Televue Products

Please excuse my lack of experience.

I've never viewed through a Televue product.

But I wonder how great they are if I see them for sale predominately.

Unless they've become the new Gold Standard of currency.

Personally I'd think if I had the best eyepiece money could buy, I'd value it and never sell it.
So why all the Nagler sales?

Maybe 2 reasons:

(1) There are a lot of them out there. They probably
sell more than any other single maker. So if someone
sells an eyepiece, it is likely TeleVue.

(2) As you say -- they are a currency. If you see once
in a lifetime telescope deal (say AP 160 for $6000!!?)
you just sell a couple Naglers to help pay for it.
You can always buy Naglers again -- especially on
Astromart you could buy nice used Naglers again
later for almost no loss in money (maybe small shipping
fee lost). And a few Naglers will buy a lot of telescope.

Dennis,

I think a good contributor to the reason is that there really is nothing out there that is truely "perfect," especially in fast scopes. There is a compromise in every design to achieve what they do.

Another reason is like anything else, if you eat pizza every day for 2 years, pretty good bet that you'll get tired of it and move onto another food. Same with eyepieces I think, you fall in love with something, use it regularly, then find something else that does something a little different, and sell one to pay for the other.

And yet another reason is that as we observe more and spend more time, our interests and needs change, so then our choice of eyepieces needs to change. Example, if you started out primarily doing Lunar and Planetary observations, then Ortho's and Plossls with their mid-sized fields do a great job. After some years of that your interests then evolved and you are primarily a DSO person, then wide-field eyepieces fit the bill more.

Finally, some people just make wrong choices. Depending on your scope type, its focal ratio, and your observing site, some eyepieces are just wrong to use, regardless of whether they are from premium manufacturers or not. I think many people sell their stuff because they have gained experience and now realize this.

I have viewed thru (and owned) Televues, Orions, Celestrons, Meades, Sieberts, University Optics, TMBs, Burgess Opticals, Borgs, Edmunds, Russell Optics, Surplus Sheds, and some generics. While the fit/finish/build varies on all of these, all of them have units with are quite excellent when matched to the proper instrument and application. So as a rule, nothing is bad with any of them.

-Bill

One more reason may be is that a lot of people are addected to buying and selling, They get a high out of something new coming in the mail every other week so they are for every buying and selling to get there next high. If you don,t beleave me just read the classifieds and you will see the same people week after week over and over again buying and selling there stuff.

Televue offer a vast range of eyepiece types with differing characteristics. If you're thinking of buying a Televue eyepiece I find it easy to narrow down the list of candidates by eliminating the eyepieces that don't meet my needs. For instance, 12mm of eye relief is not enough for me in a 70 or 80 degree eyepiece, so the choices are narrowed considerably. You need to know what AFOV, eye relief, etc you like before spending a bunch of cash on the wrong eyepiece.