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Hi Fox,
There is one other thing that confuses the issue with LVW's and any copies or similarities. The Orion Lanthanum Superwides I mentioned are LVW's rebadged - I have the 22mm Orion Superwide and compared it to a mate's 22mm LVW - exactly the same. These Orion Superwides were made for only a short time, which is why they are now only available in the second hand market. The Orion Stratus is a rebadged Hyperion. I have seen all of these, and used them. The Orion variants on the originals all perform exactly the same as the originals. Here in lies the problem of model copying - what are the differences??? Most differences are just minor, mainly just changes to the casing, maybe the coatings (?). Change anything more and it means a complete redesign of the optics and any financial gain is lost as it means a totally new optical design.
Celestron has recently launched a 'new' line, the Duo. From what I can see these are a total copy of the Hyperions. Not surprising really as the Hyperions are designed for SCT's. Even Saxon has a 'Hyperion' clone in its range, not often seen though.
Now, the up shot in all of this is, if 'brand' is most important, then go for the originals. If dollars are (and not all of us are in a financial position to be able to go original, nor may we want to), then consider the clone alternatives as in many cases they are the exact same piece - not always though, and it takes time to investigate the differences.
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