SkyWatcher Wide Angle 28mm

Info	Votes	Messages	More Stats	Up One Level

Brand and Model:	SkyWatcher Wide Angle 28mm
Price ($USD):	$95.00
Type:	Misc Wide Angle
Focal Length:	28 mm
Barrel Size:	2 in
Apparent FOV:	65.0 degrees
Field Stop Dia.:	0.0 mm
Eye Relief:	0 mm
Elements:	6
Weight (lbs):
Description:

Vote Highlights

SkyWatcher Wide Angle 28mm

I purchased my 28mm from Hands on Optics, which listed its FOV as 65 degrees, and it appears to be that. Sky-Watcherâ€™s website lists it as 52 degrees. Perhaps Hands on Optics has their version shipped with a larger field stop or thereâ€™s an error on the Sky-Watcher website. The eyepiece is well built, thou not quite as well finished outside as an Orion Optiluxe. I suspect this is a Konig design as it has all the traits of one. When looking thru my Nexstar 5 at window blinds at about 50' there is a slight bending of straight lines at the edges, typical of two other Konigs I have. It also suffers from field curvature and coma to a greater degree than my other Konigs. The stars in center 50% of the field are sharp and moving outward they progressively degrade into little seagulls. De-focusing the center stars helps this a little and itâ€™s also improved when using a F6.3 reducer/corrector. Looking at bright stars and the Moon I could not detect any false color. Eye relief is near perfect while wearing my eyeglasses with the rubber eyecup down and without them with the eyecup up. Unlike alot of other eyepieces the view is very easy to hold and I had no blackout or kidney bean effect problems. While I normally have a fairly low tolerance for eyepieces with unsharp edges I find I do like using this eyepiece much more than a sharper but narrower FOV Plossl. At $95 this is one of the lowest priced wide-angle eyepieces available and I feel it is a reasonably good compromise between cost and performance.

Overall Rating: 8
Optics:7 Value:9
Weight: 5 (Veritable Vote)
Date: 08/11/2002 05:36:36 pm PST
By: mhpdfp
Link to this vote: http://www.excelsis.com/1.0/displayvote.php?voteid=124115

Reply Replies: 0

SkyWatcher Wide Angle 28mm

This came supplied with my 10" SkyWatcher Newtonian 10 months ago. It has a good wide field - opinions seem to differ but it certainly seems wider than, say, a Plossl.

It is realy nice to use. Great big eye lens. Eye positioning is a dream. There is no blackout or kidney beaning at all. None. Eye relief is perfect for me (no glasses) and the rubber eye cup works the best I have seen, being big enough to encompass you whole eye socket area keeping out light and making it very comfortable. It also gives a very bright image.

However, the big downside is that the field is very curved indeed. My scope is f4.8 and it just does not work at all well. Barely 50% of the field is in focus at a time. It is a real shame, as I am very fond of this one. It probably should not be supplied with this fast a scope. I haven't tried it in anything with a longer f ratio, but suspect that all it's good points would make it a real pleasure to do so.

The price seems to vary enormously from about Â£48 up to a remarkable Â£95 in the UK. Shop around!

Overall Rating: 6
Optics:5 Value:7
Weight: 1 (Unreliable Vote)
Date: 03/02/2005 01:55:37 pm PST
By: Anonymous (xxx.xxx.96.93)
Link to this vote: http://www.excelsis.com/1.0/displayvote.php?voteid=423367

Reply Replies: 0

Click here to see all votes (2 total)