Orion / Baader moving into new 80° eyepiece models??

[Gargoyle_Steve (Steve)]

I am something of a fan of the Orion Stratus / Baader Hyperion eyepiece ranges (owning a couple at present, and a third on it's way *wink*) and as many of you may know these 2 ranges are VERY similar in nearly all respects and would seem to probably come out of the same factory.

I therefore quickly noticed the add for Sirius Optics on page 15 of the brand new Aust. Sky and Telescope today which lists the Orion Stratus range of ep's at $ 125 each. Assuming this is not a misprint it is the best price I have seen by far, I bought my 8mm Stratus just 4 months ago at $185, best price I could find at that time. Seeing this add I immediately wondered why these great ep's may have taken a sudden price drop.

(For those like me with limited budgets who are looking for good quality ep's and can't justify Pentax XW quality at $400+ these are potentially one of the very best on offer below the $200 mark, at $125 they are unbelievable!)

Anyway .... thoughts of sudden price drops in mind I eventually turned over to the full page Saxon add on page 19, and about 3/4 of the way down on the left hand side something caught my eye.

You will find listed under "Coming Soon" some new un-named and un-marked eyepieces (no visible markings in the photos): in particular there is a range of 6 Super Wide Angle 80° ep's in 3.5, 5, 8, 13, 17 & 21 mm. Coincidentally the same 6 sizes exactly currently on offer in the Stratus/Hyperion ranges. The eyecups look the same as my current Stratus, and the bodies look VERY much like my Orion/Hyperions too, down to the distinctive "wide checked" rubber grip ring around the middle of the body.

So ..... is the Orion / Baader contingent moving up into the ultra wide Nagler type field of view market?

Will they still be pleasantly affordable in comparison to other more expensive competitors?

Will the new models, if indeed they ARE Orion / Baader units, maintain a level of image quality, etc, on par with their present models?

Time will tell ......

Cheers!

[casstony]

I'm happy to be proven wrong, but I don't have high hopes for the quality of those 80 degree eyepieces. The Stratus was successful because it copied an existing good design (Vixen LVW). There must have been a reason why Vixen limited the field to 65 degrees. All very interesting to see how it pans out though.

Given that these companies are copying Vixen LVWs, I wonder why they haven't done the same with Televue or Pentax?

[davewaldo]

... and it seems (unfortunatly) that it is a misprint. They are selling the Stratus EPs for $245. It is the Orion ED EP's which are $125.

Bummer.... I would have bought 2 or 3 at that price!

They haven't seen the latest magazine so they're not sure what has happened durring the printing of the add.

[janoskiss (Steve H)]

It did sound too good. $245 is pretty dear for the Stratus. Try Bintel for Stratus or MyAstroshop for Hyperion. Re the (semi-)budget ultra-wides... I noticed Saxon are advertising some Stratus looking 80-deg EPs too. I would pay extra over Stratus/Hyperion prices to get an excellent super-wide rather than a 'near enough is good enough' ultra-wide. With the likes of LVWs around, I don't know where Stratus-like UWAs fit in. Maybe they will be cheap and not work as well in fast scopes.

[nathang28 (Nathan)]

I bought Stratus eyepieces from Sirius Optics around 1 month ago (5, 8, 13, 21mm). They are all superb and work very well in my 12" LB.

The price on the website is not firm, Ron Gibson (from Sirius) was very pleasant to talk to and we negotiated a very reasonable price. While I did not get them down to Bintel prices ($195) it was close.

The real difference for me? If I had purchased them from Bintel as I originally planned I was going to be waiting until January ... Sirius had them all in stock, I placed my order & paid over the phone at 4:06pm Wednesday, they were delivered to my door at 11:30am the next morning (Express Post, Brisbane -> Melbourne). With delivery service like that I am extremely happy! I will certainly be using them again.

Cheers,

Nathan.

[GrahamL]

Good to hear nathan .. I stopped in and had a chat with Ron a couple months back re stratus eyepieces and he was most helpfull..from memory he does restock regularly .. love the welcome when entering the store as well
..very cute

[janoskiss (Steve H)]

Happy for you Nathan, but just to put things in perspective re Bintel vs SO vs ...

I rang up to order something from SO months ago, they said it will take up to 4 weeks to get it in, and will ring me back. Have not heard anything from them. (Bintel just told me no they do not have it and will not get it in.) But it's not just SO or Bintel. It's pretty much the same with every dealer. Only Myastroshop surprised me once by actually getting back to me about something they could not help me with straightaway. The problem is that most dealers don't have a working system in place for following up on requests they cannot handle immediately. They are probably just writing things down on a post-it note or similar...

[Rodstar (Rod)]

Speaking of typos on prices, have a look at the cost of Astronomik filters on Bintel's ad on page 17 of AS&T (Nov/DEc 06): $889 each. Ouch!