Product Description
This 82° 16mm Astro-Tech UWA eyepiece is an excellent medium high power/ultra wide field eyepiece with an outstanding price.
The optical designers used the latest computer design programs to optimize its performance. Its seven element/four group design uses low dispersion and high refractive index lenses and full multicoatings for high contrast, high resolution, and flat field images across a very wide 82° field of view. The lens edges have been blackened to improve contrast. The eyepieces are parfocal within the UWA series.
The 16mm 82° Astro-Tech works with any telescope from a fast focal ratio reflector to a long focal length refractor or Maksutov. It's particularly good with Dobsonians and fast focal ratio refractors, providing reasonable magnification with a very wide field of view for observing smaller globular clusters and compact nebulas.
A 10" f/4.5 Dobsonian reflector will have a full 1.29° field at 71x with this eyepiece, able to encompass all of the Pleiades in one field. Even an 8" f/10 catadioptric will have a field almost one and a half lunar diameters across, able to encompass the full Moon with room to spare, the Orion Nebula, and many globular clusters, as well.
At 12mm, the eye relief is good, although eyeglass wearers will still see a somewhat vignetted image. This isn't as much a problem as you might think, as the 82° field of view is so wide that even non-eyeglass wearers have trouble seeing the whole field at once. This is an eyepiece that shows you a "lost in space" view of space for a true full-immersion observing experience. With its unconstricted view, your eye relaxes, allowing you to easily use the "averted vision" technique to study faint details across a huge field of view.
The eyepiece has a soft fold-down rubber eyecup and comes with dust covers for both ends of the eyepiece.
Tech Details
| Barrel Size | 1.25" |
|---|---|
| Eye Relief | 12mm |
| Field of view | 82 |
| Focal Length | 16mm |
| Number of optical elements | 7 |
| Weight | 6 ounces |
| Warranty | 1 year |
Reviews
f/6 and faster is where the eyepiece starts to struggle.
I would avoid using this eyepiece in fast Newtonians and refractors, but would definitely recommend it with long achromats, slower newts, SCTs and Maksutovs. Build quality is excellent, the views are very pleasing, and it's a comfortable eyepiece to observe with. Lives in the focuser of my 6" dob 95% of the time. (Posted on 8/29/2023)
(Posted on 8/27/2023)