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I'd prefer if eyepiece makers kept them at moderate viewing angles if that meant they'd be cheaper/more lightweight/more user-friendly and had good sharpness and contrast.
I've never quite shared the obsession with super-wide, ultra-wide and even wider FOV eyepieces. I'd agree that a wider field of view is handy for finding things and keeping them in view when using non-tracking telescopes. However, the eye isn't able to take in big panoramic views. Our angle of sharp vision is tiny (probably 5º or less) so we're scanning our vistas all the time. I found scanning around some of the very wide FOV eyepieces to be hard work. I don't care how sharp stars are at the very edge that I can only see if I roll my eyeball all the way to the stop.
I'm more comfortable with 52 to 60 degree eyepieces. I recently picked up an Edmund RKE 28mm on astromart and despite its "measly" 45º FOV this thing is something else! No hint of barrel vision, on the contrary - the eyepiece seems to project a floating image right in front of your face. It's also cheap and hardly weighs anything. Why can't we have more eyepieces like this?
Cheers
Steffen.
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