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Curious about Tele Vue

M4lcs67

By M4lcs67
in Discussions - Eyepieces

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M4lcs67

M4lcs67

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Hi Moonshane,

More interesting things to mull over, thanks. As I mentioned, I don't think I am qualified enough to give a professional reviewers opinion. If it looks good to me then it looks good to me. Having started out with stock eyepieces that came with my scopes, that was all I had to go on. Then I moved up to the Hyperions and was knocked out by how good they were in comparison to what I had before. Don't know if taking it a stage further to the TV's would make such difference over the Hyperions?

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Naemeth

Naemeth

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hi Malc

I just remembered this review I did comparing cheaper eyepieces with more expensive eyepieces and thought you might be interested. not quite an exact match (or science) but perhaps pertinent to your thought processes:

http://stargazerslou...p-vs-expensive/

the weather has been so foul that I have never managed to use my 16" f4 since to make a further comparison at a faster focal ratio.

In your review, could you possibly get some Ramsden or Huygens eyepieces? If you can't, I might get some just to see how bad they really are at F/5.

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Moonshane

Moonshane

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I doubt it to be honest. there's a law of diminishing returns with all optics. scenario - £25 binoculars ummmmm not great really........£100 bins wow!!! ........£1000 bins yeah, there better but not 10x better, maybe 2x better?

personally though I've always bought the best I could afford which used to be more than I could afford now.

if I were starting today I'd have a set of TV plossls and used Radians for certain.

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RikM

RikM

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I use mainly Pentax XW eyepieces, though I occasionally I use TeleVue Plossls and now have an ES 68° on the way.

The telescopes I use most are f/6.4, f/5.0 and f/4.7 so all fairly fast. I used to use borrowed eyepieces, Vixen LV, Meade 4000 UWA, Hyperion, and Revelation Plossls. The differences in quality from these to the premium EP's are noticeable but subtle. For me it is the combination of long eye-relief, wide but not too wide aFOV, the range of magnifications, phenomenal light throughput, neutral colour and exquisite build quality that make them worth it for me.

While I can appreciate the craftsmanship and attention to detail that goes into TeleVue eyepieces, I am not a fan of ultra / hyper wide angle views and need at least 18mm eyerelief. I also don't really like the warm tone some TV models give. I am currently using a 13mm TV plossl + a 2.5x TV barlow as my planetary eyepiece, but only because I currently can't afford a 5mm Pentax XW. So while they may be generally considered 'the best available eyepieces', they may not be the best choice for a particular person.

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Astro_Baby

Astro_Baby

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Well thes always the 'next new thing' so stuff seldom lasts a lifetime. Kit comes and goes and doubtless at one time people said Meade RG gear is the bong. Come to think of it I have a Unitron scope which was once the last word in astro sophitication comp

lete with Unitron Plossls which at one time doubtless were the best you could get. .965 Plossls dont exactly command much attention today :)

Televue are undoubtedly good butdo you need an EP thats good below F5 ??? if you live in Arizona and have a massive dob with a fast foval ration then yes you probably do. If your using an average reflector in the UK than maybe not. If you go faster than F5 then thats the price you pay, you either suffer compromised lefformance or you get the bank manager on the phone. For myself people drone on about how amazing TVs are below F5 my take is so what...i dont own a scope faster than F5 and am pretty unlikley to buy one either. So its a profuct benefit thats no benefit to me.

You also need to consider the UK weather. Its been so bad of late and to be honest i Amthinking of the last three years. The last time I observed was at the end of October mostly due to appaling weather. We are no entering whats likley to be four months of almost solid cloud where I live, thats a third of the year gone. So you have to think of how much use you might get out of top end glass and finally thes the scope itself. No eyepiece, no matter how amazing, can improve the view as much as a bigger scope.

So you have go weigh all this stuff up and make a value judgement. For me that translated as Pentax XWs in shorter focal lengths where comfort takes priority for me, the other stuff is Explore Scientific because its within a hair as good as TV ( the 100' stuff maybe even closer ) and at a price I am more willing to pay for a hobby where I get to be out maybe 10 times a year.

I could afford T V stuff but I dont consider it good value for me taking all of the above into account....to be honest I was aghast that I spent as much as the XWs cost.

Each to their own, send what you feel you need. If having a box of high end EPs makes you happy then do it, for mself I have shoes, handbags, clothes and cosmetics that make TV look like a bargain by comparison :) how many of you guys would drop £300 on a handbag I wonder :). My last trip to a cosmetic counte saw the thick end of £200 evaporate as well :). Now that truly is expensive stuff and it doesnt even last :)

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Moonshane

Moonshane

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but the quality is slightly better than all the other handbags and with a shinier finish and nice green and black piping. some with very fast partners can justify this extra cost for a small benefit others with slower partners cannot and seem very happy with Primani.

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earth titan

earth titan

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Someone once said they were too poor to buy cheap stuff, and I think this is where TV kit comes in. Having chopped and changed on eyepieces since I started, I eventually ended up buying second hand TV plossls.

Even second hand they are in fantastic quality and condition. I'm also assured that I no longer have to worry that perhaps if I had a better EP, views would be better.

Typed by me on my fone, using fumms... Excuse eny speling errurs.

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Astro_Baby

Astro_Baby

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@ earth Titan....oh but the views would be better, all uou have to do is buy Naglers and then upgrade to Ethos etc. :)

@damo....yes £300 is an outrage for a handbag but I can use it everyday unlike some astro stuff whe I am lucky to be able to use it once a month maybe. I have an ES30mm tyats been used ummmmmmmm once, maybe twice since I bought it in September last year. I also have an ES14mm 100' tyat I dont think has been out the case in 12 months if I divided up my kit by the time ug gets used theis would be a very exepnsive hobby indeed. I would hate to think what the xost of an observing session ran out over most of the kits lifetime, please dont calculate it for me because ai dont want to know :)

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skir

skir

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I recently started out with astronomy. I worked out what I could budget for some eyepieces and initially was looking at bsts. Which undoubtedly are good for the money. I then realised that for the same money or a bit more I could have second hand TV plossls. I've now got a couple of tv plossls and a radian (which cost a bit more than a new bst tbh). I can't compare them with anything else as I've not had anything else, however I do know that I can be happy with these and keep them for a long time if not for good, so the investment works out cheaper than buying cheaper and then gradually upgrading over time.

Astrobaby, I find that my Hermes Birkin handbag (astrobaby probably knows what that is,everyone else google it :D) is great for carrying tv ethos EPs too! :lol:

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 2

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Damo636

Damo636

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@damo....yes £300 is an outrage for a handbag but I can use it everyday unlike some astro stuff whe I am lucky to be able to use it once a month maybe. I have an ES30mm tyats been used ummmmmmmm once, maybe twice since I bought it in September last year. I also have an ES14mm 100' tyat I dont think has been out the case in 12 months if I divided up my kit by the time ug gets used theis would be a very exepnsive hobby indeed. I would hate to think what the xost of an observing session ran out over most of the kits lifetime, please dont calculate it for me because ai dont want to know :)

You know what AB, your logic is sound :-)

£300 for something that can be used every day, vs £300 for something that will be used once in a blue moon, it doesn't take a mathematician to work out which is the better value! Enjoy that handbag I say :-)

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Naemeth

Naemeth

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Someone once said they were too poor to buy cheap stuff, and I think this is where TV kit comes in. Having chopped and changed on eyepieces since I started, I eventually ended up buying second hand TV plossls.

Even second hand they are in fantastic quality and condition. I'm also assured that I no longer have to worry that perhaps if I had a better EP, views would be better.

Typed by me on my fone, using fumms... Excuse eny speling errurs.

If I'm not very much mistaken, I think that was Moonshane :D

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Pete Presland

Pete Presland

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i have chopped and changed for a couple of years before finally settling on TV plossl's. i tried orion ED's, a few different planetary's, and hyperion's, in my opinion none matched the consistant excellent views acheived by the TV plossl's.the only thing i might do, funds permitting, is get some better TV eyepieces.

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