Televue Delos - The End of a Long Search

[great_bear]

Some of you may have noticed that I took a break of several years from SGL before posting again recently.

The answer was quite simple: Televue Delos

I had been searching a long time for the right set of eyepieces. I started off working my way through nearly every budget model available: various Plossls, the X-Cel's the SkyWatcher/TMB Planetaries, the BSTs, Circle-T Orthos, various budget wide angles, but nothing felt "right". There was always something that bugged me about every model available - hence much discussion in the eyepieces forums both here and on Cloudy Nights.

Even when I upped the budget things didn't get much better - I tried the Pentax XWs (didn't like them), TeleVue Plossls (really did not like those!) even some hyped classics like Edmund RKE's and the fabled Brandons. I moved up to some Televue Radians - and was truly horrified at the coloured fringes all over the moon! (what's the point in using a reflector if your eyepiece has CA in spades??). Even making my own combinations with barlows was not working well. I *always* got bad effects from barlows - even with a TeleVue PowerMate I could clearly see internal planetary reflections even with the best quality eyepieces. I decided barlows were out, and didn't know where to go next.

Then I bought a Televue Delos, brand new.

I froze when I first used it. I was astounded. Everything about Delos was - to me - perfect. Even when performing unreasonable things like shining a high-power torch through it, you could see the internal baffling was perfection too. The build quality is impeccable. What's more, even at the highest powers, stars remain tight pinpricks of light.

I sold off various bits and pieces and bought another three Delos - so in total that's the 17.3mm (with Dioptrx), 12mm, 8mm, and 6mm.

If you think that's too many of them (especially when using the @Don Pensack magnification scheme) then I'd be inclined to agree with you - I could quite happily collapse the middle two to a 10mm without feeling I was missing out on anything.

However I will nonetheless add one final thing: a 5mm Televue Delite. That's to push to 240x on good days (the max possible it seems, in my London skies), to augment the somewhat "safe" 200x of the Delos 6mm (no 5mm Delos exists).

I do have some other "keeper" eyepieces that suit various scopes, but my remaining unused eyepieces I will be selling to help fund the 5mm TeleVue Delite purchase.

Anyway, all this is just my long way of saying that although "no perfect eyepiece exists", for me, the Delos is as close as it gets! Whilst they are no doubt too heavy for small and lightweight telescopes, for use in my 8" Dob and 6" Newtonian however, they're astonishing.

I never thought such a good eyepiece design/build could exist - but it does.

Thoroughly recommended.

Jeremy.

 

Edited June 23, 2022 by great_bear

[Louis D]

My 10mm Delos bought in the first year of availability is very good.  Even in my f/6 Dob without a CC, it appears perfect.  I swapped the CC in and out several times and could not see a difference even at the very edge on bright stars.

I find my 9mm Morpheus is just about as good.  Maybe it has a tiny bit of edge astigmatism, but I can't confirm it consistently.  Otherwise, it complements the 10mm Delos very well.

[Don Pensack]

It would be very very hard to beat the Delos.

You might appreciate this test:

https://web.archive.org/web/20130829052725/http://www.cieletespace.fr:80/files/InstrumentTest/201306__6_oculaires_10mm.pdf

After reading that, it might not be possible to beat the Delos.

[great_bear]

I've only just read of the recent passing of the Delos designer, Paul Dellechiaie.

Such a sad loss.

Edited June 24, 2022 by great_bear

[Paz]

I went around the houses on eyepiece choice and in the end I narrowed things down to be based on needing long eye relief and wanting the best quality out there so I could retire from the eyepiece rat race and just enjoy observing.  I got a Delos and realised that was it for me and now I've got all of them except the 14mm (it's the one focal length I didn't strictly need). I've had Delos for years now and I never find myself thinking about whether I should be trying any other eyepieces.

I also have a pair of 17.3 Delos for binoviewing and that is epic.

[great_bear]

Yes, that sums up my feelings too. 

[Alma]

Interesting that you didn’t like the Pentax XW.   I had the 10mm Pentax XW and Delos at the same time and although I preferred the Pentax for comfort the Delos was sharper to the edge in fast scopes and I thought had better light throughput.  Worth paying the extra i.m.h.o.