Comparing my wide angle Eyepieces

[Piet Le Roux]

I have made peace with the fact that I will not be able buy a 35mm Panoptic soon, I did try and fill the gap with a 34mm Svbony SWA but were disappointed with its distortion towards the edge. We had been having terrible weather but last night, on the longest day and shortest night, it cleared up and I drove to a farm south of the city with my Meade 8" LX90ACF. I took along my 27mm Panoptic with a 2" Anteres 0.7 reducer and a cheap 2" 40mm Astromania Kellner. I first tried them on the Pleiades and the 27mm Panoptic on its own were definitely the sharpest on but could net get the whole open cluster, with the 0.7 reducer it had less distortion than the Svbony but more than the 40mm Kellner! The other thing I saw is that the 40mm Kellner was a lot brighter. Later in the night we turned south and I repeated the comparison on the Tarantula nebula and here the 40mm Kellner really stood out by giving the brightest wide angle view with my F10 SCT. So the cheap neglected Kellner has now become my favourite faint object wide angle eyepiece!

[Lady Fraktor]

I have always maintained that the Kellner in a long focal length telescope is a good eyepiece design.
Good to hear that yours works well for you.

[Bigzmey]

One of the advantages of SCTs is that even simple EPs perform well with them.

Have you tried 34mm Svbony SWA it without the reducer?

[Piet Le Roux]

One of the advantages of SCTs is that even simple EPs perform well with them.

Have you tried 34mm Svbony SWA it without the reducer?

Yes I have only used it on its own, it is wide enough to view about 1.2 degrees with my scope but its astigmatism is so bad that the stars on the edge are small stripes!

[Bigzmey]

One of the advantages of SCTs is that even simple EPs perform well with them.

Have you tried 34mm Svbony SWA it without the reducer?

Yes I have only used it on its own, it is wide enough to view about 1.2 degrees with my scope but its astigmatism is so bad that the stars on the edge are small stripes!

I guess it is of similar design with GSO Super View which produced similar effect in my SCT. Glad that the Kellner works for you..