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Televue Plossls

earth titan

By earth titan
in Discussions - Eyepieces

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earth titan

earth titan

Posted
Posted

Hi Folks.

As I'm currently upgrading my eyepieces (I've now got my 2" glassware sorted) I'm trying to get peoples opinions of suitable plossls for mid range sizes in 1.25".

I know there are a lot of good reviews of Naglers, Radians etc. but very little is mentioned regarding Televue Plossls, so are these any good?

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Capricorn

Capricorn

Posted
Posted

They are very good but at the end of the day they are a plossl.

They do however seem to be designed to operate down to f/4 so good if you can get by with an 8mm focal length or longer, which you seem to want.

Used to be recommended a lot, however the arrival of the BST's occurred and TV raised the prices.

The BST's are very good and a TV plossl is now up at £85-100 area so less attractive.

I suspect that like me others have a threshold price at which they hesitate, and the cost of a TV plossl is (to me) the wrong side of the threshold.

I have both, BST and TV Plossl's, and really I do not choose beween them, just use whichever I feel like.

Except for the 5mm BST the focal lengths are pretty similar.

Will add that I do not recall a post concerning a bad TV Plossl.

That always was a part of their appeal, might be a higher cost but not a bad one.

The cost may be high as they do a good job and have a good QA, what comes out tends not to have a problem and operates well.

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alan potts

alan potts

Posted
Posted

TeleVue were making the Plossl eyepiece years before the others you mention. The basis of their reputation came from this one eyepiece in the begining and I think they are amoug the best eyepieces of this type on the market. There are may Plossl ep's around some good some not so, TV will aways be up there with the best, try to pick up one secondhand, you won't regret it.

Alan.

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Moonshane

Moonshane

Posted
Posted

I have wide field eyepieces (Ethos and Nagler) and two TV plossls and for certain objects they are every bit as good in my opinion. I have a 32mm and a 15mm Plossl.

my scopes have focal lengths of 1600mm (f11) and 1840mm (f4 - f4.5 with paracorr). the 1600mm scope, I use as my solar scope, and for grab and go lunar/double star/planetary observing as it cools down quickly and sits on an EQ platform. the 32mm gives 50x and a wonderfully crisp image of the full lunar or solar disk. it's my only solar eyepiece and just makes the moon look spectacular. the 15mm also gives excellent views and I regularly use it for mid power observing with either scope. sometimes when the seeing is poor, my 13mm Ethos is just too much magnification (141x) and the 15mm plossl just hits a sweet spot (123x). I certainly don't feel a drop in optical quality but the view is different of course.

My own preference is for plossls of 15mm or more as I found the eye relief of the also excellent 11mm plossl I previously had and sold (and sometimes regret doing so) a little tight. I find my BGOs, 7,9,12.5 more comfortable.

So for 15mm-32mm I'd say they are superb eyepieces and ignoring field are indistinguishably as good as my other TVs. if you can stand the shorter eye relief to see the whole field of the 11mm and 8mm then you'll love those too.

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andrew63

andrew63

Posted
Posted

They are very good but at the end of the day they are a plossl.

They do however seem to be designed to operate down to f/4 so good if you can get by with an 8mm focal length or longer, which you seem to want.

Used to be recommended a lot, however the arrival of the BST's occurred and TV raised the prices.

The BST's are very good and a TV plossl is now up at £85-100 area so less attractive.

I suspect that like me others have a threshold price at which they hesitate, and the cost of a TV plossl is (to me) the wrong side of the threshold.

I have both, BST and TV Plossl's, and really I do not choose beween them, just use whichever I feel like.

Except for the 5mm BST the focal lengths are pretty similar.

Will add that I do not recall a post concerning a bad TV Plossl.

That always was a part of their appeal, might be a higher cost but not a bad one.

The cost may be high as they do a good job and have a good QA, what comes out tends not to have a problem and operates well.

I find the opposite. I liked the BST easy to look through, nice wider field and solid build. However compared to TV plossl they had less contrast, sharpness and light throughput. To match them in a wider field costs a lot of money.

andrew

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John

John

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Posted

TV Plossls are 4 element, not 5. I've owned them all except the 2" 55mm, in both the older "smooth side" versions and the newer design with the integral rubber eye cups.

The older and newer types (both 4 element) have their fan bases but they both performed the same to me. At a push I'd say the coatings on the later ones were a little better as technology has moved on.

An excellent implementation of the classic plossl design.

At their current new prices you should look hard at what other options are available. Secondhand they make a lot of sense.

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scarp15

scarp15

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Posted

I certainly don't feel a drop in optical quality but the view is different of course.

My own preference is for plossls of 15mm or more as I found the eye relief of the also excellent 11mm plossl I previously had and sold (and sometimes regret doing so) a little tight. I find my BGOs, 7,9,12.5 more comfortable.

So for 15mm-32mm I'd say they are superb eyepieces and ignoring field are indistinguishably as good as my other TVs. if you can stand the shorter eye relief to see the whole field of the 11mm and 8mm then you'll love those too.

Shane, I believe that you had purchased the 11mm plossl from me (I was not a member of SGL at the time). As soon as I had handed it over at the post office for dispatch I regretted it. That eyepiece, more than any other I was using at the time, had introduced to me the potential of what my scope was truly capable of revealing in planetary views. It totally cleaned up Saturn, which was so crisp, as though it would fall out of the eyepiece and into the palm of my hand! Several months later I ended up purchasing another. It fits between my 13mm and 9mm naglers and certainly with its four glass element provides a different kind of view.

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Moonshane

Moonshane

Posted
Posted

Shane, I believe that you had purchased the 11mm plossl from me (I was not a member of SGL at the time). As soon as I had handed it over at the post office for dispatch I regretted it. That eyepiece, more than any other I was using at the time, had introduced to me the potential of what my scope was truly capable of revealing in planetary views. It totally cleaned up Saturn, which was so crisp, as though it would fall out of the eyepiece and into the palm of my hand! Several months later I ended up purchasing another. It fits between my 13mm and 9mm naglers and certainly with its four glass element provides a different kind of view.

hi Iain - small world! I remember our discussions well :smiley: I suspect I may eventually buy another 11mm TVP despite my reasons for selling. I think it was just the eyepiece I could part with easiest and I had to raise a bit of cash towards a mount at the time. sometimes a set magnification just works right and for me the 11mm TVP was that eyepiece with my 6" f11 newt. I reasoned that my 10mm Radian with the same field approx would cover it and to a large extent it has.

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Don Pensack

Don Pensack

Posted
Posted

The TeleVue Plossls have had their coatings upgraded over the years as technology has changed, but they are still excellent--especially as "planetary" eyepieces.

A good set (following the 1.4X protocol) would be : 32mm/20mm/15mm/11mm for the long focal lengths of the scopes in the original poster's signature.

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part timer

part timer

Posted
Posted

I've got a mixed bag of older smoothside and newer televue plossls ( I have the new style 32mm and 8mm and smoothside 17, 13 and 10.5mm) . They are completley consistent in quality and performance. The coatings have changed in several of mine but they all perform just as well as each other. There is no truth that I can see in the older style being better. All mine are made in japan and all have the 'heft' of quality. I do however find that for my telescopes most of the older focal lengths fit that bit better.

I have now tried out some very expensive eyepieces and can honestly say they were no better than the TV plossl. They all just did it with a wider field and more constant eyerelief.

In my very huble opinion the TV plossls are mechanically more robust than most eyepices like the BST. They will last for ever.

BUUUUUT, the recent price hikes really have made them much less attractive.

Second hand, it is really a no brainer. I just love the feel and craftmanship of these eypieces in addition to the optical perfection. It's as much fun just changing eyepieces as it is using them! I don't get that feeling from my orther eyepieces and I can not afford a set of Naglers or ethoses.

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Capricorn

Capricorn

Posted
Posted
I find the opposite. I liked the BST easy to look through, nice wider field and solid build. However compared to TV plossl they had less contrast, sharpness and light throughput. To match them in a wider field costs a lot of money.

Said I did not choose between them, and they are close to each other.

BST have the wider view and a more constant eye relief, the 5mm BST performs infinitly better then the 5mm TV as there isn't a 5mm TV.

Easy to look through is a big factor, makes a nights observing easy and relaxed, May not be measurable but very important.

As in everything it is a trade off, I wear glasses so the BST have the advantage up until 20mm, the sharper view of the TV is nothing if I cannot get close enough to it to be usable.

When TV upped the cost I suspect that that was when they dropped out of the consideration for many, you were looking at an £80-100 plossl. It was then that they stoped being the recommended upgrade eyepiece here on SGL. A damn nice plossl but it still had that tag.

Would I recommend getting some, yes. They are good. I said I have the BST's (5mm to 25mm) set, I also have the TV plossl set (8mm to 40mm). I have kept both, I will continue to keep both.

The downside, if that is correct, is that a used TV costs more then a new BST and there are advantages and disadvantage to both and the cost is one of the factors. Cost has to be otherwise we would buy Naglers and Delos's and not TMB, BST's and plossl's.

If a new purchase is an option then TV started a sale on their eyepieces on Oct 1st, there is a 10% reduction at present until Christmas.

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earth titan

earth titan

Posted
  • Author
Posted
The TeleVue Plossls have had their coatings upgraded over the years as technology has changed, but they are still excellent--especially as "planetary" eyepieces.

A good set (following the 1.4X protocol) would be : 32mm/20mm/15mm/11mm for the long focal lengths of the scopes in the original poster's signature.

They were about the sizes I had planned.

Typed by me, using fumms...

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