Rodstar
18-02-2006, 08:37 PM
I have finally taken delivery of my latest eyepiece....a 17mm Orion Stratus with a 68 degree FOV. Bintel kindly agreed to import from the US for me for AUD179.
It is a beautiful looking EP :love: , as large as a 22 Panoptic, with the top glass of the EP having about the same diametre as a 30mm GSO superview. It comes in a leather pouch (most certainly not wallaby).
As for performance, I took it out for a stroll last night before Luna awoke, we did a tour of the usual suspects: Tarantula Neb, Saturn, M43/43, some Puppis OC's, 47 Tuc, etc.
My initial observations:
1. Very easy with eye relief.....no blackout / kidney beaning whatsoever. Would definitely suit persons bespeckled.
2. Lovely contrasty images, performs very well on open clusters and globs, with good sharp stars and dark skies.
3. Some mild degradation of image at edges, but nothing that really compromises the main FOV.
4. Performed beautifully on Saturn, with no obvious degradation in quality of image compared with 22 Panoptic.
5. Did well splitting some close doubles (not sure of names of the doubles...I was scanning the skies without GOTO).
6. It has both 1.25 and 2 inch settings at bottom (also like the 22 Pan). The 2 inch setting is unfortunately short, and I was initially a little concerned until I built up some confidence that it wasn't going to drop out of the diagonal!
7. In my 2500mm focal length SCT it provided a very comfortable 147x magnification, which means it will give me lots of use in the future as a solid mid-magnification EP.
Overall comments? I am very happy, I think it will have a long life in my collection of EP's. I might look to get the 13mm in due course if I continue to enjoy its performance.
I understand that Bintel actually imported three of them, so there are two more available for those who are quick! Bintel is considering bringing in the range of Stratus' as a less expensive option to the Televue range. I think that would be a very good move on their part, especially for those of us with slower scopes who struggle to see too much difference between EPs' in the$300 to $600 range! :whistle:
It is a beautiful looking EP :love: , as large as a 22 Panoptic, with the top glass of the EP having about the same diametre as a 30mm GSO superview. It comes in a leather pouch (most certainly not wallaby).
As for performance, I took it out for a stroll last night before Luna awoke, we did a tour of the usual suspects: Tarantula Neb, Saturn, M43/43, some Puppis OC's, 47 Tuc, etc.
My initial observations:
1. Very easy with eye relief.....no blackout / kidney beaning whatsoever. Would definitely suit persons bespeckled.
2. Lovely contrasty images, performs very well on open clusters and globs, with good sharp stars and dark skies.
3. Some mild degradation of image at edges, but nothing that really compromises the main FOV.
4. Performed beautifully on Saturn, with no obvious degradation in quality of image compared with 22 Panoptic.
5. Did well splitting some close doubles (not sure of names of the doubles...I was scanning the skies without GOTO).
6. It has both 1.25 and 2 inch settings at bottom (also like the 22 Pan). The 2 inch setting is unfortunately short, and I was initially a little concerned until I built up some confidence that it wasn't going to drop out of the diagonal!
7. In my 2500mm focal length SCT it provided a very comfortable 147x magnification, which means it will give me lots of use in the future as a solid mid-magnification EP.
Overall comments? I am very happy, I think it will have a long life in my collection of EP's. I might look to get the 13mm in due course if I continue to enjoy its performance.
I understand that Bintel actually imported three of them, so there are two more available for those who are quick! Bintel is considering bringing in the range of Stratus' as a less expensive option to the Televue range. I think that would be a very good move on their part, especially for those of us with slower scopes who struggle to see too much difference between EPs' in the$300 to $600 range! :whistle: