celestron x-cel

[slartylite]

been offered a x-cell eyepiece at a good price any views or reviews welcome,these are hopefully a step up from my meade 4000 and tal pieces, many thanks.

[John]

The improvement in the x-cel eyepieces will be that they have 20mm of eye relief which will make them more comfortable to view through in the shorter focal lengths. Optically I don't think they are a significant step up from the Meade 4000's.

[WayBig]

I had the 5.2mm astronomica branded one of these, it was certainly a step up from the eyepiece that came with the scope - the contrast was a lot better.

I found, and I think others have found this too, that there was a lot of eye relief on these eyepieces which did mean that you had to get your eye in the right place to avoid blackouts. I was able to do this ok, but my kid wasn't steady enough.

I now use a paradigm / explorer ED 5mm eyepiece, which has similar performance but with less of a blackout problem, these are sold on ebay from time to time by Alan from skies_unlimited

I sold my astronomica on ebay for about £35, you'd probably be able to do the same an x-cel, so if your "good price" is around that, or lower, then you've probably not got much to lose if you try it!!

[Bizibilder]

As a spectacle wearer the X-cel is an exellent option due to the long eye relief. I find my own most comfortable to use, though I usually take the specs off to observe.

[slartylite]

personally found the meade a (dark)eyepiece to look through, the 26mm is fine but smaller ones get left inside,a tal 10mm and celestron 15mm seem brigther and sharper. waiting for a clear night to try the x-cel ,the eye relief should be a bonus.

[slartylite]

would it be worth building a selection of x-cels as they are afocal?

[russ]

would it be worth building a selection of x-cels as they are afocal?

I would just try the one you have first, just to make sure it's the eyepiece you are hoping it to be.

As with the others, i quite liked my 8mm Xcel but it came off second best to the TMB Planetary 8mm, so i sold it. But it wasn't a bad eyepiece by any stretch.

[slartylite]

the 10mm off e-bay was £18 new boxed, if i like it i doubt i will find such a good price for others.

[WayBig]

sounds like a great bargain....if you dont like it you might even make a profit!

[russ]

£18 is a bargain, nothing lost there, even if you don't like it.

[slartylite]

it was a bargin but had hell of a job getting the seller to sell it for her buy it now price,first tried to refund payment than demanded £20 more before she would post or could send a damaged one instead, good old paypal set her straight

[great_bear]

had hell of a job getting the seller to sell it for her buy it now price

Curious - she sells eyepieces and mascara - a combination that I wouldn't have thought go together very well... Maybe that's why she sells long eye-relief EPs such as X-Cels!

[slartylite]

Too cheezy, lol.in future would avoid that seller like the plague, took about 20 messages and paypal to get the goods.