22mm Sky-Watcher SWA 70° Eyepiece review

[Paulhenry85]

Hi everyone back again with another review.

This eyepiece is a bit of a beast in fact the biggest in my collection and weighs nearly 600g, it boasts a 70deg afov and are constructed from 8 lens elements and are fully multi-coated throughout.

The 22mm has a 2" barrel that are threaded for 2" filters (although the lens inside the eyepiece is 1.25" see pic below) and Eye relief is a generous at 20.6mm.

The eyepiece has a soft rubber-clad which is a nice touch for these winter nights.

I'm using this EP in a 8" skywatcher dob and to compliment my 32mm PanaView, (if you like the PanaView your love this), I did find colour contrast was better than the panaview, Once in the scope and focused, my first impression when looking through the EP was WOW, the wide 70° field of view and the eye cup is twisted up, it is like an ocean for your eye ball to swim in, great sharpness in the center and only slightly less to the edge (it's a HD eye piece, if that makes any sense).

Purchased from FLO for £87.50 I think for the money this is great value, if your scope can take the weight of these beasts I highly recommend it.

[YKSE]

Nice review.

It should perform quite well on my scopes, but the super giant weight ( of all 1.25" EPs) got me aback.

[Paulhenry85]

Nice review.

It should perform quite well on my scopes, but the super giant weight ( of all 1.25" EPs) got me aback.

I can image using this EP on a EQ mount could pose a problem when trying to balance your scope. I couldn't believe the weight and size of the thing when I took it out of its packaging.

[YKSE]

Many site members use a nmagnetic kitchen knife to balance their scope when switching between EPs of large weight difference, no matter of AZ/EQ or DOB mount, seems work very well. I happen to have my total weight on EQ3 near max, therefore prefer not to add any weight at all  .

[Paulhenry85]

I probably should check if there is a weight limit for my telescope in that case, or for the focuser anyway. The EP when used with my barlow weighs over 1kg.

[fredster]

Great review. Sounds like a nice widefield eyepiece.

Just wondered, are these identical to the now discontinued Celestron Ultima LX? They look remarkably similar.