Are These Really Any Good ???

[Daveb3650]

I have a Skywatcher Explorer 130p Synscan and am looking at getting a couple of eye pieces to go with the 10mm and 25mm that came with it. I saw this on Fleabay and wondered what your views were.

1.25" 7-21mm Zoom Eyepiece for TELESCOPE, High Quality | eBay

Also, any advice on what next would be appreciated too.....The budget isnt massive - £100.

What about Plossls,,,,,,some say they are good,some say they are naff. Many Thanks for your help.

[John]

Skywatcher do 2 zoom lenses - the 7mm-21mm is not the best of them and the other one is not that great either from what I've read. A good zoom lens is the Baader Hyperion 8mm-24mmm but that costs £168.00.

In my opinion your £100 would be better spent on decent quality fixed focal length eyepieces such as the BST Explorers (£41 each) or the Vixen NPL's (£30-£40) each. You could get 3 of the latter and they would be a big improvement over the standard eyepieces supplied with the scope.

[Ian123]

IMO i would stay well clear of that

[wired2moon]

I've heard that optically Plossls offer excellent bang for buck, but that the eye relief (on the higher magnification EPs especially) is pretty unforgiving

[AWR]

Just to re-iterate.

Don't buy it - it's not better than what came with your scope and is probably much worse! Good zooms are hard to make!

I really like my Vixen plossl. They only cost £30 and they are a clear step up from the EPs that came with your scope.

Well-made plossls (such as the vixens) give a nice crisp image but the eye-relief can be a bit short on short focal lengths (high magnification).

BSTs (as said above), TS planetaries, and WO SPLs are all within your budget.

Andrew

[todd8137]

avoid these eps

[twotter]

If you're looking at a range of plossls I would recommend GSO Revelations or Meade 4000 series. I have a mix of both and prefer the GSOs but with both you get good views, good build quality and 52 degree field of view. You can buy them from £30.

That zoom eyepiece gives narrow fov, 40-57 degrees. I have a cheap (£55) 8-24mm zoom which gets occasional use. FOV on that is 45-60 degrees, which is on a par with my plossls through most of the range, but it does get tight.

[Daveb3650]

Thanks for the help....

I think I will steer clear and have a look at you reccomendations.....

Cheers