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zoom eyepieces

Taz

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John

John

Posted
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I'm not a great fan of zoom eyepieces personally but some are reported to be good. The Hyperion zoom is one of the good ones as are the excellent Tele Vue Nagler Zooms but the latter cost big really bucks !.

There are some cheaper zooms around but I'd be a bit wary of those to be honest.

Just my opinion of course - you may well get alternative views from others.

John

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johninderby

johninderby

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Zoom eyepieces can be very good indeed. But do be aware that the words cheap and zoom don't go together if you want a good one.

Best zooms:

Televue Nagler 2 to 4 or 3 to 6 as they are as good as any Nagler for contrast and sharpness but do have just a 50 degree field of view.

Baader Hyperion 8 to 24 Zoom. As good as the regular Hyperion eyepieces but it is a fairly large eyepiece.

In general stay well clear of the eBay stuff priced at about £50.00 or so and save you pennies for something better. I've gone through a number of zooms but now just own the Nagler 3 to 6 and the Hyperion, definately keepers.

John

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AndyH

AndyH

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As John says, the TeleVue nagler zooms are exceptional(not cheap tho). I have one and can vouch for the quality views.

Have heard the Antares Speers Waler are rather good too.

I had a W.O. zoom. Nice eyepiece, but, I found good quality ortho's beat it for sharpness at the higher mag range and I disliked the lower power small field of view. Again, I prefered to use a wide field 20mm erfle. Nicer wider view.

I ended up selling the zoom.

Andy.

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Merlin66

Merlin66

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I use both the TV 8-24mm Zoom and the Vixen 8-24mm Zoom.

Very handy for solar observing. The Vixen I find is easier, good eye relief, and FOV.

The Vixen is a beast almost twice the size of the TV; nitrogen filled with protection glass etc. A very robust piece of kit.

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Mark at Beaufort

Mark at Beaufort

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I would recommend the Hyperion zoom. I use it on my PST for solar observing and my William Optics SD66 for convenient grab and go. The zoom offers the same quality image as the standard hyperion eyepieces. The only downside that I found is the limited fov at the 24mm settings. Its a large eyepiece so balancing might be a problem.

Mark

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Andrew*

Andrew*

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Personally, I think zooms are the way forward. There aren't many around (and even less good ones) and most serious observers stick to fixed focal lengths because quality is mroe reliable.

But, zooms offer many eyepieces in one - less eyepiece swapping needed. They also allow you to adjust the FOV to suit the target/conditions more precisely than individual eyepieces. I think they might make quite a storm if manufacturers can pull out quality items at good prices. I guess this happened with zoom lenses for cameras, but for the quality-stickler, prime lenses still have their place...

I have owned three zooms:

- Baader Hyperion 8-24mm. It definitely has its drawbacks at the higher focal lengths but it's a nice eyepiece at 8-20mm.

- Nagler 3-6mm zoom. Everything I needed for high-power observing, and IMHO just as good as orthos for contrast and sharpness. I loved it so much but funds dictated that it be sold :)

- Antares Speers Waler 8.5-12mm. Another great eyepiece with 82° FOV throughout the zoom range. Only drawbacks are the size of the thing (see the picture above:icon_eek:) and the rather limited zoom range.

So there are some good ones out there and they will give you benefits...

Andrew

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PaulG

PaulG

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I have only tried one zoom eyepiece which is a Seben 8-24mm.

I compared it with my Hyperion at 8mm and the detail resolved was the same, the only difference being a slight variation in FOV.

For this reason I have since sold the Hyperion.

If on a tight budget, the cheaper end of the market may not be as bad as you think.

Paul

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Psychobilly

Psychobilly

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Taz uses a Celestron 114 EQ... and has the kit EP's and a Tasco Barlow... Based on information in his other posts...

I bought a Seben got if for £38 by buying through Ebay Australia and making use of the currency differences at the time.... still shipped directly from Germany.. It turned out to be the MZT as well which has a t thread under the rubber eye cup ... It gets used for time to time on a t adaptor with the DSLR's... but spends most of its time on a damaged Equinoxe 66 which gets used as a spotting scope with a 45 degree erect image diagonal...

I used to find it quite useful on the ETX105 when i first started as with my poor alignment i could zoom out to centre objects again...

Not Brilliant but for the money adequate...

I have given away all my EP's apart from a 20mm SWA, the one that came with the CPC and a 12mm Illuminated reticule EP as I don't do anything Visual apart from alignment every now and again and even thats been handed over to a DMK Camera...

Peter...

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Andrew*

Andrew*

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I think that scope is f/8...

PaulG, that's useful information! Of course, your scopes are quite slow, and Seben QC might not be up to scratch and you may simply have got a good pick. However, with the 4.5" newt it might be worth having a go with the lower-end market.

Andrew

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Taz

Taz

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well quite gentlemen, the reason i asked the question in the first place was that several single ep's being replaced with one zoom ep would make financial sense if nothing else, i just wondered if it was the way to go as oposed to buying several (some what expensive) single ep's

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Jarndyce

Jarndyce

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I bought my Hyperion after trying several at SGL4 (thanks Mark, Luke, Sarah). As others have said, the FOV at 24mm is a bit restrictive, but otherwise , it really is very good, particularly with a slow scope.

Since I bought it, I don't really use anything else, apart from the 38mm Panaview, which I love, but doesn't seem to get mentioned much.

Skywatcher - Skywatcher PanaView 2" eyepieces

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johninderby

johninderby

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There's also another way to think about it. Buy a decent zoom such as the Hyperion and take note of what focal length settings you actualy use the most and then buy a really good ep or two at those lengths.

Could save wasting money on single eps that end up not being used.

John

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Taz

Taz

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with the rather nasty ep's i have i have used the 12mm most of the time as it seems to be the scope's sweet spot so to speak, i'm dissapointed with the scope really but as i have said before being a rifle shooter I have been spoiled with good quality rifle scopes, i some how expected better than what i'm seeing. maybe i have yet to see the full potential of my celestron 14 eq compact with a better quality ep as i only have the huygens ep's that came with the scope ? and of these and the rather iffy "tasco" barlow's i have the 12mm seems the only one I have any real joy with

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Brinders

Brinders

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I have only tried one zoom eyepiece which is a Seben 8-24mm.

I compared it with my Hyperion at 8mm and the detail resolved was the same, the only difference being a slight variation in FOV.

For this reason I have since sold the Hyperion.

If on a tight budget, the cheaper end of the market may not be as bad as you think.

Paul

I agree with Paul, I too have the Seben zoom and can find no discernable loss in quality compared to my fixed plossols, including my 8mm Hyperion, other than a more restricted FOV at the narrow end. I use it with my WO Megrez 72, Celestron 9.25 SCT and TAL Newtonian and am very happy with it.

Brinders

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