Ostara eyepieces ?

[Totnesdave]

Hi all

Does anybody know anything about the provenance, quality etc of Ostara eyepieces, as seen here on eBay ?

OSTARA 10MM PLOSSL SUPER WIDE ANGLE 1.25" EYEPIECE on eBay (end time 12-Jun-10 16:16:41 BST)

i'm thinking about a decent 10mm EP with wide-ish FOV and this looks great, in theory, but doesn't seem to be a well known brand.

cheers

Dave

[John]

I've seen these on E.bay as well Dave. Never heard of the brand but they look like typical chinese clones and rather overpriced as well to be honest.

Personally, I won't be trying one .....

[ajg]

First Plossl I ever saw having a 70 degree AFoV ...

I wouldn't touch it with a bargepole!

[brantuk]

Wonder what he's selling Terevues for lol

[Totnesdave]

Thanks guys, I'll steer clear

Good heavens, he's also selling a generic looking RA finder for £197

Stick with what's familiar I think.

Dave

[ajohnson]

I was hoping to come here and find some objective review comments on this but have had to look further. I confess I am reluctant to part with some of cash some of these seem to be selling for, but one rival appears to Starguider BST EDs which sell for roughly the same price.

So what I have I learned so far?

The UK Importer seems to be Optical Hardware UK who seem to have an RRP of £95.00 on these but I have seen one on retail for more than about £50.

From what I can tell so far these are either clones of, or more likely, rebadged Celestron X-Cels, other than the exterior paint job they certainly look the same physically. They also seem to be branded in their "Generic" Silver Livery as Ostara, Ascension, Astronomica and more recently TS (Telescop Service), this ties in with OH UK website who seem to offer a branding service on their kit. But the only review I have so far found is this one on Sky News on the Celestron X-cel

http://www.skynews.ca/PDFs/Review_PDFs/celestronxcel.pdf

Personally, I did pick up a second hand 3.2mm on e-Bay for about £25.00. I don't know who is quoting an AFOV of 70 this clearly rubbish, the one I have seems closer to 50. I must admit to being quite impressed so far, maybe because my other eyepieces are MAs it certainly seems well built and gives some excellent magnification and good clarity and contrast on my f5 12" Newtonian, if I have an issue with it, it is that when fitted magnification is around 395x, which most nights is way over what reasonable seeing or clarity will allow, also with only Jupiter low in the evening Sky at present I find anything over 10mm produces too much atmospheric chromatic aberration. On clear autumn nights I have had some excellent views of M13 and M92 with the Ostara 3.2mm ED, I did have a bid on some Astonomica branded versions but was not going to get into the ensuing bidding war, otherwise I'd have something to say about the 25mm and 7.5mm versions.

[ajohnson]

Addendum - Now that I've convinced Chrome & Norton that Totnesdave's link is not dangerous I note we are at cross purposes.

I was actually looking at one of these http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Ostara-21mm-1-25-ED-Telescope-eyepiece-for-Meade-Skywatcher-/270817219862?pt=UK_Telescope_Eyepieces&hash=item3f0df6d516 and arrived here, although looking at all of the Ostara eyepieces, they still look like rebranded Synta / Celestrons to me.

[ID1 john Ei3]

Addendum - Now that I've convinced Chrome & Norton that Totnesdave's link is not dangerous I note we are at cross purposes.

I was actually looking at one of these http://www.ebay.co.u...=item3f0df6d516 and arrived here, although looking at all of the Ostara eyepieces, they still look like rebranded Synta / Celestrons to me.

These all look somewhat like knock off versions of the Orion ED range to me, LIKE THESE THE ORIGINAL ONES, it is a shame they are all sold out as the reports on them were good!

http://www.widescreen-centre.co.uk/Catalogue/Orion_USA_Epic_Eyepieces.html

OpticStar also seem to sell another one of the clones of this EP labeled with there Ascention branding (Ohar hot iron?) yet according to several reviews on SGL maybe not so hot after al!

http://www.opticstar.com/Run/Astronomy/Astro-Accessories-Telescopes-Ascension.asp?p=0_10_5_1_1_2

These seem to be even cheaper on Amazon at just £45 including delivery http://www.amazon.co.uk/Ostara-Telescope-12-5mm-Eyepiece-Multi-Coated/dp/B00ADKQP74%3FSubscriptionId%3DAKIAIXMCBZWUOROXOPDQ%26tag%3Dxxsa01-21%26linkCode%3Dxm2%26camp%3D2025%26creative%3D165953%26creativeASIN%3DB00ADKQP74&ascsubtag=13761658069498

But I have also come across unbranded models for even less still, plus I would have to say that these do not appear to get anything like the same praise as the BST- starguider EP range that Alan at Skies Unlimited or several Ebay outlets etc sell, plus I have just found that the new Orion replacement range for their ED EP's looks strikingly similar to the BST's to me,

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1-25-8mm-BST-Explorer-Dual-ED-eyepiece-Branded-Starguider-/380668399671?pt=UK_Telescope_Eyepieces&hash=item58a19ad037

http://www.scsastro.co.uk/catalogue/orion-epic-ed-II-series-eyepieces.htm

http://www.telescope.com/Accessories/Telescope-Eyepieces/Orion-Epic-II-ED-Telescope-Eyepieces/c/3/sc/47/e/74.uts

What do you think? on the face of it all these do all look a little bit to alike for my LIKING or for me to be happy to spend to much money on them! so are we being had? is it better to just buy the unnamed clones? if that is what they are.

http://www.skyatnightmagazine.com/forum/3-7mm-orion-epic-ed-2-eyepiece-t116709.html