Antares 25mm/70 degree

[Alfian]

Hi all,

Just browsing around for a 1.25 25mm widish field EP suitable foe an F5 scope (hence 25mm) and came across this:

http://www.rothervalleyoptics.co.uk/antares-w70-25mm-widefield-1-25-quot-eyepiece_d921.html

This seems very wide for 1.25 - and being a great believer in the addage "no such thing as a free lunch"  is there a catch?

[leelee970]

I have to say I like Antares - I've a few Possls and two Speerwalers(82°) and use them all the time.

They are not great right up to the edge but myself I don't mind this.

In fact I use my 24mm all the time.

The W70 range do come on ebay  now and then for around £20 - £30 secondhand.

[Bart]

or maybe try this for a few extra bob. They have good reviews. I understand they are rebranded Meade SWA which were/are good, I understand. So much so, I got one and the courier rang me this morning saying he'd dropped the box into my neighbour

Of course the Antares might be just as fine, just don't hear them mentioned much. Of course, astronomy suffers from fashion slavery as well!!!

Barry

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

I have the Antares 25mm 70 deg EP. The field stop diameter is 27.3mm (measured by yours truly), which is about as big as it gets in 1.25" format. The geometric apparent FOV is about 67 deg, not 70. The difference is probably due to some modest pin-cushion distortion. I use it in my 70mm F/5 finder scope, and it works fine as a finder EP. There is definitely some astigmatism in the outer reaches of the field of view, but nothing to worry about in a finder. The nice thing about the Antares (for my purposes) is that you can access the field stop easily, to attach cross hairs. I have compared it to my 24mm 68 deg from MaxVision, and the latter is a lot better quality-wise.  The latter is more expensive, however (though still a steal at 79 euro apiece).

[John]

I was rather put off of the Antares W70 range when I found out that some of them were the less expensive Skywatcher UWA's (the 66 degree ones) pushed inside a flashy looking silver body

Judging by the performance of the Skywatchers they should be good in scopes slower than F/7 or F/8 but I think the edges will be somewhat messy at F/5.

Heres a couple of reviews of the Antares W70's for interest:

http://www.cloudynights.com/documents/w70.pdf

http://www.cloudynights.com/documents/antares25.pdf

[Alfian]

Thanks guys, I guess you gets what you pays for - the link reviews seem to support the widely given advice that fast scopes eat cheaper eyepieces. Sounds like it would work fine on my F13 Skymax - which is an interesting thought - but for my F5 - I think I'll give it a miss.