Antares 10mm (70'AFOV) or Baader Hyperion 10mm?

[mattyfatz]

Has anyone compared these two eyepieces? It one better than the other for planetary work?

I will shortly be in possession of both but I will only keep one. I have other FL of the Hyperions so that one will fit nicely in my case. The Antares made a lot of noise a while back, but I don't hear much about them anymore.

Thanks in advance..

[John]

I'm not sure which line of Antares eyepieces you are thinking of ?. There are the W70 series which have silver metal finished bodies but I think 9.7mm was the nearest they got to 10mm. There was an Antares Speers-Waler 10mm in 70 degrees I think - is that the eyepiece you are referring too ?

[mattyfatz]

Yes. It's the Speers- Waler eyepiece. The 10mm version

[ronin]

The Spears-Wallers were generally very good eyepieces.

I think I read something a long time back that Michael in the Netherlands has and likes them.

Not common over here, think that Rother Valley Optics sold/sell the Antares W70's and that Green Witch do/did also. However they were the only ones. Not sure if either sold the Spears-Waller variants, maybe RVO did.

Overall they were said to be a good eyepiece, W70's and the S-W ones, but they never caught on.

As an upgrade people were recommended the TV Plossl's (about the same cost) and when they went up in price the BST Explorers appeared and captured the first upgrade step.

Actually think I have a 4.7mm S-W somewhere, just never dug it out for some years to use it. Wouldn't like to say where it is at present, fairly chunky eyepiece if I recall.

[russ]

There were a few versions of the Speers-Waler, that one in the pic is the MkI. There was a 70deg and 82deg version. The 82deg version is a classic, especially the MkI black body. And optically superior to the Hyperion, especially if you are popping it in a fast scope.

A couple of snags with the Speers though. The first is obvious from the photo, its physical size. The second is the amount of back focus they require, can be a huge problem for newts that are short on focus travel.

I owned the 10mm, 14mm and zoom. 

RVO, Greenwitch and Scopes'n'skies all sold the Speers-Waler and the lesser, inferior W70.