Hyperion 17 mm or zoom?

[Cartman]

The question has certainly been asked before, but stil...

My scope: SkyWatcher 200PDS (1000mm / f5).

Currently looking for a new eyepiece for both planetary and (mainly) DSO viewing, no photography yet.

Q1: I've been reading a lot about the Baader Hyperion series. People seem happy with them, but what are the mayor pro/cons for you?

Q2: If Hyperion is indeed an option, what should I choose?

- 17 mm (75€ new), so I'd have to buy other fl's afterwards.

- The Mark III zoom (200€ new), that's a lot of fl's in one EP. But does one lose a lot of image quality compared with the 17 mm or other fixed fl's? And is it true that it's AFOV is relatively narrow?

I'm prepared to spend 200€, but only if I know it'll be worth the bucks offcourse :-)

I'm not an EP connaisseur yet (it's difficult stuff to get into), so sorry if this is the n'th time someone asks.

Clear skies,

Cartman

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

[Cartman]

Forgot to ask: the BH should include fine tuning rings I guess. Is that just a cheap trick to simulate a smaller/larger fl or does it really equal the quality of a different fl eyepiece?

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

[John]

The Hyperions show quite a lot of distortions in the outer 30% or so of the field of view when used in an F/5 scope. They are very good eyepieces at F/10 though. I had the zoom for a while and it was a nice eyepiece too although I felt it lost out on sharpness and light scatter to the fixed focal length Hyperions when you got the 15mm - 24mm part of the range, or thereabouts. I believe Hyperions cost somewhat more than 75 Euros new - they are 119 Euros on the German Telescope Services web site.

You might find that the BST Explorer eyepieces work better with your scope than Hyperions do, despite costing around 50% less.

[Cartman]

The Hyperion 17 mm is on sale on a belgian site for 75€, hence the question. For those interested: http://www.astroshopurania.be/solden-1/oculairen.html (apparently it's been sold in the mean time).

Since the Hyperions won't do so well on a faster scope, I checked around for the BST's, and the get really good reviews in the price/quality section. For 110€, I could buy both the 18 and 8 mm. Looks tempting...

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

[Cartman]

Now I've got 3 options after a lot of Googling:

- BST (cheap and pretty good quality)

- Celestron X-Cel LX series (a bit more expensive but according to some worth it)

- TV Plossls (almost twice the cost of BST, but should give great results on my F5 I'd think)

So many choices to make. The TV's will be out of budgetary reach I'm afraid :-( So what to choose from the two remaining?

PS: the TV's have a FOV of 50°. I guess they're worth the money considering image quality, but isn't that FOV quite modest?

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

[Pig]

Cartman,

Having previously owned the X-cel range down to 5mm and used them many times in my opinion they are very good eyepieces, especially for the cost. The FOV is also very good.

I have only used one BST and I must admit it was very good but no better than the X-cel

I have compared the X-cels with hyperons and the X-cels faired better across all sizes in my scope ( I had a Nexstar 6SE at the time)

You may want to consider the Celestron 8-24 zoom it costs around £80 and is very good, but as with most zooms the FOV does suffer at the lower magnification range.

[Cartman]

We' having a star party this friday. That'll give me the chance to check out some different eyepieces like the Hyperion and X-Cel LX...

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD