StellaLyra Ultra Flat Field eyepieceS

[Beardy30]

Evening, 

has anyone ever used these - thinking of getting one to boost my EPs for my star travel 102 which came with a 10 and 25mm EP - they are ok but not great quality - any opinion on these would be appreciated 👍🏼

[cajen2]

One, the 30mil, has an excellent reputation both for its views and value for money. I have its equivalent under a different name: the Celestron Ultima Edge and I think it's superb. The others in the range don't have quite the same reputation but I'm reluctant to comment as I haven't used them.

[Beardy30]

Good to hear but I’m not sure a 30mm would be a good buy for me personally with having a 25mm 

[cajen2]

Just now, Beardy30 said:

Good to hear but I’m not sure a 30mm would be a good buy for me personally with having a 25mm 

Let's put it this way: I'm convinced that any EP in that range would outperform the ones that came with the scope.

Like everything else, it all depends how much you're willing to pay for them.

[NGC 1502]

1 minute ago, Beardy30 said:

Good to hear but I’m not sure a 30mm would be a good buy for me personally with having a 25mm 

A StellaLyra 30mm would be a great upgrade from a stock 25mm as supplied with many scopes.

[John]

The 30mm UFF is a 2 inch format eyepiece. It gets great reviews. Some prefer it to the Pentax XW 30mm which shows the sort of level it is at. A long way ahead of the stock eyepieces.

The 24mm UFF is a 1.25 inch format eyepiece which is also highly regarded.

[Naughty Neal]

Generally the whole UFF range is regarded as being rather good for a  mid - higher end budget ep.

As said the 30mm is regarded as a top premium ep and the 24 mm not  too  much of a slouch either, the 24mm often touted as a panoptic alternative at a far cheaper price.

The 10mm is regarded as not bad and a keeper amongst a few on CN , I have the 18mm bought via SvBony for a mere £51.

The ep's are sold under a few names but are all the same  glass internally coming from the same manufacturer in China.

Names to be found under are SvBony UF, Skyrover uff, stellalyra uff, celestron ultima edge are just four brands.

Edited February 11 by Naughty Neal

[Mr Spock]

My SL 30mm is as good as it gets. Sharp right to the edge. I can't find anything negative to say about it.

[Naughty Neal]

Bar the 10mm at 60 degrees the others are all 65  degrees so quite a nice FOV.

 

Edited February 11 by Naughty Neal

[Louis D]

The 30mm is actually 73 degrees in apparent field of view with a 69 degree effective field of view due to distortion.

The 24mm is 63 degrees in apparent field of view with a 65 degree effective field of view due to distortion.

Interestingly enough, both measure to have a 20.5mm edge focal length.  They are both right at their stated focal lengths in the center, though ( less than 1% off).

The 30mm is world class.  It's basically flawless.

The 24mm has a soft field stop and slight edge astigmatism in the last 5%.  Otherwise, it's an excellent eyepiece for eyeglass wearers who don't get on well with the 24mm Panoptic and have a 1.25" focuser.

[Deadlake]

15 minutes ago, Louis D said:

The 30mm is world class.  It's basically flawless.

Yep, the only competitor is the 31 mm Naglar type 5, however it's many times the price and this level of performance splitting hairs.

[DAT]

I do not have much experience but the SL 30mm uff is the eyepiece I use the most (8" dob), not just a sky scanner. Everything looks good through it and sharp to the edge. I just have problems with the rubber eyecup which tends to slip off when I try and fold it up back up. I wear glasses and switch between having it down and folded up whilst pressing up against it.

[Jimmy81]

I too am looking to purchase one of these eyepieces to replace the 28mm Orion Deepview 2” that came with my telescope. I am also considering selling a couple of my BST Starguiders to get something in the range of 20mm. Nice to see all the positive comments regarding the 30mm UFF

[Mr Spock]

The 30mm is one of those rare eyepieces that people can't find fault with. Everyone should have one 

[Saganite]

I sold my 30mm Pentax XW  last summer for a Stellalyra 30mm UFF and have no regrets.

Edited February 15 by Saganite

[PeterC65]

I have the StellaLyra UFF 30mm and it is superb. Easily the best eyepiece that I have optically. Dead flat and with a really wide field of view.

I have the Explore Scientific 24mm 68º 1.25" eyepiece which is also very good. It gives a wider field of view than your stock 25mm eyepiece, so even closer to that of the UFF, and because of that I hesitated about buying the UFF for a year. First I bought the Baader Hyperion Aspheric 36mm 72º 2" thinking that would be significantly wider than the Explore Scientific, which it is. It works fine (not exceptionally) with slow scopes like the F11.8 Mak, but is terrible with the faster F6 refractor and F5 Newtonian's. So I finally bought the UFF and it really knocks the socks off everything else.

I've compared the UFF with the Explore Scientific directly, both using the 2" diagonal, the 24mm via an adapter. The UFF is dead flat right across the field of view whereas with the 24mm the edge stars are elongated from about 70% of the way out. I hadn't noticed this with the 24mm previously and had been completely happy with it (I still am for most observing).

I tend to setup with either a 1.25" diagonal or 2" diagonal and don't generally swap during a session. So I use the Explore Scientific 24mm as my widest field eyepiece with the smaller diagonal and the UFF with the larger one (with a 2" zoom for narrower field). That makes it sensible to keep both (well that's my excuse). I also still have the 36mm Aspheric as it gives me the widest possible field of view with the Mak.

 

[Naughty Neal]

3 hours ago, Jimmy81 said:

I too am looking to purchase one of these eyepieces to replace the 28mm Orion Deepview 2” that came with my telescope. I am also considering selling a couple of my BST Starguiders to get something in the range of 20mm. Nice to see all the positive comments regarding the 30mm UFF

The 18mm UFF I have gave me pin point nice stars in my slow acro frac, how it would perform in a faster telescope  I don't know . The  reviews of the other FL's are great inc the 10mm so I doubt one will  be dissapointed with the 18mm's  performance.  

[Naughty Neal]

On 10/02/2024 at 21:44, Beardy30 said:

Good to hear but I’m not sure a 30mm would be a good buy for me personally with having a 25mm 

Both ep's will give totally different views in th ST102 as the FL  is very short so the increase in fov would be telling , a different story if one  had a longer  FL frac.   The two ep mags won't be far apart at a bit less then 1.2x in mag increase, the fov will be some what telling.

In the example below we can compare a  skywather 25mm 50 deg plossl vs a   30mm 70deg uff .

 

[Jimmy81]

1 hour ago, Naughty Neal said:

The 18mm UFF I have gave me pin point nice stars in my slow acro frac, how it would perform in a faster telescope  I don't know . The  reviews of the other FL's are great inc the 10mm so I doubt one will  be dissapointed with the 18mm's  performance.  

The other eyepiece I was looking at was the stelllalyra 20mm 80°  LER/UWA. my scope is an Orion 8” f6. I find that I enjoy wider field deep space viewing. So I’m thinking of ditching my 2x Barlow, 18mm and 28mm in favour of 30mm UFF and 20mm UWA

[Louis D]

4 hours ago, Jimmy81 said:

The other eyepiece I was looking at was the stelllalyra 20mm 80°  LER/UWA. my scope is an Orion 8” f6. I find that I enjoy wider field deep space viewing. So I’m thinking of ditching my 2x Barlow, 18mm and 28mm in favour of 30mm UFF and 20mm UWA

Not sure what telescope you have, but most folks tend to jump from 30mm to somewhere around 12mm to 13mm.  If you start with the 20mm, then you'll probably jump to 10mm, give or take.  The difference in view between 30mm and 20mm tends to not be that significant except in very long focal length scopes such as SCTs and Maks.

[badhex]

I have both the 30mm and 24mm UFF. They are both excellent, but the 30mm edges out the 24mm slightly. 

If you're happy with using 2" EPs, then the 30mm is an excellent purchase and I'd go for that. It really is as good as everyone says. 

If you want to stick to 1.25" format, then get the 24mm, which will give you the maximum (or thereabouts) TFOV in 1.25" format. There are others well regarded EPs in that max TFOV category but I don't think anything else represents the value for money you'd get from the 24mm UFF, again it is a very good EP. 

[Naughty Neal]

Doing some homework I have found that another ep  appears to be on a  par with the 24mm UFF and it is the  22mm uf 70 deg angel eyes/ oberwerk ep ,  though a little wanting at F5.  Two CNer's have  reviewed   the 22.    The 22mm appeared to be equal to the 24mm  and was only   bettered a little by the more expensive LVW and ES 68.

If the price is right the 22mm offers the same or better value but not by a massive amount but worth seeking out. Currently 22mm can be had for about £75, if one doesn't mind the Angeleyes branding.

The ep is the exact same as the Oberwerk.

 

  

 

 

 

Edited February 16 by Naughty Neal

[Mr Spock]

38 minutes ago, Naughty Neal said:

The 22mm appeared to be equal to the 24mm  and was only   bettered a little by the more expensive LVW and ES 68.

The 22mm LVW is a legend. Nothing will make me part with mine 

[Space Hopper]

I've used a pair of 15mm ultra flats (the APM versions) in the binoviewer for a number of years now, and they are very solid performers, and both lightweight and ergonomic.

You can't really ask for more at £109 each.

They are a similar size to the 19mm Panoptics, and while they may not be QUITE AS GOOD optically, they are not too far off. And they have no undercuts !! 😃

 

[Mr Spock]

If I didn't have my wonderful LVWs I think I'd go down the UFF route. There's just something 'right' and comfy with a 65° eyepiece.