Celestron 25mm plossal that comes with the 8SE. Worth upgrading to a TV 25mm plossal?

[Layton]

As the subject says is the TV 25mm plossal that much better than the stock one that comes with the 8SE?  Thinking about pullng the trigger on a TV 25mm from what little reading I've done.
 
L

[Charic]

Try one!

I for one tried an 8mm TV and found it too tight with the eye relief, I then decided that I could not invest in the TV Plössl's, as I would not be able to own the set.
I have other Plössl's in my case, and they give just as good an image for my eyes, on my scope, from my garden,  and their a darn site cheaper too, giving the  same result to my eyes, yet how come I can now use  6mm eye-relief, when I thought the 8mm TV was too short for my eyes?  Even my Delois appear no better apart from the field of view, under my present conditions, so in order to find out if the TV Plössl would be better, only you will know by testing it yourself. I still think TeleVue are  the market leaders, but the  Delos 8mm does not better my 8mm Starguider,  except on the field of view.  Under perfect skies, no light pollution, and good dark adapted eyes, its possible there is a difference in the TV Plössl and the supplied Plössl. 

Try one, and if it don't come up to your standards, return it, or sell it?

[Ruud]

I have the same 25mm. It came with my 6SE. It works really well at the 6SE's f/10. It's just as good as my 26mm TeleVue Plössl.

In my f/5 telescope, the TeleVue 26mm gives better edge sharpness than the Celestron 25mm. The difference is very noticeable.

---

Your 8SE is, like my 6SE, an f/10. You won't see much improvement by exchanging the Celestron Plössl for a TeleVue is my guess.

Maybe go wider, like with a 24mm 68° Explore Scientific.

 

 

 

[Mak the Night]

If it's a Plossl and has Celestron written on it it's probably a GSO (Guan Sheng Optical). They usually supply a 13mm and 40mm Plossl with their larger SCT's. And perfectly usable they are too. The TeleVue Plossls have a much higher build quality and I think have a slight edge on the GSO Plossls in brightness and clarity. It is a slight edge though. I use all of my TV Plossls regularly depending what scope I'm using (the 8mm gets a lot of use). The 25mm is well built with a generous eye lens and a field stop of 21.2mm for a weight of 122 grammes. 

 

TeleVue Homepage 25mm Plossl

It compares well with my Astro Hutech 25mm orthoscopics although I don't think the view of either the orthoscopics or the TV 25mm Plossl is better than my 25mm Vixen NPL which was half the price thereabouts.

The orthoscopic only has a 43° FOV however compared to the others.

 

[LukeSkywatcher]

8 hours ago, Mak the Night said:

If it's a Plossl and has Celestron written on it it's probably a GSO (Guan Sheng Optical). They usually supply a 13mm and 40mm Plossl with their larger SCT's. And perfectly usable they are too. The TeleVue Plossls have a much higher build quality and I think have a slight edge on the GSO Plossls in brightness and clarity. It is a slight edge though. I use all of my TV Plossls regularly depending what scope I'm using (the 8mm gets a lot of use). The 25mm is well built with a generous eye lens and a field stop of 21.2mm for a weight of 122 grammes. 

 

TeleVue Homepage 25mm Plossl

It compares well with my Astro Hutech 25mm orthoscopics although I don't think the view of either the orthoscopics or the TV 25mm Plossl is better than my 25mm Vixen NPL which was half the price thereabouts.

The orthoscopic only has a 43° FOV however compared to the others.

 

I LOVE my Vixen NPL's. They are much better than the stock EP's supplied with scopes. The view through them is sharper and much more contrasting. They are quality at a good price. Well worth trying with the 8Se. Mine work great with the scope.

[Mark at Beaufort]

Layton your Celestron 8SE is a f/10 scope so is very kind to eyepieces. The Televue 25mm plossl is an extremely good EP but in my opinion you won't see much difference. If you had a f/4.5 reflector then I would say yes buy the Televue.

If you want a wider FOV for your 8SE then as suggested an Explore Scientific 25mm 68 degree EP might be a reasonable choice.

[LukeSkywatcher]

The 30mm GSO while being only 50 degree,feels and gives what is perceived to be a much wider view. Thats my experience with it. Absolutely great EP,well built and same price as most Plossl. Its main use is for scanning the skies to locate objects and then switch it out for a higher magnification to get closer to desired target.

Its a great work horse for widefield.

 

[F15Rules]

I think you will find the GSO 30mm supervise pictured is a 68 deg widefield eyepiece, which is why it seems so wide compared to the plossl!:-)

As stated, at F10 this type of ep works well. My vote would also go to the ES 24mm 68 degree, better build and dust/waterproof. And +1 for the Vixen NPL range, they really do have nice glass!

Dave

[LukeSkywatcher]

4 minutes ago, F15Rules said:

I think you will find the GSO 30mm supervise pictured is a 68 deg widefield eyepiece, which is why it seems so wide compared to the plossl!:-)

As stated, at F10 this type of ep works well. My vote would also go to the ES 24mm 68 degree, better build and dust/waterproof. And +1 for the Vixen NPL range, they really do have nice glass!

Dave

Thanks for that. I had no idea. Mine came with the celestron eye opener kit.

[rwilkey]

To be honest, I am not sure you would notice too much difference in such a long focal length scope.  I think the Vixen NPL's are good suggestion and would offer a noticeable difference, especially in comfort of viewing.  The ES68 series 24mm is also a great suggestion, a great solid ep and a keeper. 

[Davesellars]

Do you use your eyepieces with the focal reducer?

[cloudsweeper]

I have the ES 24/68 with my 8SE.  But for a bigger True Field of Vision , why not go for a Reveleation Astro Superview 42mm?  At 65*, you get a greater TFOV (1.34* compared with just 0.80*), the EP is not expensive, and - as others have said - a slow 'scope is less demanding of EPs.

Doug.

[Ben the Ignorant]

You are planning to trade a 50° eyepiece for another 50° eyepiece, Layton. There's a lot more benefit in a wide-field unit like the Explore 24mm/68°, its image is excellent, and it will show you things that stay outside a Plössl's field of view. The lowest power eyepiece in your set must always show the maximum field your telescope produces, and that's 24mm/68° in the 1.25" format. 2" format is another story.

[Layton]

Thanks for the advice folks.  Looks like I'll go with the 24mm,68° eyepiece.  Again, thanks for the input.

L

[Mak the Night]

I'd recommend this but it isn't inexpensive. 

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

The Panoptic is great, but in an F/10 SCT (and even at F/6 in my APM 80mm triplet) a MaxVision 24mm 68deg will give it a serious run for its money. In both scopes the MaxVision gives me similar quality views compared to the Nagler 22T4, albeit with a smaller FOV. The MaxVision has essentially the same optical design as the ES 24mm. This store:

http://www.robtics.nl/product_info.php?products_id=5123&pID=5123&language=en&osCsid=c98a4rq287livbls3t9ani8d40

still apparently stocks them.

BTW, I had a (Vixen-built) 26mm Plossl that came with my C8 21 years ago, and it was very good indeed. I have a TV Plossl now, used mainly for solar H-alpha), which is excellent, but in a C8 the difference is not visible.

[John]

I went from a mix of low cost plossls to Tele Vue plossls very early on (1980's) and while the differences were mostly quite slight with my F/10 4" refractor (my only scope back then) I've never regretted buying the best quality that I could. I have sometimes regretted buying lower cost alternatives though

The Maxvision 24mm 68 degree and the Explore Scientific 24mm 68 degree eyepieces are really very good eyepieces though, having owned both recently and still having the 24mm ES. They work well in much faster scopes than F/10 as well.

I still feel the yearning for another 24mm Panoptic though - there is just "something" about that eyepiece