Televue Panoptic

[mert]

So now I'm building my Televue eyepiece collection, I have been looking at the 1.25" 24mm & the 2" 27mm Panoptic, so it's a choice between the two, there's very little cost between them. I had a 30mm UWA eyepiece but dropped it  so it's gone.

Can any users give me some feedback please. I've read a lot of good things about them.

Edited December 13, 2013 by mert

[Uplooker]

Hi mert,

You mention the 1.25" 24mm Panoptic, have you considered the 26mm Nagler. You have not not mentioned a top budget, but you may be able to get a 26mm Nagler second hand for what you want to spend on the 27mm Pan. I have just recently purchased the 26mm nag and i am very pleased with it. Certainly the extra Fov is an eye opener (no pun intended).

Ian

[Qualia]

Hiya Mert. I really can't think you'd be going wrong with any eyepiece by Tele Vue .

I've read that the 26mm Nagler is a gorgeous eyepiece and looking at your eyepiece collection with regards to the other Naglers and the ES 100º, perhaps this would be the most 'logical' move unless there was some reason you prefered to drop back down to the 68º Pan. On a personal note, I have a 24mm Panoptic that I use for a 10" f/5 and a 4" f/10. I decided upon this route, for I find it a lot easier to swop quickly between only 1.25" eyepieces out in the darkness of dusty desert-lands. I loved using the 24mm Pan so much due to its weight, small size and quality of image (no balancing issues, easier to store and carry about) that I hanged on for months until I saw a 19mm Pan cropping up on the secondhand market at a reasonable price. Needless to say, I'm over the moon with these two eyepieces and consider them keystones in my little collection.

[alan potts]

Mert,

I would have thought with having the 20mm 100 degree ExSc you would have been better going as near to the 30mm that you had for extra field or indeed even buying another of the same. Sorry to hear about the drop, I know how it feels, I lost my 6mm Delos this way.

The 24mm Panoptic is as good an eyepiece as you can buy, maybe even the best of the 1.25 inch fitting in this focal length area. A few site members have the 27mm and speak very highly of it though I have never even seen one of these, let alone owned one. The suggested 26mm is a superb eyepiece though I feel it has a lot of pincushion distortion as I pointed out in my review, on the moon it was horrible in my opinion, but sharp as a razor. This is used most of the the time as a wide field hunter eyepiece and it is only that I have a couple of long scopes that I even saw this, when you sit the obect in the centre on a driven scope you would not really notice. When reviewing an eyepiece though I tend to spend most of the time seeing where the faults are and looking at the edges.

Can I suggest that the 31mm Nagler may be a better choice on your monster Dobsonian, you clearly have used an eyepiece in this area of focal length and few can hold a candle to this one.

Alan

[swamp thing]

Hi

I would ask first, what are you hoping to use this for, you kinda have most basses covered with your 100deg 20mm eyepiece?

[NGC 1502]

So now I'm building my Televue eyepiece collection, I have been looking at the 1.25" 24mm & the 2" 27mm Panoptic, so it's a choice between the two, there's very little cost between them. I had a 30mm UWA eyepiece but dropped it  so it's gone.

Can any users give me some feedback please. I've read a lot of good things about them.

You have already got some good advice, but to answer your question directly -

I own the 27 Pan, and have borrowed a clubmates 24 Pan, and used them both at the same observing session at my clubs dark site, in my 250mm F4.8 Dob.

27 Pan - pros - a bit more eyerelief ok with glasses, and more field of view.

cons - a bit of fuzzy stars off axis (I don't use a parracor) less dark background sky due to the lower power/larger exit pupil, needs more expensive 2" filters, larger & heavier, needs a lot of outfocus.

24 Pan - pros, smaller & lighter, uses cheaper 1.25" filters, parfocal with many other TV eyepieces, darker sky background, sharper towards edge of field.

Cons - adequate eyerelief without glasses, if you do use glasses, try before you buy or consider TV dioptrix.

So you need to weigh up the above to fit your own priorities.

Regards, Ed.

[Stu]

I keep a 24 Panoptic in my collection mainly for travel use. It is a lovely eyepiece, really nice views and such a compact, lightweight package. As said, depends what your priorities are in this respect, but also with regards to field of view and exit pupil etc.

Cheers,

Stu

[Connor brad]

Would the 24mm Panoptic work well on a 200pds skywatcher explorer? 

[Don Pensack]

14 minutes ago, Connor brad said:

Would the 24mm Panoptic work well on a 200pds skywatcher explorer? 

Yes.

[martinl]

18 minutes ago, Connor brad said:

Would the 24mm Panoptic work well on a 200pds skywatcher explorer? 

Yes, absolutely. The only downside of the 24mm Pan is that it is a bit too short on eye relief to use with glasses. If I didn’t wear glasses to observe I would still have mine. 

[Connor brad]

Would the 27mm be a bit better 

[Connor brad]

I'm astigmatic person 

[Don Pensack]

3 minutes ago, martinl said:

Yes, absolutely. The only downside of the 24mm Pan is that it is a bit too short on eye relief to use with glasses. If I didn’t wear glasses to observe I would still have mine. 

Same here, so I converted to the 24mm APM UFF, and, so far, I'm pleased with the eyepiece.

[martinl]

12 minutes ago, Connor brad said:

Would the 27mm be a bit better 

Yes, it has a bit more eye relief. Wether it has enough to use comfortably with glasses I don’t know, it seems to depend on the user. Instead of the 27mm Pan I got the Explore Scientific 28mm that some users claim has a bit more eye relief than the 27mm Pan. In any case it works just fine with my glasses. If I were making the same decision today I would get the APM 30mm UFF over either the 27mm or the 28mm, but Don’s suggestion of the 24mm APM UFF is also interesting if one wants to stay with 1.25” eyepieces. 

[Connor brad]

I hear the celestron xcel lx is good choice 

[Louis D]

The 27mm Panoptic is a fine eyepiece, but only has 14mm of usable eye relief.  I've scratched at least one eyeglass lens on the exposed eye lens retaining ring by trying to push in enough to see the entire field.

It took nearly 20 years, but I've finally found a worthy replacement that is easy and safe to use with eyeglasses, the 30mm APM UFF.