Antares Speers Waler series 3

[Green12]

Hello

has anyone used or have any useful  information on these?

i have f10 sct and had been looking at upgrading to Morpheus or ES until I found these .

 

thanks

[Louis D]

Literally the only place I can find them is Rother Valley Optics.  The old series 1 and 2 were very good performers, just very long with only moderate, not long, eye relief.  I can't imagine these would have anything to offer over the Morpheus line, especially if you wear eyeglasses to observe.

The old series 1 and 2 were designed by Canadian optics designer Glenn Speers.  They were assembled in Canada.  I'm not sure if the components were also of Canadian sources.  WALER stood for Wide Angle Long Eye Relief.  Canadian dealers were always the best bet for locating SW eyepieces.  The fact that I can't locate a single dealer for them on this side of the pond is suspicious.

Edited February 14, 2019 by Louis D
Added link to new eyepieces

[F15Rules]

Stick with Morpheus, you can't go wrong?

Dave

[dannybgoode]

I have the 4.9mm series 2 and it’s superb. One of my favourite eyepieces and I know Ian at RVO rates Antares highly. 

Not had need to buy anything in the series 3 range but they still stock the series 2 and that’s where my money would be going I think. 

Edit: the fact RVO are the only people to stick them doesn’t bother me. Having used the 4.9mm I think they’re onto something. 

Edited February 13, 2019 by dannybgoode

[John]

I used to have the 24.5mm and 18mm Series 1 SPEERS-WALER's (many years ago) and they were great in the slower scopes I had then (F/10) but they did require a lot of inwards focuser movement to reach focus. When I got my F/6.5 Vixen ED refractor though they showed quite a lot of edge field astigmatism which was not to my taste at all so I let them go. From reports I read back then, the longer focal lengths in that series were the weakest and the field correction improved a lot in the 10mm and shorter focal lengths. The zoom was considered a bit of a "Nagler killer". They were bulky eyepieces (tall) but not as heavy as you would expect them to be.

I'd be interested to try the series II and III SW's and see how they developed over the years.

I believe Greg Speers used optics sourced from Japan, Taiwan and China as the years progressed but many of the Antares products were assembled in Canada. They did have some issues with dust between the optics on new products a few times. I think that may have put off some potential dealers for their products ?

 

[Louis D]

6 hours ago, John said:

The zoom was considered a bit of a "Nagler killer". They were bulky eyepieces (tall) but not as heavy as you would expect them to be.

I have the original version of the 5-8mm zoom from around 2000.  It is every bit as sharp as my Pentax XL eyepieces center to edge in direct comparison.  Considering the wider field of the zoom, that's saying something.  It is just really huge with only 7mm to 9mm of usable eye relief, depending on the zoom setting.  At those small exit pupils, I can get away without my eyeglasses and see only slight astigmatism from my eyes if I want to see the entire 78 degree AFOV (measured constant across the range) with an effective AFOV of 79 to 86 degrees based on the measured TFOV from 8mm down to 5mm.  I'm guessing increasing barrel distortion compressing the edges is at work.  That makes it the same measured AFOV as the Morpheus eyepieces (9mm and 14mm) I own.  The 9mm has an 80 degree effective AFOV based on measured TFOV while the 14mm has only a 75 degree effective AFOV.  I'm guessing the latter has strong pincushion distortion like a Panoptic. However, the big difference between the two eyepiece types is that the  9mm Morpheus has 22mm of usable eye relief and the 14mm version has 19mm of usable eye relief.  Both are super comfy with eyeglasses.

I haven't compared the 9mm Morpheus to the zoom at 8mm yet.  Not quite equivalent, but pretty close.  The 9mm Morpheus doesn't show any field curvature or edge astigmatism like the 14mm version, so it should be a pretty close contest.  It might come down to stray light control, contrast, and axial sharpness.

BTW, the 8.5-12mm SW zoom got slightly less glowing reviews.  I see that ScopeStuff still lists this zoom as available, so they might have one or more new old stock copies lying around in the warehouse if someone is interested in it.

6 hours ago, John said:

I believe Greg Speers used optics sourced from Japan, Taiwan and China as the years progressed but many of the Antares products were assembled in Canada.

Glenn Speers

Edited February 13, 2019 by Louis D
Added SS link

[John]

Thanks Louis - Glenn it was

[Louis D]

2 hours ago, John said:

Thanks Louis - Glenn it was

I'm suspicious Glenn licensed the name and did not design the optics for these new eyepieces.  There has been no chatter on CN about them at all, either.

His main driving reason for the SW line was so Canadians would have an affordable alternative to the expensive, US dollar priced Nagler line back when the Canadian dollar was particularly weak versus the US dollar.  I find it very strange that I can't find a single Canadian dealer marketing them.  I had to buy my zoom from O'Neil Photo & Optical Inc. in Ontario, Canada, because there were no US SW dealers at that time.

I think it is exciting if Glenn really did roll up his sleeves and pen an entirely new line of eyepieces.  These don't match up with any other existing line of eyepieces that I know of.

Edited February 13, 2019 by Louis D
Added positive ending

[TheLookingGlass]

Is there a link to see these newer designs?

Thanks!

[dannybgoode]

36 minutes ago, TheLookingGlass said:

Is there a link to see these newer designs?

Thanks!

https://www.rothervalleyoptics.co.uk/antares-eyepieces.html

[TheLookingGlass]

2 minutes ago, dannybgoode said:

https://www.rothervalleyoptics.co.uk/antares-eyepieces.html

Thanks, but I cannot see any Antares Speers Waler Series 3 on the site.

[Geoff Barnes]

25 minutes ago, TheLookingGlass said:

Thanks, but I cannot see any Antares Speers Waler Series 3 on the site.

Last one on the list, number 5, is Series 3.....

 

Antares Speers Waler Series 3 80° Wide Field Eyepieces 1.25"

Superior quality 80° eyepieces. Compared to eyepieces almost 3 times the price, the Series 3 SWA eyepieces compare very closely indeed. They feature a very high build quality and stunning optics.

ONLY £159.00buyDETAILS

[Ags]

I have an old Speer WALER 9.4mm. It is comfortable to use and very acceptable at F13 and at F5. I use it both for DSOs and planets. However the build quality of these older SWs is a bit suspect:

1. The eyepiece suffers from visible internal dust (not sealed).

2. I got mine cheap because at least one of the lenses is slightly loose and rattles around. I have seen multiple SW owners report this for various focal lengths.

The old SWs are very very long, these new type 3s look a lot shorter, which could be a very good thing, but I suspect it puts more demands on the optics. At any rate such a radical change to the eyepiece length indicates a radical change to the design, so no extrapolation can be made regarding performance.

I'm always thinking of replacing my SW because of its size, but can never justify the expense - it works well enough.

One SW I have always wanted is that 5-8/90-80 zoom. Certainly one of the highest rated zooms out there.

Edited February 14, 2019 by Ags

[Green12]

Thanks for info.

RVO have put a few specs next to them now. Not really sure what they compare to

 

 

[Louis D]

2 hours ago, Green12 said:

Thanks for info.

RVO have put a few specs next to them now. Not really sure what they compare to

Talk about eye relief being all over the place.  I'm not sure how the last four columns compare to other eyepieces since this data is rarely published for eyepieces:

[Green12]

Thanks all for advice/comments.

a little unsure on these now.

might go back to my original idea of either Morpheus 9mm or 17.5mm

or ES 82 or maybe Delite??

[Louis D]

33 minutes ago, Green12 said:

Thanks all for advice/comments.

a little unsure on these now.

might go back to my original idea of either Morpheus 9mm or 17.5mm

or ES 82 or maybe Delite??

Awww, come on.  Someone's got to be the first to buy these and report on them, so it might as well be you. ?

[Gabby76]

I just came across these today so hopefully someone will review them soon!

My Series 1,  5-8mm is still one of my favorite eyepieces.  

[Gabby76]

I emailed a friend last night who has a viewing partner that is an Antares dealer in Canada to ask about these. 

The dealer knew nothing about them either, hopefully some kind of answer will emerge in the future.  

 

 

[Louis D]

1 hour ago, Gabby76 said:

I emailed a friend last night who has a viewing partner that is an Antares dealer in Canada to ask about these. 

The dealer knew nothing about them either, hopefully some kind of answer will emerge in the future.  

If only someone knew how to reach Glenn Speers directly to set the record straight on whether or not he had a hand in designing these eyepieces.  I've never corresponded directly with him.

[alan potts]

I had both the zooms about 9 years ago and they were very good around the centre but got a bit colourful towards the edges, I also had the sleeve that took the 5mm end of the short one down to 4mm. I rather liked them but got bitten by the Televue bug and that was that.

Alan

[RKerr]

I used to work at Markarian Fine Optics, and I was briefly loaned a Speers-Waler series 3 to use in a shootout with my Nagler 13mm T6. I was under light polluted skies, so some of the standard optical abberations were hard to judge, but none of my tests had the Nagler winning on a technical basis. Most tests I did were a draw, and for chromatic correction (on an F5 12" Dob), the Nagler showed some color on Altair when pushed to the outer 5% of the field, while the Speers-Waler series 3 didn't break. I'm still not sure which eyepiece is more vivid, the light pollution made that hard, but when it comes to technical correction, the Speers-Waler is the better eyepiece. I'll hopefully be able to do a test under better skies soon, and if it goes well it might prompt me to trade in my Nagler!