Orbinar Plossol (Seben) Warning

[skyatnightfan]

I bought a Orbinar Plossol 6.5mm from amazon.  Price £12.99.

I'm not that new to astronomy and thought for £13 you can't go wrong.  

How wrong i was.  I use a light pollution filter on my eyepieces, screwed it on as i had done 5 times before looked through the telescope and bang.  The light pollution filter fell out of the eyepiece, straight through the middle of the telescope and landed on the primary mirror 

I've got a skywateher Heritage 130p, so the mirror isn't protected by anything. Luckily the mirror seems fine, but it wasn't a nice experience.

I would advise steering clear of these eyepieces, after closer examination the thread on the eyepiece had worn out after 5 uses.  Very poor quality and nothing will screw on it now.

Just wanted to warn people of this, so it doesn't happen to anyone else.

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Awful thing to happen. I have head more bad stories about Orbinar/Seben, but this is a new one.

[John]

Thanks for the warning. I'm glad your mirror seems relatively unscathed. 

[Schorhr]

Good that it did not do damage!

I have heard about poor threads on seben eyepieces, mine seems fine.

But I suppose you get what you pay for.

They seem to have increased prices, at least when it comes to the eBay "free shipping" and international orders?

Seems like the best bang for the buck is http://m.aliexpress.com/item/1219476347.html now. Not sure about UK customs though. Here in Germany the tax/duty free value is 22€ but actually they won't charge anything under 5€, so this would pass as a single order.

[bingevader]

I too am glad all is well.

I gasped audibly and the Mrs. asked what was wrong! 

The Seben zoom received some good reviews, but I think the consensus was that they probably weren't made by Seben.

Cheers

[Schorhr]

There are probably two factories, one spits out the 7-21mm, one spits out the 8-24mm, and all the companies are busy sticking their lable on them ;-)

Just found http://www.aliexpress.com/item/Datyson-full-metal-5X-Barlow-Lens-for-Astronomical-Telescope-lens-eyepiece-standard-1-25-31-7mm/1241157493.html would be fun to try it for the price

[Naemeth]

It's good that the mirror wasn't damaged .

Unfortunately, with cheap eyepieces I wonder where they cut their costs, this is apparently one of those areas. Thanks for the warning .

[Pig]

Not good at all   That could have ended up as one very expensive eyepiece.

[Andy_E]

Various places on my body tensed up unnaturally when reading this . So glad to hear your primary has escaped unscathed.

[skyatnightfan]

Thank you everyone! I consider myself extremely lucky!

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

I just realized this is one more reason to like scopes with the EP at the lower end (SCTs, Mak, and fracs). Things do not fall in that easily. When they do (and you hear stories) you are in considerably more trouble trying to get the out of course.

[russ.will]

I think this serves as a warning that there is such a thing as too cheap. Okay, it's not my money, but when you can buy a decent SW Plossl for £20 from FLO and pick them up for £12 second hand in the classifieds or on UKABS, it seems to me that buying anything attached to the Seben name isn't worth the risk. Just my 2p.

Russell

[Schorhr]

I still think they are great for all those who found a telescope in the attic, and I highly doubt other stores have their cheaper eyepieces custom made (as seen with the cheap Zooms, Barlows and other eyepieces... All the same, just different lables).

Ever since the cheap 66degree eyepieces the cheaper Plössl make little sense though, but then again, the HR and BST are not much more expensive... But then the ES aren't that much more of an investment... Or the other ES with 82 degree... Or wait, what about that Nagler on the sales section... When will it stop? ;-) ;-)