Planetary Eyepiece Again

[andrew63]

These are always a minefield of confusion - at least to me, as there appear to be several versions. Was thinking of trying a 7 or 8mm and came across this review. These would appear to be the original types? Similar to the TS clones. Anyway, found the review to be quite good, excepting that each observer will have a different set of priorities - mine is always sharpness to the fore !

Astromart Reviews - Burgess TMB Planetary Eyepiece Comparison Review

andrew

[faulksy]

i have just bought a ts hr planatery e.p. which apparently are the same as the burgess/tmb and all i can say up to now is wow and they appear up to now = to my bgo,s no false colour and clean right up to the field stop. only had a few sessions though but made up

[fredster]

I tried out my newly arrived Stirling Plossl 12.5mm the other morning for a first view of Jupiter this season. It worked incredibly well in the Skymax 102 with an Orion 2x Shorty Plus barlow. Really crisp and bright, no off axis abberations, no scattered light. Just a really nice view of Jupiter. Not bad for £22 delivered from the States. Before purchasing i checked a friends Stirling in comparison with a Televue Plossl. Couldn't split them.

I now need to get another with a focal length that is more suited to my new scope, a Celestron 6SE ota. Trouble is they don't do a 7, 7.5 or 8mm variant of the Stirling.

http://store.smartastronomy.com/stsepley12.html

The Sterlings have been getting very favourable reviews since their release a number of years ago. But they do have the same old Plossl traits in the higher powers......poor eyerelief being the main drawback.

[Capricorn]

Problem is that you will never arrive at an answer.

So the Pentax and the Radians came out better.

Not surprised about the Pentax but I have heard poor reviews about the Radians.

The TMB were close except for three aspects, 2 of which should be accounted for in any planetary eyepiece.Reflection and Contrast, then he throws in that they had Scatter as well.

So what is he really saying ?

Throw in an edit here: The "problems" sound like the original TMB Planetary's as they had these problems as I recall, hence the update to TMB II's. The review may be way out of date.

Ultimately what puzzles me is that the requirements for a planetary are the same as for all eyepieces. Good contrast, no scatter, no reflections and a sharp view across the whole field.

Do you go and buy an eyepiece because it has poor contrast and there is no real sharp image anywhere across it?

EDIT: Review was 2006, suspect these were the original TMB not the TMB II's.

[sam mayo]

so what would you recommend for a 250px 10! ssw for plnety use please,sam(on a budget of £50 each for to and should i get a barlow ( the one supplied i was told is poor)thanks sam

[womblemaster]

So if i am trying to pick between a `tmb planetary` and a

1.25" 12mm BST Explorer Dual ED eyepiece Branded "Starguider"

IS the tmb, going to be vastly better optically? or is the performance of similar lvls?

[sam mayo]

when viewing jupiter with my ep supplied its very ey bright (hurts eyes)also i get a cros of light (is the only way i can exsplain it is that scatter,would better eps srt this thanks sam

[Lenny147]

You would benefit from better eps Sam, I updated from the supplied eps and the difference in views was amazing

[alan potts]

Why dont you go for the Pentax 8.5mm eyepiece many members rate it highly, I have Radians myself but intend to get one.

Alan.

[Lenny147]

I have a TMB planetary 2, 7mm and it's a nice bit of kit

[John]

when viewing jupiter with my ep supplied its very ey bright (hurts eyes)also i get a cros of light (is the only way i can exsplain it is that scatter,would better eps srt this thanks sam

The cross of light would be diffraction spikes coming from the vanes supporting the secondary mirror. It's normal with newtonian scopes although you can put specially designed curved support vanes in there to reduce the effect. It's not an issue with scopes like SCT's, maksutovs and refractors becuase they don't have secondary support vanes.

Your eyes will quickly adjust to the brightness of Jupiter and the moon for that matter.

Better quality eyepieces will make a noticeable difference to the views you get though. The ones supplied with the scope are pretty basic. I guess they would charge more for the scope if they provided good eyepieces.

[paul schofield]

Just my 2 pennies worth. I had a 6mm TMB II Planetary for a while and the kidney beaning for me made it almost unusable, maybe I had a bad one ? I eventually replaced it with a BST 8mm which was a great improvement over the TMB as is my TV Radian 10mm. For me even a bog standard 10mm plossl eyepiece was a great improvement over the TMB. as I say I may of had a bad example because I read that lots of people rate them very highly.

[Moonshane]

if sharpness is a main priority then you'd be hard pressed to beat a 7mm BGO.

[nightfisher]

if sharpness is a main priority then you'd be hard pressed to beat a 7mm BGO.

or a circle T 7mm ortho, and a few quid cheaper than the BGO.

moonshane, we are going to have to try your bgo 7mm against my circle T 7mm at psp mate

[Naemeth]

I highly rate the TMB I's (Clones), or at least the one I have. The only issue I can see is some light scatter, but I think I've found a solution for that (and will probably be posting it up at some point in the DIY section). Otherwise, they are very nice EPs for the price.

[Moonshane]

or a circle T 7mm ortho, and a few quid cheaper than the BGO.

moonshane, we are going to have to try your bgo 7mm against my circle T 7mm at psp mate

definitely mate. would be good to do so in a fast newt I reckon. likely to be close I think....

[spaceboy]

Just my 2 pennies worth. I had a 6mm TMB II Planetary for a while and the kidney beaning for me made it almost unusable, maybe I had a bad one ? I eventually replaced it with a BST 8mm which was a great improvement over the TMB as is my TV Radian 10mm. For me even a bog standard 10mm plossl eyepiece was a great improvement over the TMB. as I say I may of had a bad example because I read that lots of people rate them very highly.

I always thought Kidney Beaning was the fault of the user not the EP ??? If the light cone is bouncing of the iris and not entering the pupil due to wrong positioning on the ep's eye relief or turning the eye when looking around the FOV KB and black outs will occur.

As for the OP's question there will only ever be one ep that gives superb views for the money in my book and that has to be BGO's. I was a total idiot and let mine go but I plan to replace them. The only reason why I haven't already is because I'm holding out on the Baader classic orthos http://www.baader-planetarium.de/sektion/s23/s23.htm to see how these compare as the only down side with BGO is there poor eye relief which the BCO's are hopefully going to improve on.

[gooseholla]

I have a TMB designed 8mm and it is brilliant for planetary work. But nothing beats my Circle T orthoscopic. Will definitely be getting more of these!

[Mr Spock]

I use a 6mm TMB II and never seen blackouts of any kind. It's sharp too, though, at x392 in my scope I don't use it all that often

[Dunkster]

So is it worth trying these Circle T over the TMB? For SCT so it'd be the high single digits FL I reckon.

[kirkster501]

For me the 12mm Nagler is wonderful. Quite pricey though.