Astro-Tech 7mm UWA 82° 1.25" Eyepiece

This is the best stand alone planetary lens in the price range.

I got out with the AT 7mm & 10mm last night to observe Jupiter in my 10" f/5 Dob & no Paracorr. Seeing was on the good side of average. I can echo what others have said. I saw mild coma in the outer ~15 % of the FOV that subsided inside that outer circumference. Since observe without glasses, my <1 diopter astigmatic eye saw a bit more mild astigmatism in the 10mm presenting at a 2mm exit pupil than the 7 (8)mm with a which gave a 1. 6mm exit pupil. In the 7mm the view was very clean with Jupiter's moons showing a tight disks of varying tints. The 10mm is a little more prone to blackouts but its very controllable. I see more aberrations near the edge of field in the 10mm than the 7 (8)mm but I had to strain to see at the field stop in the 10mm even with the eyecup rolled down. With the eyecup up, I believe most folks won't notice this. The 7mm is more lenient regarding blackout. The aberration I really look for in an UWA eyepiece are color aberrations. This is when you see a blue halo pointing inwards & a yellow-green halo pointing outwards from the center. In the 10mm its evident but but not super distracting getting progressively milder to about 10 % to 15 % in from the field stop. After that its gone. In the 7mm its much less evident overall. Scatter is controlled well enough, but not as well controlled in my high end Orthos. Sharpness is also very good for planetary for a UWA type of eyepiece over a large area of the FOV with my Orthos only being slightly, but noticeably better. The image is neutral & only slightly warmer than an Ortho. When using these eyepieces with my Nikon Ei6 Barlow, image quality is much more improved regarding perceived abearrtions compared to using the eyepieces unbarlowed. That said, I think these 7mm & 10mm AT eyepieces are a very good bargain at the price currently being asked for them. They give up very little in image quality when directly compared to my other high end stuff. Lastly, the 7mm is really closer to an 8mm effective focal length. Many thnks to the folks at Astronomics for the 5 star service they provided me.

I’ve been enjoying this eyepiece very much. I compared it with a friends 13mm ethos. Disregarding the obvious increase in FOV, this eyepiece held up very well. The background sky is dark, stars are sharp up to about 5-10% of the FOV to my eyes. Highly recommended!