Altair Lightwave?

[Naemeth]

Any ideas on these eyepieces?

http://www.altairastro.com/product.php?productid=16530&cat=249&page=1

They all offer 68 Degree field with a generous 20mm eye relief, the catch? The price. My pocket can't take £129.00 per go for a while (cost of my scope each). Haven't seen any reviews for them, but then they are new, they look like the Baader Hyperions..

Thoughts?

[John]

These are very new on the block so we need a guinea pig !

I notice Orion (USA) has just released the same range and is getting some stick on the Cloudynights forum:

http://www.cloudynights.com/ubbthreads/showflat.php/Cat/0/Number/5397902/page/3/view/collapsed/sb/5/o/all/fpart/1

For a change the UK version seems to be a lot less costly !

It's a bit of a gamble though, isn't it ? - if they are "Hyperion-like" in performance they are too expensive but if they approach the Pentax XW's then buy them all !

[Naemeth]

These are very new on the block so we need a guinea pig !

I notice Orion (USA) has just released the same range and is getting some stick on the Cloudynights forum:

http://www.cloudynig...5/o/all/fpart/1

For a change the UK version seems to be a lot less costly !

It's a bit of a gamble though, isn't it ? - if they are "Hyperion-like" in performance they are too expensive but if they approach the Pentax XW's then buy them all !

If they are Hyperion-like, why bother? Hyperion's fall short of 'good' faster than F/6 don't they?

I do like the design I must admit, but risking £129 on an unknown quantity, what if it's bad? You'll have a real hard time selling it. I suppose the only way of knowing is to try it though.

[E621Keith]

Wow, £129 is a lot to ask for a Chinese made 68deg eyepiece when there are that many competitors under £100. Celestron have been selling their 70deg Ultima LX for £129 for some time. I haven't seen any reviews about it and I think I know the reason.

The $300 US price is nuts, especially when you can buy a genuine Vixen LVW for $270.

[John]

If they are Hyperion-like, why bother? Hyperion's fall short of 'good' faster than F/6 don't they?

I do like the design I must admit, but risking £129 on an unknown quantity, what if it's bad? You'll have a real hard time selling it. I suppose the only way of knowing is to try it though.

Agreed on both counts. I guess that was the point that was being made in the Cloudynights thread - why enter what is already a crowded part of the market unless you have something rather special to offer ?

[Naemeth]

Agreed on both counts. I guess that was the point that was being made in the Cloudynights thread - why enter what is already a crowded part of the market unless you have something rather special to offer ?

If it delivers, as you say it could, Pentax XW performance, it could be worth it... perhaps one person will try one, just to see what it's like. After all, I'm sure there was a point in time where Naglers and indeed TeleVue were an unknown quantity .

[Dunkster]

$300 is almost Nagler/XW territory

[johninderby]

Look a little familiar ?

Omegon Super LE eyepiece

http://www.omegon.eu....Serie=Super LE

If the £129.00 price seems expensive these are about £160.00

John

[John]

One of the far eastern manufacturers has hit the jackpot with these then with many different brand names wanting to adopt them !

[E621Keith]

One of the far eastern manufacturers has hit the jackpot with these then with many different brand names wanting to adopt them !

Since Altair astro are selling them as Lightwave series, I wouldn't be surprise these eyepieces are made by Kumming United Optics which are then sold to various retailer to be sold under their own brand. Just like the Kumming ED triplets and binoculars

[alan potts]

They look very nice but I am sticking with TV and Meade UWA.

Alan

[alan potts]

Wow, £129 is a lot to ask for a Chinese made 68deg eyepiece when there are that many competitors under £100. Celestron have been selling their 70deg Ultima LX for £129 for some time. I haven't seen any reviews about it and I think I know the reason.

The $300 US price is nuts, especially when you can buy a genuine Vixen LVW for $270.

Keith,

Ex Sc and Meade are Chinese made and they know how to charge, most 68 degree ep's from these two are over 150 pounds, but I guess there is a good chance the quality will have been sorted out. T House still has a 28mm SWA Meade at 216 pounds , I think it may be there for a long time. I have not seen the Ex Sc 68 degree on sale in the UK, only on TS site and they are not cheap.

Alan.

[gooseholla]

Their zoom, however, seems a reasonable price in that series.

[E621Keith]

Keith,

Ex Sc and Meade are Chinese made and they know how to charge, most 68 degree ep's from these two are over 150 pounds, but I guess there is a good chance the quality will have been sorted out. T House still has a 28mm SWA Meade at 216 pounds , I think it may be there for a long time. I have not seen the Ex Sc 68 degree on sale in the UK, only on TS site and they are not cheap.

Alan.

I think you are confusing the ES82 with the ES68. ES68 are are all under £100, in fact most are around £50. I heard they aren't very good but they are cheap. Meade discontinued their S5k SWA last year. The SWA were expensive and I suspect they didn't sell well due to the price relative to the competitions.

Don't forget the well established Baader Hyperions, which are under £100. People say they aren't very good in fast newt, but I didn't have any problem on my F6 scopes.

[Dunkster]

I think you are confusing the ES82 with the ES68. ES68 are are all under £100, in fact most are around £50. I heard they aren't very good but they are cheap. Meade discontinued their S5k SWA last year. The SWA were expensive and I suspect they didn't sell well due to the price relative to the competitions.

Don't forget the well established Baader Hyperions, which are under £100. People say they aren't very good in fast newt, but I didn't have any problem on my F6 scopes.

No disrespect intended Keith, but I think you may be confusing the ES68 with the 70 degree ES that TH stock, at around £50 each.

The ES68 generally get positive reviews in the US, the 24 having been likened to the 24 Panoptic. They do cost a little more, depending on focal length (the 34 and 40mm both being over US$200). I've not seen them for sale in the UK, however.

[E621Keith]

No disrespect intended Keith, but I think you may be confusing the ES68 with the 70 degree ES that TH stock, at around £50 each.

The ES68 generally get positive reviews in the US, the 24 having been likened to the 24 Panoptic. They do cost a little more, depending on focal length (the 34 and 40mm both being over US$200)

Thanks for the correction. I guess I'm the one who was confused.

Edit: I'd like to see a comparison between the Orion models against Vixen LVW and see how Orion can justify charging more for these Chinese made eyepieces than Vixen for their Japanese made ones.

[gooseholla]

Orion can justify everything just by being Orion lol. Their prices are bad though!!!

[chops]

I really wanted to contribute to this, as I bought an Altair Lightwave 8-24mm Long Eye Relief zoom, shortly after Christmas for £149.

The reason I did this is because I'm away from home for 10 days and brought my scope with me, but forgot my eyepieces so needed something to view and was persuaded that a zoom would ... well, perfectly fill the void (it does).

However, over the past few nights the seeing hasn't been great and other than Solar, Jupiter, M42 and the Moon (extremely poor, disrupted atmosphere last night) and therefore I've not been able to give a decent objective review, certainly not a direct comparison against my bog standard Meade 4000 Plossls.

For example, contrast on Jupiter seemed slightly lower than the Plossls, but I'm observing under different skies so it could very easily simply be the seeing. It's not as wide as I'd imagined. I'd really like some dark Pegasus star fields and double cluster to compare,

However, quality seems good (well made and robust). eye relief great (my older father can use it). I was very sceptical of the wind up eyecups, versus soft fold ups, however I find them superb, maybe it's the EPs long eye relief which is superb.

In all, even with the limited viewing I've used it for, I'd say it's superb value and simple to use versus 4 separate 4000 Plossls.

I cannot imagine that, unless is find a significant upgrade, I will want to part with it given the simplicity of use.

I will report back if I find any limitations, but so far it seems to be a reasonable upgrade to the individual 4000s (remember the seeing's not been great, so I won't have seen anything but obvious flaws).

[RedCanary]

On 31 December 2014 at 09:38, chops said:

I really wanted to contribute to this, as I bought an Altair Lightwave 8-24mm Long Eye Relief zoom, shortly after Christmas for £149.

The reason I did this is because I'm away from home for 10 days and brought my scope with me, but forgot my eyepieces so needed something to view and was persuaded that a zoom would ... well, perfectly fill the void (it does).

However, over the past few nights the seeing hasn't been great and other than Solar, Jupiter, M42 and the Moon (extremely poor, disrupted atmosphere last night) and therefore I've not been able to give a decent objective review, certainly not a direct comparison against my bog standard Meade 4000 Plossls.

For example, contrast on Jupiter seemed slightly lower than the Plossls, but I'm observing under different skies so it could very easily simply be the seeing. It's not as wide as I'd imagined. I'd really like some dark Pegasus star fields and double cluster to compare,

However, quality seems good (well made and robust). eye relief great (my older father can use it). I was very sceptical of the wind up eyecups, versus soft fold ups, however I find them superb, maybe it's the EPs long eye relief which is superb.

In all, even with the limited viewing I've used it for, I'd say it's superb value and simple to use versus 4 separate 4000 Plossls.

I cannot imagine that, unless is find a significant upgrade, I will want to part with it given the simplicity of use.

I will report back if I find any limitations, but so far it seems to be a reasonable upgrade to the individual 4000s (remember the seeing's not been great, so I won't have seen anything but obvious flaws).

Apologies for waking up a zombie thread but do you have an update on your experience with the Altair LER zoom, chops? I'm particularly interested in LER zooms as I have to wear quite strong specs.

 

[chops]

Hi RedCanary

Afraid I've not used it a hell of a lot recently; it's been consigned to my 'solar' scope, as I concentrate on using some of the 2" EPs.

However, I had no complaints and it was a 'go-to' EP for a long time.

hope this helps in some way, however late the reply.

[RedCanary]

On 7 January 2017 at 12:22, chops said:

Hi RedCanary

Afraid I've not used it a hell of a lot recently; it's been consigned to my 'solar' scope, as I concentrate on using some of the 2" EPs.

However, I had no complaints and it was a 'go-to' EP for a long time.

hope this helps in some way, however late the reply.

Thanks chops, good to learn you were satisfied with it.