Hey guys,
Was planning to give it a bit of a writeup once i've had more of a chance to use it.. so far i've only been able to give it 10 minutes on M45 and M42.
It was clear later last night, but I was watching Hewitt instead
btw for the others, this is the Andrews UW80degree 30mm that Mark reviewed in the
reviews section.
First impression, it's a monster! It's like a hand-grenade! I had no idea how big it would be. It feels really nice and solid, looks like good construction.
On M45 and M42, I compared it with my only other similar magnification eyepiece, my 32mm GSO plossl.
Obviously, the field-of-view was bigger, a fair bit bigger.. the quality in the centre of the field was great, no better or no worse than the plossl.
However at f/5 the outer edges of the field were definitely suffering from coma, and i'm not only talking the last 10%, more like the outer 25% or even more.. All the stars out there looks like bright little comets with their tail extending in or out (can't remember
). It was really only at the centre of the field that the stars were pinpoint and sharp.
I couldn't give it any more time as there was high clouds coming over and the full moon was rising washing out most of the sky.
Will I buy one for myself? I don't know yet.. I need to give it some more time on a different range of objects.. I can see though it's going to be a case of either:
1. widefield on a budget, good for starhopping but knowing that the edges aren't sharp and whether you'll be able to put up with the abberations.
or
2. Save the $150 or whatever it is, and put it towards a nagler or pentax that won't suffer from those abberations.
It's a tough choice, I don't know what i'll do yet, because I know I can't afford a nagler.. and spending $900 on an eyepiece for a $1000 telescope just isn't going to happen right now..
