Comparison of two budget 2" low power eyepieces

I did a brief comparison of the BW-Optik 30mm Ultrawide with the Orion =
35mm DeepView last night in my Guan Sheng 10" f5 dob. The 30mm Ultrawide =
was purcased from Anacortes Telescopes for $95 and the 35mm DeepView is =
from Orion for $69. In my scope the Ultrawide gave me 40x where the =
DeepView gave me about 34x. Actual fields were similar with the =
Ultrawide showing just a bit more sky. However the higher magnification =
and wider apparent field of the Ultrawide makes the view more =
satisfying. The DeepView did have a bit longer eye relief but it was =
easy to get my eye off-axis and see black kidney bean dropouts. I didn't =
notice the dropouts with the Ultrawide. Both eyepieces in my f5 scope =
are quite poor off center showing pretty bad images just half way from =
center to edge. Stars around the edges were especially bad in the =
Ultrawide. The Ultrawide weighs over 20 oz while the DeepView weighs a =
bit over 13 oz. On my scope there was a slight tendency for the tube to =
tilt downward with the Ultrawide in place. A small sandbag or beanbag =
type weight on the mirror end would correct this easily however. I =
didn't like the safety groove on the DeepView. It kept snagging on the =
set screws when i wanted to remove the eyepiece from the focuser. The =
Ultrawide has a smooth barrel with no safety groove. The coatings on the =
Ultrawide are a deep green and seem better just looking at them in =
daylight. The DeepView in comparison seemed almost uncoated. =20

All in all i preferred the BW-Optik Ultrawide to the Orion DeepView. The =
Ultrawide is a very solid (heavy) eyepiece and since i don't wear =
glasses while observing the closer eye relief is fine for me. Seeing =
2=B0 of sky through a 10" scope is pretty neat!

Since there is nothing wrong with the Orion eyepiece and it does perform =
as advertised i feel a bit sheepish about returning it for a refund. =
It's not Orion's fault i bought another eyepiece i like better. So =
instead of returning it i've decided to offer the eyepiece on eBay. See =
the following link if you're interested...

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...D2941233438=20


-Florian
Stargazing.com