tmb planetary eps

[nicks90]

hi folks,

i recently upgraded my standard celestron eye pieces with a couple of high mag genuine orthos, a meade 4000 series sp and a classic japan kellner 25mm. Compared to the 20 and 10mm celestron efforts, they are ace - especially the 25mm kellner!

However, I am a glasses wearer and I find looking at the tiny pin [removed word] lenses too uncomfortable for long periods of time. The only way I can do it is to remove my specs and refocus the eps, but even then they aint the most comfortable things to look through with such tight eye relief. Plus its a pain popping glasses on and off in the dark when looking through the ep and back to sky etc.

Looking at selling my orthos and upgrading to a couple of TMB planetary II eps, probably a 6.5mm and 9mm - mainly because they are in the right price range, seem to get good reviews and have a nice big eye lense to look through with good eye relief. Also having a 58deg fov is better than the ortho and plossl. On occassion these will also be used with a x2 TAL barlow to really zoom in for jupiter etc.

BUT

i get that these are good on planets - hence their name - but are they any good for dso?

I have a fairly fast newt (astrom 130) and they will give x70mag and x100mag which should be good for splitting some doubles and looking at clusters and stuff - but if they bring on the suck for this type of viewing, then I will have to have a rethink.

as usual, any advice would be much appreciated!

nick

[Damo636]

Nick

I have used the genuine TMB Planetarys as well as the clones on Ebay. The genuine examples were pretty good but the clones I was less than impressed with. Unless you intend going for the genuine parts, I would recommend going for the BST/Starguider range of eps instead, in fact I would go with them regardless. I haven't used them but they get consistantly good feedback on the forum.

PS. The planetary label on the TMB is just marketing hype, they will work equally well on any celestial object.

[Mark in Macc]

Alan at Skysthelimit will let you try both BST and TMB II eps and then you would buy and keep your favourite. You could try a 9 mm TMB II vs an 8 mm BST. I had a 6 mm TMB II initially and thought it was OK.

[ronin]

I was trying out a TMB II (clone) and BST of about the same focal length a couple of nights back. The BST was slightly the better, equally the TMB delivered more magnification and the scope isn't much good at magnification - short achro. And the difference was small, small enough that the extra magnification may have been the cause for the difference.

Would still say the BST won but until I have the same focal lengths it is still a bit subjective.

[Ags]

I use TS Planetary HRs (9 and 6mm) - same design as TMB Planetary - and I am very happy with them.

[Parus major]

Imported Celestron x-cel lx's come in for not a great deal more. Worth thinking about.

[cs1cjc]

...

PS. The planetary label on the TMB is just marketing hype, they will work equally well on any celestial object.

These eyepieces come in a good range of focal lengths and are easy to use, so are suitable for viewing a wide range of objects, but I do not think that they are actually very good for planets. I see more planetary detail with other eyepieces, and for me they generate a distracting ghost image of the planet that you are observing.

[faulksy]

I use TS Planetary HRs (9 and 6mm) - same design as TMB Planetary - and I am very happy with them.

i agree with this the ts hrs are very good, almost as good as the bgo,s but good eye relief

[paul mc c]

I owned a 6mm TMB and to be honest it was'nt very good,it showed a lot of curvature in my f5.I owned a TS 7mm and this was an excellent eyepiece,very sharp on planets and very good on deep sky,regret letting go of it to be honest.

[Spec-Chum]

i agree with this the ts hrs are very good, almost as good as the bgo,s but good eye relief

Bold claim. May have to try one...

[paul mc c]

i agree with this the ts hrs are very good, almost as good as the bgo,s but good eye relief

I have to agree, my 7mm gave me some of the best views of Saturn i ever had.

[steve_bham]

I have the 25mm 9mm and 5mm, brought them originally because I wear glasses. They perform excellently in my f5 refractor.

So I've decided to get most the set!

[faulksy]

and a very good price from bernard at modern astronomy

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

I hear good things about the TS HRs, I might get a couple for the kids' dob, so they keep their mitts off my own long eye relief ones. Might also get some for solar (I have a 1.25" Herschel wedge, so only my Pentax XF and XWs fit).

[steve_bham]

and a very good price from bernard at modern astronomy

Yes, that's where I get mine from. For the price can't be beaten. Getting a few each month now to compliment the ones I already have.

[Rich MedRev]

I have a couple of TMB planetry EP's and they're fine on my F6.4 Dob, particularly nice is the 7mm.

Excellent VFM

[nicks90]

my tmb 9mm ep turned up today - fortunately no cloud was included in the box!

unfortunately there was a double portion of gale force wind and an extra large helping of precipitation instead :-(