Telescope-Service: Antares / Sky Instruments

Telescope-Service and Antares / Sky Instruments have had a long-standing relationship for many years. The Canadian company Sky Instruments and its Antares brand stand for good quality products at reasonable prices and often resemble a nice alternative to the typical Chinese products of other brands. We can offer all products of this company. Below you will find a selection of the most popular products.

Easy Payment: We offer our customers several easy and fast payment methods. You will receive exact payment details when ordering or on request!


Speers Waler Eyepieces 1.25" barrel size 82° apparent FOV !	Speers Waler Zoom 5-8 mm focal length over 80° apparent FOV !	5x Barlow Lens 1.25" Achromatic Barlow, ideal for webcam photography	Focal Reducer for SCTs f/6.3 focal reducer and field flattener for Schmidt-Cassegrains

2" Focal Reducers 0.5x and 0.7x suitable for Refractors, Maksutovs, Cassegrains....	8x50 Finderscope - 90° angled - Illuminated erect image with 1.25" illuminated eyepiece


SW 4.9mm	SW 7.2mm	SW 9.4mm	SW 13.4mm	SW 17mm

SWLinsen.jpg (35966 Byte)

General lens layout of the Speers Waler eyepieces

Speers Waler wide angle eyepieces combine a very high contrast, light transmission and field sharpness, even on "fast" telescopes. Comparative tests with much more expensive eyepieces of similar field of view always give good marks to the Speers Walers. This demonstrates their exceptional value for money!

Huge 82° Field of View	The first time you look through an eyepiece with such a huge field of view (82°!) is an amazing experience, especially if you are accustomed to a typical eyepiece field of view of about 50°. The human eye no longer consciously notices the limit of the field of view, so you get the impression of flying directly through space instead of having the usual "tunnel vision" which always reminds you that you are looking through an eyepiece.
Optical Layout	Antares Speers Waler eyepieces use eight lenses to achieve their very large well corrected field of view. A multi-layer coating is applied to each glass-to-air surface.
Excellent Image Sharpness	Both on axis and over the entire visible field these eyepieces offer an excellent image sharpness. Even short focal ratio Newtonians at an extreme f/4 offer great, sharp stars over the entire field.
Very Good Light Throughput and Contrast	Speers Waler eyepieces have an excellent multi-layer coating on each glass-to-air surface. Blackened lens edges and a blackened interior of the eyepiece body further reduce internal reflections and ghost images. The result is a bright image, no internal reflections and a very good contrast.
No Kidney-Beaning	Cheap eyepieces and too extreme wide angle eyepieces often suffer from "Kidney-Beaning". When you move the head only slightly a black, kidney-shaped shadow will cover a part of the field of view. This effect is nearly eliminated in the Antares Speers Waler eyepieces.
Suitable for Use in Binocular Viewers	Speers Waler eyepieces are very well suited for binocular viewing. With an interpupillary distance of 56mm or more you will have no trouble looking through both eyepieces at the same time without getting into a conflict with your nose. A low focal plane allows you to reach focus more easily.


Speers Waler Eyepieces have a large lens diameter and are suitable for eyeglass wearers		The safety undercut prevents the eyeepiece from accidentally dropping out of the focuser.

Applications:
Speers Waler eyepieces are very versatile. With their ultra-large field of view they are of course ideally suited for deep sky observing. Dobsonian users in particular value the large field - it means that they need to move the telescope less frequently. This is an advantage that cannot be overestimated because it practically improves the "net observing time"!

In addition Speers Walers are also very well suited for observations of the moon and planets. Contrast and image sharpness are very good.

The eyepieces are of course suited without reservations for all common refractors, Schmidt-Cassegrains, Maksutovs, ... where they offer perfect sharpness throughout the field of view.


Speers Waler Zoom in the 5mm setting	Speers Waler Zoom in the 8mm setting

In the latest generation the Speers Waler Zoom has been further improved. The excellent optics made in Japan were not changed, but the mechanics were improved by a click stop mechanism.

Contrary to most other zoom eyepieces the field of view remains at 84° (!) over the entire zoom range. Likewise eye relief remains constant.

The Speers Waler Zoom is unique - no other eyepiece that we know combines such a large field of view and high magnification. Impressive high-magnification views are the result, both for the moon and the planets and also for bright nebulae and galaxies.

A Great Advantage:

With the Speers Waler Zoom you can always choose the maximum useful magnification in small steps depending on the seeing conditions. On nights with good seeing you can use a much higher magnification, on nights with worse seeing you can use a lower magnification. As a result the Speers Waler Zoom replaces 2-3 wide angle eyepieces!

Features and Properties:

-- high quality optics designed by Antares and made in Japan. The optics are the same as in the previous Speers Waler Zooms.
-- 9 lens optical layout
-- 84° field of view - constant at all zoom settings!
-- improved mechanics, smoother adjustment
-- click stop mechanism at 0.5mm focal length increments
-- weight approx. 600g
-- length between 15 and 20cm
-- dustcaps for both sides are included. The eyepiece comes in a threaded poly bottle.


Enormous: Speers Waler Zoom in direct size comparison with a 20mm Plossl eyepiece!	The Speers Waler Zoom has a large eye lens and a long eye relief for very excellent viewing comfort - even for eyeglass wearers.

Prices and Specifications:

Item No.	Focal Length	apparent FOV	Barrel Size	No. of Lenses	Eye Relief	Price - Euros incl. VAT
AN SW Z	5 - 8mm	84°	1.25"	9	approx. 17mm	248.-
SW Verl	Screw-in type extension tube for Speers Waler eyepieces. The tube is screwed between the barlow element in the 1.25" barrel and the eyepiece body. This results in a shorter effective focal length. With the extension tube installed the Speers Waler Zoom becomes a 3.3 - 5.3mm (approx.) eyepiece.					24.-

Sometimes you need a very high magnification, for example for observing the planets or the moon. Such high magnifications can be reached with eyepieces with a very short focal length. But these eyepieces often have a very uncomfortable eye relief.

The Alternative: Antares 5x Barlow Lens

The Antares 5x Barlow lens is an alternative to using such short eyepieces. You can turn eyepieces with a long focal length (and consequently a long eye relief) into an eyepiece with a 5x shorter focal length! Example: A 25mm Plossl eyepiece will become a 5mm eyepiece, but will keep its very comfortable eye relief.

The image quality is nearly not affected

The Antares 5x Barlow lens is multi-coated and blackened for optimum contrast and transmission.

Webcam and CCD Use

A particularly effective and interesting use of the Antares 5x Barlow lens is the use as a converter for photography. For webcam or CCD photography of the planets you should try to reach an effective focal ratio between about f/25 and f/35. Typical Newtonian telescopes have something between f/4 and f/6, so the Antares 5x Barlow will be the perfect match for these telescopes!

Specifications

Lens layout: ........ 2 lenses (achromatic)
Size: .................. 1.25" barrel on the telescope side, 1.25" clamp on the eyepiece side

Two high quality 8x50 finderscopes - available in black or white colour

The Most Important Properties

-- achromatic multi-coated 50mm objective
-- 90° angled view -- erect and correct image or erect and mirror reversed
-- illuminated reticle eyepiece

The Illuminated Reticle Eyepiece Can Also Be Used Separately In a Telescope!
You can take the eyepiece out of the finderscope and put it into the 1.25" holder of your telescope. Then you own a good quality reticle eyepiece for star alignment, centering of objects or as guiding eyepiece (either with a Barlow lens, or for short photographical focal lengths ............................ Further Information (German presentation)

Schmidt Cassegrains are among the most popular telescope types on the market. The main reason for this is their compactness and their low price due to large volume production.

Optically these telescopes are a compromise, though. The focal length is relatively long, resulting in quite long exposure times and a curved field of view. These are big disadvantages for astro-imaging. The usable field of view is small and the edges are not sharply depicted.

The solution for this problem: The four-lens "Schmidt Cassegrain Corrector".

Larger Usable Field of View .... both photographically and visually (visually only with 1.25" eyepieces)

Shorter Exposure Times .... exposure times are much shorter than without the reducer

Field Flattening Function .... Schmidt Cassegrains have a curved field. The result is that if stars in the center are properly focused the stars at the edge will not be focused. This four-lens corrector flattens the field, resulting in better image sharpness throughout the entire field.

Adaptor schematic - item numbers can be found in the price table to the right.

Specifications:

Reducing factor: 0.63x
Example: ... 2000mm focal length are changed to 1260mm, f/10 is changed to f/6.3

four lens design - fully multicoated

SC thread on both sides

Many Possible Adaptations:

We offer a large number of adaptors for the SCT corrector (see left image). For long exposures we recommend to use the Radial Guider

Prices:

Item No.	Short description	Price - Euros incl. VAT
An Red SC	0.63x Reducer with SC thread on both sides	148.-
TS 2 - SC	2" barrel for telescope side of the reducer	25.-
TS SC - T2	T2 adaptation for camera side of the reducer	35.-
T2	T-rings for most common SLR cameras. Please specify camera type when ordering!	20.-
Radial	Celestron Radial Guider - off axis guider with SC thread on the side of the telescope and T2 thread on the side of the camera	178.-