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Sky-Watcher SWA 70° 3.5mm Eyepieces - First Light


emadmoussa

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Build & Impressions >>

Let me say that the eyepieces oozes quality and feels rock solid. It's a bit bigger and heavier than I expected, but it's never been a problem since I've got a soft spot for big heavy eyepieces. It has a very similar eye relief to the Baader Hyperion except you can roll it up and down like the SW Panorama which is a great plus if you happened to wear glasses or have long eyelashes like the Japanese anime characters.

The soft rubber clad around the eyepiece body undoubtedly heightens your grip. I can see it coming pretty handy on those very cold nights (especially for somebody like me who constantly forgets to put gloves on and always ends up with frost bites). It feels like the Hyperion holding it (if you close your eyes), except the SWA is more rubber cushioned. In a silly comparison I would imagine dropping both the Hyperion 5mm and the SWA 3.5mm, I'd bet the SWA will survive if it fell on the its side or front.

The metal is painted silver unlike most eyepieces out there that are painted matt black.

The eyepiece relief cap is also made of stiff rubber, but it doesn't close firmly. You can flick it off with your finger. This is only a concern if you tend to randomly or horizontally store your eyepieces, there is a good likelihood the cap will come off upon simple impact or friction. Having said that, I personally store eyepieces vertically so that's not much of a concern.

Performance >> Using it with SW 80ED

I took it out for a 2-hour test run last night. Visibility was very good and for the first hour the nasty neighbour was apparently out - which gave me a good hour to comfortably have a play and test performance.

For a 3.5mm eyepiece the field of view was massive allowing you comfortable side and front vision. Generally, the SWA doesn't exhibits virtually any scatter, ghosting or astigmatism despite the high power output.

With double stars, the contrast and colour were very good. The star light is distributed evenly without any signs of trailing until you hit the FOV fringes . There's an amount of negligible star trailing and minimal aberration around the very edge of the field of view. Having said that, 95% of flawless field view is a winning formula in my book and would happily neglect the imperfect 5%.

In my short-ish session I managed to scan a number galaxies, doubles, globular clusters and a nebula. The eyepiece performance is a bit better than I expected considering the price. I will probably have another test when weather allows.

Would I recommend? Most certainly....if you're looking for an affordable wide-field high power eyepiece, then the Sky-watcher SWA 3.5mm is simply the answer. As long as astronomy remains my passion, this eyepiece will definitely be part of my astronomical ammo. It is a keeper indeed.

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Interesting report :smiley:

Can I ask a couple of questions ?:

- Did you use in in 2" mode as well as 1.25" and, if so, what difference did that make to where it came to focus ?

- Does the eyecup twist up and down and, if so, how much travel does it have, approximately ?.

Many thanks :smiley:

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Hi John,

I'm afraid I used the 1.25" mode only. I was planning on doing the 2" in the next session.

Yes, the eyecup twist...sorry, that's what I meant by ''rolling up and down''...just my weird terminology :) I guess the travel is around 5mm - the attached images should give a clearer answer I hope.

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Thanks for the review. I'm looking at upgrading to these eyepieces in the near future, so this has come in handy.

To be honest there weren't any reviews when I first got this one. I decided to take the plunge and test it myself and I'm quite pleased with its performance. It's almost identical to - if not somehow better than - the Hyperion equivalents in performance. I wouldn't say the build is better than the Hyperion, but it's kind of more convenient and practical considering the way it's shaped and rubbed coated.

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Do you use anything to balance the scope? My ED80 is mounted almost most forward position, without findscope, with EP under 400 gram.

I had this in mind actually - but two elements there didn't make scope balancing quite of an issue. First, the ADM saddle grips most of the 80ED dovetail and thus reduces the imbalances between the front and the back of the telescope. Second, I've got a second dovetail attached on the top of the telescope which in turn concentrates some of the weight on the middle bit.

You'll still get the back heavier than the front which I didn't find to be an issue on the NEQ6 - but most definitely I'd slide the telescope forward into the rings if I'm using a giro mount.

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Hi John,

I'm afraid I used the 1.25" mode only. I was planning on doing the 2" in the next session.

Yes, the eyecup twist...sorry, that's what I meant by ''rolling up and down''...just my weird terminology :) I guess the travel is around 5mm - the attached images should give a clearer answer I hope.

Thanks for that - useful to know :smiley:

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Thanks emadmoussa

The shape & rubber coating is what attracted me to them just as much as the spec. I have arthritis in my hands so anything that is a bit bulky is a benefit. My standard 1.25"plossols have nearly hit the concrete on more than one occasion. Come the winter with gloves on the chances of dropping somehing is doubled.

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Thanks for the review Emad.

Just put in an order with FLO for the 3.5mm.

I'm purely a visual observer at the moment and with the amount of light polution here in West Bromwich double stars and star clusters are more rewarding to view than the fuzzies. The 3.5 mm at 257 mag in my scope should give me some great views of doubles.

Avtar

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Thanks for the review Emad.

Just put in an order with FLO for the 3.5mm.

I'm purely a visual observer at the moment and with the amount of light polution here in West Bromwich double stars and star clusters are more rewarding to view than the fuzzies. The 3.5 mm at 257 mag in my scope should give me some great views of doubles.

Avtar

I find 3.5mm really pretty useful with my ED120. On tight doubles I'm even using 300x at times.

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Thanks for the review Emad.

Just put in an order with FLO for the 3.5mm.

I'm purely a visual observer at the moment and with the amount of light polution here in West Bromwich double stars and star clusters are more rewarding to view than the fuzzies. The 3.5 mm at 257 mag in my scope should give me some great views of doubles.

Avtar

Great stuff - FLO should give me a commission then :D :D It's a great eyepiece, mate. You won't regret it.

May I ask, what telescope you're going to use it with?

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Nice to hear some first comments on this, sounds promising. Would be nice to hear how the lower power ones perform in a f/4.5 - f/5 instrument. The 32 m would just keep eye pupil under 7 mm and give a nice 1.8 degrees, but I would have a little concern how well it would perform in the aberration department and sort of keep that to an acceptable level, how comfortable it would be to use also.

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I agree that the 32mm could be an interesting one. It's a good focal length even for fastish scopes and, if it can best the similarly priced Panaview 32mm in such scopes, will be a popular choice I would think.

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Many thanks for the review, I'd come across these eyepieces and was wondering what they were like. The edge performance sounds good, especially as if I recall correctly your scope is around f6.5? For those with longer focal rations it should be even better, great stuff. I have an APM 152mm f7.9 apo on order and was thinking of an eyepiece around 3.5mm as my current range only goes down to 5mm. Mmm. Thanks again.

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Many thanks for the review, I'd come across these eyepieces and was wondering what they were like. The edge performance sounds good, especially as if I recall correctly your scope is around f6.5? For those with longer focal rations it should be even better, great stuff. I have an APM 152mm f7.9 apo on order and was thinking of an eyepiece around 3.5mm as my current range only goes down to 5mm. Mmm. Thanks again.

I think it was tested in an ED80 which is F/7.5 Paul.

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