Celestron X-cel lx's

[Briddie]

Ive just ordered the 18mm and 7mm versions. Whats your opinions on these Ep's?

[baggywrinkle]

I have the 9mm and found it to be excellent on my 6SE and on my ED80.

Gave great views of the Moon and Jupiter, not much fringing and reasonable focus out to the edges.

[Qualia]

I remember the LX's with great affection. I recall I had the 7mm, 9mm, 12mm, 18mm and 25mm and the x2 Barlow. I was fortunate to have tied them along with a couple of Hyperions before purchase and to my eye the LX's were in a completely different class.

Scanning through some old notes, I have found the following: "The views with the LXs are delicious, they're well corrected, there is no distortion at the edges, there is wonderful contrast and colour, and the star image is sharp, pin point, throughout."

Keeping a degree of balance here, there have been complaints about the twist up eye-cap peeling off when folk take off the dust cap but I didn't experience this problem and if it does happen, I don't see any problem putting it back on again and if need be gluing it in place.

Concerns have also been raised that some examples of the LX range have had what can only be described as little plastic bits, or a dark looking dust motes within the EP itself. This I can confirm. I recall I had problems with my 18mm. When looking at something bright like the Sun, Jupiter or Moon, the 18mm appeared to have tiny little spots within in it which I tried to clean away and only made matters worse .

With that said,I think they're really nice eyepieces, tested down to around f/4 or f/5 and I feel they perform above their market value. I feel you're going to have a great time with them and learn a lot.

[Pig]

+ 1 for the above. However,  I did not experience any black dots in the 18mm. The scope I had at the time was also a 6SE

I had the set down to and including the 5mm & 2x Barlow. Great eyepiecs    Enjoy them when they arrive.

[rory]

I thought they were sharp solid 60* eyepieces. I had the 7,12,18 and 25. All performed fine to my eyes , but I'm not very experienced.

As Qualia noted, sometimes the eyecup can come loose mainly due to having a tight fitting end cap. Not a big issue though as very easily glued back on . I actually modified a couple of the caps to make them a looser fit.

But for under £70 new , they are good value certainly.

[TractionMan]

I've had the LX's for about two years now and I'm more than happy with them. Havn't encountered any the above mentioned issues myself. To me, they're solid performers at least.

[The_PSY3NTIST]

I've had mine about a year and never had a problem I think they are great and not too expensive

[Briddie]

Thanks everyone, it sounds like their pretty good eyepiece's for the price. I can't wait to get hands on them now.

[todd8137]

These are great eps for the price ,I have them all apart from the 25mm that's the runt of the litter. I sent it back and got my money back I use the others in a 9.25" sct and a 5"edt and they have great contrast and are star sharp

Pat

[Donkeiller]

I have the 25, 18, 9 and 7mm LXs.

Great EPs.

Not had any probs with the eyecap rubber- probably because I read there was a potential issue, so just manually stretched the endcap.

Now a perfect fit.

The one (slight) issue I have noticed is that the screw up eyecap gets very stiff when it is cold.

I also have some BSTs and they do not have this issue.

[The_PSY3NTIST]

The 18mm you have ordered is my favourite.

[prairie_stars]

I have the 5mm and 25mm X-Cel LX. I feel they have the best performance/price ratio out there. The view is flat, sharp, and with superb colour rendition. Some have suggested the latter may be due to its coatings. I'm not bothered by the 60 degree field - recall this is wide compared to the old days of plossls and orthos. I compared the 25mm with my 27mm Panoptic and although the Pan has a wider field, it doesn't show the subtle star colours like the LX. In my fast scopes, both eyepieces had a little bit of curvature in the last 10% but they both managed it well. If you've got the money, then by all means go for the Delos or Pentax, but if you're budget minded you can't go wrong with the LXs.