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Ascension 2" SWA 32mm eyepiece review.


tich

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After asking a question about these on here & reading a few favourable reviews online about Agena eyepieces I thought I'd give one a go.

Cloudy Nights Review

http://agenaastro.com/agena-32mm-super-wide-angle-swa-eyepiece.html

As I'm on a tight budget at the moment I thought I'd take the plunge & ordered a cloned version called an Ascension eyepiece which I brought from here.

Which ended up being a bit cheaper than the one I was originally looking at so thanks for the Link John & Spec-Chum. I think there are a few clones of these around as I've seen quite a few variants while looking around online.

I ordered it late on Monday evening & it arrived on Wednesday morning so I've got no complaints about the service from Opticstar. I eagerly opened the box which was very well packed & had a look at the eyepiece itself. Ok so it's not a thing of beauty but seems to be well put together with a nice weighty feel. It claims to have a 70º FOV & it has coated glass as you'd expect. This also my first review so my apologies if I slip up with any technical terms as I've only had a telescope for just over a year now & I'm still learning.

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The telescope I will be using it with is a Skywatcher 200P explorer on an NEQ6 as I figure with it being an F5 would show up any imperfections. This is my first 2" eyepiece & I know it's not going to compete with the high end brands & I have looked through a few at a couple of star parties, my favourite View was looking at the Veil Nebula with a Skywatcher Nirvana with a 12" TS Dob.

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My first attempt using it the weather went against me & the fog ruined it all although I did manage to focus it on Jupiter before it disappeared. The colours had a nice contrast the planet & moons were looking nice & sharp, so it seemed to be a good start.

The next time I used it was on Saturday the clouds finally cleared so I got set up in the garden. My first target was the Pleiades it was nice to see it within the FOV for a change, the colours & contrast looked nice, the stars themselves were looking nice & sharp, I then had a look at the double cluster which filled the view with stars, again they were looking nice & sharp but the edges were distorted & seemed to be more so in one area, so I'm not quite sure why that was. Another thing I was finding is when I was moving my eye around viewing with this eyepiece the field of view wasn't looking particulary flat either. I had a look at M31 which was quite low in the sky by then so I wasn't picking out much detail so I slewed the scope to M44. The stars in the centre were looking nice & sharp but again the edges were distorted,

Maybe in a scope with a longer focal length it would work better but in mine I guess it's ok for a budget 2" wide FOV eyepiece, but not as good as the reviews led me to believe. I'll probably add more next time I scan the skies.

Sorry if it's a bit brief as I've never reviewed anything before but hope it helps.

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Nice review! I have a similar 38mm eyepiece (http://www.pulsar-op...piece/38mm.html). With a Newtonian I had a similar experience to yourself. The centre is sharp and the views bright but the field is too curved for my old eye. If I focus about half way out, I have the centre just out of focus but the edge is still poor, and a coma corrector only makes a marginal improvement. With the 38mm I get a shadow from the secondary until my eye is fully dark adapted.

It does give nice wide views for framing large objects like the double cluster, so I looked for a better, lightweight eyepiece. I recently bought a 36mm Baader Hyperion Aspheric which is nice, but more expensive.

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Nice report and if it's any consollation, stepping up to a SW Panaview 32mm at £80 or so, doesn't make things much better at the edges.

I think these are all Erfles which are essentially 5 (rather than 4) element, wide field Plossls, so they all have a nice big occular and good eye relief - They're very easy to use. Stangely, I didn't find the edge of field funnies that much of a bother in my 200p, but in the 300p Flextube, which is still F5, tore the SW to shreds, but at £80 or less, they're damn good value.

Which reminds me, it should have cooled by now - I'm offski!

Russell

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Good write up Tich :smiley:

At F/5 some wide field eyepiece astigmatism is inevitable until the cost gets rather high unfortunately. The trick is to finding the cost / performance balance that suits you and then making the most of it.

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I have the 38mm version and whilst the views aren't great it's better than having no widefield ep, and at £60 you can't really go wrong, it's my next to replace eyepiece, I was going to get a 30mm ES82 but telescope house are out of stock, may have missed the boat if its true that ES are pulling out of the UK.

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I can live with the distortion at the edges as it still gives a nice wide view & for the price it's not a bad eyepiece, I just thought the write ups I'd read seemed a bit exaggerated as it made me expect more.

At least I've got a low powered one as I needed one desperately.

Bingevader the Lacerta upgrade is not to bad & easy to fit. It's not as smooth as I'd like but that's probably more due to the standard Skywatcher focuser its fitted onto.

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I can live with the distortion at the edges as it still gives a nice wide view & for the price it's not a bad eyepiece, I just thought the write ups I'd read seemed a bit exaggerated as it made me expect more.

At least I've got a low powered one as I needed one desperately.

Bingevader the Lacerta upgrade is not to bad & easy to fit. It's not as smooth as I'd like but that's probably more due to the standard Skywatcher focuser its fitted onto.

ok, thanks. :smiley:

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  • 8 months later...

Just thought I'd add a little extra to this, when I was out using the C80ED I was first using Hyperions & even in the bright moonlight the background was a nice inky black colour whereas when I used the 2" 32mm the background was very light & almost washed out in comparison, probably this is due to the moonlight or the coatings used. I managed to use it again on Sunday night with no moon around using the same scope & I noticed that there was still some distortion at the edges & the scope itself it an F7.5. Whereas the Hyperions were pin sharp right to the edge. I'm not sure as to why there was still some distortion on the edge using this scope so I'm hoping someone more experienced might be able to enlighten me. it wasn't as much like when I've used it in the 200P but it is there.

I suppose it just boils down to the old saying you get what you pay for, it's still not a bad eyepiece for the money & no doubt I'll be using it on many observing sessions to come.

Tich

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Probably.  :grin:

The more expensive the EP, the greater the chance that any errors have been removed or lessened.

The problems increase with these large FOV EPs and also in faster 'scopes, which is why it was less noticeable in the F7.5 than in the F6 200p.

My Panaview is the same, lovely, but a little soft around the edges.

Cheers

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i read this review very eagerly, as i am after a new 2" for my SW 300 flextube dob.

I currently have a 38mm SW panaview and it is a bit soft at the edges and the exit pupil is a bit big, but as a widefield ep and for finding stuff - its mint! So the hunt is on for another 2" ep in 26mm flavour and I was looking at these as a possibility. For some reason I just have an aversion to the kellner / LET type 2" eps due to really bad reviews and not so great field of view, so these seem to fit the bill and my wallet.

Obviously you have noticed some bad points with the 32mm, I wonder if the 26mm will be any different? Has anyone got any experience of the 26?

I;m also looking closely at the 15mm 80deg 2" ep in their range too.

Nick

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