Good plossl except Televue

[aljosa]

Hello,

I am looking for a good short and medium focal lenght eyepiece. I am really impressed with Televue 11 mm and 8 mm plossl, but they don't have anything in the range of 4, 5, 6 mm. As you gather nothing from the prices (since most plossls are cheap), I want to know which plossls are also good quality? Are Meade 5000 series or 4000 series a good buy? Or would I be better off with orthos (that come in short and medium focal lenghts)? The only thing that bothers me about orthos is their even shorter eye relief and even narrower field of view...
I really am impressed with the view through the Televue plossls, I think the 8 mm is much better than any of the TMB Planetary eyepieces... My 7 mm TMB had a glow-like effect around Jupiter and quite a soft image and you could never focus properly. While with the Televue there is no real problem at all.
I really prefer the FOV of the plossl for planets and not those widefields... So no, I won't buy a Nagler or Radian for high power...

[Waxing_Gibbous]

Not strictly Plossls and not cheap, but I've found the Vixen LV series to be excellent planetary EPs. You get roughly 15mm eye relief and a nice crisp image. Just my .02$.

[astro744]

The eye relief for orthos and Plossls is a percentage of focal length and I believe that is why Tele Vue stopped at 8mm (used to have a 7.4mm in there original series).

I think your best investment is the Nagler Zoom 3-6mm with only 5 elements of glass, 10mm eye relief and a reasonable eye lens plus 50 deg apparent field. Expensive but covers infinite focal lengths between 3 & 6mm with click stops at 3,4,5 & 6 for reference.

[anj026]

I am impressed with the Tele Vue plossls also. I would recommend a 3-6 Nagler zoom as it has similar field of view and reasonable eye relief. It is expensive though so the alternative is Orthoscopics such as University Optics. The field of view is a little less than a plossl however they are very sharp and great value. If you like the 8mm TV plossl then you should get on well with the orthoscopics.

[dannat]

an ortho for sharpness & price, the nagler is a bit pricey i reckon for the amount of time you can use it

[richardda1st]

Hi aljosa,

I've just been through this.

Was close to buying Orthos, but as I couldn't test any orthos I went for the Televue plossls, after being very impressed with a Televue 15mm plossl (thanks Eric). I chose the 11mm and a 32mm plus a 2x Televue barlow, which converts them to a 5.5mm & 16mm.

A 2X barlow with your 11mm & 8mm would give you 5.5mm & 4mm.

Even with my very short experience I realize that, at this magnification the seeing conditions will restrict the use of such magnification. But I hope there will be times when I will get to use them.

Regards
Richard

[aljosa]

Hello, thanks for your posts. I will probably choose the barlow option. It will also let me buy a 24 mm panoptic.