Televue eyepiece advice please

[Allan]

You could try all these eyepieces mentioned as they come up regularly here in the used market. Keep the ones you like and sell the others for next to no loss. Have a look in 'your eyepiece family' post and you will see an awesome TeleVue collection one of the boys put together from the used market over 5 years of buying.

The 24 Panoptic is another great eyepiece you will surely love. Don't write off the 17 Nagler. It was very good in my scope, but I do use a Paracorr all the time.

Oh and finally, Eeeeethoooos!

[SkyWatch (Dean)]

Hi all, I am weighing in a bit late; but just a couple of comments...
I use the 13mm Type 6 a lot in my f5 12": and it is terrific. The only drawback is the limited eye relief, but I can cope even with glasses on.

I tried the 19mm Panoptic a few years back, but I must have got a Friday afternoon one (made at 4.59pm for a 5pm close I reckon!). Given that it was billed in a number of reviews as "the best eyepiece ever made" it was VERY disappointing. It even had an air bubble in the glass! I sent it back and ended up getting an 18mm Radian at the time. I did look through a 24mm Panoptic, and it was a quantum jump over the 19mm! There was a fair bit of field curvature at the edges in both Panoptics though, and that put me off getting the 24: something I haven't noticed in the Radian or the Nagler.

Regarding the Ethos: I have compared the 13mm Ethos and the 13 mm Nagler head-to-head. The size difference is unbelievable! Both are brilliant eyepieces, but I will stick to the Nagler not only because of the price and the weight (it doesn't unbalance my dob), but also because I can't see the whole 100 degree Ethos field without moving my head around- and that doesn't really appeal...

Personally I think the Delos series have a lot going for them. Good eye relief, a good sized manageable field (no need to move the head around!) that is sharp to the edge- and a lot cheaper than the Ethos.
All in all though, sounds like a lot of fun making the decisions!

All the best,
- Dean

[brian nordstrom (As avatar)]

, Bummer about the 5th rate 19mm Pan , Dean that does not usually happen with TV's ?
Anyway mate I have a 19 , 22 , 24 and 27 Panoptic and they are my most used eyepieces , very nice .
I also have many Radians 3mm up to the 18mm and yes you are correct it is a very good eyepiece , I mostly use my Radians in my SKY90 , they work well in the Fluorite refractor , and my Pans and Naglers get most use in my 127mm Istar and M210 .
TV's are all I have and use now , love them all .
Brian.

[MortonH]

If you want a 24mm Panoptic, I suggest posting a wanted ad. They don't come up all that often.

[philipheaven (Philip)]

I will take that as a good sign.

[Camelopardalis (Dunk)]

The 24 Panoptic is a good eyepiece, if you're sticking with 1.25" but if you go 2" you could save a few $$ on the wide field EP to put towards your other EP upgrades by getting a 24mm UWA (Meade, ES...which ever is cheapest)

[MortonH]

I just received a used 19mm Panoptic today. What a little beauty! Ultra sharp in my 80mm f/7 refractor and will hopefully be tested in my 200mm f/5 Newtonian this weekend.

[GrahamL]

I had a 22 nagler for a few yeas, aside the ultra wide view of the 22 which is really nice the edge of field was always a little distracting.I now have a 24 pan which is a great little eyepiece,the 20 t5 is also a nice one if you can handle the eyerelief.

cheers

[ausastronomer (John Bambury)]

Originally Posted by GrahamL

I had a 22 nagler for a few yeas, aside the ultra wide view of the 22 which is really nice the edge of field was always a little distracting.

cheers

I would expect that if you used the 22mm Nagler in your Newtonian without a paracorr. In my newtonians both the 17mm and 22mm Naglers without the paracorr, are pretty average eyepieces. With a paracorr they are both excellent performers. However, they are both very heavy eyepieces (17mm is heaviest) and combined with the paracorr it makes a fairly heavy combination to balance at the top end of a smaller dob, especially if it doesn't have a Servocat drive to help hold it in place.

The 24mm Panoptic is a great eyepiece but eye relief is too short to use with eye glasses, hence I don't really use one , when I can help it. The 27mm Panoptic has greater eye relief, which makes it easy to use for eye glass wearers and it has a much larger eye lens which IMO offers a far more submersive view than the 24mm Panoptic. While the 27mm Panoptic is about the same physical size of the 17mm Nagler T4 it is only about 60% of the weight. In addition like the 24mm Panoptic, the 27mm Panoptic works quite well in fast Newtonians without a paracorr.

I actually use the 27mm Panoptic as my low power wide field eyepiece in my 10" Newtonian, in preference to the 31mm Nagler due to its compactness, light weight and great views. The 27mm Panoptic is a 2" only barrel so not able to be used with a 1.25" barlow whereas the 24mm Panoptic can be used with a 1.25" barlow.

Cheers,
John B

[philipheaven (Philip)]

Thanks for all of your input. I've decided to go for the Panoptic 24mm. It has nothing but excellent reviews, especially from many who use it in fast newtonians. It will handle the inherent coma in my telescope much better than a 17mm Nagler. Many people have said the 17mm Nagler is almost not worth the purchase without a paracorr and I can't afford to buy both the eyepiece and the paracorr just at this moment.

What made the decision easier was a reasliation that I don't want to stop at only 3 or 4 televise eyepieces, I want many more! I've got years of observing so I have put a paracorr on my to-buy list, as I would like to eventually get my hands on a couple of 2 inch Naglers. And Ethos as well!!

I picked up a 13mm Nagler T6 a few days ago but still haven't had the chance to use it - damn Melbourne weather. Looks like I will have a fantastic first light evening coming up, with two Televue eyepieces making their debut at the same time. Can't wait!

[barx1963 (Malcolm)]

Phillip
So you are ending up with a 13mm T6 Nag and a 24mm Pan? Those 2 were my main go too eps in my 12".
I note you express an interest in having a lot of TV eyepieces. From experience, you will probably find you really only need 3 or 4.
At one stage I had an EP rack on my 12" that contained a 34mm Meade SWA, a 24 Pan,a 17mm Ethos, a 13mm Ethos, a 13T6Nag, a 10mm Ethos, a 7T6Nag, and a TV Barlow.
What I found was I really only used maybe 2 EPs in a session, often times I would only use 1! So spend some time with the 2 you have and enjoy them.

Malcolm

[philipheaven (Philip)]

Yep I will be spending time with these two. Finances dictate that I must as well! My third EP will be an 8mm Delos but I think that will have to wait now.

Where are you clear skies?

[Camelopardalis (Dunk)]

My sessions tend to echo Malcolm's experience... I might take out a handful of EPs but in the end use only 2, maybe 3... it all comes down to the choice of targets and the viewing conditions (for me).

[Marcus10 (Marcus)]

I'm not such a fan of the panoptics - I'm a wide AFOV junkie.

I love the Ethos. They are very expensive but it is genuinely a case of you get what you pay for. The optics are superb and they will last you a long long time. In that context, the cost is perhaps not so high.

[brian nordstrom (As avatar)]

So the 72 * field of a nice 24mm Pan aint good enough ? ,
But I see where you are comming from , saturady night here in Perth we had a ball using Peter's ( Stardrifter_WA ) Ethos's in his 16 inch lightbridge ,, impressive to say the least . .
Also very nice in my little Tak SKY90 at f 5.5 ( but the 21mm was 1/2 the size and weight of the li'l Tak ) .

Sunday night we found all the Ethos's were perfect in my Istar 127mm f8 refractor , perfect stars all the way to the edge , agian super impressed we were . Ethos and quality refractor ,, nice combo .
But the Delos's were as good , but a smaller field of course .
But Peters 21mm Ethos is worth almost as much as my whole Istar set up , including mount and tripod .

They are the best ,,,, if you can afford them.
But I will keep and love my Radians, Panoptics and Naglers , thank you very much .

Brian.

Originally Posted by Marcus10

I'm not such a fan of the panoptics - I'm a wide AFOV junkie.

I love the Ethos. They are very expensive but it is genuinely a case of you get what you pay for. The optics are superb and they will last you a long long time. In that context, the cost is perhaps not so high.

[Profiler (Profiler)]

One disappointing aspect of the Ethos eyepieces is once you have spent a decent amount of time looking through one everything else thereafter seems small. Even a 70' widefield fov all of the sudden feels painfully small like looking through a plossl

[brian nordstrom (As avatar)]

Sad but true .
Brian.

Originally Posted by Profiler

One disappointing aspect of the Ethos eyepieces is once you have spent a decent amount of time looking through one everything else thereafter seems small. Even a 70' widefield fov all of the sudden feels painfully small like looking through a plossl

[MattT]

Originally Posted by Profiler

One disappointing aspect of the Ethos eyepieces is once you have spent a decent amount of time looking through one everything else thereafter seems small. Even a 70' widefield fov all of the sudden feels painfully small like looking through a plossl

No I don't agree. Even though I only have the country cousin ES 100's and 68's I am finding the 68's much nicer to view with….not that there is much of that in Melbourne. Seeing a sharp Field stop is really comforting, some how….
Matt

[ausastronomer (John Bambury)]

I don't agree either. I have a 13mm ETHOS and a 14mm Pentax XW. I much prefer the 14mm Pentax XW in my Newtonians combined with a paracorr. It has greater throughput on axis, hence it goes slightly deeper on axis on threshold targets and it has less lateral colour on bright targets. The BIG difference is the additional eye relief making it infinitely more comfortable to use for long observing sessions and to use with eye glasses. Further, I find the ~70 deg AFOV eyepieces like Pentax XW and Televue Delos to be about perfect for my observing style. That's the amount of information I like to digest from the one field of view. If an object is not fully framed within that field I prefer to move the scope slightly and adjust the target position.

Cheers,
John B

[Profiler (Profiler)]

Hi Matt and John

I am not disputing your own personal preferences and indeed your comments are interesting but please appreciate my post was (or was meant to be interpreted as) humorous/facetious - I think Brian got my point.

Anyhow, John - as I have both the Ethos and XW as well your comments are especially useful but as I said before - after I look through the Ethos everything seems small when I look through in the XW