Burgess Optical/TMB 6mm

I ordered several new eyepieces the other day for my two main scopes. The largest and fastest being my F4 Schmidt-newt 10". This scope can really give eyepieces a workout, not so much because of coma, but because inherrent defects in the eyepieces are amplified due to the steep light curve it projects. The corrector plate does a pretty good job on the coma. Anyway, I ordered one of the $49 dollar BO/TMB Planetaries that is on special right now, to replace an Antares 5.7mm W70 I have used for quite some time, and am no longer satisfied with. The W70 did great on my old 6" F8 newt, but seems to have problems with my 6" F8 refractor and the SN-10. The SN-10 is not designed for planetary observation, so all I was expecting was to have to get the refractor out anyway, to get a really good look at Mars. I put the BO/TMB in the focuser and took a look. Dang, this eyepiece is sharp compared to what I was expecting. It seemed super sharp all the way across almost to the extreme edge. Mars looked great! More detail than I am used to seeing with this scope. It was a little washed out, but you could definitely see the detail. All of my other eyepieces only seem to show a pale orangeish ball with faint hints of detail. It barlowed very well too. Nice and sharp, but the magnification proved to be too high for the conditions. The biggest problem I noted was the overpowering brightness of Mars through my 10" caused a bit of eyeball glare. I put a variable filter in and controlled it rather easily without much loss of detail. I wear glasses and normally try to wear them while observing. This eyepiece has about 15mm of eye relief, but has an adjustable eyeshield. I can set it on the lowest setting and still see most of the field with my glasses on. I found I really didn't need my glasses to abserve with this eyepiece though. It was just about as sharp without glasses. I guess the exit pupil was about the right size for my astigmatism. My take on it is that this is a very good eyepiece for the money. The $49 dollar model is a prototype and is not the actual standard model. From what I understand, TMB made some small changes and increased the eye relief to 20mm on the current lineup. The regular production model is priced about $99 dollars. I am cheap though, and the $49 dollar one has been screaming my name for a while. I have no regrets about this purchase. It seems to work very well.

Pros

Nice and sharp
Good color
Nice contrast
Nice eye shield

Cons

Eye relief could be longer

Rating

9/10