Show us your planetary eyepieces!

[Jones]

Can't stand the narrow orthoscopic view, then these are the next best, only slightly less optical clarity.
Takahashi TOE's 4, 3.3, 2.5 mm's

TV Delite 5mm- this is a little step back from the Taks, but there is nothing better other than orthos.

Antares 6mm from Telescopes Canada, optically same as TV Delos 6mm, just $130 cheaper, 1.5" shorter, same heavyweight. Both of these are also a little step back from the Delites, but again there is nothing better but orthos.

[Highburymark]

My main planetary eyepieces are:
Tak TOEs 4, 3.3, and 2.5. Outstanding performance (and comfort, which for planetary viewing is pretty important). I also have Tak orthos 6, 9 and 12.5 - currently back with the retailer for an issue not unlike that described by the OP with his LEs in the first post….
Otherwise I have a wider set: Delite 7, XW 5, Delites 4 + 3. All top notch but the TOEs a clear step ahead.
And pairs of Zeiss OPMI (25mm) microscope eyepieces and Delite 11s for binoviewing, using extender/GPCs/barlows.

[helicon]

Hello Highburymark and welcome to the TSS Forums!

[Highburymark]

Hello Highburymark and welcome to the TSS Forums!

Thanks!

[515bonner]

Have had these forever. Originally used on a 10" Coulter (blue box), and then after I sold that I found them to be excellent performers on my 8" f/7 Starmaster.
Will never give these babies up. Set includes the UO König II 24mm, 16mm, 12mm and 8mm.

[notFritzArgelander]

Have had these forever. Originally used on a 10" Coulter (blue box), and then after I sold that I found them to be excellent performers on my 8" f/7 Starmaster.
Will never give these babies up. Set includes the UO König II 24mm, 16mm, 12mm and 8mm.

The UO König II eyepieces are great. I passed my set to my younger daughter.

[Piero]

As a side note, for many years I have not really thought well of the Tak LEs in the planetary role as they showed a soft view compared to Abbes I had, especially the 7.5mm and 5mm LEs. Then one day while playing around with the LEs, I looked at their field lenses just to make sure it was clean before I put them away and they looked perfectly clean. But I felt like playing some more so cleaned them for the heck of it (and I rarely clean the field lens as they rarely get dirty in any way). So I took a Q-Tip dry and just lightly swiped the surface not expecting anything as I could see no dust. Low and behold it left a streak! To my surprise, the 7.5mm and 5mm both had this invisible uniform layer of grease on the lenses! So I cleaned them up. Then I took this other eyepiece I had purchased new some time ago during the summer months a few years ago that seemed soft to me, and it also had a same type of grease layer on the field lens. All I can make of it is that perhaps when things get shipped during the hot summer months that some of the rubber components or lens caps might outgass from the extreme temps that can be in delivery trucks in the hot sun, and that outgassing deposited that invisible layer of grease. At any rate, after tending to all the accessible lens surfaces on the LEs all of a sudden they became stellar planetary performers! So lesson learned for me to always clean the lenses, even when new or when they look clean!

I had a very similar experience with my old Vixen SVL 9mm. It was bought new and the optics looked perfect, but the views were somehow soft. After cleaning it, the optics looked the same, but this time the views were very good and not soft at all.

Now that you are happy with your 5mm Tak LE, may I ask you how you would compare your 5mm Tak LE against the other 5mm eyepieces you have used? For a few reasons, I am in the market for a small 5mm eyepiece to replace my 5mm Fujiyama ortho. I would be interested to know whether you evaluate a 5mm Tak LE superior or inferior to a good 5mm ortho or 5mm Pentax XW. Thanks in advance.

[WilliamPaolini]

Hello Pierro. I would put the 5 Tak LE in the field as equivalent to a quality Abbe as far as the views for planetary. For extended DSO (i.e. nebula and galaxies) maybe just a tad better -- I find the LEs in general provide a nicely contrasted view for that class of objects and have always consider that their strong point. Their AFOV is also a bit better controlled in the off-axis than an Abbe and a little larger. Finally of course their eye relief is more comfortable. For lunar though, you will get some unwanted flare depending on where the Moon is in the FOV with the 5mm and 7.5mm LEs. To stop this others have made a small 8mm diameter mask that they put over the field lens and that seems to eliminate the flare.

Another option, although not so small, would be a 5mm TV DeLite. These of course are 20mm ER and 62 deg AFOV. I put them just a gnat hair from the performance of a quality Abbe for planetary detail. So exceedingly close, and for all but the most critical eye essentially the same having just slightly less contrast than the Abbe.

But if you are not in a rush, then you can do something I have done which is to go thru a bunch of old Celestron or other branding volcano top Abbe Orthos on the used market. So if you still have your Fujiyama Ortho, keep it so you can use it as a baseline to compare. On the used market many times can get these 1980's vintage Orthos for as low as $35. Their optical consistency varies quite a bit IME, but after going thru less 5 or 6 purchases and resells of these I came across 2 that were simply stellar performers easily keeping pace with a ZAO! So it you are willing to take your time and purchase and resell for a while, you can come across some real performance-gems with these old volcano orthos as long as you have a baseline eyepiece to compare against that you want one of these to equal or beat.

Not 5mm, but just FYI, the 4mm Tak TOE is a sublimely good planetary eyepiece (and visibly superior on planetary to a typical quality 4mm Abbe or 4mm TV DeLite)! On-par if not a tad better than even the Vixen HRs, which are superlative to begin with. However, taking a year or so of searching and going through 4mm volcano Orthos on the used market, I did finally come across a little 4mm Abbe that equaled the TOE.

Another option is, while rare, the Pentax 5 XO does come up once in a while. But if you want something that is current production 5mm, then your only choices are really something like the Fujiyama or the Tak LE, the latter being just as good with lots of ergonomic plusses including a bot wider AFOV making it nicer to use on general targets. I have the LEs in 18mm to 5mm, using a 24 ES68 instead of a 24 LE with them as the max-TFOV 1.25" and they are a set I will never let go of as they perform so well on both planetary and DSO, comfortable to use, AFOV not so constrained like an Abbe, about the best build quality I have seen, and best of all tiny tiny eyepieces!

[Piero]

Thank you very much, Bill. Very helpful.

[WilliamPaolini]

Peiro,

Note the correction I made to my previous post. Sorry for the mistake! I corrected that post.

I had said -- "I would not put the 5 Tak LE in the field as equivalent to a quality Abbe as far as the views for planetary."

I meant to say -- "I would put the 5 Tak LE in the field as equivalent to a quality Abbe as far as the views for planetary."

And by quality Abbe I mean like the Tak Abbe Orthos, Fujiyaya Abbes, Baader Genuine Orthos (BGO). So not talking the very upper class like the ZAOs or Pentax 0.965" SMC Orthos

[Lady Fraktor]

These are always useful

[Jones]

I would be totally Televue Delites if it were not for...

Takahashi TOE's, they are so outstanding, almost as good as the best orthos you can buy new today like Tak abbes or Fujiyamas.

These Teleskop Express remakes of the old William Optics UWAN's are so much better than the originals. Cost less too. They are easily superior to the Delites, and are real close to the TOE's in planetary performance. These are the perfect eyepieces, 82 degrees and great on the planets. Get the whole set, only 3 for now.

[Highburymark]

Love these three TOEs for highest magnifications. For binoviewing, pair of Leica HC Plan S arrived - recommended by JG and others. Wall to wall cloud at the moment, but they looked very promising on solar duty yesterday.