zoom eyepiece

[jaymul]

i have a nexstar 4 se and would like to purchase a zoom eyepiece,the celestron one comes in at around £65 while the baader hyperion mkII i have seen for £140 and the mkIII for £170.does the difference in price reflect the quality

cheers

james

[CGolder]

I think you would be wise to try before you buy with these Eye pieces, i tried the Hyperion and have been very disappointed. others feel differently.

[nobbytate]

Hi i can,t speak for the hyperion but i have the celestron zoom i picked up from fleabay for £30 and think it,s pretty good for the money.

I do have the 21/13/8 hyperions and apart from the narrower fov it stands up well against them

John

[John]

I've just bought a used Hyperion Zoom and I'm pretty impressed with it - at the 12mm and 8mm focal lengths it reminded my of the fixed focal length Hyperions.

My other eyepieces are Tele Vues so the Hyperion is in good company

[russ]

I have the Celestron 8-24 and been pretty impressed really. It's best in the middle of its range, around the 12mm-18mm bit. Very narrow at 24mm and a bit soft at 8mm. I love it when i can't be bothered with the eyepiece set.

[F15Rules]

No disrespect to your Nextar, but the Celestron zoom might be a better fit with it than the Baader. I have the new Baader Hyperion MKIII and love it to bits...but then I am using it with a long fl top quality Russian Maksutov and I think the two top end items compliment each other.. I'm not sure if the Nextars' optics system could bring out the best in the Hyperion?

Just my 2 penn'orth..:-)

Dave

[Ags]

James, I also have a NexStar 4SE and a 24mm Hyperion. It works very well in my scope which is of course an F13 Mak. I would expect the Hyperion Zoom would also work well in my scope, assuming there is any optical similarity between the 24mm and the zoom.

F15Rules, there's nowt wrong with the 4SE optics!

[Rossco72]

There does seem to be a fair bit of feeling that the Mk2 is maybe better than the Mk3.

I had a Mk2 and it was pretty good.

[F15Rules]

James, Ags,

I owe you both an apology!...I got your scope mixed up with another, cheap reflector of short focal length!

Next time I will double check my facts!

Of course at F14 your scope should work well with the Hyperion Zoom, mine is the same FL and it works brilliantly with it.

Once again, my humble apologies:rolleyes:

regards

Dave

[Ags]

F15rules - no contest your scope is much better than mine! But I did buy the 4SE on the basis that its optics were pretty good (albeit limited in aperture).

One point against the Hyperion zoom on a 4SE is it stops at 8mm - I think that you would need something like a 7mm to get 190x magnification. It will be like the zoom stops just short of a useful high mag.

[brantuk]

The Celestron zoom was rated last in a comparison test/review last year in Sky at Night magazine. I seem to remember this was due to internal reflections and tailing off towards the edges - but some folk like it.

I have the Hyperion Mk2 and swear by it - no discernable reflections, crisp and clear, but does require a little refocussing at each field stop. But then I do use it as a general purpose ep rather than specific to any objects. You can get them s/h for around £90-£95 and I think they're great value for money.

If moneys no object then probably TV or Pentax are the ones to go for.

[Andrew*]

I have the Mk III zoom, and have previously owned the Mk. II. I haven't tested them side-by-side, but I have a feeling the Mk III is better optically, and this what I have heard from other sources as well. It has some other nice features like a smaller eye guard and a few more accessory threads (still not parfocal unfortunately).

Small differences, but perhaps worth the extra. £169 is the new price of the Mk. III, while the Mk. II was £150 I think. Used Mk. IIs would give greater value for money of course, but I know of a few people who have upgraded.

Andrew

[gustavo_sanchez]

The Celestron zoom is the cheapest of the bunch, but it seems that its quality is almost on par with the more expensive eyepieces. You can check this review:

Comparison: 8-24mm Zoom Eyepieces from Celestron, Meade, Tele Vue and Vixen

[Bigwings]

No disrespect to your Nextar, but the Celestron zoom might be a better fit with it than the Baader. I have the new Baader Hyperion MKIII and love it to bits...but then I am using it with a long fl top quality Russian Maksutov and I think the two top end items compliment each other.. I'm not sure if the Nextars' optics system could bring out the best in the Hyperion?

Just my 2 penn'orth..:-)

Dave

Well I have the Nexstar's big brother and at f10 my new Hyperion Zoom Mk111 is excellent. Not cheap but brilliant.

[brantuk]

I have the Mk2 and recently tried out the Mk3 at Kelling. The new ones are a better build quality for sure - but visually I could detect no difference. Just thought I'd throw that in the pot lol

[John]

I have the Mk2 and recently tried out the Mk3 at Kelling. The new ones are a better build quality for sure - but visually I could detect no difference. Just thought I'd throw that in the pot lol

I've recently bought one which I believe is a Mk 2 - was there ever a Mk 1

[brantuk]

Probably but I've not seen a Mk1

[Andrew*]

Not sure entirely, but I think I had a Mk. I - the earlier version of the Mk. II but without the 2" barrel option. It was only a couple months after I got mine that I found out they were all shipping with 2" barrels.

Andrew

[John]

Not sure entirely, but I think I had a Mk. I - the earlier version of the Mk. II but without the 2" barrel option. It was only a couple months after I got mine that I found out they were all shipping with 2" barrels.

Andrew

Mine only has a chrome 1.25" barrel so maybe it's an Mk 1 - but then, maybe, the only difference between the Mk 1 and Mk2 was the 2" barrel option

Mind you, there do not seem to be any really significant differences with the Mk 3 version, as far as I can see, other than perhaps the photo-adapter options. Or are appearences deceptive ?.

[brantuk]

Mk2 and Mk3 both have the same options for adapting to a camera

[dweller25]

I have a Televue 8-24mm zoom and it's performance matches my 8, 10.5 and 15mm TV Plossls and my 9, 12.5, 18 and 25mm Baader Orthoscopics. When you add up the costs of all the fixed length eyepieces the zoom covers it's a no brainer.

But the biggest plus to me is being able to dial in exactly the right power to match the seeing conditions.

The Baader zoom I have never owned or looked through but it gets a lot of very good feedback.

[cootuk]

I have one of the cheaper Seben type zooms.

There's a fair bit of kidney beaning if your eye isn't just in the right place.

At both far ends 8mm and 24mm the visual is soft, so I tend to keep 10-20mm, though a barlow works well with this to cover a wide range.

Not bad for under 50 quid.

The Hyperions are about 100-120 secondhand and would be a good buy for keeps.