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TV 8mm Plossl


Kef9

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Hi Guys

Below is a transcript of an email I sent my mate Shane a week or so ago. I thought I might aswell share my experience of this eyepiece with you all as you maybe interested.

Hi Shane

I did get the chance last night to look through the 8mm plossl through a bit of cloud at Jupiter. Eye relief was no problem whatsoever and in fact I found using the eyepiece very comfortable as you could snuggle your face right in.

Regarding the image - All I can say is wow. I might not even bother with an 8mm ethos now I was that impressed. The views of Jupiter were the sharpest I'd seen of any eyepiece. When doing planetary the FoV for me is secondary to the clarity and sharpness of the view and in that regard this plossl delivers big time. I could see individual cloud bands on the planet like never before and this was with the startravel achro. For some reason the chromatic aberration was also a lot less in the plossl than in the other eyepieces too. I wasn't sure when I bought the 8mm and I haven't had the chance to use the 11mm yet but if its as good then I don't think I will ever get rid of them. The call for the 5mm Pentax XO grows ever stronger!!! I wish they did a 5mm plossl.

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You mention you would like a 5mm Pentax. I'm sure it's a great ep, but I think

it would be hard to beat the Nagler 3-6mm zoom in your sig. or the 2x powermate

plus 11mm TV plossl, also in your sig. ?

Not wishing to interfere, just a thought, Ed.

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No worries mate and what you are saying does make sense but I've read quite a few reviews on the Pentax XO and they all pretty much say the same in that it is the ultimate planetary EP. I've also had contact with owners who also say the same. That sort of reputation is becoming hard to resist! I was worried about eye relief but after trying the 6mm ER of the 8mm TV plossl I'm less concerned now.

Regarding the nagler zoom - The jury is still out on it for me at the moment. I wouldn't mind getting hold of some super monocentrics to see what they were like but they seem overpriced to me.

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From what I've read I believe Pentax XO is certainly one of the top planetary eyepieces. Others in the "1st division" seem to include the Zeiss orthos, the TMB monocentrics and the Astro Physics SPL's. Of those, the TMB mono is relatively affordable but I don't fancy the 30 degree FoV and tiny eye relief much :)

Even in the company of the above though the Baader Genuine Ortho's put up a very respectable performance and are very readily available at a reasonable price.

But I can see the appeal of wanting to try something from the very top drawer - just to see for oneself :(

Pity there is not a loan facility available ......

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I can only comment on the 11mm Plossl (gives me 145x in my scopes) but everything you say is certainly true of that too. It's a stunning EP for the money.

as you know I bought a BGO 12.5mm (128x) and have only compared it briefly on Jupiter the other night. the seeing was poor but the image in the 12.5mm was superb considering and actually sharper than the Ethos 13mm (123x). I'll do a fuller review / comparison of those EPs when I get a more prolonged view in better conditions.

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I wish there was a loan facility LOL :)

Glad to hear about the 12.5 BGO. Interesting to know it was sharper than the 13mm ethos under first impressions. I'm really looking forward to the review!

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