[Also posted on TMBOptical Yahoo group]

Talk about being at the right place at the right time.

I spent last weekend at the Green Bank (WV) Starquest (a very well
run star party). As I set up Friday night with my TMB 105/650 CNC a
gentleman came by and asked for a look. We spent some time looking
at the crescent moon, Venus and Mercury (Venus ane either other in
the field at once!) and also Jupiter. We used some low power
eyepieces and then my 4mm and 6mm SuperMonos. He exclaimed several
times about how good the views were. As he left, I asked his name,
Bob Royce!

A little later, someone came up to me saying he had heard I had a
TMB. It turned out to be Bill Burgess. He had with him a 6mm
Planetary eyepiece and wanted to try it with my scope. I said OK :-)
He said I was the first member of the public to see through it.

We spent some time viewing with it and comparing with my 6mm mono.
Unfortunately, at that time the seeing on Jupiter got really bad, so
we were not able to get a good estimate about the quality of the
image. However, I did get some first impressions. First, the
eyepiece is very nicely built. The outer body is made of some hard
rubber that feels nice and provides a good grip. The finish of the
eyepiece is excellent. It has a fold down eyecup. The outer body
screws out to provide eye relief. I found that this was well
implemented, not too tight, not too loose. The field is much wider
than through the mono and it was much easier to place my eye to get a
good view. The eye relief is considerable. However, I don't think
that there is 20mm and still see the entire field of view. I also
thought that the view of the field stop was a little strange. I
would soemtimes see a hard edge, but other times (I think when I
moved my eye) the stop would get soft. We did move a Jupiter moon
and then a star to the edge of the field and they stayed as sharp as
at the center of the field (remember the poor seeing).

Overall, I really liked the Planetary.

Bill went on to say that Tom was unsatisfied with the design in some
way that I did not catch, and that he was going to redesign it.
However, other focal lengths already use the revised design,
particularly, the 4mm that I am interested in. Because of this, Bill
was selling the current 6mm design for only $49. I bought one!

I am placing my order for the 4mm with Tom today.

Fred Klein