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Hyperion 8-24mm Zoom pros and cons

Andrew*

By Andrew*
in Member Equipment Reviews

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Andrew*

Andrew*

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Posted

I originally intended to post this with another thread, but I've decided it would be too long and rambling, so I've posted it alone.

Pros

I like the Hyperion zoom in general. The benefits of a zoom for finding your desired FOV without having to change EPs is great, and there's not that much refocusing necessary. Between 8mm and 16mm it's fantastic - a nice, wide, clear view, with only slightly less light throughput than an Antares 6mm ortho (judged by the apparent brightness when changing from 8mm).

Cons

- The need to alter focus particularly at 20-24mm.

- The field stop is very soft at these focal lengths (at least it was in my ED80) which annoys me slightly - especially given the smaller AFOV at these lengths.

- The biggest con is the kidney beaning which I find very annoying. It is helped slightly by the twist up eyecup but eye positioning is still quite crucial. There's an in-depth look at kidney-beaning further down.

- A bizarre quirk I discovered the other night is it clouds up very easily. I'm known to exhale deeply when stooping down and holding my body steady in awkward positions so that I can look into the eyepiece, but last night I deliberately held my breath until my eye was right up to the eyepiece. I looked, liked, and carried on looking, but after a few seconds, everything wend grey. I blinked to check my eye hadn't watered - nope. I checked the cloud - nope. I looked at the eyepiece - yup. It had clouded over just from my eye being there :smiley:.

- very minor - when pulling up the eye cup, you will change the zoom unless you hold on. Also the zoom slider is a little too stiff for my liking.

Kidney beaning:

8mm - not good. Eye must be very central and it begins to black off if your eye is just a few mm off-centre. The movement of your eye to see the edges of the field is enough to black off the opposite side of the FOV.

12mm - the best. The FOV (around 60 degrees I guess) is most useable at this length and eye placement can be relaxed.

16mm - also very good, but can black off when looking from e.g. the left side of the eye lens to the right edge of the FOV.

20mm - reasonable area of beaning-free lens, but less than 16mm

24mm - not good. there is no eye position in which the entire FOV (small though it is) is entirely clear of the edge of the eyepiece. Slightly off centre and it worsens considerably. At 24mm, the eyepiece can only really be used as a finder.

In conclusion, is is a super eyepiece at the high-power end, and the low power end serves to put it in the centre of the FOV. It's worth it just for the excellent quality at 12mm, but otherwise can be frustrating to use. Must be coupled with a 20-26mm at the low power end.

N.B. I have used this eyepiece primarily with an f/7.5 scope, and can not comment in detail on use with fast scopes. Certainly sharpness didn't suffer terribly in my f/5 newt, but then I wasn't looking for it...

Cheers

Andrew

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James

James

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I've written a review of the Hyperion that's currently in Steve's hands for possible inclusion on his blog where I was able to use the Hyperion Zoom in an f/4.7 scope. I didn't have any problems with kidney beaning myself nor with the retraction of the eyeguard moving the zoom but my experiences mirror yours in most other respects. I found sharpness to be not so good at the higher focal lengths but much better nearer 8mm.

I liked the eyepiece and have since bought the sample I was given and use it happily - its particularly useful when I'm doing a three star align as I just centre the star and twist down to 8mm and recentre it and align on that.

James

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Grant

Grant

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Nice review Andrew!

I have one of these and I love it, it is now by far my most used eyepiece, in fact most of the time its the only eyepiece I use! It barlows very well and I love the flexibility of the zoom - it means as I go through various objects before I start imaging I can just adjust the zoom to suit what I am looking at.

I've not had any real problems with kidney beaning - I find it very comfortable to use but my dad has had a little trouble but his fine now - I think its just a matter of learning where to place your eye and getting used to it.

I really like using the zoom on the sun through my PST, it makes a great combination, I can look at the whole sun or zoom in on specific details. I've also had some of my best views of saturn, mars and venus through the zoom in recent weeks.

Mind you, prior to this my eyepieces have consisted solely of a few odds and ends, a baader orphoscopic and the revelation eyepiece set so it may be I don't have the experience to judge this eyepiece fairly but, if somebody asked me for a range of eyepieces to start off with, I would no longer recommend the revelation set - instead I would recommend just buying the zoom and a barlow!!

Cheers,

Grant

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Andrew*

Andrew*

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thanks chaps. I'm glad to hear it worked well at f/4.7. Very good for a zoom EP, I would imagine. I'm eager to read that review.

Did anyone find it clouding up when they used it? A strange complaint, I know, but it rendered it unusable for a while! :insects1: It might not be specific to the eyepiece, but I've never had an eyepiece cloud up while I'm using it!

Haven't barlowed it - didn't see the point - but I imagine it's great for exploring the moon.

Andrew

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Grant

Grant

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Haven't barlowed it - didn't see the point - but I imagine it's great for exploring the moon.

I guess it depends on what scope your using but I found with the ED80 and the PST, barlowing it made it much more useful for planetary/solar/lunar. Lunar was absolutely incredible and managed to wow some family members - it was so crisp and clear!

I'm looking forward to trying it in my C6 on the planets, should be fun!

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Grant

Grant

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sorry grant, wasn't dissing you for barlowing it - I just didn't think of it like that!

:smiley: its alright mate, I didn't feel dissed - just wanted to get across how versatile I've been finding it - one eyepiece and I've used it from the sun, to M42/M45 to M57 to the double cluster to mars/saturn/venue right through to the moon.

The kidney beaning interests me though - are some people more susceptible than others? Is it to do with eye/pupil shape? Whether you wear glasses/contacts?

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FLO

FLO

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.. are some people more susceptible than others? Is it to do with eye/pupil shape? Whether you wear glasses/contacts?

It depends on where you position your eye. If your eye is in the right position then you are unlikely to see kidney-beaning. Some people seem to instinctively position their eye correctly, others don't and struggle for the right position. That's not to say that some eyepieces aren't more prone to kidney beaning and more fussy about eye-placement.

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GazOC

GazOC

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I've had this eyepiece out in a range of scopes now and the only two major faults I can see are thats it not truly parfocal and there is pronounced field curvature when using fast scopes (f5) in conjuction with the eyepiece being at larger focal lengths.

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GordonCopestake

GordonCopestake

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I have to admit in my f/10 6" SCT it works like a dream. Perfect eyepiece for this 'scope. Everything from x63 to x187 add a barlow and you are down to x125 to x375. Ideal for all situations. I still might add a 24 Hyperion though, as others have mentioned, it's not a good wide field contender at 24mm.

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Cloudwatcher

Cloudwatcher

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I have just found time to read this thread and also the detailed review by James over in Guidscope. It seems this zoom has been generally well received.

Does anyone know of a comparison test carried out between zoom eyepieces of different makes rather than versus single focal length lenses? That's to say a test between 'like for like' which would be helpful for those toying with the idea of buying their first 'Zoom'.

CW

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Altinakis

Altinakis

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I just bought the Hyperion 8-24mm Zoom and I would like to know which are the exact FOV of its mm...

E.g. 8mm is about 68o

12mm

16mm

20mm

24mm is about 50o

The others...

Thank cos I am new in this forum coming from far away (Greece) :jupiter:

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Altinakis

Altinakis

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This are my new additional magnifications with the Zoom 8-24mm

Zoom8-24| No TV Barlow 3x | With TV Barlow 3x

----------------------------------------------------------------------

--8mm---------------150x-------------------450x

--12m----------------100x-------------------300x

--16mm---------------75x-------------------225x

--20mm---------------60x-------------------180x

--24mm---------------50x-------------------150x

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Altinakis

Altinakis

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Yesterday I did an small obsertvation and I was little disappointed cas my Hyperion Zoom wasn't so great as I thought. The night was so and so and I decided to check the Orion Nebula...

Together I combined the Baader OIII filter for the nebulas.

When I focused I saw not a bright and clear image but instead significantly less then my Skywatcher Plossl eyepiece... :D

Moreover I realized that there was this black.... thing blocking my view (is it called kidney?) and I was finally very frustrated...

Don't know if I have done something wrong but I tried it also without the OIII filter and it was still the same feeling...

My Hyperion Zoom I think is of the latest version of zoom cos it has markings of the mm, it has eyecover and the box was saying Phantom Group Coating...

Any ideas guys?

PS: Can it be that I have a faulty eyepiece, and is there a way to check it??

Many thanks, I appreciate if somebody could help me! :sunny:

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