Zoom Eyepieces. Are they any good?

[Staffs Oatcake]

I'm the proud owner of an Orion Optics VX8 with the 1/10th mirror upgrade. Sadly it is let down by the eyepieces from my previous budget starter scope. I've been doing some research on new eyepieces and came across ones with a zoom feature. In theory you only need one eye piece, which given my novice status may give me a better range of viewing options than buying multiple eyepieces. I have a reasonable budget of around £150, but may go higher. Does anyone have any experience of zoom eyepieces and any recommendations.

[Paul73]

That is a splendid scope. For £150(ish), the Baader Mk3 8-24mm is a good bet. Mine arrived at Christmas and I have been surprised at how good it is. Sure, in terms of field of vision and extracting the very last bit of detail, it is left wanting when compared to the £100+ per eyepiece offerings. But for a start. It is most enjoyable. You see them come up second hand regularly on Astro Buy & Sell UK. A new one is only just out of your budget.

This, and a reasonable 28mm(ish) 68° or 82° Eyepiece for the wide field views will start you off on the right track.

Paul

[faulksy]

I'm the proud owner of an Orion Optics VX8 with the 1/10th mirror upgrade. Sadly it is let down by the eyepieces from my previous budget starter scope. I've been doing some research on new eyepieces and came across ones with a zoom feature. In theory you only need one eye piece, which given my novice status may give me a better range of viewing options than buying multiple eyepieces. I have a reasonable budget of around £150, but may go higher. Does anyone have any experience of zoom eyepieces and any recommendations.

lovely scope by the way and congrats. i cant help you on the zoom as i use single eps , but for the money you are offering tv are top notch and you wont regret buying them

[Dave In Vermont]

The Baader Hyperion Mark III 8 - 24mm Zoom is indeed a fine eyepiece. It's better to think of it as a 8 - 20mm though, as the 24mm setting is a very narrow Field-Of-View (FOV) of about 40.° But this tend to be the case with all 8 - 24mm zooms. And the lower cost ones are decent also. They are quite good as a 'grab & go' eyepiece for quick viewing sessions. Times when you don't want to lug a case around. But single focal-length eyepieces almost as a rule will give a better view - more contrast and finer details - than the settings of a zoom EP.

I'd only be wary of the odd-sized 7 -21mm sometimes offered. I've heard nothing but negative tales of these.

Have fun,

Dave

[Stu]

I've not used a Hyperion Zoom, but have read that they may struggle in faster scopes. At f4.5 you might start to see edge distortions being a little distracting. It's worth getting input from others on this before committing I think.

[Mark at Beaufort]

I also have the Orion VX8 scope - in fact I did the owners review of this scope in the November issue of Sky at Night mag.

I use ES 82 degree EPs which are excellent in this scope - I make this point for your future reference. I also recently acquired a TeleVue 8-24 zoom and as Dave in Vermont has stated you will need a 24mm or 28mm wider FOV EP because zooms do have narrow fields at the 24mm setting. (note that a 28mm will give an exit pupil of 6.25 which is why I stopped at the 24mm)

I previously had a Baader and Pentax zoom and they were ok but not as good in a f4.5 scope as a reasonable quality individual EP will be. I bought the TeleVue zoom  for convenience when travelling and mainly for use in my 4" APO frac.

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

I have a WO Zoom-II 7.5-22.5 which I use for solar, and it is very nice in that role, in scopes around F/6. It is also a handy travel EP, if complemented with something more wide-field (like the MaxVision 24mm 68 deg I have). My top of the line Pentax XW and TeleVue fixed focal length EPs are definitely better, but the zoom is no slouch. Note that the TeleVue 8-24mm zoom is essentially the same as the old Vixen LV 8-24mm zoom (the TV was built by Vixen). I once read a shoot-out were the Baader was compared to the Vixen LV, and the Baader was considered a bit better. The reason I went for the WO (no longer made, but various clones are still available) was that it has good eye relief (18.5-19mm), which is great for those who have to wear glasses when observing.

There are of course some high-end zooms like the Pentax XF zoom, or ones by Leica, Meopta and Zeiss. These were all designed for spotting scopes (i.e. terrestrial use) but can be used for astronomy as well.

[YKSE]

I have the Baader Mark III zoom, it works well in my scopes(f7.5 and f10).

The main issue for you is that your scope(f4.5) is much faster, coma from the mirror and astigmatism in the edge will be a lot of worse than in my scopes. Center of the field(my guess is around 60%-70%) should be fine. It depends partly on your observation habit too, if you want to see minimum aberrations in the whole field of view(FOV), you'll need to get a coma corrector first, then eyepeices with good astigmatism correction(Televue, Pentax XW e.g); If you're observing only the center of FOV as I do, you still need to know how much edge aberrations is not distracting for you, since our eyes are all different, only you can tell if it's acceptable.

[laudropb]

I have to agree. At f4.5 you may be pushing the Baader zoom just too far.

[MattJenko]

A steep light cone at that f-ratio will push a zoom eyepiece hard really. It will still prove to be a good upgrade for you from basic entry level EPs, but you can do much better to try and match your excellent scope optics. However, for a total budget of 150 for a complete EP upgrade, it is not a bad idea. I have a F4.7 10" and I also have the Hyperion Zoom and while it is still a great EP in the right context, it is a little mushy in comparison to good fixed EPs in my Dob. It works wonders for things like outreach in the Dob and is much better than the stock EPs, but I don't use it in that scope when observing myself any more as it can be bettered.

[Paul73]

I've not used a Hyperion Zoom, but have read that they may struggle in faster scopes. At f4.5 you might start to see edge distortions being a little distracting. It's worth getting input from others on this before committing I think.

Hi Stu

I wasn't expecting much when I popped it into my f4.7 Dob (it was bought for my little f7.5 ED80). Yes, there is some softening at the edges. I didn't find it that too distracting. It was never going to compete with a box full of Delos, so I guess that I wasn't being hyper critical.

For about the £150 mark, I found it more than serviceable and very comfortable to use.

l'll give it a proper Dob test next time I'm out.

Paul

[Dinosour23]

I have an observation to share regarding zoom eps

They are prone to being dusty beyond use. The moving parts are never sealed and I had 2 good zooms (wo and orion) dust up so bad that you could see it in focus.

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

My WO shows some dust on the field lens that does show up in the FOV at 22.5mm, but vanishes otherwise

[Moonshane]

I suppose the answer to this question, as with many other "is this any good" queries, depends on what you are used to, what your expectations are, what the eyepiece will be used for and and what you are sensitive to in terms of aberrations.

In general, most zoom eyepieces (even the really cheap ones) will work well and do what you expect. The more you pay (usually) the better the results and some border on being equal to good quality fixed eyepieces. Even the eyepieces that come with scopes for 'free' are OK and show you everything a top quality expensive eyepiece will other than maybe field and sharpness off axis.

If you want the widest field available to your scope for low power viewing then often a zoom falls short as at the lower power end, the field shrinks. If you want to make the most of the seeing conditions at high magnification on a driven mount then a zoom, no matter what the quality will probably win on axis vs a fixed eyepiece.

I have one zoom, a 6-3mm Nagler and it's an excellent tool for this tuning in process but in general I do prefer the fixed eyepieces and rather perversely I suppose, the interaction of changing eyepieces feels like it keeps me closer to the action too.

Buy a zoom (perhaps a cheap one (the Seben 8-24mm is really great value for money at about £30 used) used and try one and you'll not go far wrong. You can always sell it again if it's not suited to your observing preferences/requirements.

[brantuk]

The big thing about about zoom eyepieces is that for a beginner looking to build a good quality eyepiece set the zoom represents great flexibility and excellent value for money. A lot of folks consider getting an eyepiece and filter kit for around £150 and, imho, it's so much better to get an 8-24mm zoom plus a half decent ~30mm wide eyepiece.

This gives you a full compliment of good quality viewing for most beginner to intermediate scopes, far superior to anything in any of the starter eyepiece kits. And it all comes in two pieces - a zoom and a low power WA. It's academic really.

[Staffs Oatcake]

Thanks for all the replies. The reason why I was considering the zoom. Is that whilst I'm learning my way around the scope I thought it may be a good idea to get a zoom ep. I have a 10 yr old daughter who is quite keen to be able to view the stars. In the past changing the eye pieces over meant that I lost my target. But with the Synscan system keeping the object central shouldn't be too much of an issue. I have found that the eye pieces that came with my daughters small 76mm Aldi/National Geographic scope (she got it for the grand total of £9.99. Spent her pocket money on it last summer) are actual better quality than the ones from my old scope. Is there much difference between celestron and the skywatchers brand?

[John]

The Celestron 8-24 zoom and the Skywatcher 8-24 zoom (their standard zooms) are exactly the same item, having owned both. I've also recently owned the Hyperion 8-24 zoom which was a little better than the Celestron but not a lot if I'm honest with myself. The scope here was my 12" F/5.3 dobsonian.

The company that makes Skywatchers also owns and makes Celestrons now.

You can get the Celestron 8-24 zoom for around £50 on e.bay. It might be a decent use of a relatively small amount of £'s to enable you to experiment with eyepiece focal lengths and see what is good for you and for your daughter to have some fun with an easy to use eyepiece that produces decent, if not perfect, results.

[Staffs Oatcake]

The Celestron 8-24 zoom and the Skywatcher 8-24 zoom (their standard zooms) are exactly the same item, having owned both. I've also recently owned the Hyperion 8-24 zoom which was a little better than the Celestron but not a lot if I'm honest with myself. The scope here was my 12" F/5.3 dobsonian.

The company that makes Skywatchers also owns and makes Celestrons now.

You can get the Celestron 8-24 zoom for around £50 on e.bay. It might be a decent use of a relatively small amount of £'s to enable you to experiment with eyepiece focal lengths and see what is good for you and for your daughter to have some fun with an easy to use eyepiece that produces decent, if not perfect, results.

I'm not looking for a mega sharp images at this point, but want to be able to experiment more to see what short of range I find the best fir me. I may invest in a slightly cheaper zoom and save the money to buy so good quality set eps once.

[John]

I'm not looking for a mega sharp images at this point, but want to be able to experiment more to see what short of range I find the best fir me. I may invest in a slightly cheaper zoom and save the money to buy so good quality set eps once.

Thats what I was suggesting. The Celestron / Skywatcher zooms are at the cheap end of the market but still decent. Don't get tempted by the 7mm - 21mm ones though. They do cost a little less but they are noticably poorer.

The Baader is in the middle ground - around £180 new. The real premium quality zooms (and there are only a couple of these) are £300-£500 apiece. Big bucks !

[Staffs Oatcake]

If I'm up at the 300-500 hundred mark I'd probably have individual eps. Duly noted avoid 7-21. Thanks for the help.

[John]

If I'm up at the 300-500 hundred mark I'd probably have individual eps. Duly noted avoid 7-21. Thanks for the help.

Yep - thats my approach for the eyepieces I use. The zooms were for outreach sessions.

[brantuk]

Is that £300 - £500 for a set of eyepieces - or per eyepiece? The advice could be very different lol

[Alan64]

A zoom ocular is ideal for that very thing; as a teaching tool, and in order to determine which dedicated oculars would be best in future.  I'd go with either the Celestron or Sky-Watcher in that event.

[baggywrinkle]

I have the Baader 8-24mm zoom and in general it is a good ep. Saves me packing 3 ep's for a grab and go trip.

It can also be easily adapted for use with a camera as it has a thread to take a T ring.

[Staffs Oatcake]

I have the Baader 8-24mm zoom and in general it is a good ep. Saves me packing 3 ep's for a grab and go trip.

It can also be easily adapted for use with a camera as it has a thread to take a T ring.

Sounds like something I may invest in. But first I need to try the cheaper option to see if a zoom is what I really like. Might have to join a club to see if I can see one operational in the field.