Televue Binoviewing Pair's

[Timebandit]

 

Hello. As some of the members may know on here I have recently ventured into the world or universe of binoviewers. As I do have a few televue plossl already I have been trying to pair them up to assist with this new avenue , without breaking the bank.  The original televue 32mm I have had for sometime and luckily in the last few days I have managed to acquire another. On receipt of my new used plossl it was in lovely condition (thanks John) and also a Japan one also.So a nice Japan made set of televue 32s

I also wanted a high magnification pair for close up lunar views and to try some high quality planetary binoviewing. Initially I was considering a BGO pair but as it has taken me numerous months just to acquire one 7mm I thought better of going down this route as I could be in for a very long wait. So as I managed to acquire a 8mm plossl in the recent televue price sale , before prices went astronomical. I thought I would try acquiring  another on the second hand market. Luckily I have also managed to acquire a 8mm plossl also  at sensible money , and this plossl is also from Japan and in great condition . So a snap matching pair of 8mm

This should be an interesting little venture into televue pairs and performance in the Binoviewers .

 

 

 

 

 

 

I hope you like the new pairs☺

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Mak the Night]

AFAIK all the 1.25" TV Plossls are made in Japan. The 15mm are very good for bino's I think, even with a 10mm eye relief.

[Stu]

Nice eyepieces. It will be interesting to hear how you get on with it. The 8mm has tighter eye relief and a small exit lens so may not be so comfortable to Binoview with. Not that I've tried it so it will hopefully be ok.

I use a pair of 25mm Orthos and then Barlow the binoviewer to get me to higher power which works well. I'm due some 16mm too soon which will be interesting.

[Dude_with_the_tube]

what binovievewer are you using? Only asking as your 32mm plossls have 27mm field stop what means if you are using binoviewer with 24mm prisms these will vignette.Will be fine if your binos are Baader Mark IV; Mark V or Televue Binoview as these have 30;28 and 27mm prisms respectively.

As for the 8mm pair. They might be too high power to be used and as such you will struggle to merge the view.Specially if you are using barlow;GPC or OCS to reach focus with your instrument.If in native you will be fine but will rarely use it as it is just too much power.From personal experience,most used pairs:30 or 25 depending on prism size for low power,20mm and something in the range of 15mm or 13mm.for high power its a pair of 10-11mm.Only used 7mm pair once on moon when seeing conditions allowed to merge the image.

 

[Mak the Night]

I think Dude_with_the_tube has a good point about possible problems merging the 8mm Plossls.

The shortest f/l pair I use are 13mm Celestron (GSO) Plossls, although I can 'Barlow' them to 8.125mm, 6.5mm & 5mm.

[Timebandit]

4 hours ago, Mak the Night said:

AFAIK all the 1.25" TV Plossls are made in Japan. The 15mm are very good for bino's I think, even with a 10mm eye relief.

 

Hi mak. I thought I had read somewhere that some may now be made in Taiwan, that's why I was happy of having two Japan ones. I know some people say it makes no difference nowerdays of origin, but I do always feel that bit more reassurance when I see a Japan stamp on the eyepiece 

3 hours ago, Stu said:

Nice eyepieces. It will be interesting to hear how you get on with it. The 8mm has tighter eye relief and a small exit lens so may not be so comfortable to Binoview with. Not that I've tried it so it will hopefully be ok.

I use a pair of 25mm Orthos and then Barlow the binoviewer to get me to higher power which works well. I'm due some 16mm too soon which will be interesting.

 

Hi Stu. I will more than likely use the 8mm with a straight through set up, otherwise probably they will just be to high power to get satisfactory results.

I know some people do not like the eye relief on higher power plossl, such as the 8,mm. But from my use of the original televue 8mm on Cyclops then I did not find it to bad, and after using the 4mm RG meade Ortho(, extreme tight) i have, it felt like it  was positively comfortable using a 8mm after 

So it will be interesting how I get on.

2 hours ago, Dude_with_the_tube said:

what binovievewer are you using? Only asking as your 32mm plossls have 27mm field stop what means if you are using binoviewer with 24mm prisms these will vignette.Will be fine if your binos are Baader Mark IV; Mark V or Televue Binoview as these have 30;28 and 27mm prisms respectively.

As for the 8mm pair. They might be too high power to be used and as such you will struggle to merge the view.Specially if you are using barlow;GPC or OCS to reach focus with your instrument.If in native you will be fine but will rarely use it as it is just too much power.From personal experience,most used pairs:30 or 25 depending on prism size for low power,20mm and something in the range of 15mm or 13mm.for high power its a pair of 10-11mm.Only used 7mm pair once on moon when seeing conditions allowed to merge the image.

 

 

Hi Dude, my Binoviewers are nothing that luxury. I got some TS Binoviewers and up to now they have not performed to bad at all, actually for the money they are very good.

The 8mm televue will have to be used in a straight through set up i think for them to stand a chance of getting some decent high power view., Putting them through the diagonal and barlow to get them to focus will produce to high a power I think for them to perform satisfactory.

1 hour ago, Mak the Night said:

I think Dude_with_the_tube has a good point about possible problems merging the 8mm Plossls.

The shortest f/l pair I use are 13mm Celestron (GSO) Plossls, although I can 'Barlow' them to 8.125mm, 6.5mm & 5mm.

 

Hi Mak, dude with the tube could be correct??. I have a cheap pair of SW plossl in 10mm and they have performed pretty well in a straight through set up on lunar views. Therefore as the televue plossl are better quality and a step up in magnification to 8mm plossl i am hoping that they will perform. But if the televue 8mm do not work in Binoviewers as a pair. As I purchased the second one used and paid a sensible price for it , then I am sure I can put it back on the market and probably get my money back, so I think it's worth a try of 8mm televue pairs to see the effect.

 

[Mak the Night]

‘Hi mak. I thought I had read somewhere that some may now be made in Taiwan, that's why I was happy of having two Japan ones. I know some people say it makes no difference nowerdays of origin, but I do always feel that bit more reassurance when I see a Japan stamp on the eyepiece’  

I’m pretty certain all the Plossls are made in Japan. A lot of other TeleVue eyepieces (Panoptics, Naglers) are made in Taiwan. The DeLites, however, are manufactured in Japan. I had two DeLites in a row that had to be returned due to bad quality control. It’s not the first time I’ve had problems with faulty Japanese eyepieces. I’ve had faulty Chinese made eyepieces. AFAIK I’ve never had a Taiwanese borker!

‘Hi Mak, dude with the tube could be correct??. I have a cheap pair of SW plossl in 10mm and they have performed pretty well in a straight through set up on lunar views. Therefore as the televue plossl are better quality and a step up in magnification to 8mm plossl i am hoping that they will perform. But if the televue 8mm do not work in Binoviewers as a pair. As I purchased the second one used and paid a sensible price for it , then I am sure I can put it back on the market and probably get my money back, so I think it's worth a try of 8mm televue pairs to see the effect. ’

Yeah, they could be fine. I originally bought the 8mm TV Plossl just to complete the set, yet it turned out to be really good on every scope I have. It still often gets use combined with a Powermate on my 130mm Newtonian. It’s also used a lot on my smaller scopes. I don’t think you’ll find a better 8mm Plossl. The 'cheap' 10mm SW eyepieces are probably the Sky-Watcher MA (Modified Achromat) reversed Kellners. Plossls are quite different in many ways and are different to view through. It's not easy to compare the two. In my experience Kellner or similar types of wide angle tend to suit binoviewing, whereas Plossls can be harder work. Having said that, I've successfully used orthoscopics in a bino.

[Dude_with_the_tube]

with TS binos your 32mm will vignette unfortunately. You will be better off getting a pair of 25mm or 26mm Eps for your low power so you dont get vignetting.Or look out for Ep field stop.Your max is 24mm.Anything larger will cause vignetting.

With straight through option yes you should be able to use 8mm as soon as you can merge the image.

Binoviewing is not about high powers.you use both eyes as such image will appear larger compared to single eye observation.I did the same mistake when i started,thought i can binoview with even 5mm pairs.Not the case lol.