Effectiveness of Televue eyepieces with long f/l t

After a couple months of gathering materials, I am almost done constructing my own 8" f-7 dobsonian telescope. The only problem is... I have NO EYEPIECES. I traded in all my old equipment for the mirrors to build this telescope.

I am considering buying a 19mm panoptic along with one or two UO orthos for planetary observing.

Panoptics fit the bill for almost everything I want in a medium power eyepiece. The only thing that concerns me is that panoptics seem to be geared towards showing "tack sharp" views in short focal length telescopes. At f-7, my telescope isn't exactly fast.

So would I be foolish to pay big $ (in my opinion) for a panoptic, when other (cheaper) eyepieces will be be plenty sharp?

Thanks, Andrew

Thanks for all the quick feedback!

The 19mm acually wouldn't be my lowest power eyepiece, I have a cheap 42mm that I consider more of a novelty eyepiece because the terrible light pollution here in Chicago makes the sky look light grey ( :C ) at low powers.

I don't think I've heard a single negitive thing about the 19mm Pan yet, so I'll certainly give it a try.

Wait a minute... am I going to spend $200 on an eyepiece?

oh well...

I would agree with your logic, somewhat at F10 and higher. SCTs and Maks are very forgiving of eyepieces and many of the low-medium power eyepieces that do not work so well at say F5 and below, work quite well at F10. Well executed plossls (e.g., TV) work great at F10 and above and that would be my ep of choice for an SCT or Mak. But my F5 dob loves the Pans and T6's.

I'd skip the UOs and go with the TMB/BO Planetaries. Yes $99 vs $59 retail, but well worth the difference in price.