Skywatcher Nirvana UWA 82-degree FOV or William Optics Swan 72-degree.

[TJExcalibur]

I would appreciate your views on the Skywatcher Nirvana 82 degree, set of 4-7-16-28 mm or the William Optics Swan 72 degree 9-15-20-25-33-40 mm. Only for visual or maybe you consider others as better. I did think of Baader Hyperion but as I have a Baader Hyperzoom where I found the FOV at 24mm only 50 degrees not that great. In have looked but juggling through masses of variants on eyepieces gets confusing. Any better ideas much appreciated. Scope is a Celestron CPC 925.

[John]

To some extent it depends what scope you are going to be using the eyepieces in.

In scopes faster than around F/7 (ie: F/6, F/5 etc) the Nirvanas are much better corrected in terms of distortions in the outer parts of the field than the SWANs are. In an F/8, F/10 etc scope that difference would be much less but the Nirvanas would offer a somewhat larger field of view of course.

If you wear glasses when observing then the shorter focal length Nirvanas (16mm, 7mm and 4mm) can be a little "tight" in terms of eye relief although thay are no worse than the 1.25" Tele Vue Naglers in that respect.

The Baader Hyperion Zoom has a field of view at 24 degrees closer to 40 degrees (despite it's spec) but it does widen out to 60 degrees or even a little more at the 8mm setting.

Personally, I like the Nirvanas and have found their performance pretty close to the equivalent Tele Vue Naglers. The William Optics UWAN range are the same eyepieces as the Nirvanas by the way. I just wish there were more focal lengths in the Nirvana / UWAN ranges.

Hope that helps a bit

[bingevader]

What 'scope are they for?

That will help in determining the range, as a different focal length will give different resulting magnifications.

Obviously there's the difference in field of view.

I'm gradually moving over to 82° eyepieces because I like the extra.

There're also the Explore Scientific 82° range, just to throw another spanner in the works?

[TJExcalibur]

Just edited my original post.  Scope is a Celestron CPC 925. Thank you for your views and throwing the  Explore Scientific 82°  into the mix. Did a bit of research and the  Explore Scientific 82°  gets good reviews. There are more to choose from and I would find spending over a grand in one go a bit hard going. Any ideas on deciding which is the best mix for now, 4.7mm-6.7mm-8.8mm-11mm-14mm-18mm-24mm-30mm, maybe get the rest later.

[Timebandit]

Hello. I have the William optics uwan which i use mostly in my dob but also goes in the frac at times . From what I have found out in the past there seems to be an indication the William optics uwan 82 D is possibly made in the same factory as the Nirvana uwa 82D(if this is correct I am sure somebody else could confirm) as they look basically the same from memory also . From my experience with the William uwan 82 D I have found this a very competent eyepiece with a wide field and good sharp views and contrast. The scopes I use them in are at 4.6f and 7.9f so a useful performer in fast scopes also. The William uwan when it goes up against the televue nagler in the scopes is very close to its performance so this gives you an idea of the type of level it is able to compete with. Obviously price factor considering also, as cheaper than the naglers then  bang for buck? they represent good value for money. I hope this information is helpful in your choice process