Skywatcher 8-24mm zoom

[jaquesnoir]

I bought a Skywatcher 8-24mm zoom eyepiece recently and have been waiting, nay itching, to try it out. So, even though the sky was rubbish tonight I had a quick look at Saturn with it - I couldn't wait to try it any longer.

Now, as I say the sky was rubbish earlier - the only things I could see unaided were The Moon,Arcturus, Saturn and Mars - the rest of the sky was clouded out. The bit in the West I could see was still blue at 23:00 with just those three peeping out (The Moon was behind the house to the South).

I quickly set up my Nexstar 8SE without aligning - no point really - and attached the zoom. Saturn was about to become obscured by low cloud so that was my first target - obviously.

My immediate impression of the zoom at 24mm was much better than expected - with a reasonable field of view. I zoomed in and it was very apparent that the sky was 'wobbling' - a bit like looking through jelly really. Seeing was bad. When the image was clear it was very clear though and the zoom didn't need refocussing - although the temptation was great because of the constantly undulating image. I could make out three moons easily. Mars was just the same little red blob that my standard plossls show at the moment - so not a lot of difference. It was nice to be able to find it quickly and just zoom in I have to say. Just a shame its so low in the sky and so small at the moment - lots of aberration.

I will try and do a better review when the sky is better - perhaps this Autumn, but my first impression was that this is a good eyepiece for the money (less than £50) that will be great for three things;

1) General all-rounder for quick sessions and when travelling.

2) Great for quick and accurate SkyAlign on the Nexstar.

3) General sky exploration where you can just nip in for a check on an object.

It was bigger than I expected it to be from the photos. Its about 125mm long and 50mm diameter and therefore quite heavy.

All in all I'm very happy with it - I'm sure its going to be used a lot.