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Televue BIG Plossl


Timebandit

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Hello. Recently had a bit of an outing with my binoculars which reminded me how much fun low magnifications can be in a star filled sky. So when I low magnification televue eyepiece came on to the market I decided to secure the 55mm and here it is. A lot bigger than I thought but should be interesting to its performance when sky's clear ?.

 

 

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I hope you like and approve of the BIG Plossel .Thanks ☺

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Nice buy for the slower scope !

The 2nd gen 55mm plossls had that raised eye cup which is essential for getting the correct eye placement - the earlier versions were more or less "flat top" and you needed to "hover" your eye some way off the top, which is not a great idea with a low power eyepiece.

The 55 plossl has a 46mm field stop which is about as much as can be squeezed from the 2" format.

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Nice EP. I have a Meade 40mm EP that I bought second hand a month or so ago that is nearly as wide as it is high, coming in at 125mm high x 90mm wide, and weighing just over 1.25 Kg! Seriously needs a counter weight on my Az3 stand to cope with it, which I am in the process of fitting so I can use the massive EP! ;)

Meant to add it is a 2" EP also. 

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2 hours ago, John said:

Nice buy for the slower scope !

The 2nd gen 55mm plossls had that raised eye cup which is essential for getting the correct eye placement - the earlier versions were more or less "flat top" and you needed to "hover" your eye some way off the top, which is not a great idea with a low power eyepiece.

The 55 plossl has a 46mm field stop which is about as much as can be squeezed from the 2" format.

It's a nice eyepiece, typical TV build quality and will give sharp views across most of the field. Similar views I found to the Meade 4000 56mm, which is also Japan built and very large. If you ever sell it on to upgrade/change, you should find it holds is value fairly well.

To be honest though, if I was going to buy such a large eyepiece, I'd want a view with more "wow" factor..the TV 55mm plossl has been around for over 20 years and has frankly been overtaken by models (including TV's own Delite/Delos/Panoptics and big Naglers etc) which can give that wow factor: and, at £235 retail (source: TH website), I wouldn't pay anything like that for one even if I could get one new (think they may be discontinued now?).. hopefully you didn't have to pay anything like that.

At a similar size/weight and much cheaper, you could get the ES 68 degree 28mm and 34mm eyepieces. Although they won't show quite so much sky ie true field of view, the Apparent field does make for the wow factor IMO.

Taken from the ES website:

28mm 2" barrel - weight 16.1oz (versus 18.1oz for the Televue 55), 31.8mm field stop (versus 46mm for the TV)

34mm 2" barrel - weight 24 oz , 38.6mm field stop.

Both are available cheaper in Maxvision versions, but the ES are better build, nearer to Tele Vue, and are Argon purged so dustproof and water resistant.

Both are much cheaper than the Televue, although in fairness at faster speeds may soften a little at the edges, and won't hold their value so well as the TeleVue.

A different beast altogether is the ES 24mm 68, a 1.25" format, much smaller, great build, and just a fantastic eyepiece for the money, which is a fraction of the TV cost :-). I have owned all the ES mentioned above, plus the TeleVue, and still have the ES24mm and 34mm. They are among my favourite eyepieces. In winter, with darker skies, they are just stunning, and I got each of them, in mint condition, for £65 (new, 24mm) and £105, (used, mint, 34mm).

Dave

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4 hours ago, F15Rules said:

..To be honest though, if I was going to buy such a large eyepiece, I'd want a view with more "wow" factor..the TV 55mm plossl has been around for over 20 years and has frankly been overtaken by models (including TV's own Delite/Delos/Panoptics and big Naglers etc) which can give that wow factor: and, at £235 retail (source: TH website), I wouldn't pay anything like that for one even if I could get one new (think they may be discontinued now?).. hopefully you didn't have to pay anything like that...

 

 

I tend to agree Dave. Fun if the price is right though :icon_biggrin:

 

 

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59 minutes ago, Louis D said:

Has anyone compared the TV 55mm plossl to the Meade 56mm Plossl that costs one fourth as much here in the states?  Is the TV really 4 times better than the Meade?

Is anything, ever 4x as good as something else, regardless of the the price difference ?

The performance differences between the middle of the pack and the top are invariably about % points rather than really substantial improvements. This does not seem to dissuade some folks from investing when they can though.

The positive thing is that satisfying, competant performance is available at modest cost :icon_biggrin:

 

 

 

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Nice eyepiece. I had one of of these before I bought the 41mm Panoptic. It was a lovely sharp eyepiece and got used a fair bit on the long F/L SC, it gave me about X60. In the end I found I was using the 41mm more and passed it on. A well made eyepiece as I dropped it on concrete and though damaged slightly at the top the optics survived.

Alan

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Hello. Thanks for the feedback. I will be honest I was in two minds whether or not to buy this eyepiece due to its 55mm magnification. But I have learned magnification is far from everything in this hobby. But I rarely see these come up second hand and the price was good, nowhere near the 235 now being asked for such an eyepiece, so seeing what they go for new, then I am very happy what I paid for it and if I do tire of it then I am pretty confident I will get my money back on it. I will let you know what I think of its quality of image when  it's had a bit of time in the scopes.

If worse comes to worse as Televue eyepiece prices have rocket recently and seem to be getting the same sort of investment as gold per oz, this eyepiece is a big boy so I suppose i can always weight it in?           

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