Eyepiece - anyone seen these

Saw this on an unnamed auction site. I haven't seen this style. Does anyone know its origin? Claims it has 70* fov and is coming out of Canada? New Synta?
brian

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I would guess that this is part of the new "W70" Series of eyepieces from Antares.... They compare to Orion's Highlight plossl's but have greater eye relief and wider field of view...

All retail for 75.00 Canadian except the 25mm which is 100 Canadian.

Mark V

Too bad they don't make one in the 30-32mm range. I'd certainly buy one of them for low power wide field views on the cheap (well, as wide as you can get on an 8" f/6 Dob anyway).

www.islandeyepiece.com sells them for $69 cdn includeing the 25mm.

On sci astro a report on the 14mm mentioned edge softness in a 12" f5 but the 14mm has only 4 elements while the others are rumored to use a barlow in the optical train which would significantly improve performance.

from www.scopestuff.com


These wide angle eyepieces surpass even the Ultrawides with a 70º apparent field of view, 13-17mm eye relief and large diameter eye lenses. Great for binoviewers. Rubber eyeguard folds back for use with eyeglasses. Barrels are threaded for standard 1.25" filters and have a lock screw safety recess. Multicoated optics, blackened barrels. Assembled in Canada.

#EW75 - 5.8mm 1.25" W70 Series Eyepiece - 6 Elements
#EW78 - 8.6mm 1.25" W70 Series Eyepiece - 5 elements
#EW74 - 14mm 1.25" W70 Series Eyepiece - 4 elements
#EW79 - 19mm 1.25" W70 Series Eyepiece - 5 elements

-Chris

PS the 25mm would be max field in a 1.25 focuser, so there is little use in making a 32mm for this line.