SPEERS-WALER 10mm 1.25" EYEPIECE Last updated: 17 November 2006

Sent:	Tuesday, November 14, 2006 14:02:51
From:	Pollack, Russell (rpollack@e-s-g.com)
As a follow-on to my purchase of a 14mm unit of this WA eyepiece, I
received a 10mm-1.25" version last week.  I had the opportunity to test
it under no-moon conditions, although we had relatively unstable skies
as a warm-front moved through.  Therefore I used it mostly against M42
(with an appropriate narrow-band filter, of course) and several other
nebulae, as well as Saturn, on my ETX125.

I found it to be equal to its 14mm mate.  The 82deg AFOV is just as
robust, allowing viewing of about 2/3 as much of the Trapezium area, for
example, as the 14mm.  Saturn was captured as bright and sharp as I've
ever been able to do, and seemed even larger if only because the
increased FOV produced more of a "black" contrasting background.  Even
with the poor and humid air I had the Casini division quite clearly, and
without any filtration I was able to spot at least five of the bands on
the planet itself.  The eyepiece's coatings reduced glare to a minimum. 
In addition, I had more of the moons without moving the scope than I've
been able to do, which may be the whole point of a WA after all.  With
filters, the contrast on Saturn's surface was improved, as one would
expect, and there was still no degradation in sharpness throughout the
FOV and including the edges, except that caused by the atmospherics of
the evening. For the price, it is indeed well worth the little bit extra
over the cost of the new Meade QXP series eyepieces, assuming the
expanded FOV is considered as a value-add feature and the optical
qualities are better; and of course it's still worth about twice the
price of the "standard" Super Plossl units.  I was lucky enough to have
a few friends come to the house after I started observing, and their
first views of both Saturn and M42 drew a satisfying number of happy
comments, so the sharpness, brightness, and clarity of the images was
spread across several folks with certainly different seeing abilities,
other than me,

I highly recommend this eyepiece as a companion to the 14mm, and as
effective replacements for the 15mm and 9.7mm Super Plossl eyepieces if
someone is looking to build a set of alternative, but affordable,
optics.
 
Hope this helps
Russ Pollack

Go back to the ETX Home Page.