Morpheus is the God of Dreams – and after more than four years of development Baader Planetarium presents the eyepiece of their dreams:The MORPHEUS®76° WIDE-FIELD OKULARS.
Even if a certain movie-classic hints otherwise – the Morpheus® are absolutely real. Featuring a true 76° field of view, they immerse you in the Universe without having to roll your eyes. The big eye relief is perfect for observing with glasses and the comfortable viewing- behaviour leads to a “Spacewalk-feeling” that normally is provided only by eyepieces with a much larger and inaccessible apparent field of view. Meanwhile the image in no way appears distorted or like viewing through a fishbowl. Center contrast and brilliance match those of the finest planetary eyepieces – while even with the fastest telescope optics you will enjoy tack sharp stars close to the outer edge of the field.
Baader has put as much effort into the workmanship as into the optical design. Phantom Coating® Group, rare-earth glasses, sealed watertight housings and blackened lens edges are a given. Practical design is the prime goal: i.e. minimum metal to keep weight at bay, optimized for bino-viewing, photo- video thread – and the all-new 1¼ and 2" “safety-kerfs” to guard against slipping (no undercut). In the night you will love the quick draw eyepiece holster and the photo-luminescent engraving.
All Morpheus® Highlights in an Overview
Optical Features
Full Field Sharpness: The sharp flat 76° field is unsurpassed by any other modern wide field eyepiece. On-axis sharpness and contrast rivals our best planetary eyepieces, while delivering nearly equivalent performance over the full field. Stars remain diamond pinpoints as you move away from center, and the field remains flat and in focus, even in short focus telescopes.
Long Eye Relief: Morpheus pushes the envelope of comfortable wide field viewing further than ever before, delivering close to 20mm of eye relief along with best-in-class optical performance. Eyeglass wearers can comfortably take in the full field, and users of Binoviewers will find that Morpheus make the ultimate eyepieces for viewing with two eyes.
Low Distortion: The Morpheus optical design delivers exceedingly low distortion (angular magnification distortion). Planets and lunar features retain their shapes as they transit the field and the true field sizes are close to theoretical. Many companies exaggerate at this point and deliberately use off axis distortion magnification as a means to advertize blown "apparent" field sizes . You will be able to compare this given field size of 76° and find it to be the true value (apparent view angle as seen by the observer's eye).
Immersive Views: As avid observers ourselves, we have studied the behaviors of most commonly available wide field eyepieces and listened to other observers comments on what eyepieces give the most palpable and engaging wide field viewing experience. What we found is that the subjective ‘spacewalk’ feeling is not just a function of field of view. Interestingly, some wide-field eyepieces with fields of 82 degrees failed to deliver the same viewing experience as others with similar fields, or even some with smaller fields. We found two additional primary factors played into the equation – Eye Relief (and the related large eye lens size) and Ease of Viewing (a combination of long eye relief and control of pupil aberrations). We also found that fields much below 74 degrees tended to have a reduced effect. So, with this information in hand, we set out to design a new eyepiece with a field of view greater than 74° that met all of the other optical parameters necessary to deliver a truly "immersive" viewing experience where the eyepiece essentially disappears. The result is Morpheus®.
Phantom Coating® Group: Pioneered in the Hyperion lineup, the Phantom Group Multi-coatings have been further optimized for use in the Morpheus and index-matched to each of the different glasses.
Optimized Internal Baffling: As with all Baader Planetarium eyepieces, the internal mechanicals have been fully ray-traced and baffled to eliminate the effects of stray-light.
Mechanical Features
Optimized for Binoviewing: Every last bit of space has been squeezed out of the main body to minimize its size, giving maximum nose clearance for binoviewing.
Weight reduction: Every effort has been made to eliminate unnecessary weight - especially in view of effective binoviewing. The weight of all Morpheus-eyepieces essentially are the lenses inside plus the best protection and water resistance we can supply.
Foldable Eyecups: The Morpheus include two soft rubber dual-position foldable eyeguards (see images below). These innovative new eyeguards have been developed to provide the optimal comfort and eye spacing for most users and eye glass wearers. The included special winged version provides the ultimate comfort and exclusion of stray light necessary for binoviewing with eyeglasses.
Safety Features: The 1¼" and 2" Barrels of each Morpheus incorporate our new Slip-Protect Safety Kerfs. The ideal safety compromise between smooth barrels and wide undercuts. The numerous shallow kerfs give additional grip and security from inadvertent drops from smooth sided barrels, without the annoying problems sometimes caused by traditional wide undercuts. Wide waffle-patterned rubber grip ring gives an extra measure of handling security.
Photo-Video Adaptation: Like their Hyperion siblings, all Morpheus eyepieces make superb imaging projection optics. Each Morpheus includes a hidden M43 photo-video eye lens thread that permits use of our extensive range of Hyperion Digital T-Rings. These rings permit direct-thread attachment of practically any imaging device for the ultimate in rigidity and close-coupling for minimal vignetting.
The first test reports about the "Morpheus" eyepieces appearing on the web are all very positive. US eyepiece specialist William A. Paolini, author of the book "Choosing and Using Astronomical Eyepieces" (Springer, ISBN 978-1-4614-7723-5) published the most detailed test report on Cloudy nights. Please clickon the link below to read this report.
Click on the link for a Review of the Morpheus, by Bill Paolini (1MB pdf)
Includes
76° Morpheus® eyepiece w. standard foldable eyecup, winged/foldable eyecup for binoviewing, storage-box, three dustcaps, cordura eyepiece holster
