is televue worth it

[tnott]

Something else to consider - the type of telescope affects the type of eyepiece that will work best.

Cheap and even mid-priced widefield eypieces give distorted views at the edge of the field in fast scopes like F5 and below dobs (astigmatism). In a F10 SCT though, they usually work quite well.

Narrower field eyepieces like regular plossls are OK in both, but in a manual dob you'll have to nudge objects into the field more often.

Certain eyepiece designs (like Naglers and Ethos) are specifically made to handle the steeper cone of light at fast focal ratios and give a much sharper view across the field of view. So this is why you often see users of short-focus dobs with these expensive designs sometimes worth even more than the original telescope!

Other things like eye-relief, field curvature, etc. are important for viewing comfort and vary from person to person too. So best to try before you buy....

[bobson (Bob)]

In my opinion since you have a Dob its better for you to get Pentax or Naglers because of 70 and 82 degree FOV. Unless you are happy to nudge your Dob all the time to keep the object in the center of view. In my Pentax XW 10 mm it takes 40 seconds for Jupiter to go from edge to edge, and its clear all the way. For motorised telescopes this is not an issue cos it keeps object in the center all the time.

Nothing worse if you are showing someone who doesn't know how to nudge the Dob in high powers and before they even put their eye on the eyepiece the object is already gone

cheers

[ericwbenson (Eric)]

Here is another data point for you to consider if you're serious about astronomy:
My first eyepiece set was a 25mm Kellner, 9mm orthoscopic and 32mm 2" Erfle (after I upgraded the focuser on my Odyssey 8 dob). Fine to begin with by I immediately needed more FOV at high power, more eyerelief from the ortho. So...
Second set was 16mm, 12mm, and 8 mm Konig, and kept the 32 Erfle. Used this for a few years did a lot of observing, with my 2nd scope (a 16" dob by then) and learned the sky really well. By then I also knew I wanted better corrected and wider views, so I splurged on:
35mm Panoptic, 20mm Nagler type 2 (aka the grenade), 12mm Nagler (1.25/2" barrel) and 7mm Nagler. The focal lengths are spaced by a factor of 1.7 which was the square root of my 2.8x barlow at the time, making a nice progression as I zoomed in on an object. Planning a set like this really pays off no matter what the scope they go into, they all get used equally.

I spent I think ~1600$ at the time, never for an instant have I regretted it, I have used them for nearly 20 years and probably could get a third of my money back, so 50$ per year for fabulous wide field views? what a bargain. I fact I think I'll go outside and look thru them some more tonight! Good eyepieces last a long time.

Good luck,
EB