Hyperion zoom eyepiece

[Milliways]

Hi.

Was toying with the idea of getting one of those hyperion zoom eyepieces and was wandering if anyone has used them and if they are any good?

It would save a hell of a lot of money on different eyepieces if it is

Cheers guys!

[TheThing]

There is a review of various zoom EPs in this month's S@N magazine, which may help if you haven't already seen it?

[Astro_Baby]

The advice I got was that they dont work well in fast F ratio scopes. Mines an F5. The general consensus seemed to be they are a good thing to have to supplemnst an eye piece collection for grab and go use but arent a substitute for seperate eyepieces.

Of the bunch of zooms out there most people seem to like the Baader one though I think meade won the review in Sky at Night magazine.

I was thinking of getting one for my Nexstar 4 grab and go scope but most people seemed to think the views would be very poor.

[Milliways]

Yeah i got the new sky @ night mag, the meade won the review, but i was thinking that the hyperion was pretty good as i could attrach my camera to it and it has a 2" adaptor. but at the end of the day the real question is what eyepiece would give the best views. my thinking is that i cant afford a load of decent ep's but a decent zoom ep is better than buying a bunch of Rubbish ep's hehe - well you know what i mean

Dave.

[Macavity]

I once owned a Vixen Zoom - and that was really quite (English understatement) good. "Classier" than my other stuff too! But I think the general consensus is that the Hyperion Zoom is almost as good as its FIXED (Hyperion) counterparts at 8-16(?)mm. Performance falls off at longer focal lengths - or rather apparent FIELD of view decreases rapidly. For the Vixen/Teleview down to about 40 Deg. at 24mm. The Hyperion is supposedly still somewhat wider at these settings (True field equivalent to approx. a 17mm Hyperion) albeit for a Plossl sized worldview.

A useful thing to replace e.g. mid-range 8, 13 and (?)17mm Hyperions - If portability is important.

[Herakles]

I have/use the Hyperion Zoom, gotta say I like it. Also got the camera adapter rings , now it gets scary ! The Zoom is a fair ol' weight, with camera and lens attached. Almost needs a scaffolding rig for support. As said it's prob's horse's for course's. Very positive click stop action and you can actually stop between clicks if careful.

Here's a size comparision to a 20mm Pl

[Milliways]

WHOA! thats huge! and looks heavy too.. as it has a 2" adaptor does this give any better views than another with 1.25" ? prob a stupid question but hey-ho

Cheers!

Dave.

[Herakles]

2" adapter is for attaching lens , you're actually still using the same size glass as for the 1.25 when viewing. As said above S @ N review covers a lot of bses wiith it. Add a Barlow and you have 4mm ( wish we had skies to use it that way a lot !!! ) , 6mm, 8mm, 10mm and 12mm .

[stefski]

Hiya Dave,

I used one of these zooms at Salisbury courtesy of Richard ('Jarndyce'). Seemed pretty nice, although it required refocussing between zooms which was a little annoying. Zooming in on Jupiter was pretty cool though!

Stef

[GazOC]

Theres some pretty noticeable field curvature when used in fast scopes at its higher focal lengths.

[lunator]

I used a baader at Gregs place last week. I have to say that for general viewing it was a useful eyepiece. It seemd to work well with the ED80.

I would use a fixed length eyepiece if I was making a more a comprehensive observation but as I was enjoying the dark skies it was a real bonus not having to keep changing eyepieces.

Cheers

Ian