The TeleVue Plossl - Unsung Eyepiece Hero
Written by Tammy Plotner
If you're into telescopy, then you know the name Televue needs little or no introduction at all. The name is absolutely synonymous with the most outstanding quality and high performance optics in the business and every product is backed by uncompromising standards. Of course, if you're like me, the moment I see the name Televue little dollar signs start swimming around in front of my eyes. Would you like me to shoo them away for you?
I've been playing the astronomy game for a long time now and I know when it comes to optics that you get what you pay for. But, one of my favorite things to do is to find products that give you more than what you expect. Go anywhere. Look any place. Check out plossl eyepieces. The four element Plossl design is perhaps the most popular telescope eyepiece design on today's market and just about every manufacturer makes one. It provides excellent image quality, good eye relief and just about all of them have an apparent field of view of about 50 degrees. But is one plossl really better than another?
The answer is yes. And here's why…
The names TeleVue and Al Nagler are synonymous among the international astronomy community with revolutionary telescope and eyepiece designs in production since 1977. Beginning his career with amateur astronomy and telescope making, Mr. Nagler enjoyed an illustrious career in optics and eventually became involved in the design of the NASA Apollo program astronaut lunar landing visual simulator by designing a probe which simulated a field of up to 140 degrees! Establishing TeleVue Optics Incorporated in 1977, Uncle Al's mind eventually turned to a field which hadn't progressed in nearly a century - telescope eyepiece designs - and thus was born a legend. Says Mr. Nagler in his Company 7 interview: "I have worked on eyepieces, telescopes and viewing devices with two major goals: to make astronomy as easy and versatile as possible to encourage, rather than discourage, newcomers, and secondly, to provide a visual experience as close to a "space walk" as possible by obtaining the widest, sharpest, highest contrast views. I am deeply gratified that my work has enhanced the pleasure and growth of the hobby."
Televue demands a certain standard that can and will be met - and nothing says it more clearly than their very affordable line of Televue Plossl Eyepieces. At right around $100 per eyepiece, this is not only competitive with other manufacturers - it's meeting their price point and delivering far better performance. In a side by side comparison with a 2" Meade 26mm QX Wide Angle Eyepiece which supposedly offers a 70 degree field of view, the 1.25" Televue 25mm Plossl absolutely buried it. Why? By all design rights, the QX should have outperformed it - yet it did not. Telescope after telescope, focal length after focal length… The results were the same. The Televue Plossl consistently gave outstandingly better edge of eyepiece performance, far more contrast and sharper images.
Now for a 1.25" Celestron 12mm Omni Plossl compared to a 1.25" Televue 11mm Plossl. Again, we have near dead-ringers in design, magnification, field of view and eye relief - but not performance. Putting in the Televue Plossl was like the different between day and night. Contrast improved significantly and image sharpness doubled. When Jupiter would near the edge of the eyepiece field, it didn't distort! Telescope after telescope… Focal length after focal length… Same results.
Did I spend several evenings switching out eyepieces? Yes. Refractor, reflector and SCT… I went through a very serious collection of eyepieces that ranged from Antares to William Optics and I am very impressed with what these very affordable plossl eyepieces can do. Before anyone even considers buying a plossl eyepiece from another manufacturer, stop and think Televue. Their prices are exactly the same and I guarantee you the performance is far superior. Now… There's only one eyepiece left to try, and that test belongs to my much beloved Meade 12.5" study grade reflector.
Let's dance.
The 2" Televue 55mm Plossl is a serious chunk of glass. But when you look through this one, you'll be blown away. The eye relief is simply outstanding! Can you imagine seeing entire vistas like the Lagoon and Trifid Nebulae together? Can you picture the Sagittarius Star Cloud spraying out across the night? Holy cow… Have you ever seen all the stuff that's really around the Ring Nebula? Have you spotted the little galaxy that's near the M13 at the same time? You can't image what the Dumbbell really looks like until you've captured it with the whole field around it…
Is it the same spacewalk effect produced by Nagler's other famous eyepieces? Yes. But to a lesser degree. I have seen through even wider field Televue eyepieces and I can tell you that my eye can never take it all in. To me, the plossl is perfect. Here I see such a large, true field that I wish I had this around when it was galaxy season! Yes, I'm babbling. Every one that has a light bucket telescope should own one of these! What all this distills down to is this particular eyepiece is just slightly over $200 (US), ships anywhere in the world and comes with a 5-year Televue warranty and it's not going back.
It's a keeper.
The Televue Plossl Eyepieces for this product review were provided by Oceanside Photo and Telescope. We thank them for their generous loan and the check for the 55mm is in the mail. If Universe Today readers should choose to order from OPT, please type in "Universe Today Astronomers" into the Club Affiliation section of your order to receive your rewards discount!
Filed under: Telescope Reviews
September 1st, 2008 at 1:51 pm
To the person who said claimed their budget would not allow Televue and that (Chinese) Plossls are almost as good, that is a trick you are playing on yourself.
If you try them side by side, you'll see the difference (all other things like optical quality of the telescope and atmospheric seeing being equal). Also eyepieces are (or can be) forever. They move from scope to scope. So they are an investment. Most people I know who claim the price/performance ratio of the Chinese clones are better, simply don't use them in a scope and under conditions that show the difference. Quality is always worth paying a little extra for.
Now Clave'? Well that gets into the realm of Zeiss. They are almost collectors items - and they don't come up very often. If I could I would. But I can't, so I 'settle' for Televue which IMO is making the finest 'generally available' oculars along with Pentax.
However Tammy I am AMAZED at your review of the 55mm Plossl. To me it was almost like looking down a soda-straw. Very much like using any 40mm 1.25 inch Plossl. I NEVER recommend them for that reason.
For that $200 you paid, save a few more months and can find a used Panoptic 27mm that doubles the magnification (which darkens the background) and at the time only gives up 1/3 the true FOV (1.3 degrees vs. .9 on a typical f/10 SCT). Plus the exit pupil of the 55mm on anything under f/10 is enormous. For example a typical f/6 reflector would have a 9.2mm exit pupil!!
I urge people to look at the televue eyepiece calculator to get an idea of all the various trade offs.
My equipment has included over time all manner of Naglers, Zooms, Panoptics, and Radians, as well as Pentax SMC-orthoscopics, circle-t orthoscopics, and even at one point several Takahashi orthoscopics. Scopes have included 18cm Teleport f/5.6, 18cm TMB-180 f/9, 13cm AstroPhysics 130EDT f/8, 10cm Televue TV-101 f5.4, and 45cm f/4.5 dob