Andrews 80° UltraWide Eyepieces

Craig.a.c (Craig) · #1 03-10-2008, 12:38 PM

I am thinking of buying a few eyepieces for myself for christmas. The eyepieces I am looking at are from Andrews Communications.
They are: 2" 80° 20mm eyepiece (includes removable 1.5x Barlow lens) and the 2" 80° 15mm eyepiece.
I am still a newbie to all of this and was hoping that someone could tell how wide 80° really is.

erick (Eric) · #2 03-10-2008, 12:55 PM

Well, the 30mm I bought from Bintel (the same clones) is pretty wiiiiiiiiiiiddddddeeeee! I'm sorry I cannot really compare to others - but tonight, weather permitting, I'll compare it to a Panoptic which is 68 deg AFOV

I've happily used the 30mm ultrawide for more than a year in an f6 then an f5. Yes, off-axis is not very exciting but it's a cheap 80 deg! I did try it in a Paracorr - no great improvement.

erick (Eric) · #3 03-10-2008, 12:56 PM

By the way, just unscrew the 1.5 barlow from the bottom of the 20mm and it becomes the 30mm.

NQLD_Newby · #4 03-10-2008, 02:06 PM

Hi Craig,
With your 12" scope that eye piece will give you a FOV of a little over 1 deg in the sky which is about 2 full moons. hope that helps.

Craig.a.c (Craig) · #5 04-10-2008, 12:17 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by erick

Well, the 30mm I bought from Bintel (the same clones) is pretty wiiiiiiiiiiiddddddeeeee!.

Yeah. I was surprised with the field of view I got with the 2" 32mm GSO eyepiece. I was even able to spot NGC 7582 (trio of galaxies) in Grus with it at 46X magnification.

Craig.a.c (Craig) · #6 04-10-2008, 12:19 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by NQLD_Newby

Hi Craig,
With your 12" scope that eye piece will give you a FOV of a little over 1 deg in the sky which is about 2 full moons. hope that helps.

2 full moons. Even a field of view the size of 1 full moon is awesome. I think I will get those eyepices and an O-III filter to go with it.

Thanks for the replies guys.

Miaplacidus (Brian) · #7 04-10-2008, 02:16 PM

Don't buy the 15mm. Unless it has changed in the last year, it is without doubt the worst eyepiece I've ever owned. (I ended up putting it up for auction on this website as a joke fundraiser for IIS. Raised $15, which was $15 over priced.)

The 30mm is a different kettle of fish. Better build quality, nice finder EP for the dob, and quite reasonable on axis. Not the Nagler, of course, but a very servicable eyepiece nonetheless, and worth the price of admission (used to be about $150).

But forget about the 15. It was a dog.

Cheers,

Brian.

Starkler (Geoff) · #8 04-10-2008, 07:12 PM

If this is the same one as i remember looking through it was a reasonable performer for the price. The outer field aberrations at 80 degrees were similar to the outer field of the gso 32mm which has a narrower fov at 65 deg?

Makes for a fair budget widefield for those that don't want to spend the extra for premium glass.

AstralTraveller (David) · #9 05-10-2008, 01:53 PM

I suspect these are the same as the '1rpd' brand version I have. It is a very good eyepiece in the f/8 refractor where it gives nice sharp stars to the edge of the 2 degree fov. In the f/5 newt however the performance is clearly inferior. Star images are poor from about 60% of the field outwards. I remember it as being very poor in an f/4.5. It is still clearly better than the GSO 32mm.

Argonavis (William) · #10 05-10-2008, 02:58 PM

I recently purchased the 20mm Andrews for use in a Meade f/10.

I am surprised at how good the on-axis image quality actually is. It doesn't leave much to be desired. Well worth the money if you have a long focal ratio scope.

The only negative *may* be poor quality control which can leave you with a bad copy. I am sure Andrews would replace if this is the case.

Starkler (Geoff) · #11 05-10-2008, 05:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by AstralTraveller

In the f/5 newt however the performance is clearly inferior. Star images are poor from about 60% of the field outwards. It is still clearly better than the GSO 32mm.

That pretty much how I saw it also.

GrahamL · #12 06-10-2008, 10:07 AM

talking to somone from bintel a while back about these cheap ultrawides
they were straight up honest enough to steer me clear of them for
my fast scope .

In a longer f/l as mentioned above I read quite a few positive
comments on them around the net.

cheers graham

allan gould · #13 06-10-2008, 11:04 AM

In a slow SCT ie f10 they are very good value for money. The 15mm is excellent with a scope of this f ratio.

mick pinner · #14 06-10-2008, 06:33 PM

everything works in a f/10

Craig.a.c (Craig) · #15 06-10-2008, 07:05 PM

So many conflicting opinions. Some say they are good others say they are bad.

Starkler (Geoff) · #16 06-10-2008, 07:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Craig.a.c

So many conflicting opinions. Some say they are good others say they are bad.

They are good for the money. In comparison to the performance in a fast scope you can buy if you're prepared to spend 4x as much, they are bad.

Theres no such thing as a cheap nagler/pentax xw. You get what you pay for and yes, you can see the difference.

astropolak (Joe) · #17 06-10-2008, 07:26 PM

Hi
I have a F10 SCT ...and a 30mm KK Widescan III, good but far from perfect, the Andrews 30mmm 80 deg would be even worse (more so for the 15mm), in your scope - just awful.
Please do yourself a favour and look at the Eyepiece sale from Tak66 - 28mm Pentax, buy a good 2x barlow and you have solution heaps better than the cheap Chinese clones.

Joe

erick (Eric) · #18 06-10-2008, 09:23 PM

Remember we are talking about a $69 eyepiece here (30mm). Cost you more in petrol and parking to go and pick it up????

So if you don't have $s hundreds to spend and you want to experience 80 deg, it's no loss. Bet you someone with the standard GSO bundled eyepieces will pay $40-50 for it in the IceTrade, when you upgrade.

Craig.a.c (Craig) · #19 06-10-2008, 09:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by erick

Remember we are talking about a $69 eyepiece here (30mm). Cost you more in petrol and parking to go and pick it up????

So if you don't have $s hundreds to spend and you want to experience 80 deg, it's no loss. Bet you someone with the standard GSO bundled eyepieces will pay $40-50 for it in the IceTrade, when you upgrade.

As much as I would like to spoil myself and get some good quality eyepieces, I can't really afford it at the moment and would like to see what a larger FOV would be like. No harm in buying them and if I don't like them I can allways sell them later on.

Gargoyle_Steve (Steve) · #20 07-10-2008, 01:20 AM

I understand that you're looking at the 15 and 20mm ep's, I've go the 30mm 80° Andrews unit and use it in an f5 12" dob frequently, thought I'd offer my own insite. I will replace it only when I can afford something that gives me exactly the same huge field of view at a price I can reasonably afford - which hasn't happened so far and may not for a very long time.

I agree with what was said previously, "for the money" it gives you a nice huge 1.5° window onto the sky in that scope (was damn near 2° in my 10" dob). If you can tolerate the seagulls in the outer field of view, like I can, get it now and don't hesitate. They used to be $149, I got mine 2 years ago on special at $99 and I was very happy at that price.

If you don't like the seagulls so much, or really do prefer the higher mag that a 15mm wil offer, then get a 2" GSO 2x Barlow (also very inexpensive) and that effectively makes the 30mm a wide field 15mm ep WITH NO SEAGULLS AT ALL.