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Celestron vs Meade zoom eyepiece


wok

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I am planning to buy some accesories (probaby in agenaastro since they seem to have all I want and good prices), like filters, 1x finder, cheshire, etc. And I was thinking about including a zoom eyepiece in my shopping list. I'm just starting and don't think spending a lot building a quality eyepieces collection would be the best idea, so the zoom eyepiece seems like a nice one to have. I currently have a 6.5mm, 10mm and 25mm plossl eps.

I was looking at the celestron and meade zoom eyepieces. They both seem to be pretty similar, 8-24mm, 40-60 afov, both made in china, same eye relief. Couldn't confirm if both have threads for filters, some website say yes, other no. I think the meade has more elements than the celestron, but not 100% sure, don't remember where I read that. The only other difference I could find is that the celestron is fully multicoated, and the meade is multicoated.

Any advice on which one should I choose?

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  • 2 weeks later...

Like Robin says probably not much to choose from?  I have a zoom lens (x2), one for my solarscope which is a really bright object to look at and the other I take on astronomy holidays with me, it saves taking extra eye pieces, saves on weight and space, apart from that I do not use them for viewing in the UK!  Personally it is better to use single eye pieces if your budget can go that far as it should last a very long time if looked after properly?

Hope this helps a bit?

Peter

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I have a Seben 8-24mm Zoom which I believe is identical to the Skywatcher variant, and therefore probably the Celestron (?). I have found it useful in a few ways:

  • Useful if you want an easy to carry grab and go setup with just one eyepiece
  • Useful for finding that 'sweet spot' of contrast on faint fuzzies - you can zoom in and out and see the sky darken/lighten and the object dim/brighten, there is often a point at which the object appears most visible
  • Fun to see at what point a double star becomes visible/invisible as you zoom in and out and note the zoom fl & magnification at which it happened

So it depends what you want to do. I still use mine occasionally, and for £55 it's pretty good quality, but it cannot beat my main eyepieces for sharpness and FOV.

 

 

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In general you get what you pay for, as in most things in life.

I actually like good zooms, which get close to fixed eyepiece performance. Probably the cheapest of the decent ones is the Baader Hyperion zoom, which come up for about £100-£140 in good used condition here in the UK.

My Pentax SMC zoom is excellent, but so it should be at well over £300 new.

Although not in the same build league, the Baader gets quite close to the Pentax optically and gives great views.

If your budget won't stretch to a Baader, I wouldn't bother..Buy a decent single fixed eyepiece new (or maybe 2 used) for the same outlay..Something like a good plossl (Vixen LV/NLV/SLV) or older Japan made such as Celestron Xcel LX, Silvertop, Ultima or similar..

Good luck ☺

Dave

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The Leica ASPH zoom is reported to rival or even best Pentax XWs in terms of contrast and sharpness, so there are some good zooms out there.  When you consider it can replace several expensive eyepieces, it isn't so expensive after all.

I use a pair of Celestron Regal zooms in my binoviewer because it's a pain to change two eyepieces to change powers.  An alternative to zooms for binoviewers is the Denkmeier Power Switch.

 

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