TMB burgess planetary 4mm - first impressions

[davidpretorius]

This is very exciting, Geoff, Mike and I have received our TMB planetary eyepieces.
From the outset, let me say that I rate myself as about 3/10 in eyepiece experience. Guys like John Bambury would be 10/10.
We ordered a 3 for 2 deal and so it cost me just on $100
I bought a 5mm lv vixen off Asimov last year and found that i got enough use out of it to feel my conditions locally would justify a 4mm.
I must say I am very very impressed in the make of this eyepiece. It reminds me of pictures of radians.
I have only got to look at a very cloudy moon last night and can't wait to try it on saturn.
The field of view feels larger than the lv vixen.
More details to come soon, but from my perspective I feel have invested very wisely.
Having talked to Geoff on the phone, he feels that they are not premium ie pentax and televues, but they definately are very good value for money.
Good feeling about this one!

[janoskiss (Steve H)]

Looking forward to reading more, Davo! I think your "good feeling" will be justified. Would be good to hear more from Geoff too on the 7mm, now that he had it for a while.

[asimov (John)]

Great, I'll have my 5mm LV back then..I miss it! sob sob..lol.

[Starkler (Geoff)]

Originally Posted by janoskiss

Would be good to hear more from Geoff too on the 7mm, now that he had it for a while.

Thanks Dave for letting me you know you recieved it safe and sound
I was starting to get concerned.

I have been using the 4mm a bit in my 5" f5, which gives me 162x.

Like I have said to Davo, the look and feel of them isnt up there with the likes of TV and Pentax, but the view isnt far behind. They are very sharp on axis, and pretty good across the field at f5. I also finally got used to the eyeplacement, which I find is ideal for me with the eyecup screwed up about 5mm from the bottom.

At the price we got them they are excellent value for money and I'm pretty happy with it as a secondary use eyepiece case filler. I say secondary as I dont mind spending on premium ep's for those that I use a lot.

For those starting to kit themselves out with eyepieces, if you can pick these up at 2nd hand prices I would suggest these might be a better and similarly priced option than buying a quality barlow for use with existing plossls for high mag viewing.

[davidpretorius]

Originally Posted by Starkler

Thanks Dave for letting me you know you recieved it safe and sound

hey mate, it has arrived...thanks

[davidpretorius]

part report - 4mm TMB versus 5mm LV vixen

seeing poor - as there is a 8 degree difference between mirror and ambient

gamma 2 delphinus split with the 4mm, very nice, warm orange and deep sky blue - nice

achermar (mag 0.43) - 4mm, nice and sharp considering seeing and there is a feeling of wide view comapred to 5mm. 4mm started to break up into red / blue in the outer 10%, whilst the 5mm vixen was better at less than 5%.

tuc47 - 5mm vixen had an alright view of the core filling the fov, BUT the 4mm was significantly better.....a lot sharper on axis, and there was that feeling of immersion maybe even 3D.

The 4mm TMB was very very nice on the core of TUC47!!!!

More to come.....the scope is cooling, the "trap" will be up later and also saturn. I am very keen to compare diffraction rings on the intra and inter focal of both eyepieces. I know the 5mm vixen has always stood out in my mind for the lovely concentric rings compared to the ****ty old 6mm series 500!!!

[casstony]

Haven't had much chance to use these but my 5,7 and 9mm Burgess/TMB's arrived recently and I looked for the flaring issue that has been talked about. Using a 80mm short tube refractor the field was milky as the Moon was shifted out of the field of view in all 3 eyepieces. A similar effect was seen in my Vixen 8-24 zoom and a 10mm generic plossl, though the zoom was probably the best of all these with regard to flaring - I don't have a Pentax to compare these with :-(

Similar but maybe a little less flaring was seen in a Stellarvue f/9.4 refractor using the 7 and 9mm. Conditions were not good enough to use the 5mm.

Having said that, I don't find the flaring really bothersome and the Moon looked quite good in the Burgess eyepieces, unlike a 6mm expanse I once owned that showed terrible ghosting.