Ethos 8mm V's Hyperion Zoom at 8mm

[John]

I bought a Mk III Baader Hyperion 8-24 Zoom recently with the intention of using it in my 6" F/12 Istar refractor, where consistent weight at the eyepiece end is going to help control vibrations in the long heavy tube of this scope.

I'd owned a Mk II Baader Zoom a couple of years back for use with the PST solar telescope I had at that time and, while the zoom worked very well in the PST, I was a little disappointed in it's nighttime performance feeling that the fixed focal length Hyperions were sharper than the zoom and showed less ghosting on bright objects.

I'd heard that Baader had made some small modifications to the optical design and interior light baffling in the Mk III version so I was interested to see what effect, if any , these would have.

My initial thoughts on the Mk III Hyperion Zoom are very positive with one caveat - I don't like the constrained (I reckon a little over 40 degrees despite what the specifications say) field of view at 24mm and the fuzzy field stop that goes with it. I'm therefore treating the Zoom as a 20mm - 8mm because 20mm the field stop is sharp and the field of view seems a true 50 degrees widening to a generous 68 degrees at 8mm. 

I was out last night with my 12" F/5.3 dobsonian and carefully comparing the views of Saturn, Mars, some double stars and brighter DSO's using my 8mm Tele Vue Ethos and the 8mm setting on the Hyperion Zoom. There was very little difference that I could see, apart from the FoV. The Ethos might have shown Saturn just a little crisper and with slightly more contrast variation but it's only a "might". Both eyepieces showed the fainter Saturnian moons equally well and the control of light scatter / flare from the planet was pretty good from both as well. The ghosting I'd seen the earlier version of the Zoom seem to have been pretty much eliminated too, which is quite an achievement in a zoom eyepiece. Especially one that has Phantom Coatings

The Hyperion Zoom continued to impress when I turned it on some brighter deep sky objects, namely, the globular clusters M13 and M92 and our old friend the Ring Nebula M57 when it rose higher in the sky in the early hours of this morning. The views of these objects confirmed the impression that the Zoom had given me when I viewed the galaxy M82 and it's supernova SN2014J earlier in the year. The Zoom is a very good deep sky eyepiece which seems to have high levels of light transmission and pinpoint stars. I did compare the 8mm Ethos views again on these targets and, again, any differences were slight at most - perhaps the background sky was slightly darker with the Ethos ?

The zoom was pretty sharp all the way across it's 68 degree FoV in the F/5.3 dob, which was a nice surprise and something I'd been concerned about in the Mk II version where I could see some astigmatism creeping into the edges of the field of view even at F/6.

There was a fair amount of moon generated light pollution in the sky last night and the seeing conditions here were not too bad but not the best so maybe the Ethos would show more advantage under a better sky ?. More comparisons to come but I'm confident now that the Mk III Baader Hyperion Zoom will prove a very effective eyepiece in my big F/12 refractor with the 20mm - 8mm range delivering 90x - 225x.

For the lower power viewing with this scope I've bought a Hyperion Aspheric 31mm (58x with the big refractor) which is on it's way to me next week. It weighs very nearly the same as the Zoom does which will help immensely with scope balancing (it's rather light for a 2" eyepiece) but it will be interesting to see how the 31mm Aspheric compares with the big Tele Vue Nagler 31mm in my other scopes as well.

For top end power in the big refractor I'm thinking of a Baader Classic Orthoscopic in the 6mm focal length to give 300x with a permanently fitted 2" skirt so I can use a 3 eyepiece set, all used in 2" mode, to cover all the bases with the big long tube while minimising weight changes at the focuser end.

My Nagler / Ethos / Radian / Pentax XW's will continue to be my mainstay eyepieces in my other scopes I'm sure but I'm pleased that the Mk III Hyperion Zoom has proved, so far at least, such a good all round performer after my earlier slightly disappointing experience with the Mk II example. 

[YKSE]

This is an very uncommon, yet interesting reviews of eyepieces, thanks for a very informative write up.

[alan potts]

Very nice and something of a shock report. I hope that the Ethos performs better when conditions allow or I can see I may need to be buying one eyepiece and selling 5 rather costly ones ( only joking ). I was going to try the Mk3 but there was some bad reports on site that sort of put me off about 2 years back, a zoom is always a useful addition to any case no matter how large.

Look forward to what you think about the 31mm and wonder how that will perform, I have never seen one but my friend like the 36mm.

Alan

[Moonshane]

great report John. the views through this scope must be worth the effort of setting up, it looks fab. I am not that surprised in truth at f12 but of course this is unlikely to affect things like ghosting etc which seems to have been sorted out. as we often say on SGL, we are so lucky to have such a vast range of goodies to buy at such relatively cheap money and of course options on which to spend lots of money

[Mike73]

Very interesting John, although I've got to say that I'm fairly surprised especially with the good results from your dob.

I thought I'd have to treat my Leica as a 14mm / 4mm EP because of the 60˚ at the 17.3mm end, I've even kept my 17.3mm Delos to cover this but with each time I use the zoom the more natural it feels.

[John]

I think the conditions I was viewing under last night were something of an equalizer so I'd expect more of a difference under better circumstances. The way I was looking at things last night was "is this eyepiece giving me satisfying views of this object ?" and "are there any details / features that one eyepiece is showing that the other one either does not show or makes more difficult to see ?" and lastly "are there any obvious aberrations being introduced by this or the other eyepiece ?".

At one point I thought I'd caught the Zoom out in trying to see Enceladus that rather faint Saturnian moon but, try as I did, I could not see it with the Ethos eyepiece either. The moon was quite close to the planets rings and the conditions were not the best. The zoom did actually show me it a couple of nights back.

I do rate the 8mm Ethos very highly by the way - it's a superb high power deep sky eyepiece with my 12" dob and I don't think the Hyperion Zoom is going to knock it off it's perch in my eyepiece box 

[Moonshane]

I think your three criteria are sound John and roughly what I tend to use. as with all such comparisons between excellent or really very good eyepieces, the differences will of course be small and as I have said on another thread often ergonomic rather than relating to contrast or detail.

[jetstream]

Great review John,thank you for taking the time to do it.The Baader optics I own perform great,but seem under- rated by some TV owners.The 18mm BCO is so close to my 17mm Ethos in many regards that its hard to make the call, as they both have their own personalities.Compared them under excellent skies too.

I understand that Baader has Zeiss's eyepiece/coating recipes.Looking forward to the 31mm Aspheric report for sure

[John]

.... they both have their own personalities......

Thats a very good way to put it Gerry 

Eyepieces, and scopes for that matter, do seem to have "personalities" of sorts. Some are instantly likeable or not, others take time to get to know.

[faulksy]

brilliant report as usual john, very serprised to be honest but when you get to that level differences for a lot of extra £ are very small just putting my scope out to cool now then im going to try my new ethos

[John]

brilliant report as usual john, very serprised to be honest but when you get to that level differences for a lot of extra £ are very small just putting my scope out to cool now then im going to try my new ethos

Thanks Mike - it's just one sessions experience though. On another occasion with different targets the results might be quite different.

I was a bit surprised at how well the zoom did myself though which is why I thought I'd post the short report. If the Ethos had been much better than the zoom it would not have been of much interest I think.

I hope you enjoy your Ethos experience  

[avtaram]

Good report John.

I have the Hyperion Mklll and like it a lot but now I have acquired this bug about ultra wide FOV and have started to buy Ultra Wide eyepieces. The narrower FOV just doesn't do it for me any more, maybe its just a passing phase.

Avtar

[Steve-G]

Great report & very interesting reading. I have the Mk III Baader Hyperion Zoom & Hyperion Barlow combo & have been very satisfied with them so far. I agree that the FOV is a bit of an issue at 24mm, but it's tolerable. Reports like this are always very welcome for a beginner such as myself as it shows you don't always have to buy top of the range equipment to experience some wonderful views.

[alan potts]

Steve,

You are absolutely correct, you don't have to spend a fortune to get the best views, I think 50 quid buys a Baader Classic orthoscopic, fabulous views but with a few small drawbacks which many of us overcome. However if you want the best quality superwide views you have to swallow the price tag.

Alan

[faulksy]

Good report John.

I have the Hyperion Mklll and like it a lot but now I have acquired this bug about ultra wide FOV and have started to buy Ultra Wide eyepieces. The narrower FOV just doesn't do it for me any more, maybe its just a passing phase.

Avtar

it wont be a passing phase, its a slippery slope

[avtaram]

it wont be a passing phase, its a slippery slope

Don't tell me I'll be hankering for an Ethos soon.

Avtar

[John]

it wont be a passing phase, its a slippery slope

You can come back up a slope as well as go down it

[avtaram]

You can come back up a slope as well as go down it

If its slippery slope you'll keep slipping back.

Avtar