famajohn
05-05-2006, 07:55 PM
The SWANS arrived in their own nests.
Each eyepiece was packed in a clearly labelled sturdy cardboard box with a foam liner shaped to fit each unit, the boxes contained an ocular complete with top/bottom caps, a drawstring bag for storage, a silica gel sachet and a guarantee card.
Top marks to William Optics for packaging and presentation. They look expensive!
The EP's are All Black, (that rings a bell somewhere), smart looking with large white letters between silver bands, feel solid though not overly heavy, the focuser fit is good and the undercut provides good security. I am seriously impressed.
Optical qualities; sadly nothing much to report, 10/10ths clag in Rotorua today, I did get a gap between showers late this afternoon to take a look at the cellphone tower about 2km away on the mountain.
Not really an exhaustive test but it did show me that on axis sharpness was better than anything I currently own, including the GSO Superviews that they are to replace.
Some softening of the image was apparent about 2/3 out to the field edge, not unexpected from a 72 deg AFOV ep in an f5 Newtonian.
Without glasses the eye relief is just sufficient with the 20 and 15mm but the 9mm would only show the entire field with the eyecup down and the eye well in to the recess.
So far so good, all I need now is some clear sky for further testing.
Each eyepiece was packed in a clearly labelled sturdy cardboard box with a foam liner shaped to fit each unit, the boxes contained an ocular complete with top/bottom caps, a drawstring bag for storage, a silica gel sachet and a guarantee card.
Top marks to William Optics for packaging and presentation. They look expensive!
The EP's are All Black, (that rings a bell somewhere), smart looking with large white letters between silver bands, feel solid though not overly heavy, the focuser fit is good and the undercut provides good security. I am seriously impressed.
Optical qualities; sadly nothing much to report, 10/10ths clag in Rotorua today, I did get a gap between showers late this afternoon to take a look at the cellphone tower about 2km away on the mountain.
Not really an exhaustive test but it did show me that on axis sharpness was better than anything I currently own, including the GSO Superviews that they are to replace.
Some softening of the image was apparent about 2/3 out to the field edge, not unexpected from a 72 deg AFOV ep in an f5 Newtonian.
Without glasses the eye relief is just sufficient with the 20 and 15mm but the 9mm would only show the entire field with the eyecup down and the eye well in to the recess.
So far so good, all I need now is some clear sky for further testing.