shouldn't have to do.

[cs1cjc]

I have started comparing a genuine 4mm TMB Planetary II to a UK sourced copy, but the only tests I have done to date have been a physical comparison which I have described earlier and some indoor testing today with my 70mm f/6 refractor. With an artificial star indoors, the genuine one snapped to focus better and gave star images which my partner and I felt had very slightly less surrounding brightness. The poorer eye lens coating in the UK sourced one made it noticeably more susceptible to external reflections and eyeball glint. Otherwise the views similar.

[AndyH]

I have started comparing a genuine 4mm TMB Planetary II to a UK sourced copy, but the only tests I have done to date have been a physical comparison which I have described earlier and some indoor testing today with my 70mm f/6 refractor. With an artificial star indoors, the genuine one snapped to focus better and gave star images which my partner and I felt had very slightly less surrounding brightness. The poorer eye lens coating in the UK sourced one made it noticeably more susceptible to external reflections and eyeball glint. Otherwise the views similar.

Will be very interested in your findings down the line:icon_salut:

Andy.

[Capricorn]

This is a bit of a confusing thread.

The original and genuine TMB's had problems with reflections and other minor bits. If I recall the genuine TMB's had 6 improvements made, one was blackening the lens edges. This set of updates created the TMB II's, as in Mk II.

What is running round now I have no idea. So when you say TMB II's what are you refering to? As genuine TMB planetary eyepieces are TMB II's.

It does seem that the TMB's sold in the UK and generally europe are copies in one way or another. Lots of the Chinese factory's seem to make the ones we see here.

Anyone know why SCS ceased selling them? As they were, I think also, the only seller of genuine TMB's and I would have thought that there would have been a calling for them.

[AndyH]

I don't disagree, it's most confusing.

[cs1cjc]

For my comparison, the genuine TMB Planetary Type II 4mm was delivered this week from High Point Scientific. I am not really in a position to comment on the history of these eyepieces.

The UK sourced Planetary (which is actually labelled TMB Optical) was bought about a year ago. It has the same external appearance to those advertised on a number of UK web sites and eBay.

[AndyH]

I've used High Point in the past. Good company with excellent communication.

[Merlin66]

OK.

Has anyone got an old "original" TMB (MkI?) for comparison...

The TMB I have "TMB Optical" is not marked "Planetary II" - just "Planetary"

[AndyH]

I've put a few pics of the early Planetaries I had, in one of albums.

Note the earlier chromed barrels and engraved lettering.

Stargazers Lounge - AndyH's Album: Other

Here are some smaller thumbnail pics.

Andy.

[John]

I used to have a couple of the original Burgess / TMB Planetaries (as per Andy's photos). They performed very well apart from the 6mm which had the infamous "off axis glare" problem. I fixed this by re-shaping the lower optical set lens retaining ring and blackening it. In the USA the manufacturer issued replacement rings but I'm not sure if those made it over here.

A little later, I bought a couple of the TS Planetary HR eyepieces from Telescope Services in Germany (they are / were also sold by Modern Astronomy in the UK). These look very similar to the originals but have blue screen printing on their lower barrels. These performed, to my eye, as well as the original Burgess / TMB Planetaries.

All the above models cost around £50 to purchase new.

I've not tried any of the TMB Planetary II's, their clones, or the slightly more rounded versions that have emerged since. From what I've read though, the original ones, as pictured by Andy, have the peformance edge over the later ones.

[Merlin66]

Hmmm

Now I really don't know what to think!

Mine seems to look like the MkII, but with different engraving; fixed eyecap??

Purchased s/h early last year as a "original TMB Planetary" eyepiece....

[Mark in Macc]

Just to clarify, I was refering to the EPs that are available now from the official US TMB dealers - High Point Scientific and Astronomics vs the EPs that are available from UK suppliers. High Point Scientific refer to them as TMB Optical Planetary whereas Astronomics refer to then as TMB Optical Planetary II just to confuse things further. Both are selling these genuine products at $49.95, which equates to £32. I don't know how much it would cost to import these, but I suspect it wouldn't cost a fortune and you would have a genuine product. Coming back to the original question, is it worth doing that or are the UK versions just as good?

[AndyH]

Only a shootout between the two eyepieces can tell for certain. Looks like Chris(cs1cjc) will be doing that very thing in the weeks ahead.

[ddufresne50]

OK.

Has anyone got an old "original" TMB (MkI?) for comparison...

The TMB I have "TMB Optical" is not marked "Planetary II" - just "Planetary"

[ddufresne50]

Well Merlin I got the same thing on my 9mm it has TMB optical on one side and planetary on the other side Does it mean this one is from the UK or a copy or clone just like yours my others have planetary 2 on them And my 4mm has burgess / TMB on that one let me know

[cs1cjc]

Well Merlin I got the same thing on my 9mm it has TMB optical on one side and planetary on the other side Does it mean this one is from the UK or a copy or clone just like yours my others have planetary 2 on them And my 4mm has burgess / TMB on that one let me know

I simply do not know. I did write about current models here: i was actually surprised at the mechanical differences, because I assumed that, as others had said, the differences would be cosmetic. I tried to concentrate on current models which I actually had available rather than on historical survey for which I had too little information. To me the critical things can be checked, I think:

Is the barlow mount threaded (the lack of threading here was, I understand the problem with the first 6mm models)?

is the barrel inside threaded and properly blacked?

are the coatings good and does the eyepiece perform well?

I do have one update since the article and that is that the ghost image which I found so objectionable on Jupiter is hardly noticeable at all on Saturn which is so much less bright.

Note that the 9mm is an oddity in that there are actually two different optical arrangements. The TS (and UWA) has a later arrangement (Markus has said that the design came direct from Tom) with a doublet barlow while the original Burgess models has three lenses in the barlow. The focus point of the TS model is a long way from that of other eyepieces in the series.

Further note that Burgess is again listing these eyepieces here: http://www.burgessop...-eyepieces.html and they look just like the UK sourced TMB version.

[ddufresne50]

Ok thanks I will look into that and see how my 9mm tmb looks Thanks dale

[John]

I believe the original off axis glare issue was caused by the retaining ring holding the lower lens set, the ones housed in the 1.25" barrel, in place. It was supposed to be micro grooved, chamfered and blackened but some of the production runs overlooked this small specification issue and used a retaining ring that was plain and smooth in profile and finished in shiny black. Once the problem was diagnosed Burgess Optical supplied free replacement retaining rings to owners with fitting instructions or an offer for the local dealer to fit the ring for you. Nevertheless it did damage the reputation of the design somewhat early on.

I managed to buy a used 6mm of the original series which had not been "fixed" and the off axis glare was quite noticeable. As the production of the original ones had ceased by then I had to do my own "fix" by chamfering the inside top of the retaining ring and coating it with really matt black paint. It more or less did the trick and the glare was much better controlled.

What this incident showed me was that eyepieces that look the same and have the same spec will not always perform the same way as small differences in internal construction details, that possibly only the original designer would be aware of, can make notable differences in final performance.

[ddufresne50]

Thanks John hey how many post do I have to do to get so I can get into the classified section I been trying to get into the classifieds And I can't get thru dale

[ddufresne50]

_{I got the 4 5 6 7 and 9 tmb The earliest one I have is the 4mm burgess/tmb They perform great in my scope}

[John]

Thanks John hey how many post do I have to do to get so I can get into the classified section I been trying to get into the classifieds And I can't get thru dale

I've answered this question in the other thread that you posted it in Dale. 50 posts plus 1 months membership for access, 250 to place an advert there.