30 replies to this topic

[Sky Rover Optics]

Hello Cloudynights Community!

 

We are thrilled to introduce Sky Rover Optics to this amazing community of astronomy enthusiasts! As a brand dedicated to providing premium astronomical optical products, we’re eager to connect with fellow stargazers and share our passion for the night sky.

 

Our journey began in 2003 with the establishment of our own factory, Kunming United Optics, in Haikou Town, Kunming—the cradle of telescopes in China. “SKY ROVER” is KUO’s own brand, and its production base is covered 21 acres with a building area of over 13,000 ㎡. The facility is equipped with complete production lines for optical cold processing, precision mechanical processing, opto-mechanical assembly, and inspection.

 

SKY ROVER focuses on providing premium astronomical optical products. With years of experience in ODM/OEM, we’ve built a team of experts in optics and precision technology, ensuring outstanding optical performance through premium materials, excellent design, and strict quality control.

 

We will continue to focus on the astronomy market in the future, driven by quality, affordability, and innovation to provide more options for the astronomy market.

 

We’re here to listen, learn, and contribute to the conversations happening on Cloudynights. Whether you have questions about our products, need advice on choosing the right gear, or just want to chat about the latest celestial events, we’re all ears!  We encourage our customers to participate in our design process and provide feedback to help us continuously improve product quality.

 

Looking forward to engaging with all of you and being part of the Cloudynights experience.

 

Clear skies,
Sky Rover Optics Team

[AstroApe]

Although I don't currently own any Sky Rover branded gear, the vast majority of my optics, including binos and scopes, are made by KUO and they are fantastic! I'm looking forward to adding some of y'alls SR branded gear soon.

 

It's awesome to have the Sky Rover team here on the forum. It's always nice to be able to directly interact with the companies we purchase our gear from here on CN. It's adds a bit more of a human element to the interaction than website contact forms or email. 

[spongebob@55]

It is great to have you here on CN.  

One thing that you could help those of us who wear eye glasses, (and also those who don't,) is accurate eye relief measurement AND effective eye relief, meaning how deep is the glass recessed into the housing on your eyepieces.  So many listings we see for example '17mm eye relief'.  Ok, but that's not much for eye glasses wearers if the top glass is recessed 5mm (or whatever).   This would be a great help.

Regards

SB

[Sky Rover Optics]

We’re so glad to hear that you’ve had such a positive experience with KUO optics.

 

We completely agree that forums like CN provide a unique opportunity for more personal and direct interaction, and we’re very happy to be part of this community.

 

Looking forward to connecting more with you and the rest of the CN community!

 

SR-Nora

Although I don't currently own any Sky Rover branded gear, the vast majority of my optics, including binos and scopes, are made by KUO and they are fantastic! I'm looking forward to adding some of y'alls SR branded gear soon.

 

It's awesome to have the Sky Rover team here on the forum. It's always nice to be able to directly interact with the companies we purchase our gear from here on CN. It's adds a bit more of a human element to the interaction than website contact forms or email. 

[Sky Rover Optics]

Thank you for your warm welcome and for taking the time to share your thoughtful feedback. We will certainly take this into account as we continue to refine our product descriptions and specifications.

 

Please rest assured that your comments have been passed along to our team for further consideration. Thanks!

 

SR-Nora

It is great to have you here on CN.  

One thing that you could help those of us who wear eye glasses, (and also those who don't,) is accurate eye relief measurement AND effective eye relief, meaning how deep is the glass recessed into the housing on your eyepieces.  So many listings we see for example '17mm eye relief'.  Ok, but that's not much for eye glasses wearers if the top glass is recessed 5mm (or whatever).   This would be a great help.

Regards

SB

[nicknacknock]

Welcome to CN!

 

I have had (and still have) many KUO / SRO products and quite pleased with all! Currently using the APMSD 82mm 90° branded Binocular Telescope, 24mm and 18mm UFF eyepieces and expecting the 30mm UFF

 

Some feedback: 18mm UFF and 24mm UFF (waiting on my SRO 30mm UFF) eye guards are not "comfortable" while observing. Maybe consider another type of eyeguard which is a bit softer and flares out a bit?

[Sky Rover Optics]

Thank you so much for your feedback and for your continued support of our products.

 

Comfort during observation is very important, aside from requesting the softness of the eye guards, is there anything else that you feel could be improved or adjusted?  We can certainly discuss this with our factory to explore potential modifications.

 

SR-Nora

Welcome to CN!

 

I have had (and still have) many KUO / SRO products and quite pleased with all! Currently using the APMSD 82mm 90° branded Binocular Telescope, 24mm and 18mm UFF eyepieces and expecting the 30mm UFF

 

Some feedback: 18mm UFF and 24mm UFF (waiting on my SRO 30mm UFF) eye guards are not "comfortable" while observing. Maybe consider another type of eyeguard which is a bit softer and flares out a bit?

[nicknacknock]

Well, you DID ask! So, below is my APM 82SD 90°. It has a finder shoe on to put my Red Dot Finder. I had to find a suitable finder shoe, as I did not want to restrict myself to the small WO one (marked as such).

 

 

 

 

The other which is a typical finder shoe, because the two holes for finder shoe are drilled at a specific distance, fits, but then the handle has a bump so it points upwards instead of being aligned to the handle.

 

Please make the handle even where the second image shows, to remove the bumps.

 

 

 

Also, a soft padded case would be nice. To keep the weight down instead of having to use a hard case. I prefer using this, which fits the 82mm 90°, should fit the 82mm 45° (and probably the 100 90°) but this needs something at the bottom as it has soft padding. Cheap, light, easy to carry.

[garret]

Thank you for this topic, it is exactly 10 years ago that the SkyRover/APM 100 ED 45° was introduced in Europe!
APM has sold a lot of this type.. because the quality and the sales price were fine.
An important fact was that the user can easily adjust the collimation between the tubes.

I bought the 100 ED in 2015 and still use it as my only telescope, I am very satisfied with this binocular/telescope using Delos, Delite and Vixen eyepieces.

 

It is a pity that APM has been negligent with the warranty issues and delivery quality in recent years.

I think an official European and American SkyRover importer is necessary.

[Starman1]

I retailed eyepieces from KUO from 2012-2023, when I retired.

Customers were very impressed with the optical quality of the products.

Especially the Ultra Flat Field Series and the XWA series.

 

If I could suggest improvements, it would be to the Hi-FW 12.5mm 84°.

This eyepiece is very sharp to the edge, but suffers from Edge Of Field Brightening (EOFB), which is very distracting.

If some attention could be paid to mitigating that problem, it would increase the eyepiece's popularity.

Also, if the bottom of the eyepiece could be made with aluminum instead of steel, that would also reduce the weight.

Were it not for the excessive weight and EOFB, I'd be using the eyepiece today.

[nicknacknock]

Adding to Don’s comments: I find the eye guard on this eyepiece challenging as well and it actually reduces the FOV unless I press my head onto the eyepiece. I actually replaced the eye guards with the Tele Vue extension eye guard and the results are great - much more observing comfort and full FOV.

[aeajr]

I will be very interested in getting to know your products.  Where can they be purchased?

Edited by aeajr, 08 September 2024 - 10:05 AM.

[Starman1]

I will be very interested in getting to know your products.  Where can they be purchased?

Sky Rover is the house brand of KunMing United Optics.

All the Sky Rover brand products are available on AliExpress from various resellers, many with free shipping.

And now, apparently, at SkyRoverOptics.com

I see they are also sold in Australia under the Sky Rover label at AstroShop.com.au

 

KUO products are sold in the world under other labels:

APM

Astrotech

Altair Astro

Angeleyes

Antares

Artesky

Astromania

Auriga

Celestron

Lacerta

Meade

Omegon

Orion

OVL

Sky Optic

Skywatcher

Stellalyra

Stellarvue

Svbony

Tecnosky

Telescope Service

Ursa Major

 

So no shortage of KUO's presence in the astronomy market.

I use two of them myself--the 7mm XWA and the 30mm UFF.

KUO is a large and high quality manufacturer, and their products, under whatever label they are sold, are worthy of consideration.

[Monel76]

I think I'm using at least two of your products, welcome!

 

 

[range88]

First batch buyer of the 100/150 ED binoculars, 12.5mm 84 eps, 2x54 constellation binos and 8/10x42 BC binos.

Proud user of much more.

Deserter of the alphas. 

[binocular]

Welcome to the forum Sky Rover   I only have your Banner Cloud APO 10x42 and if that is the type of quality you are producing, then you have a buyer for life.  It's an incredible binocular that never stops to amaze me.  I have passed this binocular around to several people already and everyone has the same reaction.  I'm hoping one day you may produce a 12x42 as well.

[K-night]

...If I could suggest improvements, it would be to the Hi-FW 12.5mm 84°.

This eyepiece is very sharp to the edge, but suffers from Edge Of Field Brightening (EOFB), which is very distracting...

In my terrestrial use case it results in an amber/brown ring, also very distracting.

 

Adding to Don’s comments: I find the eye guard on this eyepiece challenging as well and it actually reduces the FOV...

I backoff from the eyecup and use it to obscure the amber/brown ring.

 

In addition to the SR HFW12.5mm, I have SR UF18mm and UF10mm eyepieces. The UF10mm is a great compliment to my SR APO 70 BINO. 

 

Unfortunately, the APO 70 has a cosmetic flaw that should not have passed QC.

[Mintaka2208]

I have the UFF 30mm 70° eyepieces, the XWA 13mm, 9mm, 7mm and 5mm all from Sky Rover. I bought the 9mm and 7mm ones directly from SkyRoverOptics and the deal was great. I was in contact with Nora via email and everything went great. I bought the others through Aliexpress stores and I recommend buying them directly from SkyRoverOptics. The eyepieces are incredibly sharp on my 16-inch f4.5 Dobson telescope. The views of the Moon are stunning, as are the views of Jupiter's bands. The field of view is huge. I've tried them from my terrace in my city with light pollution but even so the view of the Orion Nebula was impressive. I'm looking forward to being able to go to dark skies and be able to get the most out of these eyepieces using my GSO CC and Astronomik UHC filter with other objects.

[Starman1]

Actual focal lengths, as measured on the test bench:

13mm XWA--13.1mm

9mm XWA--8.8mm

5mm XWA--4.8mm

Those differences are small and may not matter.

[Mintaka2208]

Thanks Don for the clarification. Looking at Ernest's review of eyepieces, it seems that the Sky Rovers have better parameters at f4 than the APM...this made me opt for the Sky Rover brand, and I don't regret it at all. Greetings!

[Starman1]

Thanks Don for the clarification. Looking at Ernest's review of eyepieces, it seems that the Sky Rovers have better parameters at f4 than the APM...this made me opt for the Sky Rover brand, and I don't regret it at all. Greetings!

If there is a difference, and I don't see Ernest mentions one, it indicates a variability in manufacturing, because all the various brands are identical inside.

 

Ernest does not differentiate in his lists by label on the outside.  The XWA eyepieces have, in the notes field:

"Lunt, TS-Optics, Sky Rover, William Optics, Arsenal, Astro-tech, TecnoSky: XWA"

And he isn't even mentioning Stellarvue, Antares, or APM, other labels which he might not have access to.

Not to mention the even larger list of companies selling United Optics' UFF eyepieces.  KUO's house brand name is Sky Rover.

 

The Stellarvue and Sky Rover incarnations have steel lower barrels, whereas the others have aluminum lower barrels.

There are external differences, but not internal, among the brands.

[Mintaka2208]

I was referring to the numbers in the columns of the "axis", "zone" and "edge" sections at f4 in terms of the measured aberration points. Some Sky Rover eyepieces have better numbers than APM... (lower numbers). But I may have misinterpreted it... However, I do not doubt what you say about there being no internal difference in the eyepieces. I learn a lot from people like you with so much experience and I appreciate the answers and comments. Greetings!

[Starman1]

I only see one entry in his entire log for the Sky Rover brand, a 25mm Premium Flat Field.

Could you provide a link where the Sky Rover brand is separate from the other re-labels?

[Mintaka2208]

https://astro-talks....opic.php?t=1483

[Mintaka2208]

The link shows two tables. If you scroll down, the second one shows the Sky Rover eyepieces. This is where I looked at those aberration parameters.