Review on Astromania SWA 10Mm Eyepiece Waterproof Fogproof by Matt Woodward

Revain eyepiece arrived quickly. It looks EXACTLY as it was photographed at the Revain placements, so I didn't bother to attach additional photos. The supplement states that the eye hole is 22 mm. Yes. Its size is slightly larger than 3/4 inch (about 13/16 inch). Also, yes, it is heavy as advertised! It looks solidly built. I firmly grabbed the parts of the eyepiece and began unscrewing the various components to get a feel for the threads. There are no problems here either. The carving is finished exactly as you would expect. The large rubber grip makes handling the eyepiece very easy. I first used the 04/03/21 eyepiece with my Coulter Odessey 1 f/4.5 13.1" lens. 10mm eyepiece = 150x magnification. I have bright skies here near Tampa. , but the visibility was quite well, with one exception. I started with M42/43 better known as the Orion Nebula and my 40mm Plossl. I then switched to the 10mm Astromania SWA. I don't have much experience with expensive ultra wide field eyepieces. Plossls have been since My workhorse eyepieces for decades (and it's been decades since I've looked at anyone's 2" nailer). The view of Astromania compared to the Plössl is shocking and stunning. I think it feels like being closer on the object because you have to move your eyes in the field of view to see everything, compared to tunneling through Plössl(?).This is where I noticed that the rubber eyecup is on the hard side.I've found that I prefer the eyecup after u to work. This allowed me to look closer at the eyepiece and better enjoy the huge field of view. I've lost count of the number of times I've said "wow" while looking around the Orion Nebula. (Visibility was not good enough that night to split the trapezoid in any eyepiece from 4 to 6 stars.) Then I went on to M47 and then to M46. M47 is a large, dense cluster containing several bright stars. It actually resolves in my 10 x 60mm viewfinder. Then I switched to M46. M46 is a much more distant cluster, but it has many more stars. I switched from a 40mm Plössl to my 26mm Plössl (58X). The 26mm format best frames a loaded cluster. Then I switched to 10mm Astromania. I positioned the scope so the cluster would flow slowly through the field. The view is impressive. There are many many stars solvable. The contrast of the Astro is slightly higher than that of the Plossl. I don't know if this is actually possible, so let's assume it would be at least the same. I caught myself saying "wow" multiple times again! The sky in the background seemed to have some textures like fog, possibly due to the extra stars not being fully resolved. I didn't notice that with Plössl. I then went in search of a very small planetary nebula appearing in M46. (They're not actually in space together.) At first I couldn't find a planetary star, so I added a broadband filter to help with my blown out sky. Now I could find a small planet. For comparison I switched to my 10mm Plossl. Visibility was much narrower but otherwise comparable. And I can also find planetary gears with filters at Plössl. Interestingly, the 10mm pleated has a slightly higher magnification. Perhaps the 2 eyepieces do not have exactly the same focal length. (Half a mm, that's a 5% difference!) Then it occurred to me, I don't feel like looking for an eyepiece with a wider field of view than this, a wider field of view just isn't needed and not worth investing in pay! I have to pan the picture. With the rubber eyecups, it's practically IMPOSSIBLE to see the edge of the field of view! You have to roll the eyecup down to actually find the edge of the FOV, and you can't see the circular ring of FOV right away. The angle is definitely wider than my peripheral vision! This does not apply to Plössls. My final destination was the globular cluster M3 near Bootes. I found a very distant (read small) cluster in my 40mm Plössl. Then I switched to 10mm Astro (150x). It took some time for my eye to adjust to the more complex subject. If you look straight ahead, hundreds of thousands of M3 stars are unresolved. You are a weak point. In peripheral vision, the stars at the cluster's periphery turn into a splatter of tiny, faint dots that come and go as I move my gaze. I'm changing to 10mm Plössl. Again, the magnification is slightly higher. The cluster is slightly larger. I find it slightly easier to resolve stars outside of the cluster, although it still requires peripheral vision to do so. Then I switch to 7.5mm Plossl to get a little closer to the star cluster (200x). This is the best increase for this cluster. The Plossl looks a little sharper than the Astro, but not by much. Perhaps this is due to the smaller number of lenses at Plössl. (There is a 7mm Astro, and I may decide to buy it in the future if I can!) One final note. i live in florida It's always wet here! I had fogged up the broadband filter a few times. However, none of my eyepieces fogged up, not even the Astro. My primary didn't fog up either, so fogging conditions weren't bad! But in this regard, the Astro proved no worse than my other eyepieces.