A couple of observations.

[alan potts]

Two things.

Looking at Teleskop Services site which is about the largest European supplier I see they have the Meade 20mm UWA listed, not in stock mind you. I really was beginning to think I dreamt of this eyepiece on night having never heard of anyone owning one.

Secondly, I was wondering is there anyone on site that has bought an Antares 82 degree eyepiece, there are a few in the range and I was wondering what they are like. I had the 5.7mm 70 degree about three years back and it was a pretty good eyepiece and not expensive. It may just be that there is no UK out for these as I have never seen one talked about on site.

They also made two UWA zooms a few years back, I had the 8mm-5mm and it was not at all bad, a bit colourful at the edges but 82 degrees at all stops, almost unheard of .

That's 3 things but I can't count

[ronin]

I think the Antares 82 degree eyepieces are more generally known under the name of Speer Waler here. Although they are marketed as Antares Speer Waler eyepieces. Just seems that for whatever reason people refer to them as Speer Waler eyepieces, the Antares gets dumped, I think Michael in Groningen has some.

Rother Valley sell them at £153, and if I recall Green Witch either sell them or sold them also. I think that is about all however.

Antares are a bit odd, they are generally good eyepieces, also I think Canadian not Chinese, but they never caught on. I have 3 of the W70's and 1 SP in a case somewhere. Strangly never realised the SP were 82 degree until now.

[John]

I believe Antares is owned by a Canadian called Glen Speers. Some of their products are imported from China (or a few from Japan) and rebranded as Antares and some, like the Speers-WALER range use imported componants and optics but are assembled in Canada.

I've owned one Speers-WALER which was a 24.5mm 70 degree eyepiece. It was great at F/10 as is so often the case but was quite poor at F/7 or faster. The 82 degree SW's and the short focal length zooms are generally much better with one or two models competing with the Naglers. There have been at least two versions of this line though and in some FL's there seems to be wide and ultra wide variants so it's confusing to know what type you are dealing with. The zooms seem to get very good reviews as do the shorter focal length SW fixed focal lengths. As the FL gets longer the reviews seem to get less enthusiastic !

Two factors seem to get mentioned often when SW's are reported on, i) their large and long body size for a 1.25" eyepiece and ii) that they often seem to need more inwards focuser movement than most other eyepieces which can lead to issues with focusers with limited travel.

[alan potts]

Thanks for the infomation on them you two, as said I had the zoom and sold it to a site member about two years back. They never really seem to have caught on in England though, having said that look at the selection we have these days, a lot has change in my lifetime I am pleased to say.

[John]

Thanks for the infomation on them you two, as said I had the zoom and sold it to a site member about two years back. They never really seem to have caught on in England though, having said that look at the selection we have these days, a lot has change in my lifetime I am pleased to say.

Sorry Alan, I missed that you had owned a SW zoom.