Zoom eyepieces, What's your take

[Kef9]

Well I got the Speers Zoom today and I tried it out before in daytime viewing. I was looking at some pigeons sat on a neighbours roof.

Well all I can say is that it is brilliant for the price. What an eyepiece! The FOV is not that different to the ethos!

I would say that the light throughput isn't as good as the 13mm ethos. The image is harder to focus and dimmer. It also seems as though the pigeons kept going in and out of focus. Im new to astronomy so I think this could be to do with atmospheric conditions. Also the more mag the dimmer the image so this could be why I am seeing these differences. I have never looked through the telescope at these magnifications before so I am a bit in the dark but for a first impressions I am very pleased. I obviously cant compare it to any other high powered eyepiece.

Need to test it out on clear night skies. Can't wait to look at saturn through this. Its many eyepieces rolled into one.

Finally I would like to say that the finish of the eyepiece is brilliant. Its the series 1 with the lettering engraved and in red. Not that much worse than the ethos to be honest. I heard people saying that the construction was poor from the factory.

Great buy. I just need the low power eyepiece now and Im there. 31mm Nagler, 40mm Panaview or 21mm Ethos, ummmmm? It can wait though.

Big thumbs up from me for the Antares Speers Waler 5-8mm zoom!!!

[John]

Sounds great Kef9 !.

I'm glad it comes to focus - thats the only negative thing I've ever read about the SW zooms - they need a bit more inward focusser travel than most eyepieces.

Looking forward to a 1st light (starlight !) report.

[Mogster]

Pentax 8-24mm SMC 1.25” long eye relief astronomical zoom; 21-63x or 26-78x spotting scope zoom 70509

This is the one that I think works!

At £460 I'd hope it does

[Moonshane]

At £460 I'd hope it does

I tend to agree.

I'd sooner have 3 used Radians and a used 24mm Panoptic for the same money

I suppose the convenience factor is good on this one though especially with wider than usual FOV and good quality.

[Merlin66]

I suppose the good news is that I paid a lot less than that for what I think is a great Zoom eyepiece. Works well for solar observing.

[Moonshane]

definitely one to watch for used - maybe on bird forums?

[Jamie]

Well this has been a very informative thread indeed.

I am in the process of trying a zoom eyepiece at the moment....

I will let you all know how i get on.......Eventually....

[Kef9]

Sounds great Kef9 !.

I'm glad it comes to focus - thats the only negative thing I've ever read about the SW zooms - they need a bit more inward focusser travel than most eyepieces.

Looking forward to a 1st light (starlight !) report.

Well last night I had my first night time observing session whilst the clouds lifted.

All I can say is BRILLIANT!!! I won't be getting rid of this ever! At 180x mag (5mm) Saturn was a nice and sharp image with 2 moons clearly visible (I live in a light polluted area). At this mag it was going across the fov pretty quickly so the 89 degree fov at 5mm helped alot (according the the specs on the box). Like I said before the fov is very close to the ethos.

The eyepiece has very good eye reflief. I had problems with blackouts when I first got my ethos although this is getting better now. No blackouts with this, no akward eye position adjustments. Its very comfortable to use.

No worries about it coming into focus. In fact it comes into focus in my frac very close to where the ethos does so no worries there. I even took the diagonal off and straight into the refractor and it came into focus then also. My refractor looked great like this!

To be honest I cant believe this eyepiece hasn't caught on more. Everyone should have one in my opinion. I got it for £100 which seems a complete steal & I can't praise it enough. Its versitility means I have saved a fortune. Because of this 3 eyepieces are all I'll ever need - the 13mm ethos , the 5-8mm speers waler zoom and a low power eyepiece tbc.

Greg Speers should be knighted LOL.

[Andrew*]

Oh, Kef9, this is a brilliant report - it reminds me why I still have my 8.5-12mm one.

It's obviously less fussy about in-focus than my zoom, which is good, but also, it's clearly just as good optically - even better!

I got mine directly from Canada, as there wasn't a UK stockist (AFAIK), so it was tricky to get hold of, but a very good price for what it is. Many many times it has saved me the temptation of buying anything near its range, which could have been very costly... I'm thinking of all those Ethoi, Pentax XWs, Nagler T6s.... It has secured the medium power range in my smaller telescopes, while serving as a perfect partner to my 16" Lightbridge for high power (150-215x).

I love it!!

Andrew

[Kef9]

Ha Ha

Glad you liked the report. If I didn't already have a 13mm ethos I would be trying to get the zoom you have! LOL

Shame about the availability over here because these are really good eyepieces! I feel lucky to have got mine!