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Celstron X-Cel LX


Astro Imp

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They're cracking eyepieces, Alan and were my first serious entry into the world of EPs. In the forgiving f/10 the views were delicious. They were well corrected, there was no distortion at the edges, there was good contrast and colour, and the star image was sharp, pin point, throughout.

As you mention, there have been complaints about the twist up eye-cap peeling off when folk take off the dust cap but if it does happen, I don't see any problem putting it back on again and if need be, gluing it in place. There is also concern that some examples of the LX range have had what can only be described as little plastic bits, or dark looking dust motes within the EP itself. This I can confirm with my 18mm but not with the 25, 12, or 7 I owned. When looking at something bright like the Sun or Moon, the 18mm appeared to have a tiny little spots within it. When I tried to clean them away I only made matters worse and in the end, simply chucked the EP away :icon_rolleyes: . It was beyond repair.

With that said, I still think they're great eyepieces for their price and they will certainly be a nice upgrade from the usual stock of EPs supplied with telescopes.

Congratulations :headbang:

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They're cracking eyepieces, Alan and were my first serious entry into the world of EPs. In the forgiving f/10 the views were delicious. They were well corrected, there was no distortion at the edges, there was good contrast and colour, and the star image was sharp, pin point, throughout.

.....There is also concern that some examples of the LX range have had what can only be described as little plastic bits, or dark looking dust motes within the EP itself. This I can confirm with my 18mm but not with the 25, 12, or 7 I owned. When looking at something bright like the Sun or Moon, the 18mm appeared to have a tiny little spots within it. When I tried to clean them away I only made matters worse and in the end, ....

.

I've only ever owned one of the X-Cel LX's and that was the 25mm. I had exactly the problem you mention above with it with more or less the same result. The design of the 25mm at least has a large highly convex lens bang on the focal plane of the eyepiece so any contamination whatsoever on that lens surface is shown, magnified, when viewing an extended bright object. No amount of careful cleaning with Baader Fluid and the micro cloth, or any other means, would completely clean that lens.

Otherwise the eyepiece seemed quite good.

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I'm sorry to hear that you also had problems, John :sad: What did you do with yours in the end?

Alan, I guess we had some bad luck and to be honest, I've only heard a few complaints. If you bought yours new and you do see something like tiny black bits which just won't clean, my advice would to send it back :smiley: Don't try opening up the eyepiece like this old fool did :rolleyes2:

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I have a 9mm version and regrettably have the same issue, what looks like flecks of black dust... Interestingly these are in side the EP, cleaning doesn't move them... However tapping the EP does... My theory was flecks of paint or what every they use to darken the tube/lens edges is peeling, flaking off for some reason... The las t round of tapping got the bits out out to the edges, it's a nice EP in slower scopes...

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I have the same issue, what looks like flecks of black dust... Interestingly these are in side the EP, cleaning doesn't move them... However tapping the EP does... My theory was flecks of paint or what every they use to darken the tube/lens edges is peeling, flaking off for some reason.

Why weren't you here, Fozzie when I had this problem :grin: I too figured they were on the inside and took the eyepiece apart. Needless to say that was the easy part :BangHead:

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I have the 25, 18, 9 and 7mm Xcel-Lxs.

No problem with any. Great Eps.

I "stretched" the dust caps with my fingers and they are a nice slip-on/off fit.

Only (slight) issue I have found is that the screw-up eyeguard gets stiff in the cold.

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  • 1 month later...

I've just taken the opportunity whilst all is quiet to take a gamble and strip my 9 mm down, with the aim of removing the little blights for good..

Now.... I'm no optician or optical engineering guru so forgive the pigeon terminology I'm about to use, but I think ive found the cause of the issue, on my ep at least...

Once you remove the bottom of the ep, which holds a set of elements your presented with a locking ring holding the remaining lenses in place.. on close inspection after very carefully removing all the lenses and spacers, noting orientation and position in the optics I found the first element, next to the locking ring had on it tiny bits of black paint.

The others appeared to be fine so with no fussing went straight back in after the ep tube was given a good puff and wipe to remove lose paint..

The last element was given a good bwf clean, twice to remove the paint flecks..

Ep reassembled, locking nut carefully screwed back in place... can only think this causes the paint to flake in the first place.. quick test and despite the gloomy weather there might be life in this ep yet..

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I have the set had them for two years never had any problems with any of them the 25mm is the dog tho,in my 16" I was worried they would be no good but to my surprise there great and for the price they give some high end eps a run for there money ,the televue crew will disagree buti have a mate with tels and to be honest there was not a big diference and considering they cost 5x the price am glad I did not get the televue a the celestrons have pin sharp stars no field rotation ect they perform brill in my f5 16"

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The 9mm was my first serious upgrade and gave me some really nice views in my first scope (astromaster 130), that's why I thought its worth the bother a good clean... hopefully its worked... the fault developed after a few uses so I can only assume its a bit of lose material or debris.

Time will tell, and I don't really want to box it a store it..

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Has anyone used the 7mm in a cheap and nasty 76/700 3-inch Newtonion scope.

I am torn between getting the 8mm BST, and the 7mm Xcel.

The 6mm skywatcher 66degree eyepiece is too much at 116x mag

I can't get sharp focus / and I get the same blurry results with the 6mm Delos.

7mm will give 100x

8mm will give 93x

I know 8mm will be OK.

But I don't want to spend £59 on a 7mm eyepiece if the scope can't handle 100x magnification.

Thanks

PS - collimation is good according to the laser.

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