What is Reddit's opinion of Tele Vue 8mm Plossl 1.25" Eyepiece?

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I mean, I personally would save up for one and live with the zoom for the time being, but I guess it depends on how long you think it might take you to save up the $300.

The eyepiece you get I guess depends on what you prefer to look at, and what's visible in your area. Saturn and Jupiter are going to be lower in the skies for the next several years from northern latitudes due to their position in the zodiac. If you don't have a clear view of the south or it's a hassle to travel to where you have a clear view, then planetary observation may be rare.

Conversely, if you have a clear view of the planets, but live in a light polluted area, then wide field deep sky viewing is out, and you probably want a planetary eyepiece.

Given the above, if it's a planetary eyepiece you're after, you can get good mileage from a variety of eyepieces and it doesn't have to cost a fortune. I would aim for 8mm to 5mm for your scope. You don't have to go crazy with magnification to see lots of detail.

• Televue DeLite Great FOV, great eye relief, well-corrected field, excellent overall performance. Available in a wide variety of short focal lengths ($250)
• Takahashi LE ED Similar FOV to a Plossl, but better eye relief for short focal lengths. Fairly uncompromising optics. ($265)
• Televue Plossl Extremely high quality views - sharp, great contrast, excellent scatter control. Probably only bested by the Tak LE above. Downside is very short focal length ($95)
• Orion Edge-On Planetary - Slightly narrow field of view, but excellent eye relief. Reviews are generally positive with no major concerns about scatter. Also available under the Williams Optics SPL brand. ($99)
• Meade Series 5000 HD-60 - Good FoV and eye relief. Best performance comes from their lower focal length (which you would want for planetary viewing). Performance degrades as you go up in focal length. Shop around, a few places have them them on sale. - ($70-75)
• AT Paradigm ED - These are well rated for planetary viewing as well. Good eye relief and FOV. Clones can be found at AgenaAstro and other retailers - they're all the same eyepiece. ($60)

That said, given your refractor is not an apochromat, I would not go with the Takahashi LE. The scope will introduce too much chromatic fringe to justify the extra cost for the optical quality of the Tak. The TV DeLite is a better all around value in that price range since its wider field of view will make it more useful on the moon. I can't really recommend one above the other, but that should help narrow down your search. I would do some research to figure out which one meets your planetary needs. IMO I would favor comfort over optical purity for your scope.

Regarding wider field eyepieces for viewing DSOs:

For your telescope, you probably don't need anything higher power than 19-24mm for DSO viewing. A good quality wide-field eyepiece in that focal range will frame all major large DSOs very nicely. Longer focal lengths may show nice rich star fields in the milky way, but will leave you wanting more magnification for things like M42, all star clusters etc. Given that, my recommendations are as follows:

I own the 19mm Panoptic, and it has been my primary staple eyepiece for many, many, many years in a variety of telescopes. I love it. Sharp, flat field right to the edge. Eye relief is great without glasses, but can't use with my glasses on. While I use my glasses to correct astigmatism, I don't see noticeable astigmatism issues in the eyepiece with my glasses off.

I have looked through a few Pentax XWs (though not the 20mm specifically) and the most striking thing about them for me is how damn comfortable they are to look through. No real eye or head positioning problems which are common in the Nagler (and Delos, from what I understand). Many astronomers who let friends and family look through their telescopes often bring out their Pentax XWs because it's much easier for someone who isn't familiar with looking through an eyepiece, to actually look through it. The optical quality of the Pentax XWs is also top notch - definitely in line with Televue. Televue Panoptics are also extremely easy and comfortable to look through.

If it were me, I would go with the 19mm Panoptic. It's smallest, and most affordable of the bunch and will give you a plenty large TFOV (for reference, you'd be able to fit 3 full moons in the FoV). From there, if you want to go REALLY wide, you can add longer focal length eyepieces as you deem fit, but I think you'll find the 19mm to be a perfect fit.