Televue plossls

[Louis D]

21 hours ago, 25585 said:

Though I have sold most of my LV eps due to buying LVWs, I have kept my 9mm and 20mm ones, as in pairs for a bino viewer. Their eye relief is better than SLV eps due to roll down eye cup. Sharp images from edge to edge and low weight but 50 deg FOV. Usually affordable in 25mm down focal lengths on ebay etc. 

50 degrees down to 9mm, then 45 degrees below that.  That stiff rubber eyecup is very difficult to roll down.  I've put a fingerprint on my 9mm LV eye lens multiple times trying to get it to roll down.  Otherwise, it has very comfortable eye relief with glasses and is sharp right to the edge.  However, using it after using my XL/Panoptic/XW/Delos/Morpheus/S-W/Nagler/ES-92 eyepieces gives me the feeling of chest tightness since an inky blackness closes in around the edge where there used to be image in the wider field eyepieces.

[mikeDnight]

And the family keeps growing!

After using wide angle eyepieces for years, ive been smitten by some remarkable views while using the simple plossl. So much so in fact that I've been acquiring a set for myself. The Eudiascopic is the only one I've paid full price for, and its worth every penny to me! The remaining ones are all Televue bought second hand, some smooth some undercut, but all superb. The trouble is I now want all the collection of smoothies from 26 down, and all the undercut version from 25 down, just to satisfy my OCD. Again, all second hand of course!

 

[25585]

1 minute ago, mikeDnight said:

And the family keeps growing!

After using wide angle eyepieces for years, ive been smitten by some remarkable views while using the simple plossl. So much so in fact that I've been acquiring a set for myself. The Eudiascopic is the only one I've paid full price for, and its worth every penny to me! The remaining ones are all Televue bought second hand, some smooth some undercut, but all superb. The trouble is I now want all the collection of smoothies from 26 down, and all the undercut version from 25 down, just to satisfy my OCD. Again, all second hand of course!

 

Where do you buy Eudiascopics from? I was under the impression they had been replaced by the Hyperion range.

[Saganite]

24 minutes ago, mikeDnight said:

And the family keeps growing!

After using wide angle eyepieces for years, ive been smitten by some remarkable views while using the simple plossl. So much so in fact that I've been acquiring a set for myself. The Eudiascopic is the only one I've paid full price for, and its worth every penny to me! The remaining ones are all Televue bought second hand, some smooth some undercut, but all superb. The trouble is I now want all the collection of smoothies from 26 down, and all the undercut version from 25 down, just to satisfy my OCD. Again, all second hand of course!

 

Very, very nice Mike, particularly the left hand end ! 

[mikeDnight]

On 16/01/2018 at 12:44, 25585 said:

Where do you buy Eudiascopics from? I was under the impression they had been replaced by the Hyperion range.

I bought mine last July from Astroshop, a European supplier. I'd been wanting one for some time and none were available, until suddenly a new run of the 35mm Eudiascopic's were advertised. I think they are currently unavailable again! You might be able to find a 35mm Celestron Ultima or Orion Ultrascopic, which I think are essentially the same eyepiece. Sadly they rarely come up for sale second-hand, which I suppose is a good sign, unless you're trying to find one.

There was a 30mm Celestron on sale on AB&S or SGL a few days ago, though it may have been sold by now.

The 35mm Eudiascopic is very similar to the 28mm RKE in that you get the view almost jumping out of the eyepiece. Well worth hunting one down!

Edited January 18, 2018 by mikeDnight

[ollypenrice]

I wanted to try a TV Plossl so I bought a used 25mm. It's good, but quite honestly the improvement on an equivalent Meade Plossl is, to my eye, marginal. Where the TVs come into their own is in the more exotic designs. I don't have words of praise enough to describe the 13 Ethos but there are other TV greats as well, notably the 19 Panoptic in a more moderately priced EP. Do I think the best way to spend the price of a TV Plossl is on a TV Plossl? Actually no - and I'm a huge TV fan with 6 in my box. But I'm not a great Plossl fan at the best of times. I once heard them described as 'mushy' which is going far too far, but they don't have the crispness I like in an EP. Of course they're notoriously personal things, EPs.

Olly

Edit: Your photos of eyepieces on a star chart are very attractive one in their own right. I might copy that one for our kitchen!

Edited January 16, 2018 by ollypenrice

[iPeace]

15 minutes ago, ollypenrice said:

there are other TV greats as well, notably the 19 Panoptic

A new favourite of mine. Just so nice.

[iPeace]

1 hour ago, mikeDnight said:

just to satisfy my OCD

Don't you just hate having that? Mine's a tyrannosaurid nuisance.

[mikeDnight]

15 minutes ago, ollypenrice said:

I wanted to try a TV Plossl so I bought a used 25mm. It's good, but quite honestly the improvement on an equivalent Meade Plossl is, to my eye, marginal. Where the TVs come into their own is in the more exotic designs. I don't have words of praise enough to describe the 13 Ethos but there are other TV greats as well, notably the 19 Panoptic in a more moderately priced EP. Do I think the best way to spend the price of a TV Plossl is on a TV Plossl? Actually no - and I'm a huge TV fan with 6 in my box. But I'm not a great Plossl fan at the best of times. I once heard them described as 'mushy' which is going far too far, but they don't have the crispness I like in an EP. Of course they're notoriously personal things, EPs.

Olly

It was a Meade 26mm Plossl that got me rethinking my eyepiece collection. It's clarity and sharpness really appealed to me, but for the life in me I could never allow anything with Meade written on it in my eyepiece case. I just don't like the company! I've never noticed mushy views through the TV Plossls though, they are sharp and contrasty to me! You weren't looking through a Meade SCT at the time we're you Olly? 

[iPeace]

6 minutes ago, mikeDnight said:

for the life in me I could never allow anything with Meade written on it in my eyepiece case

Allright. You win. Yours is worse than mine. Well done!

[ollypenrice]

1 hour ago, mikeDnight said:

It was a Meade 26mm Plossl that got me rethinking my eyepiece collection. It's clarity and sharpness really appealed to me, but for the life in me I could never allow anything with Meade written on it in my eyepiece case. I just don't like the company! I've never noticed mushy views through the TV Plossls though, they are sharp and contrasty to me! You weren't looking through a Meade SCT at the time we're you Olly? 

  I'm heartily inclined to agree with your dislike of the company, for sure, and I haven't tried my Meade Plossl in our 14 inch Meade SCT! (I wasn't expecting this scope to be anything like as good as it is, by the way, but in fairness to an unpleasant company it is actually very good!)

Olly

Edited January 16, 2018 by ollypenrice

[michaelmorris]

I have the 8mm, 11mm and 32 mm Televue Plossls in my eyepiece collection, and I'm a big fan of all of them.  I use the 8mm and 11mm primarily for double star observing.  I find that the colour rendition on the 8mm TV comes a very close second to my gorgeous 7mm University Optics HD orthoscopic.

The good news is that nice examples of TV Plossls come onto the secondhand market very regularly and tend to go for around £60 - £65 each for the shorter focal lengths and maybe somewhere between £75-£100 for a 32mm.

[25585]

I have been considering the 40mm TV plossl, as though its got the same TFOV as my 32mm, the images though smaller will be brighter when used as a finder ep. Also its 31.7mm fit.

[John]

Just now, 25585 said:

I have been considering the 40mm TV plossl, as though its got the same TFOV as my 32mm, the images though smaller will be brighter when used as a finder ep. Also its 31.7mm fit.

I had one for a short while. I ended up using the 32mm much more because I didn't like the 43 degree AFoV of the 40mm as much and the 40mm is not par focal (by quite a few mm) with the other TV plossls. It's a very nicely put together 40mm plossl though.

 

[25585]

2 hours ago, mikeDnight said:

I bought mine last July from Astroshop, a European supplier. I'd been wanting one for some time and none were available, until suddenly a new run of the 35mm Eudiascopic's were advertised. I think they are currently unavailable again! You might be able to find a 35mm Celestron Ultima or Orion Ultrascopic, which I think are essentially the same eyepiece. Sadly they rarely come up for sale second-hand, which I suppose is a good sign, unless you're trying to find one.

There was a 30mm Celestron on sale on AB&S or SGL a few days ago, though it may have been sold by now.

The 35mm Eudiascopic is very similar to the 28mm RKE in that you get the view almost jumping out of the eyepiece. Well worth hunting one down!

Got one! My first Baader ep.

 

Edited January 16, 2018 by 25585

[Stu]

14 minutes ago, John said:

I had one for a short while. I ended up using the 32mm much more because I didn't like the 43 degree AFoV of the 40mm as much and the 40mm is not par focal (by quite a few mm) with the other TV plossls. It's a very nicely put together 40mm plossl though.

 

I've said previously (hopefully not in this thread!  ) that the 40mm probably only makes sense in a Mak or SCT with a 1.25" visual back in order to get maximum exit pupil for narrowband filters.

[mikeDnight]

6 hours ago, 25585 said:

Got one! My first Baader ep.

 

Excellent! Where did you manage to find one? ?

[25585]

14 minutes ago, mikeDnight said:

Excellent! Where did you manage to find one? ?

APM telescopes. Pre-owned.

[CrazyPanda]

I bought the 8mm and the 11mm. They are outstanding eyepieces. Pretty much the highest contrast eyepieces I've ever looked through. The 8mm bests my 8mm Ethos for sharpness, star size, contrast, light transmission, and focus snapiness but it's very hard to look through. The 11mm matches my 11mm DeLite in every respect except eye relief and FOV. The plossl has maybe the tiniest bit of contrast advantage over the DeLite on the moon, but it's likely due to the effects of the smaller apparent field of view (less volume of light entering the eye) rather than the quality of the eyepiece itself. 

The 11mm is also a bit hard to look through, but mainly because of the terrible thick rubber eyecups that TV includes on these units. You have to fold down the eyecup, but then the lens cap doesn't fit, so you're constantly having to fold and unfold the eyecup to look through it and put it away. I might just rip the eye guard off entirely since it serves no practical purpose.

I recommend the 11mm Plossl as a minimum. Despite the quality of the 8, it's just not worth the next to zero eye relief and tiny FOV at its higher magnification. Since the DeLites seem to be every bit as sharp and contrasty as the Plossls, I strongly recommend going with DeLites for focal lengths below 11mm. Yes, they're more expensive, but are well worth it.

Edited January 17, 2018 by CrazyPanda

[Alan White]

2 hours ago, CrazyPanda said:

I bought the 8mm and the 11mm. They are outstanding eyepieces. Pretty much the highest contrast eyepieces I've ever looked through. The 8mm bests my 8mm Ethos for sharpness, star size, contrast, light transmission, and focus snapiness but it's very hard to look through. The 11mm matches my 11mm DeLite in every respect except eye relief and FOV. The plossl has maybe the tiniest bit of contrast advantage over the DeLite on the moon, but it's likely due to the effects of the smaller apparent field of view (less volume of light entering the eye) rather than the quality of the eyepiece itself. 

The 11mm is also a bit hard to look through, but mainly because of the terrible thick rubber eyecups that TV includes on these units. You have to fold down the eyecup, but then the lens cap doesn't fit, so you're constantly having to fold and unfold the eyecup to look through it and put it away. I might just rip the eye guard off entirely since it serves no practical purpose.

I recommend the 11mm Plossl as a minimum. Despite the quality of the 8, it's just not worth the next to zero eye relief and tiny FOV at its higher magnification. Since the DeLites seem to be every bit as sharp and contrasty as the Plossls, I strongly recommend going with DeLites for focal lengths below 11mm. Yes, they're more expensive, but are well worth it.

Everyone to their own taste and comfort CrazyPanda.
Eye-relief in the short form is something you cope with or hate in my view.
 

[Alan White]

AS this went off topic about the 35mm Eudiascopic, here is the infor from the horses mouth.
Clearly 25585 got lucky again, you should enter the lottery my friend!!

[25585]

2 hours ago, Alan White said:

AS this went off topic about the 35mm Eudiascopic, here is the infor from the horses mouth.
Clearly 25585 got lucky again, you should enter the lottery my friend!!

Decades of collecting stuff; audio, visual, photo etc, have taught me that its all a waiting game. And for searching, less yields more. Also buying retro in this must-have-latest world is an advantage.

Hardest to get are things lost in your own house.

[John]

I have to say that I feel the prices for the 35mm Eudiascopic are a little on the steep side if they are the same as the old Celestron Ultima 35 and Orion Ultrascopic 35

Last time I bought a used Ultima 35 (which was a few years back admittedly) I think I paid around £45 for it, delivered

 

 

[25585]

20 minutes ago, John said:

I have to say that I feel the prices for the 35mm Eudiascopic are a little on the steep side if they are the same as the old Celestron Ultima 35 and Orion Ultrascopic 35

Last time I bought a used Ultima 35 (which was a few years back admittedly) I think I paid around £45 for it, delivered

 

 

Mine, pre-owned, was just under my limit. I looked for the Celestron & Orion first. Orion do a Deepview model now, maybe that's the new name/clothes/re-tread for Ultrascopic.

Baader are not offering the 35mm with their Mk 5 bino viewer anymore. The photo of latter shows it with Hyperion zooms instead.

Edited January 17, 2018 by 25585

[John]

I think the Deepview eyepieces are a modified 3 element kellner type design.