Svbony 8-3 zoom

[wookie1965]

I have had one for months but not had a good chance to give it a good review hopefully the weather picks up I have not been out since the first week in December. 

Won't work in the Tal with the herschel wedge won't focus. 

[mikeDnight]

For anyone who's still waiting - I've got mine, and it's brilliant! 🤣

And its clear here with a first quarter Moon overhead!!!🤣

Edited March 17 by mikeDnight

[Ratlet]

4 hours ago, wookie1965 said:

I have had one for months but not had a good chance to give it a good review hopefully the weather picks up I have not been out since the first week in December. 

Won't work in the Tal with the herschel wedge won't focus. 

Not enough InFocus or outfocus?

[Ratlet]

26 minutes ago, mikeDnight said:

For anyone who's still waiting - I've got mine, and it's brilliant! 🤣

And its clear here with a first quarter Moon overhead!!!🤣

It's fantastic on the moon imho.  I can only compare it to my 8mm BST and X2 Barlow, but I've found the contrast to be much better on bright targets with the svbony.

Also very nice just tweaking the zoom to the right level for the seeing.  Not parfocal but for me it's a minor change between powers and in the sort of region where I'm usually fidgeting with my focus anyway.

It pairs well with the moveshootmove mobile phone holder for some imaging/streaming.  Just remember to adjust the phone position as you adjust the power.  I've popped my phone out of the holder more than once.

[wookie1965]

12 hours ago, Ratlet said:

Not enough InFocus or outfocus?

In focus I have even got one of these to give me a extra 8/9mm 

Edited March 18 by wookie1965

[Louis D]

Or even a negative profile adapter.  Although I don't know if it would be wide enough to accommodate the knurled zoom collar, or if you could still grab enough of it to turn it..

[Stu]

14 hours ago, mikeDnight said:

For anyone who's still waiting - I've got mine, and it's brilliant! 🤣

And its clear here with a first quarter Moon overhead!!!🤣

I wonder if anyone has noticed that you never see Mike, Noddy or Benny from Crossroads in the same picture? I wonder why? 😉

[Mr Spock]

👍

[LondonNeil]

I think because I had it in my basket one night but didn't complete,  and svbony didn't realise I went back and ordered the next night,  they've chased me again by email.  This time,  as well as saying it'll go back up in price soon,  they've given me a $7 discount code. 

Since I don't have a use for the code buddy now if anyone is on the fence and this discount will help,  message me. 

[ST_Steve]

Hooray guess what has just arrived! Now just need the weather gods to cooperate…

[Naughty Neal]

Whilst checking out first light with the SLV early morning before dawn  , I also had the 3 - 8 out on the same stars .  In my  LP B6  bording B7 area I had excellent viewing at 320x on Mizar /Alcor and other in UMA with pin point star views.

Edited March 23 by Naughty Neal

[Mr Spock]

Round 1, solar: FAIL! With my 120mm achro and Baader Coolwedge there isn't enough in focus for the Svbony. My other eyepieces are fine.

Here it is with the Nirvana. Works well with the LVW too.

[LondonNeil]

Oh dear.  Would the set up allow for one of those 2" to 1.25" adapters that plunges the EP down inside 10 or 20mm?

Your tripod spreader.  Nice.  Diy?  I've just done something to achieve similar extra storage.  Using m12 threaded bar,  stud extenders and serving trays I've added several lower decks for more eps and detritus/dust caps/ phone etc.   I'll have to get a photo. 

[Mr Spock]

51 minutes ago, LondonNeil said:

Your tripod spreader.  Nice.  Diy?

Yes. It fits on top of the normal spreader.

[Louis D]

How about using a 1.25" Herschel wedge?  It should have a shorter light path, but I'm not sure about its thermal dissipation capacity with a 120mm scope.  I use mine with a 90mm refractor with zero noticeable heating.

[Knighty2112]

4 hours ago, Mr Spock said:

Round 1, solar: FAIL! With my 120mm achro and Baader Coolwedge there isn't enough in focus for the Svbony. My other eyepieces are fine.

Here it is with the Nirvana. Works well with the LVW too.

Checked my svbony zoom I got the other day with my 80ED ‘frac and 2” Lunt wedge. On mine I need to dial in approx 4mm more in focus than with a couple of other EP’s I tested it with.

[Mr Spock]

2 hours ago, Louis D said:

How about using a 1.25" Herschel wedge?  It should have a shorter light path, but I'm not sure about its thermal dissipation capacity with a 120mm scope.

I'm not using an inferior product just to use one eyepiece!
 

3 minutes ago, Knighty2112 said:

On mine I need to dial in approx 4mm more in focus than with a couple of other EP’s I tested it with.

Depends on the scope. My 120mm has 10mm left with a Nirvana and 8mm left with an LVW. The Svbony is well out of focus - I'm guessing I need at least another 5mm. Not to worry, I have plenty of eyepieces for solar. 

It won't be a problem with the Tak and a 2" diagonal. I have to use an 80mm extension tube with my Baader T2 prism.

[Mr Spock]

I had a brief look last night with the FC-100. I used the 3-8 @ 4mm on doubles and compared it with the 4mm TOE, 4mm Nirvana and 4mm Ortho. On Castor there wasn't much between any of them. Perhaps the white of Castor was a bit cleaner in the ortho. On Sirius the TOE seemed to reveal the pup a little better than the others.

By the time the moon came round to the observing side of the house there was a lot of high cloud. In these conditions they were all very similar. I did try the Svbony at 3mm for x247 and it seemed sharp enough.

[Stu]

On 24/03/2024 at 11:15, Mr Spock said:

Round 1, solar: FAIL! With my 120mm achro and Baader Coolwedge there isn't enough in focus for the Svbony. My other eyepieces are fine.

Here it is with the Nirvana. Works well with the LVW too.

Is yours the Mark II CoolWedge Michael? If so, there is a very expensive adaptor you can buy which reduces the path length. It effectively gives you a T2 thread so you can attach binoviewers or your Baader 1.25” fitting directly to it, that should work.

EDIT Page 13 of the manual…

[RT65CB-SWL]

I have not tried my SV215 3-8mm zoom or Nagler 3-6mm Zoom with my Lunt solar wedge. I tend use my Plossls or 6mm UWA 'goldline' or 'redline'.

Perhaps I should give it a go and see what I am missing! 

[Naughty Neal]

Sv215 still on offer at £81 on the main website , ordered another  one for bino viewing.

[Stu]

3 hours ago, RT65CB-SWL said:

I have not tried my SV215 3-8mm zoom or Nagler 3-6mm Zoom with my Lunt solar wedge. I tend use my Plossls or 6mm UWA 'goldline' or 'redline'.

Perhaps I should give it a go and see what I am missing! 

I’ve tried it in my wedge with good results, worth a try I would say.

[Littleguy80]

It’s interesting to see how this impacts the secondhand market for short focal length eyepieces. I think the secondhand market is generally down a bit at the moment but seeing Delos, Pentax XWs and Tak TOEs sitting unsold in the classifieds makes me wonder if premium fixed focal length eyepieces are losing out to this extremely well priced quality zoom. I don’t really have a gap for it in my collection and I’m not sure how successful I’d be trying to sell other eyepieces to make space for it. 

[John]

I've just ordered one of the Svbony 7-21mm's to use with my travel scope. Ernest in Russia was impressed by it - I hope I am 🙂

It won't be as good as the 3-8mm but hopefully will make a lightweight and versatile EP for the little travel setup.

Edited March 30 by John

[IB20]

Don’t think I’ve read a bad review of the 3-8mm SvBony zoom. Kind of tempted to try one for myself but a couple of things are stopping me; 1) the last zoom I had, I changed mag so often I spent less time actually focusing on observing and 2) I’m scared it’ll make all the high end FL EPs redundant and I’ll be wondering why I spent all that money on them!