1.25" 17mm 50 degree Premium Plossl eyepiece

Get ready to take your stargazing to the next level without breaking the bank! Here at Sky's the Limit, we're thrilled to offer you our premium Plössl eyepieces. With a generous 50-degree apparent field of view, you'll see more of your favourite celestial objects than with typical Plössls.

Looking to expand your eyepiece collection but don't want to spend a fortune? You've found the perfect solution! Our Plössl eyepieces are not only affordable but are also packed with high-end features that provide bright, sharp, and contrasty images.

Key Features

• 17mm focal length

• For telescopes with 1.25" diameter focusers (most telescopes)

• 50-degree apparent field of view: See more of the night sky!

• Fully multi-coated on all glass surfaces: Enjoy superior light transmission for brighter views.

• Threaded for filters: Easily attach your favourite filters to enhance your observations.

• Fold-down eyecup: Find the perfect viewing position, whether you wear glasses or not.

• Ideal for deep-sky and planetary viewing: A versatile tool for exploring the cosmos.

Need a little guidance?

Many beginners ask us “How much magnification will that give me?”, often assuming that the higher the number, the better the view. A 17 mm eyepiece is a great way to show why that instinct isn’t always right. Because magnification is simply the telescope’s focal length divided by the eyepiece focal length, a 1,000 mm telescope produces around 59× with a 17 mm eyepiece — a level of power that feels balanced, relaxed, and wonderfully usable. It’s strong enough to reveal craters and mountain ranges on the Moon with crisp definition, to show Saturn’s rings clearly separated from the planet, and to bring out Jupiter’s main cloud belts without pushing the telescope or the atmosphere too hard.

Manufacturers often quote a “maximum magnification” equal to about twice the aperture in millimetres, but that number is more marketing than reality. To reach those extremes you need perfect seeing, perfect collimation, and perfect optics, and even then the image is usually soft and unstable. A 17 mm eyepiece sits well below that unrealistic limit, which is exactly why it performs so beautifully. The field of view stays wide and comfortable, the image remains bright and sharp, and the telescope tracks smoothly without amplifying every tiny vibration or shimmer in the air.

This is why a 17 mm eyepiece is often the sweet spot for general observing. It gives you enough magnification to make objects interesting and detailed, but not so much that the image becomes dim, fuzzy, or difficult to control. At this focal length, the balance between size, brightness, and clarity is just right — a view that’s engaging, stable, and genuinely enjoyable. It’s the eyepiece that shows beginners that magnification is a tool, not a race, and that sometimes the most satisfying view is the one that keeps everything bright, sharp, and beautifully steady.