[janoskiss (Steve H)]

Here are some initial impressions after a few hours observing with an 8" f6 Dobsonian from light polluted back yard over two nights, in 3/4 and nearly full moonlight.

Sharpness
To my untrained eye and in poor-to-fair seeing, on-axis sharpness of the Stratus is as good as any of my Televue EPs. Edge sharpness looks good too, with some softening as you approach the edge. But unlike in the GSO Superview, stars near the edge of field can be made sharp by refocusing.

Edge performance
There is some flaring on bright stars close to the edge, but mostly only in the blue end of the spectrum. You get mostly dark blue-purple flares, but otherwise the star is still a point (albeit a bit softened without refocusing). I could not see any flaring with dimmer stars (mag 4-5 I guess), just slight softening.

Comparison with Nagler
This is very similar to what I see in the Nagler, except with the Nagler being an 82 degree FOV EP, the outer 5-10 degrees of FOV are a long way from the centre. With the 68 deg FOV of the Stratus, one is ore likely to notice the quality of the view near the edge.

Comparison with Panoptic
A better comparison is between the Panoptic and the Stratus, and the views are quite comparable in quality. Panoptic has similar aberrations, just to a lesser extent. It is not a huge difference but it is fairly easy to see. I also find the Panoptic quite a bit more comfortable. If they'd cost the same I would opt for the Pan, but at less than 1/2 the price, the Strat might be the keeper (especially as I'm dreaming of binoviewing).

Eye relief
The Stratus have very long ER and I think a rubber or foam extension to the eyecup will make the EPs more comfortable for me. (But almost every medium to long ER EP has too short an eyecup for me. Ditto binos.) But they are not at all difficult to use, and quite forgiving with eye placement. The Nagler 13mm is somewhat more touchy.

On the Moon
I did not notice any false colour when viewing the Moon, and the short focal length Strats did brilliantly. But conditions weren't good and I was also dodging clouds, so I did not get to spend as much time on the Moon as I would have liked.

On Mars
The 8mm Stratus was superior to Shorty Plus barlowed 13mm Nag or barlowed 19mm Pan. Less false colour and less stray light. I cannot say more due to poor seeing and tube currents.

Colour "temperature"
The colours of planets through Televue EPs always looked too orange to me when compared with my GSO and other Plossls. This is true for all my TV EPs: Plossl, Panoptic and Nagler, so it must be that they all use the same coatings. The Stratus are more colour "neutral", more like my budget Plossls. I do prefer the neutral look.

More to come
Now these were just impressions in poor conditions and I could change my mind about any of the above, when I get out under some dark skies. This weekend we're mooned in but hopefully the weather cooperates the w/e after. Also there'll be some more critical Moon observing; hopefully tonight on the full Moon.