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Some advice on Zoom Eyepiece


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Hello All, as you are aware i am new here and also new to this wonderful hobby, as you may be aware i am a total newbie,no experience or knowledge, so i am at your mercy ?. Last weekend i was lucky enough to purchase a second hand Skyliner 200p, which came with a 10mm & 25mm  eyepieces, i know i shouldn't rush in as i need to get collimating tool, but i really fancy getting a zoom eye piece, i wondered if you guys n gals had any thoughts or recommendations on such, if possible i wouldn't mind getting a second hand one, i have seen one at Harrisons that i quite like 

skywatcher-8-24mm-zoom-eyepiece-1.25

Anyway thanks for reading and i will probably be asking tons and tons of questions, sorry about that, but you area wonderful friendly and knowledgeable lot,many thanks and best regards

Dave

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I've got the Baader and I'm very happy with it. But since getting some decent quality fixed focal length eyepieces it stays in the box a lot more. 

I think the common advice would be to get a barlow. A cheap 2x would effectively give you a 5mm and 12.5mm option for a lot less money. 

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I use this 7-21mm zoom...

PIC040.JPG.c540c892498ad1b5e850bed6a457d246.JPG 

It's OK for those quick grab'n'go sessions when I don't feel like taking everything outside. Maybe I'm just lazy!

The good thing about zoom e/p's it gives you time to get used to specific focal length before committing to a primary e/p that you and your eyes will be comfortable with. 

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I have the BST Starguider x8-24 zoom - very similar to a lot of other zoom eyepieces, but better value.  It's a handy item to have in the kit, but not essential.  A less charming feature of zoom eyepieces in general is that at 24mm the field of view is very small, but at 8mm it becomes apparently much wider.  I don't use mine at 24mm at all. The optical quality of the Starguider is quite good - I find it hard to see any difference between it and dedicated fixed eyepieces of similar price. 

Most testers have only rude things to say about the 7-21 mm zooms.

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I have the celestron version of this 8-24 zoom eyepiece (identical to the sw) as well as the baader zoom mk3. The difference is colossal, both in terms of aFov as well as eye positioning, not to mention light-scatter. If you were after a 2/hand sw zoom under £45, I would say go for it, but for a little bit more than the sw zoom's new price you could get a 2/hand baader zoom which is a true gem in my opinion.

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I have the Baader zoom and its used almost constantly (95% of the time) looking at the night sky. Only minor frustration is the limited fov at lower 20-24mm power just because of the zoom element.  [Edit: Cosmic Geoff beat me to it]

New Baader zoom is 2-3 times more expensive than Skywatcher but I chose it for the long haul, saving having to buy 4-8 other EPs at the same quality level. The design for optional attachments also makes it very flexible to integrate with other components. EG 1.25" or 2" nosepieces (I required it to fit both filters size), switchable EP caps (you get 3 of them) or remove EP cap entirely to fit a DSLR (with adapter + T ring) for projection photography.

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I use a pair of the Celestron Regal 8-24mm zoom eyepieces packaged with their Regal M2 spotting scopes in my binoviewer.  It's also packaged with the Olivon T-84EDO spotting scope as well with a rubber grip.  I picked up each for about $65 used in basically new condition.  It has a very smooth and light zoom action with very good edge correction at f/6 (but certainly not perfect).  It does require slight refocussing during zooming.  It's AFOV varies from 44 degrees at 24mm to 63 degrees at 8mm.  The change in AFOV is very linear.  I can't detect any stalls or jumps in size while zooming.  It has a nearly sharp fieldstop across the entire zoom range.  It's perfectly sharp near the middle of the range.  Usable eye relief with the eyecup screwed off is about 14mm throughout the range.  I have no trouble taking in the entire view with eyeglasses.  The eyecup rotates up and down very smootly if you don't need the extra eye relief.  The top does not rotate during zooming, unlike the Baader Hyperion zoom, so winged eyecups can be used when binoviewing with them.  I don't know if they're available in Europe, but they are readily available in the US from multiple sources.

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Thanks so much everyone for all your input.

If i can get a 2nd hand baader that would be aweaome.ive only had the scope since Monday so i cant really afford to purchase a new one at the moment.but i will definately keep my eyes peeled for a 2nd hand one.

im enjoying looking at all the accessories as much as looking at the sky lol.

once again thanks so much for the advice.

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6 hours ago, Louis D said:

I use a pair of the Celestron Regal 8-24mm zoom eyepieces packaged with their Regal M2 spotting scopes in my binoviewer.  It's also packaged with the Olivon T-84EDO spotting scope as well with a rubber grip.  I picked up each for about $65 used in basically new condition.  It has a very smooth and light zoom action with very good edge correction at f/6 (but certainly not perfect).  It does require slight refocussing during zooming.  It's AFOV varies from 44 degrees at 24mm to 63 degrees at 8mm.  The change in AFOV is very linear.  I can't detect any stalls or jumps in size while zooming.  It has a nearly sharp fieldstop across the entire zoom range.  It's perfectly sharp near the middle of the range.  Usable eye relief with the eyecup screwed off is about 14mm throughout the range.  I have no trouble taking in the entire view with eyeglasses.  The eyecup rotates up and down very smootly if you don't need the extra eye relief.  The top does not rotate during zooming, unlike the Baader Hyperion zoom, so winged eyecups can be used when binoviewing with them.  I don't know if they're available in Europe, but they are readily available in the US from multiple sources.

The Regal zooms are available here. They do sometimes pop up second hand on eBay. Under such circumstances they tend to sell more cheaply than they should so bargains can be found. I think I might have been the only bidder on mine and so got it at the opening bid price. 

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4 minutes ago, Ricochet said:

The Regal zooms are available here. They do sometimes pop up second hand on eBay. Under such circumstances they tend to sell more cheaply than they should so bargains can be found. I think I might have been the only bidder on mine and so got it at the opening bid price. 

Me too.  It's spectacularly good at $65.  MASILMW sells new blems (magnifications printed in reverse) on Cloudy Nights classifieds for $65 as well.

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I use my zoom way more than I ever thought I would, with a Barlow, with my camera adapter using the included t threads, as a centering eyepiece for high mag target's, as a dso scanner and zoom with a .5 focal reducer attatched, on quick sessions with my grab and go scope and with my terrestrial spotting scope. And I have eyepieces that cost 3x what the zoom does and even though they are optically better than the zoom they fail to have the versatility of the Celestron 8-24 zoom eyepiece. If I should eventually wear it out, I certainly have gotten my money's worth. 

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1 hour ago, ukuleledaveey said:

im enjoying looking at all the accessories as much as looking at the sky lol

Probably in the same boat as almost everyone starting in this hobby.
I lost track of days spent on oolging at Tele Vues, and those fancy Baader diagonals.... Then imagine them fitting together like a football dream team.
All very fun, yet very frustrating  ?

And if I do get those EPs.... I'm sure a Tak bug will instantly come along and bite me....

 

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1 hour ago, ukuleledaveey said:

Does the Celestron 82003 regal Zoom fit a telescope or is it for a spotting scope they are on sale on amazon for 69 pounds new ? 

It's a standard 1.25" barrel.  The only downside is there are no filter threads to keep the barrel short due to the limited back focus of spotting scopes.  In fact, the barrel is so short that the lower element is right at the bottom leaving no room for filter threads even if you wanted to tap them yourself.

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The standard 8-24 Celestron zoom does have threading for 1.25 filters although the threads are few but they are enough by design to securely hold filters and reducers. 

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16 hours ago, Panda Alvin said:

Probably in the same boat as almost everyone starting in this hobby.
I lost track of days spent on oolging at Tele Vues, and those fancy Baader diagonals.... Then imagine them fitting together like a football dream team.
All very fun, yet very frustrating  ?

And if I do get those EPs.... I'm sure a Tak bug will instantly come along and bite me....

 

This is accurate.

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34 minutes ago, LukeSkywatcher said:

Seben 8-24 gets good reviews by users. It's probably the cheapest option. 

I think the Seben and the Skywatcher zooms are the same item. There is also a version branded Celestron, Vite (on E.Bay) and probably other brandings as well. They actually work pretty well for their cost. The Baader zoom is better but costs 3x as much.

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yeah i really like the baaden but well out of my price range at the moment, i only just bought the scope last week ,the wife would kill me, im thinking of the celestron / skywatcher if they are pretty much the same. hope to be able to buy some baaders one day,its sort of like porsche & lada's im unfortunately in the the lada bracket , not much spare cash ?

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The Baader zoom is not too expensive if you think of it as, say, 4 eyepieces - 8mm, 12mm, 18mm and 20mm for example. I find the narrow field of view at 24mm not so enjoyable so I have not included that focal length but of course the zoom goes there.

No guarantee that the above argument will convince your wife though !

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2 hours ago, John said:

The Baader zoom is not too expensive if you think of it as, say, 4 eyepieces - 8mm, 12mm, 18mm and 20mm for example. I find the narrow field of view at 24mm not so enjoyable so I have not included that focal length but of course the zoom goes there.

No guarantee that the above argument will convince your wife though !

If you are very steady handed, you can get every mm stop between 8 and 24mm. 

8,9,10,11,12,13 etc.

So its great value if you can do it.

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Bought an Opticstar 7.2 - 21.5mm zoom new for £75 and I really like it apart from a knocking  noise inside when you give it a shake. Not sure if it’s a supposed to do that or there’s something loose inside but it works fine and I've had some cracking views with it.

430E43F3-B72C-4FC6-A0ED-1E589D67BCEB.jpeg

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