Tele Vue Plössl 55mm — image 1
Tele Vue

Tele Vue Plössl 55mm

A 55mm Tele Vue Plössl: a wide-field, low-power eyepiece for the biggest objects and rich star fields, from the reference Plössl, the four-element design executed to the standard every other Plössl is judged against.

79/ 100
Polaris Score
Optical quality · Immersion · Comfort · Value
See the breakdown ↓
What it's for
Low power · wide fieldHigh power · narrow field

Low power · wide field. At 55mm this is a wide-field, low-power eyepiece for the biggest objects and rich star fields; it is not the eyepiece for high-power planetary detail.

Apparent Field
50°
Barrel Size
2"
Eye Relief
39mm
Focal Length
55mm
From$290

Lowest in 90 daysLowest ever tracked

Price tracked by PolarisObserved 101 timesTracking since Jul 2026

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The spacewalk

You don’t look at a field.
You look into the sky.

Every number on the spec sheet matters less than one feeling: how much sky wraps around your eye. Widen the apparent field and watch the black edge of the eyepiece slip away.

50° apparent field

At 50°, you are aware of the field edge, like looking down a short, comfortable tube.
Try this eyepiece on your own scope in the Simulator →
01What it's good at

What it's best at — and the trade-offs.

Immaculate build, coatings and QC that hold their value for decades.
Best at
✓Immaculate build, coatings and QC that hold their value for decades.
✓A neutral, honest 50-degree view with no fuss, the eyepiece to trust a planet to.
✓At 55mm it lands squarely in low power · wide field territory, exactly where wide star fields and large objects belong.
Trade-offs
!Short eye relief below about 12mm, the unavoidable Plössl compromise.
!A 50-degree field is narrow next to modern wide-fields.
!You pay a real premium over a budget Plössl for build and coatings, not extra field.
02In your telescope

One eyepiece. A different job in every scope.

9× in a small refractor, 37× in a long SCT

An eyepiece has no magnification of its own — the telescope decides. The same eyepiece becomes 9× and 5.6° of sky in a little refractor, or 37× and a tight frame in a long SCT. Here’s what it does across common scopes.

Small apo refractor
480 mm · f/5.5
Magnification
9×
True field
5.6°
Exit pupil
10.0 mm
9× across a 5.6° field at a 10mm exit pupil, a bright, low-power sweep for framing the largest objects.
8-inch Dobsonian
1200 mm · f/6
Magnification
22×
True field
2.3°
Exit pupil
9.2 mm
22× across a 2.3° field at a 9.2mm exit pupil, a bright, low-power sweep for framing the largest objects.
12-inch Dobsonian
1500 mm · f/5
Magnification
27×
True field
1.9°
Exit pupil
11.0 mm
27× across a 1.9° field at a 11mm exit pupil, a bright, low-power sweep for framing the largest objects.
8-inch SCT
2032 mm · f/10
Magnification
37×
True field
1.4°
Exit pupil
5.5 mm
37× across a 1.4° field at a 5.5mm exit pupil, a bright, low-power sweep for framing the largest objects.
Exit pupil is how wide the beam of light leaving the eyepiece is. Around 5–6 mm is bright and immersive under dark skies; push much past 6 mm and you waste light, and under light pollution a smaller exit pupil shows more contrast.
03In plain English

The numbers, in plain English.

55mm FL · 50° AFOV · 2"
Focal lengthLowest power
55mm
About 22x in an 8 inch f/5.9 Dobsonian and 37x in an 8 inch SCT. In the f/10 SCT that gives a well matched 5.5 mm exit pupil; in a fast Dobsonian it exceeds 9 mm, so most of the light would fall outside your pupil. This is an eyepiece for slow telescopes.
Apparent fieldClassic
50°
In a 2 inch barrel, a 50 degree field at 55 mm produces the widest true field an SCT can practically reach, which is exactly what this eyepiece exists to do.
Eye reliefVery generous
39mm
Almost four centimetres, which is extremely comfortable and forgiving for spectacle wearers, though it does take a moment to find the correct eye position.
BarrelRequires 2 inch focuser
2"
A 2 inch focuser or diagonal is essential. Before buying, check your telescope's focal ratio as well as its fitting, since in a fast scope this focal length simply wastes aperture.
OpticsReference simple design
Fully multi-coated
A simple coated design scaled up to the largest useful focal length. Matching it to the right telescope matters more here than any other specification.
04What comes alive

The targets this eyepiece was born for.

The Veil Nebula, The North America Nebula, The Pleiades (M45), Milky Way star clouds, The…
The Veil NebulaComes alive
The Veil Nebula
With an OIII filter the lacework wraps across the field.
The North America NebulaExcellent
The North America Nebula
A wide, faint target that only fits at long focal length.
The Pleiades (M45)Comes alive
The Pleiades (M45)
The full cluster framed with room around every star.
Excellent
Milky Way star clouds
Sweeping the summer Milky Way at its richest.
The Andromeda Galaxy (M31)Excellent
The Andromeda Galaxy (M31)
The full span of the galaxy and its dust lanes.
The Double ClusterComes alive
The Double Cluster
Both clusters with a generous star field between them.
05Role in a collection

Where it sits in your eyepiece case.

Where it sits across 3 focal lengths

A good eyepiece collection isn’t a pile of glass — it’s two or three focal lengths that hand off from wide to tight. This is the anchor at the bottom of the ladder: the one you find and frame with. You buy it once, and it stays your low-power eyepiece for life.

55 mmThis one
Low power · wide field
Find, frame and sweep. Your widest true field and the lowest useful magnification, the eyepiece you reach for first.
Veil Nebula · Pleiades · Milky Way star clouds
13 mm
Medium power · the workhorse
Where most deep-sky objects look their best, galaxies, globulars and planetary nebulae at a comfortable scale.
M13 · Ring Nebula · most galaxies
7 mm
High power · detail
Planets, the Moon at the terminator, tight double stars and the smallest planetary nebulae. Steady-air nights only.
Jupiter · Saturn · lunar craters
06Build around it

What it pairs with.

The telescope · Pair it · Filter it
The telescope
What it goes into
Any 2-inch focuser
A 2-inch focuser or a 1.25-inch adapter; most Dobsonians and larger refractors qualify.
Fast, short scopes love this field
A fast Newtonian or refractor turns this focal length into a rich, wide sweep.
Pair it
What extends its range
A high-power eyepiece (~33mm)
Locate and frame with this one, then swap to high power for planets and small objects.
Filter it
What transforms the view
A UHC or OIII nebula filter
At low power this eyepiece frames big emission nebulae; a narrowband filter makes the Veil and North America jump out.
07The Polaris Score

How it scores, and why.

79/100
79/ 100
Tele Vue Plössl 55mm

Judged as a wide-field, low-power eyepiece for the biggest objects and rich star fields, it earns its score on reference-grade on-axis sharpness and contrast: the plössl done exactly right. The comfortable eye relief lifts it further. A wide field is what this focal length is for, and it delivers.

Optical quality
86
Immersion
56
Comfort
94
Value
74

Polaris weighs how well the eyepiece does the job it was designed for — optics, immersion, comfort and value — never list price or brand.

08Who it's for

An honest fit check.

Observers who want a wide-field, low-power eyepiece for the biggest objects and rich star…
Buy it if you
✓Observers who want a wide-field, low-power eyepiece for the biggest objects and rich star fields.
✓Anyone who observes in eyeglasses; the eye relief here is long enough to see the whole field.
✓Observers who value on-axis contrast over a sprawling field.
Look elsewhere if you
!Anyone who has looked through a wide-field eyepiece and cannot go back to a 52-degree tunnel.
!Grab-and-go observers watching every gram, since this is not the lightest option.
!Planetary specialists who want the last ounce of high-power contrast from an orthoscopic.
09The numbers

Full specifications.

4 measured and stated values
Optical
Focal Length55mm
Apparent Field50°
Comfort & handling
Eye Relief39mm
Fit & build
Barrel Size2"
Editor’s Take

Sweep it across a rich star field and the reason to own this focal length is obvious in a second. That is what the Plössl is for.

— The Skynocular verdict
10Alternatives

For a different goal, start here.

2 alternatives, each mapped to the goal it wins at
More magnification

Tele Vue Plössl 32mm

The same line at higher power, for planets and the smallest deep-sky detail.

→
Cross-shop

Tele Vue Delos

A natural alternative at a similar price point, if you want to compare field and feel before committing.

→