Posts Made By: Jim Cantrell

No one mentions Speers-Walers very often, but, for very good widefield views at an economical price, they are tops. 10 & 14 mm SW wide angles can be found on A-mart for less than $100 dollars. My recommendation: save the money and buy the 5-8 zoom - there are a lot more tiny DSOs than there are large ones. Most of the zooms I've seen have been priced less than $200. With your scope one would provide 80+ degree views from 127x to 204x with good contrast and better eye relief than plossls in that range. You'll be able to find and see a lot more planetary nebulas and galaxies with that than an EP in the mid teens,and it also works well as a planetary EP. Binoculars work better for the big DSOs.

One last note on SW and Antares - they are very easy to work with and will repair their EPs for very reasonable rates should that be needed.

Jim

As former owner of a smoothside version, I want to add that the eyecup provides a great deal of protection, whereas the eye lens of the smoothside is right at the surface and very exposed.

Otherwise, it was a pleasure to use and performed wonderfully.

Jim