Baader Hyperion zoom

[Hemi]

Dear members,

I'm thinking of purchasing this EP for my c925 evo. I have the standard celestron 1.25 diagonal. I know this EP can fit both this and a 2" diagonal. Will there be any benefit using it with a 2in?

Cheers

[Camelopardalis]

No advantage to using the 2 inch barrel, the AFOV of the zoom reduces from 68 at the short end to 50 at the long end.

IMO the short end (approaching 8mm) are impractical/unusable most of the time. Unless the conditions are routinely excellent where you are, you'll likely not benefit from going below 16mm all that often, thus reducing its usefulness.

[Hemi]

Thanks for that,

I'm very much a newbie.....only on 6th light! Still working out what good seeing is and what my local conditions are. I'm in Darwin on a second floor open air veranda,and have been surprised. No dewing up. Managed to see Neptune with a 12.5 barlowed. A little fuzzy around the edges and slightly shaky. I think the zoom has a lot of advantages for a beginner.

[rrussell1962]

Agree with Dunk's comments. I have the Hyperion zoom with Hyperion Barlow. Useful with Barlow in my refractors as a nice zoom in the 3.5 to 8mm range for the Moon and double stars. Less useful in the Nexstar 8SE for precisely the reasons given.

[Camelopardalis]

Considering the cost of the zoom, and that you're just starting out, I'd suggest getting a small spread of inexpensive eyepieces to help you get familiar with focal lengths, etc.

For example, Bintel's branded 9mm and 12mm plossl for planetary...the 9mm for exceptional nights, the 12mm for the rest :lol: and then something with a wider FOV, like one of the 30mm Superview...assuming your sky glow isn't too bad. If you've got very low light pollution locally, maybe go for the 40mm instead as that will give you the widest FOV with your scope, and will take in things like the Orion nebula nicely.

Of course there are many more expensive options...but it quickly becomes a case of diminishing returns.

[sil]

Going to be a maverick here. I ditched single eyepieces in favour of the baader zoom. No noticable loss of quality for me and benefits of always having the optimal eyepiece size for the conditions. Just a perfect eyepiece for the casual astronomer and not worth wasting money on more eyepieces that will gather dust.

[csb]

I have the Baader zoom mkIII. Like Sil, it's the only eyepiece I use.

I haven't compared it against other med-high end fixed fl eyepieces but it is great. Certainly beats the stock eyepieces I have.

At 8mm the image does slightly lose sharpness compared to when set at longer focal lengths but nothing to complain about.

Sorry, hemi I know this is slightly off-topic but I certainly recommend the Baader zoom. I had a $100 Prostar zoom and the Baader image is a lot better.

[miker]

Hemi, this Cloudy Nights thread might be of interest...

http://www.cloudynights.com/topic/501284-best-8-24-zoom-eyepiece/?hl=+8#820824=&page=2

I have gone to the Badder Zoom Mk3 with a C8 SCT and won't go back to individual eyepieces.

Michael

[AG Hybrid]

I enjoy ,y Baader Zoom mk3 very much. With a coma corrector in my 12" it performs nigh as well as my Televue, Pentax eyepieces. But, the convenience of just switching out magnifications at a twist of the tube is a winner. If only it came with a decent eye cup. :(

[Hemi]

Thanks everybody. On balance I thought the baader zoom would be great for what I want currently.....so ordered it....received it a couple of days back. Perfectly timed for the arrival of the monsoon, Darwin has been cloudy ever since.:sadeyes:
Will let you know how I get on

Cheers

[Howard]

Goodonya Hemi ... that monsoon has come all the way to Brissie! :)

A bit late to this post, but I reckon you'll love the Baader zoom. I used to do visual astro and ended up just using it as the one and only EP. Now I tend to do live-view camera astro but alignments are still done using the Baader zoom. Its great to start out low power to find the alignment star, then zoom right in to 8mm, defocus and centre the doughnut to align. Then refocus, zoom out and go to the next alignment star. Very quick. Its a top bit of kit. You'l love it.

[Hemi]

Thanks Howard.......the monsoon has been solid. Not a peep of clear sky this last 10 days!