Baarder hyperion zoom eypiece

[kidlands]

I was wondering how these perform. I have a 17mm, a WO 6mm and a 32mm panny but just thought it might be a good idea to get one to cover all the middle ground (sell the 17mm).

What do you think? is it better to use a single power EP or is the zooms as good an dea as it sounds?

thanks

steve

[Mark at Beaufort]

Steve the Hyperion zoom is very good and I mainly use it on my PST. Occasional, for convenience, I place it on my 6" Skywatcher newt and to be honest its not bad and it is almost sharp to the edge. It is certainly very good on my f7 4" APO frac and if I am doing lunar or double star observing I will use the Hyperion and my Nagler 3-6 zoom.

As you see from signature I have 2 Ethos EPs and they are excellent on my 10" f4.7 Dob but you would expect that with the cost.

I have had a 17mm Hyperion in the past which I thought was OK but I believe the zoom gives the same quality view. My criticism of the zoom is the small fov at 24mm but with a 32mm panaview that won't be such a problem for you.

For my part I think that value for money the zoom is a better buy than getting the 8mm, 13mm, 17mm and 24mm Hyperion.

Good luck with your decision.

Mark

[kidlands]

Thanks for the reply Mark. I hope one day to get a look through an Ethos/Nagler...yes way out of my range just building up at the moment.

steve

[MLyons]

I have been using one of these eyepieces since they were first launched.

I recommend them to all who start out on the long and slippery road to eyepiece upgrades from the mediocre eyepieces that are normally included with mass produced scopes.

The Baader zoom and the 36 Aspheric are two of the eyepieces I recommend.

[brantuk]

Yup - I have the Mk2 and have used the Mk3 and allways recommend them in preference to an ep kit - hugely better vfm. Normally single ep's are better at any single field stop - but with the Hyperions I'm not so sure about that (I have the 8mm and 17mm) so I can only go on what I've experienced. HTH

[JamesM]

I have the Mk III and it is a very useful eyepiece indeed. Of course the eyepiece will reveal to you an image between the set stops and is invaluable in helping new people to understand the effects of 'stretching' the light as the magnification goes up. A bit of a lump at the end of the scope weight wise but not as bad as the Pentax zoom (...now I'm starting to dribble!) comfortable and easy to use and good value for money.

James

[jabberwocky]

im serioiusly considering getting one, even if it does cost more than my scope did.

are they suitable for use with a barlow?

[CGolder]

i finally gave in and ordered one last night from flo, i will provide some infomation about it compared to the fixed ones and also compared to the 8-24mm skywatcher i also have on order. once we get some clear skies ofc

[Mark at Beaufort]

i will provide some infomation about it compared to the fixed ones

Well done on making the purchase. Because you almost have the full set of Hyperions it will be interesting to get your comparison between them and the zoom.

Mark

[kidlands]

Great, I'm looking forward to that comparison CGolder

I understand FLO our out of stock untill tuesday. Might sell my 17mm before purchasing the zoom.

I presume this will make my Barlow defunct and I've only just bought it

[brantuk]

The Hyperion Zoom has field stops at 24mm, 20mm, 16mm, 12mm, and 8mm. With a 2x barlow you additionally get 10mm, 6mm and 4mm. Just an observation

[kidlands]

Excellent many thanks.

[CGolder]

I just did some daytime observations with the hyp zoom, sw zoom and the 24,21,17,13,10 hyperions,

obviously this is just daytime but i found the optical quality in the zoom very similer to the hyperion eyepeices but with the obvious lack of FOV, this is most noticable at 24mm where the 18 degrees is very clear to see,

the 21mm is again a much wider fov but the 21 shows more hot colours in daytime use.

at 17/16mm the views get more comparible to the set hyperion but the eye relief on the zoom is noticably tighter

13/12m is a similer story as above with tighter eye relief on the zoom,

at 10mm the difference is quite small, the set peice has a better field stop, the zoom feels a bit narrow probably because the field stop is blurring.

overall the zoom is very good and actually lighter than what i thought, when used with a barlow seems very impressive and didnt have the normal blackouts i get with the fixed hyperions.

I also compared to the Skywatcher zoom, the difference is pretty obvious but i am still impressed with the skywacher zoom, its not as parfocal as the hyperion and the fov is a lot smaller but its a good zoom at less than 1 3rd of the cost of the hyperion zoom. i used the skywatcher zoom for some white light solar and it was very good, much nicer to use than my indivual eyepeices for pure convenience.

To finnish up, i think i will keep both zooms and my set of hyerions as the zoom is good but not upto the job of replacing my fixed focals just yet

hope that helps those looking to buy hyperions, i just wish i could get some field tests i will update when i finally do