i'm looking for a new short EP for high power planetary viewing - something in the 5mm - 7mm range.  i started looking at the meade series 4000 and 5000 plossls and noticed the eye relief being 2mm-4mm.  i think this is a bit too short, so i kept looking and found that the teleview plossls have 5mm eye relief.  shortly later i looked at the burgess TMB series and found that they have 12mm of eye relief.

i have never had experience or heard about the burgess TMB EPs.  have any of you used them?  how do they compare to the plossls? i noticed in astronomics's description, that there is grease that comes out of the retractable eyecup; this worries me a little about the quality of manufacture. 

anyway, i'm not ready to buy just yet.  if anyone could share any experiences or insights i would appreciate it.

I won a 4mm Burgess Optical/TMB Planetary Eyepiece at the BFSP two years ago and have been very happy with its performance.  I haven't had an problems with the lubricant.

This line represents a great bang for the buck and has garnered generally good reviews.  Eye relief and AFOV is on a par with the Tele Vue Radians.

Dave Mitsky

I don't own any of the Burgess eyepieces, but have used several of them. I find them very nice, and the eye relief is nigh unbelievable for a "planetary" eyepiece.

I use mostly Radians and Dave's quote is spot on.

I also use Abbe Orthoscopics quite a bit, but they are much less comfortable.

The Televue Plossls I like not so much, though I do have two sets of pairs I use in a binoviewer.

My current most-used planetary eyepieces is the Televue Nagler 3-6mm zoom, which I use mostly at 5mm and 6mm positions.

 Dave and chipdatajeffB, I just bought a Burgess/TMB 7 mm Planetary Series eyepiece.

 I had heard very good things about Burgess Optical and that their eyepieces were affordable.

 Now, that's relative for everyone, but lately, I understand they are updating the entire line of planetaries and so are selling off the old models at about $60, compared to the $99 that I hear the new ones will be.

Unfortunately for me so far, the day I received it three days or so ago, despite looking oh, so clear, the night skies by me have been incredibly unsteady through a telescope.  So, I have not really been able to get proper views through it yet... and so have no opinion yet on it.

I know you, Dave have had experience with the 4 mm (I think that one would be far too much power for my 8" f/4.9 Newtonian) and you chipdatajeffB have used many of the series; what do you gentlemen think of the 7 mm?

If I remember correctly (this occurred about two years ago) the BO eyepieces I used were a 9mm and a 13mm. I may be mis-remembering that.

At any rate, I thought they were quite good, especially considering the price. At the time, one of our 3RF volunteers was using these in pairs in his binoviewers to observe Saturn. It was a very nice view even though the scope was relatively small (a very nice 3-inch apo).

  I would look into Williams Optics SPL planetary eyepieces.  I have the 3mm and it offers fantastic views with great eye relief --20mm!   These EPs come in 3mm, 6mm and 12.5 mm sizes, with 55 degree FOV and 20mm relief.  At about $125, they compete with high end planetary eyepieces (i.e., Radians) for 2/3rds the cost.

E_Look:

I know you, Dave have had experience with the 4 mm (I think that one would be far too much power for my 8" f/4.9 Newtonian) and you chipdatajeffB have used many of the series; what do you gentlemen think of the 7 mm?

 A 4mm eyepiece would give 300X magnification with your scope. That's not too high. I just recently bought a 4mm William Optics UWAN and plan on using it regularly with my 6" dob. Actually just recently I was using it with my 6"on the Moon for incredible views. Very tight double stars didn't seem all that tight any more either. I expect it to perform well on Saturn also.

I had considered the 4mm TMB Burgess but them decided on the UWAN for its 82 degree FOV. All of my scopes except for the 25" are undriven.

 Just go out and enjoy your 7mm. Don't go looking for flaws.

Bill

 Flaws??

The one night I got some steady skies early on, I was able to get the best view of Jupiter I have ever gotten on my scope!  (Not too hard; I've only been at this less than a year!!)

When there's good seeing, the 7 mm BO/TMB Planetary is very good.  I even Barlowed it (a 2x-er) and it was still virtually as good.

Only Venus was a pain to view.  But, I'm told, it's almost always a pain to get a very good image of it.

Nah...

... I am somewhat still surprised by how wide its field of view is, compared to the 10 mm Plössl.

Anyhow, in my scope, the focal length is actually 1000 mm, so the 4 mm would give me 250x.  The 7 mm, 2x Barlowed yields 286x. So if I were to get a 4 mm, it would be, to me, only to get what some have called, "stupid magnification" (i.e., way extreme magnification) at 500x.  But I think THAT is at the very edge of my scope's "scope".  Someday I might consider a 3 mm so I won't have to Barlow it.