Televue Diagonal

[Timebandit]

 

Hello. Well it's not even Christmas yet , but a cracking box of quality has been received. With the latest price increases by televues unfortunately these products have gone out of favour with me due to the justifying such prices for equipment. But I still acknowledge they do make some very good and effective quality kit. I have recently been thinking of getting another diagonal and have been looking at the Baader options and Takahashi. And due to the add on's that the Baader diagonal seem to require therefore pushing the overall price up I decided to discount this option. The Takahashi diagonal ,the non dielectric type , seemed to be of good quality and very reasonable money. So I was about to purchase one of these. But I noticed a used dielectric televue diagonal appear . This was obviously very tempting as these diagonals from what I had read are probably one of the best diagonals on the market. And as I had been getting some very nice eyepieces for my refractor ,then I am sure a diagonal such as this would bring out the best possible views in these eyepieces. As IMO the diagonal is sometimes overlooked as an afterthought by some ,but IMO is just as important in the optical chain to consider and get a quality item to bring out the best of your scope and eyepieces . Therefore I was left with the choice of two quality diagonals, a  new Takahashi or a used Dielectric televues, both quality and both very tempting. The used televues was a bit more expensive, but the seller did kindly offer to meet up to remove the cost of the post and packing. In the end my fondness for televues kit , together with sensible money that the televues diagonal was available at, compared to the unsensible  money the new televues products now unfortunately cost. Therefore televues route was chosen 

I would like to thank Mark for meeting up and a very interesting conversation, and obviously Mark your a very knowledgeable chap. Hopefully we can meet up again in the future at one of the Herefordshire Astro meets ☺ 

 

 

 

 

 

I hope you like the new(used) diagonal. Should hopefully bring out the best of my eyepieces in the refractor. 

 

 

 

[alan potts]

I have 3 TV diagonals and I rate them highly though I have to say I had a Meade S5000 diagonal and could not see any difference between them. My big gripe with the TV's is that they do not come with a 2-1.25 inch reducer for the smaller eyepieces, at the price I am sure it would not hurt for one to be included, after all almost all of the others come with one and they are about 30 quid.

[Timebandit]

5 hours ago, alan potts said:

I have 3 TV diagonals and I rate them highly though I have to say I had a Meade S5000 diagonal and could not see any difference between them. My big gripe with the TV's is that they do not come with a 2-1.25 inch reducer for the smaller eyepieces, at the price I am sure it would not hurt for one to be included, after all almost all of the others come with one and they are about 30 quid.

 

Yes you should not have to pay extra for a 2" to 1.25 converter. For the money televue Diagonal cost then these should come as standard. As televue must be well aware that purchasers of these diagonals do not just use 2" eyepieces as the vast majority of eyepieces used in this hobby especially with refractors IMO are 1.25. Lucky that I did not purchase this new(and I would not purchase a new one due to the vast cost these now command ) as if I had and then realised no 1.25 converter came as standard, and therefore more costs, I would of been disappointed. Luckily I have a non televues 2" to 1.25 convert that I can presently use,a nd therefore the  1.25 eyepieces are ready to go.

As for performance difference this will be interesting . As i presently had a William Optics one ,and found it very good, but i have read a few comments that these were a bit softer with image compared to the top of the range diagonals out there. And televues alway seem to be up there with the best from the feedback I have seen. And as I have a nice APO now and some quality eyepieces like BGO, Pentax XW I really wanted to make sure no possibility of a weak link in the optical chain. And therefore bring out the best views possible with my combination. Therefore it will be interesting to see if the televues diagonal do give a performance benefit even if it's marginal.☺

 

[Davesellars]

You'd think at the asking price of a new one (£300+) they'd provide an adapter for sure...   I'm using the adapter that came with my Skywatcher diagonal but I'd like to get round at some point to getting one for the 2" TV diagonal specifically then no annoying changing of diagonals which I generally like to keep fitted to the scope so not to forget when lugging out to my site for the night!

[Davey-T]

Maybe they expect everyone to buy Ethosisis 

Dave

 

[alan potts]

Timebandit,

I did buy two of these new but it was a good while back, didn't realise they were as much as they are now. I have a WO in my top mounted 70mm ED which piggybacks the SC, I would say the build on the TeleVue's is much better, again I see nothing in the performane but I do not like the conical sleeve it has, I never trust it hense it stays on the 70mm where it will only really carry small eyepieces.

Alan

[Timebandit]

2 hours ago, Davey-T said:

Maybe they expect everyone to buy Ethosisis 

Dave

 

 

Now that's just showing off ?

The eyepieces are very nice and look lovely. I recognise that diagonal?

But for some reason I do prefer eyepieces of a fov of 70d or less in the refractor. I think it's because it concentrates the eye on the target more(as my frac is mainly used for planetary and lunar) and not the surrounding area as much . And I love the Pentax XW ,but also i am very happy with a nice quality Ortho also, especially a BGO?

[alan potts]

10 minutes ago, Timebandit said:

 

Now that's just showing off ?

The eyepieces are very nice and look lovely. I recognise that diagonal?

But for some reason I do prefer eyepieces of a fov of 70d or less in the refractor. I think it's because it concentrates the eye on the target more(as my frac is mainly used for planetary and lunar) and not the surrounding area as much . And I love the Pentax XW ,but also i am very happy with a nice quality Ortho also, especially a BGO?

I had a set of Delos eyepieces which really only got used in the APO but now I have off-loaded all but the two shortest, I was using Panoptic's and BGO's last night with the refractor and never went near an Ethos.

alan

[Mark at Beaufort]

22 hours ago, Timebandit said:

I would like to thank Mark for meeting up and a very interesting conversation, and obviously Mark your a very knowledgeable chap. Hopefully we can meet up again in the future at one of the Herefordshire Astro meets ☺ 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Simon it was good to meet you and to have the chat. Look forward to an observing session in the future.

Diagonal looks good in the photos

 

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[Mark at Beaufort]

Simon you must bring your frac and Orthos to a future observing session at Berrington Hall

[John]

Sorry I'm a bit late to this TV diagonal "party" but congrats on the Everbright

I have a couple of 2" Everbrights and have found them excellent performers in both the dielectric and enhanced aluminum flavours. They are robust things too - the enhanced one survived a drop onto concrete with no ill effects other than a slightly bent set screw !.

 

[kev]

I run 2 32mm everbrites. One onmy solarscope and the other on the vixen. I found they couldnt be beat.