Explore Scientific 82deg 6.7mm — image 1
Explore Scientific

Explore Scientific 82deg 6.7mm

No longer sold

A 6.7mm Explore Scientific 82° Series: a dedicated high-power eyepiece for planets, the Moon and tight double stars, from an 82-degree ultra-wide that gives you the classic "walking in space" field for far less than a Nagler.

85/ 100
Polaris Score
Optical quality · Immersion · Comfort · Value
See the breakdown ↓
What it's for
Low power · wide fieldHigh power · narrow field

High power. At 6.7mm this is a dedicated high-power eyepiece for planets, the Moon and tight double stars; it is not meant for framing large deep-sky objects.

Apparent Field
82°
Barrel Size
1.25"
Eye Relief
15mm
Focal Length
6.7mm
Try in simulator →
No longer sold

Discontinued by the manufacturer (per Agena Astro). We keep the page for reference — see current alternatives below.

See alternatives ↓
The spacewalk

You don’t look at a field.
You look into the sky.

Every number on the spec sheet matters less than one feeling: how much sky wraps around your eye. Widen the apparent field and watch the black edge of the eyepiece slip away.

82° apparent field

At 82°, the edge slips into your peripheral vision, you stop looking at a field and start looking into the sky.
Try this eyepiece on your own scope in the Simulator →
01What it's good at

What it's best at — and the trade-offs.

A genuinely immersive 82-degree apparent field at a mid-range price.
Best at
✓A genuinely immersive 82-degree apparent field at a mid-range price.
✓A genuinely immersive 82-degree apparent field at a mid-range price.
✓At 6.7mm it lands squarely in high power territory, exactly where planetary and lunar detail lives.
Trade-offs
!The outer edge softens in very fast scopes below about f/5.
!The 2-inch long focal lengths are large and heavy.
!Eye relief is a little tight for eyeglass wearers at the shortest focal lengths.
02In your telescope

One eyepiece. A different job in every scope.

72× in a small refractor, 303× in a long SCT

An eyepiece has no magnification of its own — the telescope decides. The same eyepiece becomes 72× and 1.1° of sky in a little refractor, or 303× and a tight frame in a long SCT. Here’s what it does across common scopes.

Small apo refractor
480 mm · f/5.5
Magnification
72×
True field
1.1°
Exit pupil
1.2 mm
72× across a 1.1° field at a 1.2mm exit pupil, crisp medium power for galaxies, clusters and planetary nebulae.
8-inch Dobsonian
1200 mm · f/6
Magnification
179×
True field
27′
Exit pupil
1.1 mm
179× across a 27′ field at a 1.1mm exit pupil, crisp medium power for galaxies, clusters and planetary nebulae.
12-inch Dobsonian
1500 mm · f/5
Magnification
224×
True field
22′
Exit pupil
1.3 mm
224× across a 22′ field at a 1.3mm exit pupil, crisp medium power for galaxies, clusters and planetary nebulae.
8-inch SCT
2032 mm · f/10
Magnification
303×
True field
16′
Exit pupil
0.7 mm
303× across a 16′ field at a 0.7mm exit pupil, very high power, worth it only on the steadiest nights.
Exit pupil is how wide the beam of light leaving the eyepiece is. Around 5–6 mm is bright and immersive under dark skies; push much past 6 mm and you waste light, and under light pollution a smaller exit pupil shows more contrast.
03In plain English

The numbers, in plain English.

6.7mm FL · 82° AFOV · 1.25"
Focal lengthVery high power
6.7mm
About 179x in an 8 inch f/5.9 Dobsonian and 303x in an 8 inch SCT. A serious planetary and double-star power that needs reasonably steady air to deliver.
Apparent fieldVery wide
82°
Eighty-two degrees at high power is genuinely useful in a manual telescope, because drift time across the field is several times longer than in a classic 50 degree eyepiece.
Eye reliefComfortable
15mm
Comfortable without glasses and better than the 100 degree range offers, though spectacle wearers will still lose the outer field.
BarrelStandard
1.25"
Fits any focuser or diagonal. At this focal length an 82 degree field stop sits comfortably within the 1.25 inch format, so nothing is clipped.
OpticsPremium wide-field
EMD fully multi-coated
Enhanced coatings and a sealed, argon-purged body. The 82 degree range is the practical sweet spot in this line: most of the immersion of the 100 degree models with less weight and better eye relief.
04What comes alive

The targets this eyepiece was born for.

Jupiter’s cloud belts, Saturn’s rings, Lunar craters at the terminator, Izar and tight…
Jupiter’s cloud beltsComes alive
Jupiter’s cloud belts
The two main belts and festoons resolve on steady nights.
Saturn’s ringsComes alive
Saturn’s rings
The Cassini Division opens up at this magnification.
Lunar craters at the terminatorExcellent
Lunar craters at the terminator
Crater walls and central peaks throw hard shadows.
Excellent
Izar and tight double stars
Splits pairs under an arcsecond apart when the air is calm.
Mars at oppositionExcellent
Mars at opposition
Polar cap and dark albedo markings when Mars is close.
The Ring Nebula (M57)Excellent
The Ring Nebula (M57)
Tightens the smoke ring and darkens the sky around it.
05Role in a collection

Where it sits in your eyepiece case.

Where it sits across 3 focal lengths

A good eyepiece collection isn’t a pile of glass — it’s two or three focal lengths that hand off from wide to tight. This is the anchor at the bottom of the ladder: the one you find and frame with. You buy it once, and it stays your low-power eyepiece for life.

32 mm
Low power · wide field
Find, frame and sweep. Your widest true field and the lowest useful magnification, the eyepiece you reach for first.
Veil Nebula · Pleiades · Milky Way star clouds
13 mm
Medium power · the workhorse
Where most deep-sky objects look their best, galaxies, globulars and planetary nebulae at a comfortable scale.
M13 · Ring Nebula · most galaxies
6.7 mmThis one
High power · detail
Planets, the Moon at the terminator, tight double stars and the smallest planetary nebulae. Steady-air nights only.
Jupiter · Saturn · lunar craters
06Build around it

What it pairs with.

The telescope · Pair it · Filter it
The telescope
What it goes into
Any 1.25-inch focuser
Fits essentially every telescope made.
Longer focal length scopes reward it
The higher the scope’s focal length, the more planetary scale you get from this eyepiece.
Pair it
What extends its range
A low-power finder eyepiece (~11mm)
Use the long eyepiece to locate and frame, then drop in this one for detail.
Filter it
What transforms the view
A neutral-density Moon filter
Tames the glare of a bright gibbous Moon at high power so detail returns.
07The Polaris Score

How it scores, and why.

85/100
85/ 100
Explore Scientific 82deg 6.7mm

Judged as a dedicated high-power eyepiece for planets, the Moon and tight double stars, it earns its score on a genuinely immersive 82-degree apparent field at a mid-range price. The comfortable eye relief lifts it further. It is honest about being a specialist, not an all-rounder.

Optical quality
85
Immersion
93
Comfort
84
Value
80

Polaris weighs how well the eyepiece does the job it was designed for — optics, immersion, comfort and value — never list price or brand.

08Who it's for

An honest fit check.

Observers who want a dedicated high-power eyepiece for planets, the Moon and tight double…
Buy it if you
✓Observers who want a dedicated high-power eyepiece for planets, the Moon and tight double stars.
✓Anyone who observes in eyeglasses; the eye relief here is long enough to see the whole field.
✓Deep-sky observers chasing the most immersive, wrap-around field they can get at this price.
Look elsewhere if you
!Anyone chasing the absolute widest field, who should look at a 100-degree eyepiece.
!Grab-and-go observers watching every gram, since this is not the lightest option.
!Anyone hoping to frame large nebulae; that is a job for a low-power eyepiece.
09The numbers

Full specifications.

5 measured and stated values
Optical
Focal Length6.7mm
Apparent Field82°
Comfort & handling
Eye Relief15mm
Fit & build
Barrel Size1.25"
Editor’s Take

Point it at a planet on a steady night and the case makes itself. This is where the 82° Series earns its keep.

— The Skynocular verdict
10Alternatives

For a different goal, start here.

2 alternatives, each mapped to the goal it wins at
Wider, lower power

Explore Scientific 82° Series 11mm

The same optics with more true field, for framing larger objects and finding your way around.

→
Cross-shop

Tele Vue Nagler

A natural alternative at a similar price point, if you want to compare field and feel before committing.

→