Bintel Plossls?

[Popeye (Bert)]

Has anyone been able to try out the Bintel plossls? I'm wondering if they are a patch on the Meade 4000 series.

[ColHut (Colin)]

They are perfectly fine. Slightly better finish than on some Synta Super Plossels I had. Excellent value for money. Have not compared like for like (GSO to Meade s4000 4 element) in the same focal length however - I have GSO 25 and x 2 Barlow and a Meade s4000 9.7mm. YMMV

regards

[Popeye (Bert)]

That's very encouraging. And it seems to be a very good price. There's a good deal going with their dobs - adding three? of their EPs. I will be in Sydney in September and will be able to have a good look at the dob and the Eps. Cheers! Bert (ASWA)

[glend (Glen)]

I believe that the Bintel Plossls are just GSO Plossls, so why not buy them from Andrews and save some money. It seems to me that Bintel is always more expensive than Andrews for any GSO sourced or rebadged equipment.

Have a look at the Andrews website:

http://www.andrewscom.com.au/site-co...-guansheng.htm

I bought one of the new 12" GSO Dobs from them and it came with four EPs.

I don't know how long they are going to keep the present pricing on those GSO dobs ($100 less than Bintel for the 12"), it's worth calling them and having a chat.

Keep in mind that the Bintel Dobs are GSO sourced and Bintel badged, there are only those two GSO retailers in Australia.

[Popeye (Bert)]

Thanks, Glend. I'm looking for an 8" dob. An ASWA member has loaned me one for the time being. I used to have an LX90 among other things but sold everything moving back to WA and now 2 and 1/2 years later I've got the bug again but I'm keeping it simple this time. No leads, dew heaters/shields etc. Just bought an ETX90RA (on IIS) and happy with that - it just tracks and the optics are great. Three AA batteries!

[dannat (Daniel)]

yes bintel/adrews plossl are made by GSO, the longer focal lengths ar e fine, when you get to 10mm & below the eye relief becomes short & i find them hard to use, i prefer volcano top orthos in the shorter focal lengths

[bigjoe (JOSEPH)]

Hi buddy,the 9mm gs o won a shootout with some v famous plossel and orthos I myself have tried it against naglers rad s etc and guess what it was Sharper on axis and v good at edges so much so that it was my preferred mars ep others v g ood also

[barx1963 (Malcolm)]

I just recently purchased a 15mm GSO Superview from Bintel as a lightweight EP for my travel scope. They have a 68deg AFOV and are $50 or $60 depending on FL, as against $40 for the plossls.
It is not a bad EP, in my little 8" f4 traveller it is hard to distinguish quality of view from a 13mm Ethos, but I have yet to try it under really good conditions. It is certainly much better than equivalent plossls I have tried in terms of eye relief and ease of use.

Malcolm

[Fox]

Bert, this is just my 2 cents to put in. I understand the attraction for going for Bintel/GSO Plossls because they are very affordable, but I would agree with Dannat that at the short focal lengths in particular - the small eye lens and short eye relief can be quite uncomfortable. I don't think they will be that great in the long run. May I suggest you think a little more for the longer term and increase you budget a bit more if you can do so. In the short focal lengths I would consider the TMB Planetary II's which can be bought for around $70 to $80 each at VTI Optics (BTW, they only sell the genuine TMBs, not the copies that go around). They have 58 deg FOV and are certainly a big step up compared to the Bintel Plossls in terms of quality of construction, comfort, eye relief and fit and finish.

Another option might be to bide your time and keep a close eye on the Buy/Sell ads on this forum - from time to time you may well find a Baader or Orion Stratus for around $100 if you are lucky. As for the GSO/Bintel Superviews, I don't know anything about what design they are based on nor have I tried any as well. I did quickly look at the Orion Edge On/Planetary series - they seemed very nice (but I did not have the chance to be more critical).

Cheers, Fox

[bigjoe (JOSEPH)]

Pop the less glass. The better for critical planetary. Viewing get an ortho tv8 plossel or the surprise of the lot a gso9mm Barlows ex well also edge ons have ex contrast5mm parks my 2nd favorite cheers bigjoe ps if u need eye relief go for a delos u won't get better

[Popeye (Bert)]

Folks,
I didn't get back to this forum yesterday and this is my first time today. In the meantime I took glend's advice and ordered the 8" dob package from Andrews. Perhaps I mentioned that I have had a few years in the hobby and had a LX90, ETXEC (with solar filter) and a PST and sold them all as I thought I was through with astronomy and ticked off with the weather in Tassie. Now my wife and I have returned to WA I began to get that itch again. But this time, and at my time in life, I just want to make it simple. I have tried out a loan 8" dob and it does the trick for me. The Andrews one has a 90 degree finderscope which makes life even better. I found my first scope again - the original ETX90RA - and since I sold it long ago I have wished I'd kept it. Now I won't part with it. So, simple it is and I thank the folk who contributed to this forum. I am somewhat the wiser but in the three years that I have been away from the hobby things have changed and I need to get to understand the newer terminology. Cheers! Bert.