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Jiggy 67

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I have the Mark 111 Baader Hyperion Zoom. I love this eyepiece and it’s probably In my 200PDS more than any other. That got me thinking as to how good would the actual independent Hyperions be so I’m looking at buying the set, with the case as sold by FLO. I don’t think I would normally consider this, it would normally just stay on my wish list but the current crisis means I am managing to save a lot of money (don’t get me wrong, I would much rather times were normal with no virus!!)

My question is...is this a worthwhile purchase? Is there a significant improvement over the zoom, enough to warrant the over £600 cost??...

Opinions please 

 

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To be honest I would probably go for 3 or 4 of the Morpheus line instead of the Hyperions. They are now on offer and are excellent eyepieces if the focal lengths are right for you.

 

Glen.

 

 

 

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Short answer.  No.

Longer answer. If you want to "upgrade your views" at a reasonable cost, try getting some used Morpheus, they are in a different league optically to the Hyperions, and offer a lovely 76 degree fov, with superb images, great edge correction and wonderful contrast and comfort.

They come up used for c £110-130, and a spread of say 6.5mm, 12.5mm and 17.5mm would give you a great range of options.

Finally, the Hyperion zoom Barlow is excellent quality and will screw right into the Morpheus's too, giving you 2.25x each of your native magnifications. There have been several of these for sale used recently for £50, a bargain for the optical quality..😊👍

Dave

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I think Zoom eyepieces are always a compromise and good quality individual focal length eyepieces always give better performance. I don't think you'd need the range of Hyperions as tempting as that may be. I can only repeat what's already been said about the Baader Morpheus, as it is a spectacular eyepiece.  My choice with £600 to play with would be a 24mm Hyperion, 17.5mm Morpheus, 9mm Morpheus and a 2X barlow to take that 9mm to 4.5mm. 

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I don't think the fixed focal length Hyperions are better than the zoom apart from their field of view and a bit more eye relief. In your F/5 200mm scope the fixed length Hyperions will show more astigmatism in the outer parts of the field of view than the zoom does as well.

The Morpheus may well be a step up though.

 

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Hmmm you’ve all just made my quandary worse!! 😀😀 I have considered the Morpheus before . I’m guessing though that the superior contrast may assist in light polluted skies and the field of view advantage is obvious 

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Sorry to make things worse, but this is what generally happens here. Eyepiece choices, like shoe's, need to be comfortable and one size/design doesn't fit all. Just as an example, a few years ago myself and two friends were comparing the views through several different eyepieces. Two eyepieces we were comparing were the 24mm Panoptic and 24mm Hyperion. We were using three apochromatic refractors, a 100mm F7.4, a 102mm F6.9 and a 90mm F5. Two of us prefered the 24mm Hyperion because it was much more comfortable to use, with a larger eye lens and better eye relief. The Hyperion was also sharp towards the field edge in all three scopes, which we all agreed on. To my eye the Hyperion gave a more pleasing on axis star image too. At the end of the night two of us had all but dismissed the 24mm Panoptic and played merrily with the 24mm Hyperion. The one who did like the Pan better was its owner, who goes weak at the knees at the sight of black & green. The Panoptic was certainly the better looking of the two. I've always thought the Hyperions were bug ugly, but in the dark no-one sees. At the end of the day, its down to personal preferences and pointless trying to force anyones arm. Just buy something you'll enjoy.

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Wow !

I feel the 24mm Panoptic is one of the best 1.25 eyepieces out there. I didn't think that much of the Hyperion 24 at all when I tried one for a while. For me both the 24mm ES 68 and the Maxview 24 / 68 were better corrected and the 24 Panoptic a touch better again. I also saw quite a lot of field edge distortion at F/6.5 and slower with all the Hyperions - too much for my taste.

Shows how personal these things can be. You've got to try these things for yourself I think - our preferences are all so different I'm beginning to think thats the only way to find what works for you.

Read 10 reports and you could have 10 different results !

 

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As John and Mike say, eyepiece choice is a personal thing.  Personally, I love the Morpheus EPs that I have with the 17.5mm getting more use than most of my other EPs.

However, that doesn't mean that its right for everyone.

If you can hold out and be patient enough to pick the Morpheus up on the used market, then if they don't suit you, you should be able to move them on for pretty much what they cost you, whereas buying new, you stand to lose more money if you by a whole set of new Hyperions and then find that you don't like them.

I know its tempting to own a set, but my own eyepiece collection is a real hotch potch and includes: BST Starguiders (set), a couple of Morpheus, 2x Sets of Baader Classic Orthos, 2x  Vixen NPLs, a few Celestron Omni Plossls, 1x Televue Plossl, 1x Televue Nagler 3-6mm zoom, 1x Celestron Ultima, 1x Celestron Ortho and 2x 12.5mm Fujiyama Orthos, Hyperion Zoom MK III & Mk IV, and Lunt 7.2 - 21.5mm Zoom oh and also ES 68 degree 24 and 16mm and a Panaview 32mm.

Some of these are pairs for use in Binoviewers.  The Hyperion Zooms are in my two outreach setups so that everything needed is kept in the case and can be grabbed without thinking as I'm always short of time on week night observing sessions.  The Lunt zoom is in my permanently ready Grab and Go setup.

Over time I've found through trial and error that I really like the middle focal length Orthos, but also really like the Morpheus EPs, the ES 68 degree EPs and the Panaview 32mm.

The rest of them get used now and again and writing that list makes me realise that I need to rationalise my collection.

BUT, all of these have been picked up used and will sell for pretty much what I paid for them.

So have fun, pick up a used eyepiece try it, if you like it then keep it, if it doesn't agree with you then there is no harm in trying then moving on and you'll likely recover your outlay.

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On 31/03/2020 at 03:25, Jiggy 67 said:

I have the Mark 111 Baader Hyperion Zoom. I love this eyepiece and it’s probably In my 200PDS more than any other. That got me thinking as to how good would the actual independent Hyperions be so I’m looking at buying the set, with the case as sold by FLO. I don’t think I would normally consider this, it would normally just stay on my wish list but the current crisis means I am managing to save a lot of money (don’t get me wrong, I would much rather times were normal with no virus!!)

My question is...is this a worthwhile purchase? Is there a significant improvement over the zoom, enough to warrant the over £600 cost??...

Opinions please 

 

The fields of view are wider, but though that might be enticing, they are not all equal.  The 24 is poorly corrected in an f/5 scope.  The 21mm and 17mm are good.  The 13mm suffers from edge of field brightening.  The 10mm is fine.  The 8mm is just OK, while the 5mm is a bit better.  I don't have experience with the 3.5mm.  I could see buying the 21mm, 17mm, and 10mm, but I'd skip the others.

Your Zoom has the flaw of having a wide field below about 14mm, but a narrow field above that.  Were I to suggest supplementing the Zoom, I'd say add a long focal length with a wide field.  If 24mm is enough, try an APM 24mm UltraFlat field for glasses, or an Explore Scientific 24mm 68° if you don't wear glasses.  If you'd like a maximum field eyepiece, then go for a 30mm 2" design, like the APM UFF 30mm, or the same from Altair.

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Don, I don't know if it's still the case but when they first came out the 21mm Hyperion was *supposed* to give less than the advertised 68 Deg view resulting the field being roughly the same as the 17mm model which renders the 21mm a little redundant for most uses

I've never tested this out so can't comment as to its veracity though 

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There is more to focal length than AFoV.  Longer focal lengths yield larger exit pupils and brighter images.

The 21mm also has a 4mm wider field stop than the 17mm, so yields a larger true field, regardless of apparent field.

That's what makes a 40mm Plössl a good eyepiece for a small, long f/ratio, Maksutov.  Yes, it has the same TFoV as a 32mm Plössl, but it has a larger exit pupil and a brighter image, as well as being lower power, important for some objects.

I doubt anyone would buy both the 21mm and 17mm Hyperion anyway, as the magnifications would be too close together.

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44 minutes ago, Telescope40 said:

Seem to remember the time when Hyperions were very well thort of. 5/6 years back I’m guessing. I had two or three go through my hands. 
Things move on as they say. 
John 

When I first joined this forum the Hyperions were the "new kids on the block". That was 15 years ago !

Some additional focal lengths were added later (can't recall which).

 

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The 10mm and the 3.5 were definitely among the later additions, John

When Hyperions first came out they were priced around £65 and there weren't really many (any?) other options that gave that FOV as an upgrade to standard Plossls. Since then they've gone up in price and more options have become available to astronomers.

I do think they can get something of a bad press as many times when people ask for opinions on them they immediately get compared to the Morpheus range which are pretty much twice the price simply because Baader make both types of eyepiece 

I mainly use my 100 deg eyepieces these days but IMHO the Hyperions are solid workhorses and affordable enough that I have been able to cover all the focal lengths relatively cheaply through a combination of buying new when they first came out and second-hand purchases later on

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26 minutes ago, GazOC said:


The 10mm and the 3.5 were definitely among the later additions, John

When Hyperions first came out they were priced around £65 and there weren't really many (any?) other options that gave that FOV as an upgrade to standard Plossls. Since then they've gone up in price and more options have become available to astronomers.

I do think they can get something of a bad press as many times when people ask for opinions on them they immediately get compared to the Morpheus range which are pretty much twice the price simply because Baader make both types of eyepiece 

I mainly use my 100 deg eyepieces these days but IMHO the Hyperions are solid workhorses and affordable enough that I have been able to cover all the focal lengths relatively cheaply through a combination of buying new when they first came out and second-hand purchases later on

Hello @GazOC

Could not agree more. Just from what I read on the forum, the Hyperions seem to mentioned very rarely. I take the point that the Morpheus get excellent reviews. I’ve not gone down that route myself. 
I’m a ES EP guy ATM. Hopefully for a while too - LOL ????

John 

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