StellaLyra 18mm LER/WA 68° eyepiece

[cajen2]

Preliminary 

Build quality: the EP is heavy in the hand (but not too heavy!) and solid, with a hard rubber non-slip grip over a metal barrel. The eyecup is fold-down rubber, but even with it retracted, there are 2-3 mm between the lens and the top of the barrel, reducing eye relief to a still-healthy 17mm or so.

Scopes used: Skywatcher Heritage Flextube 150p dob - F/5 and StellaLyra 200 dob - F/6. The EP gives 42x mag in the SW and 67x in the SL. There was no clear difference in image quality in the two scopes, only image size, so the following results apply to both.

Observing conditions

Mixture of clear sky and quite high-level cloud, making it difficult to focus on one target before it was covered. In the clear patches, transparency was good and seeing average. About 5°C and no dew.

Other EPs to compare 

Pentax XW 14mm, Vixen 30mm NPL 

Targets 

1. The moon - waxing crescent. The SL gave a pin-sharp view of the mountains and craters at the terminator and, switching to the Pentax, there was no difference in image quality, just size (the Pentax gives 86x mag) - an impressive result for an EP nearly £100 cheaper than the Pentax. The Earthshine was clear and there were no aberrations of the moon's shape or edge of field problems.

2. Orion. In view of the periodic cloud, I decided to concentrate on the familiar. M42 was clear, with a small but obvious Trapezium (four stars) and good nebulosity, even at only 67x. On-axis images were again as sharp as in the Pentax, but the latter did have a better edge-of-field clarity (slight but obvious).

3. I tried a couple of relatively easy double stars: Mintaka and Alnitak. The companion stars were obvious in both, showing that they didn't need high mags if the EP is good enough.

4. I tried Sirius to see if the SL would be disturbed by a small bright image, but no problems were seen.

The cloud came over again, so I had to curtail the session.

 Conclusions 

1. Images on axis were comparable with an EP £100 more expensive and nearly as good off axis with no EOF aberrations (including EOF brightening! 😄). 

2. The Pentax gave an easier eye position. I had to concentrate to get the FOV right in the SL and small eye or head movements could disturb this. The Pentax was more forgiving. Th same was true of achieving focus. Eye relief itself was quite adequate.

The StellaLyra acquitted itself very well when pitted against an extremely good opponent. It makes a highly recommended intermediate step between the more budget ranges such as BT Starguiders and Pentaxes, Televues and the like.

I'll edit this if future sessions show up anything else. Do forgive the long-winded post!

Edited March 6, 2022 by cajen2
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[Astro_Dad]

Thanks for posting the review @cajen2  - good to see it performs rather well on the Heritage 150p at f/5. Interesting new range from SL. 

[cajen2]

27 minutes ago, Astro_Dad said:

Thanks for posting the review @cajen2  - good to see it performs rather well on the Heritage 150p at f/5. Interesting new range from SL. 

....and the f/6 8".

[globular]

@cajen2 How have you got on with this EP since?

Edited August 26, 2022 by globular

[cajen2]

1 hour ago, globular said:

@cajen2 How have you got on with this EP since?

It's been great -  I've had no issues with it at all

I have to say, though, that I don't use it as much as I did because I got the SL 2" 20mm 80° eyepiece. This is absolutely superb, with clear, wide-field view. The 68° is a bit redundant, consequently.