what have zoom eyepieces ever done for us?

[Highburymark]

I haven't tried the Zeiss, but it sounds like an amazing eyepiece. Great range too, though with noticeably narrower fovs than the Leica. Coupled with a 4" Tak, the Leica offers views that are every bit as sharp as the best widefields out there - Delos, XW etc. At least to my eyes. With the APM adapter, it screws directly onto Baader T2 prisms/diagonals, minimising the light path. The only weakness for me is that limited 8.9-17.8mm range. To overcome that - and retain the superb quality of views - you need to spend another £200-ish on a VIP or a Leica 1.8x extender. With some Leica outlets charging £800 for the zoom, that's over a grand..... ouch. 

[Piero]

The VIP is certainly one of the best astro purchases I ever made (thanks to Gerry!). 

I just wish the TV60 had 0.5mm more in focus travel so that I could use the VIP with the Lunt Herschel wedge.  

[Davey-T]

I use the Baader VIP with the Leica zoom, a good combination.

I see the combo now costs nearly twice what I paid for them, not sure if that's a good thing 

Dave

[jetstream]

2 hours ago, Piero said:

The VIP is certainly one of the best astro purchases I ever made (thanks to Gerry!). 

I cannot take credit for this really, Yong (YKSE) put me onto this barlow and I just passed on my findings- which are very similar to his I believe.

This barlow is very good and is used extensively and like Piero says it actually can improve sharpness-light cone vs spot size or.... ?? Well I don't know why but it does. Actually it must help "preserve" the image somehow ie Suiter's idea's.

I think, but don't know, that the VIP element is "old Zeiss" stock that Baader has.

[jetstream]

5 hours ago, Stu said:

I considered the Leica more for Planetary/Solar than Deep sky and rarely used it without a Barlow.

The Leica is a top tier eyepiece which can go sharper than Delos etc when conditions allow. It also has a "nicer","friendlier" FOV than the Zeiss zoom. This zoom is a great choice.

[BGazing]

5 hours ago, jetstream said:

The Leica is a top tier eyepiece which can go sharper than Delos etc when conditions allow. It also has a "nicer","friendlier" FOV than the Zeiss zoom. This zoom is a great choice.

What does it need exactly to work with non-spotting telescopes, I see that often there are some adapters mentioned...

[YKSE]

Andreas is the ONE we should thank for introducing Leica zoom and VIP barlow to the astro community with his extensive testing and review.

https://www.cloudynights.com/articles/cat/user-reviews/eyepieces/zooms/leica-zoom-25x-50x-asph-178-89mm-r2317

[John]

1 minute ago, YKSE said:

Andreas is the ONE we should thank for introducing Leica zoom and VIP barlow to the astro community with his extensive testing and review.

https://www.cloudynights.com/articles/cat/user-reviews/eyepieces/zooms/leica-zoom-25x-50x-asph-178-89mm-r2317

Interesting that 7 years ago the Leica zoom and the VIP barlow were the same price that they are today - 800 Euros and 185 Euros respectively.

 

[YKSE]

25 minutes ago, John said:

Interesting that 7 years ago the Leica zoom and the VIP barlow were the same price that they are today - 800 Euros and 185 Euros respectively.

 

Yepp

Considering the price hik in XWs and Delos, it makes Leica zoom an even better bargain. My impression is thtat many Germany online retailers have summer sales on spotting scope stuffs, Leica zoom or Zeiss zoom are among the sale items.

[jetstream]

6 hours ago, BGazing said:

What does it need exactly to work with non-spotting telescopes, I see that often there are some adapters mentioned...

I bought the LZ from APM and it came with Ludes adapter, it works great.

[BGazing]

This adapter is for 1.25 or 2in? Does it increase light path?

[John]

5 hours ago, BGazing said:

This adapter is for 1.25 or 2in? Does it increase light path?

Thats one of the things I'm interested in - where does the zoom reach focus compared with other eyepieces ?

I believe you can select either a 1.25" or a 2" adapter when you purchase. Presumably you could purchase both adapters and have the choice ?

 

[Davey-T]

The Leica zoom focuses nearly fully in on the LS60 about 20mm out, the 32mm TV Plossl focuses about 30mm further out.

The image in the TV is slightly smaller than the Leica zoomed out.

The Leica is superb for solar viewing, I had a Baader mk111 but the Leica as you would expect is superior.

Dave

 

[Piero]

Although the topic is shifting towards the Leica zoom, here is the equivalent information for the Zeiss zoom 25.1-6.7mm (or 20-75x). Hopefully this is useful for those who are interested in this zoom.  

Zeiss provides two astro adapters for this zoom: 1.25" and 2". Unfortunately both of these adapters require a considerable amount of in ward travel. They are rock solid but also expensive. Credit for the following measures goes to Gerry ( @jetstream ), who kindly addressed this question using his Stellarvue Raptor 90mm when I asked him some time ago. 

- The ZZ with the 1.25" Zeiss adapter measures 2.0 cm, the 25mm TV plossl @ 5.5cm ( using same 2"-1.25" EP holder adapter) so 3.5cm more infocus needed .

- The 10E in 2" mode was 6.7cm compared to the Zeiss zoom in 2" mode at 3.05cm.
 

 

Thankfully, Baader released a 2" adapter for "Zeiss zooms" which is kind of low profile, much cheaper, but still solid. Here is: 

http://www.baader-planetarium.com/en/diascope-okularbajonett-2andquot.html

(Diascope Okularbajonett 2" #2454502) .

The issue with this adapter is that it does not screw properly onto the bajonet design of the Zeiss zoom. This is fixable though as described by a member on CN: 

https://www.cloudynights.com/topic/542372-review-zeiss-20-75x-zoom-eyepiece-and-swarovski-25-50x-zoom-eyepiece/page-4#entry7624747 

I fixed this by using a Swiss knife and now the adapter clicks properly. The additional locking screw (a safeguard) completely eliminates any chance that the adapter is accidently removed. 

With this adapter, the Zeiss zoom requires a travel distance very similar to my other 2" eyepieces. I don't have a measure, but I can tell that there is no significant in ward travel at all. 

The Baader VIP can directly screw onto this adapter. This is very handy, particularly since the VIP enters in the focuser and so the whole thing doesn't awkwardly extends outside the focuser. 

As my TV60 focuser only accepts 1.25" eyepieces I needed an additional 1.25" adapter. This is again offered by Baader: it's the T2-1.25" nosepiece adapter which screws onto the 2" adapter. 

With both these adapters, the Zeiss zoom requires some inward travel. I'm afraid, but I haven't measured this. It's about 1 inch compared to my 24mm Panoptic. Using the TV60 the coarse focuser is all the way in, whereas the fine focuser is about 0.5cm out. 

The replacement of the Baader T2-1.25" nosepiece with the Baader VIP T2-1.25" nosepiece containing the barlow lens requires less the inward travel (about 5mm less). 

Here is the Zeiss zoom with the two adapters:

[John]

4 hours ago, Davey-T said:

The Leica zoom focuses nearly fully in on the LS60 about 20mm out, the 32mm TV Plossl focuses about 30mm further out.

The image in the TV is slightly smaller than the Leica zoomed out.

The Leica is superb for solar viewing, I had a Baader mk111 but the Leica as you would expect is superior.

Dave

 

Very useful information Dave, thanks

Not quite so good news though for me - I'm going to struggle to get it to focus in a couple of my scopes where I won't have the inwards focuser travel

 

[LukeSkywatcher]

I love my Hyperion 8-24mm zoom. It means that i really only have to take one EP outside with me instead of a whole case. It has made my observing that bit easier.

[Pig]

3 fixed eyepieces,1 zoom and a Barlow for the dark side and 3 fixed for the light side  So I would go for both.

I do like zooms and they certainly have their place for me, I don't think I have ever looked through a bad one to be honest. I think the Lunt zoom was probably the most restrictive for FOV    that I've experienced but it main purpose is for solar viewing where FOV is not so important .