25mm TV Plossl

[Littleguy80]

This is more of a shout out to one of my less used eyepices. I bought my copy of the humble 25mm TeleVue Plossl secondhand for something like £60-£70. My one objective for this eyepiece was to observe the Horsehead with my 10" dob. A mission that the three of us (the dob, eyepiece and me) completed successfully with the help of our friend, Astronomik Hb filter. I recently sold my Pentax XF zoom to fund another purchase. The XF zoom has been goto eyepiece for Ha observing with the Daystar Solar Scout. Over lunch today, I selected the 25mm TV to use for some Ha observing and was mightly impressed with the views. Why haven't I been using this more? With so many nice widefield EP's around, it's easy to dismiss or forget about eyepieces like Plossls. I'm 100% guilty of this, though I am partial to an ortho. I decided to write this post as a reminder to myself and others that top quality eyepieces exist without the need to spend large amounts of money. An especially important lesson to remember for those new to the hobby or trying to get the best views on a budget.

[mikeDnight]

 It's nice to hear about your experiences with a humble 25mm Plossl Neil. It's great to get reminders like this from time to time, as we can, if we're not careful, easily fall into the trap of believing that complex wide field eyepieces are the only way to go.  For years I'd been using Pentax XW's as my main set of eyepieces and they are superb of course.  One evening I decided to take my new FC100DC over to paulastro for an observing session, but on this occasion I'd only taken my binoviewer and a couple of ortho's and a 20mm XW. The night was nice and clear so I asked Paul if he had anything with a longer focal length that he could let me borrow for the evening, and he handed me Meade 26mm 5 element super Plossl. I admit to being somewhat insulted, not because it was a plossl but because it was a Meade.  Anyhow, I put the 25mm in my diagonal and was immediately impressed by not only its on axis sharpness but also its clarity.  The 25mm appeared to give a similar true field to my 20mm XW and edge correction that was easily the equal if not better than the XW in my F7.4 refractor.  Paul explained the eyepiece was a design once sold by a number of companies as high end Super Plossl's. I later learned more about the design and set about acquiring a set for myself. Eventually the XW's were sold off, so that now my main eyepiece collection consists of these Plossl's based on a Zeiss Astro planar /Masuyama design. I now own most of them in pairs for use in my binoviewer and am completely happy with them.

 

[wookie1965]

I have a TV 11mm it's one of my goto eyepieces so clear and bright. 

[Alan White]

The 'humble' plossl is indeed a pleasure to use, I have 32 and 25 TV Plossl and love them.
I also have others too of varying makes.
I like wider field in Mono View, but in Bino view the Plossl is king for me.

My first ever TV Eyepiece was a 20mm Plossl, it did a fine job, nice build quality, no reflections.

Other makes can vary from super to OK, comes down to edge blackening, mechanical build quality and the overall coatings etc.
 

Edited March 27, 2023 by Alan White

[Elp]

I used to own a cheap Orbinar 20mm which was 90pc the quality of a 20mm TV. Most of my eyepieces are plossls.

[markse68]

Yes- thumbs up for the humble plossl from another re-convert here too. Well actually the 5 element modified plossls that Mike mentioned but am loving the small size and the views are really very very good- just not as wide as modern eps but I find I quickly get used to that and only really notice it when switching from a wider ep back- which is simple to avoid

Mark

[John]

Before I caught the wide field bug, I had owned all the TV plossls apart from the 55mm 2 inch one. Both sets of the original "NP" ones and later the newer design ones. I enjoyed them a lot, even the 11mm and 8mm which have quite tight eye relief. Even after I had moved to wider fields of view I hung onto the 25mm and 20mm TV plossls for exactly the first task that you describe Neil, the Horsehead Nebula.

The light transmission levels of the TV plossls, especially the 25mm and 20mm, have been measured as very high, more so than good orthos and others which you would think would do well. I figured that every little helps with a target such as the Horsehead 🙂

Edited March 27, 2023 by John

[Highburymark]

On 27/03/2023 at 14:20, Littleguy80 said:

This is more of a shout out to one of my less used eyepices. I bought my copy of the humble 25mm TeleVue Plossl secondhand for something like £60-£70. My one objective for this eyepiece was to observe the Horsehead with my 10" dob. A mission that the three of us (the dob, eyepiece and me) completed successfully with the help of our friend, Astronomik Hb filter. I recently sold my Pentax XF zoom to fund another purchase. The XF zoom has been goto eyepiece for Ha observing with the Daystar Solar Scout. Over lunch today, I selected the 25mm TV to use for some Ha observing and was mightly impressed with the views. Why haven't I been using this more? With so many nice widefield EP's around, it's easy to dismiss or forget about eyepieces like Plossls. I'm 100% guilty of this, though I am partial to an ortho. I decided to write this post as a reminder to myself and others that top quality eyepieces exist without the need to spend large amounts of money. An especially important lesson to remember for those new to the hobby or trying to get the best views on a budget.

The TV Plossls are all superb for solar ha Neil! They are my go-to eyepieces for binoviewing the Sun. The XF zoom is in my view as good as the TV Plossls, which is pretty good for a complex eyepiece, and some orthos are right up there too, but you won’t find better eyepieces for sharp, contrast rich views of filaments and prominences than the TV Plossls. As you’ve discovered, they are also pretty good for night targets too, which is more than you can say for the XF zoom.