The one you tried must have been really bad. I love my Baader Hyperion Zoom 8-24mm. The images are clear and sharp with zero chromatic aberration to speak of. I admit that the really cheap ones are somewhat bad. The SVbony 7-21mm is the best of the cheaper offerings. There's hundreds of seasoned amateur astronomers on Stargazer s lounge that swear by them, and use them alone with the addition of a low power wide field eyepiece. Mind you they cost £237

Hello Jason! After about 20 years without a telescope, I would like to get back into this fascinating hobby. I would like to thank you for your great videos. You manage to refresh a lot of my lost knowledge. I also believe that you can bring light into the darkness for many beginners. Best regards from Berlin, Germany and please keep up the good work!

Thank you a lot for this video 🤗 for beginners they are always as a gold .

Thank you for all of you videos, Jason. 🤝 I truly value your advice, and verdict, upon all astronomical topics. Please never stop sharing your delightful content, and helping new astronomers find their way in our dark skies! 🌙✨

Well done, thank you. Very helpful, and good advice. My Zoom is going back, and ordering the Plossl !

Hi Jason I love your videos and your honest opinion. I have lots of Eyepieces , including the three Svbony Zoom lenses. I find them useful and the are optics are very good and with long eye relief. I'd recommend trying the Svbony and maybe doing a video on zoom lens comparisons. Keep up the great work .

Great to see a new video at last! This might be the first time I disagree with you though (I own a baader 8-24 which I enjoy). Can’t wait for your next vid

Excellent observations. I agree with you about Plossls. Fantastic value. Sharp, clear and reliable. Also agree about simply using a barlow to get more magnification.

Thanks Jason... good to hear you again.

I´ve got a Meade 8-24 mm and live quite happy with it....

Thanks Jason for sharing your thoughts on the zoom eyepiece.I was going to buy one but now decided not to. It makes sense what you say about it.

Thank you so much I thought the zoom eyepiece was like out of this world until I watched this video appreciate it

Coma is feature of parabolic mirror and its strength depends on focal ratio: Faster than slow Newtonians like f/6 start having it and especially after f/5 it starts really picking up and some f/4 basically needs coma corrector. But cheap/low quality eyepieces have their own aberrations more or less completely uncorrected and you'll have basically multiplying effect with all these aberrations stacking up.

Cheers Jason, I was just about to pull the plug on a celestron 24 to 8mm zoom, I'll leave it now, and get a 10mm an 8 mm eye pieces instead.. cheers for your great vids! very informative

Been learning a lot from your video's. I remember you mentioned it but I can't find the particular video again, my question is, What size eyepiece is a FOV match for the SV105 Camera ?

Im glad you touched on this subject. I'm looking for a new eyepiece and I've seen these zoom eyepieces and was skeptical. Now I know for sure that I'll go for a wide angle plossl

I love your clear explanations! Keep uploading vids! How long have you been i the telescope business?

I have an Oriion E-Series. I've found it's very useful for when I'm doing my lunar challenges or viewing the sun. Not so much for planets, stars or DSOs. But it has a valued place in my kit

Just wanted to say thank you for the upload, kept me from buying a zoom eye piece! Wish you clear skies

I currently have two Baader eyepieces, a 24mm and an 8mm both Hyperions. Have you ever been able to rate Baader's Hyperion 8-24mm zoom eyepiece? I've read good things about it where some enthusiasts have resorted to using only this one eyepiece.

Good video, very informative 😊 clear sky’s from El Paso TX

Hi Jason ! I agree with you on zooms . I've got one and you can here the lens elements rattling inside and that can't be good. I had an orion zoom and it siezed up and wouldn't rotate! Well clear skys!

Interesting. I have a Celestron Zoom eyepiece and I mostly agree with you... that said, it is kind of interesting to have. The Celestron has threads so can be screwed to a DSLR adapter which adds another angle to it all... I don't plan to put it on eBay just yet but maybe that will happen eventually!

I have a question referring the 2x Barlow so I have the standard Barlow that came with my scope. I’m a beginner, so is there different qualities in different brands obviously the more money spent the better quality. I’m assuming or they project the same picture just better brands? I hope you get a help my answer. Thank you.

I have a Svbony 10 - 30 zoom (sv170). I like it and load it in the holder every session. It has good glass but it can't compete with more expensive or single focal length eyepieces. It does have it's uses especially during Astronomy demonstrations. It's ~17mm eye relief is good but it has a narrow field of view.

I’m thinking whether to get apertura 9-27mm zoom eye piece is it any good? I just got into the hobby astronomy by getting the apertura 8 inch dobsonian, just waiting for clear skies to take it out

Hey Jason - have you ever had your hands and eyes on a Baader Hyperion Zoom Mk 4? Pricey, yes, but extremely high quality and terrific for outreach. The sub-$100 zooms do leave something to be desired, but there are some great ones out there and there are sometimes when they are just the trick.

Jason. I have just bought a Celestron Inspire 100ex refractor. When I'm searching for a plossl eye piece I find them at £12 upto £60 4 optic ones. Can you let me know which eye piece and barlow I should buy for this scope? Just looking for a 15 eye piece at present. Cheers. Gee

I remember just over 40 years ago, being told that in photography zoom lenses were very much a compromise and that fixed focal length lenses were superior. It seems that this is still the case...

Thanks for the info on the zoom eps Jason. I admit i was looking forw.ard to getting one . Not anymore. Think I will save for a 15mm or something else to go with my 25mm plosill and 2stx shorty Barlow on my 6 inch Orion's . That's right. Was fourtunite to get a star blast cheap .Got the xtc dob in the garage. Had to give it a bunch of tlc . The view with the beat up dob is way better

i think your right, i got the Celestron and yep😁 when i started out. it's ok and maybe useful for a quick look, but i bought better lenses over time and just don't use it much now.

Hi Jason! I always enjoy learning from your videos. You recommended a 15mm eyepiece. I have a 25, a 20, a 16mm, and a 2x barlow for my recently collimated, but very old cardboard tube 10 inch (25cm) f/4 newtonian. I mostly use the 25 mm eyepiece, sometimes with the barlow, and rarely use the 16;. Am I doing something wrong? My skies are light polluted, and I do observe moon and planets, but I most enjoy navigating the skies using star charts and 8x50 finder scope for deep sky objects. Open and glob clusters are my favorites. I find it easier to locate targets with the 25mm plossl, and feel the image is sharpest with that eyepiece, even with the barlow. Are you saying I should be using the 16mm plossl instead of the 25? I love my 40 year old low-tech telescope, and don''t want to buy a newer one. Thanks!

Thanks as always, appreciate you. Only decent use I found for my zoom eyepiece was a larger lens surface for my camera at the cost of some chromatic aberration

A quality zoom by APM, Baader, or Pentax paired with a Maksutov-Cassegrain is a lot of fun on high-power objects! Rolling through the focal lengths you can watch double stars split or 'fly' in on Jupiter or Saturn at physically impossible speeds. FoV doesn't matter on these targets and the zoom is great for finding the night's atmospheric magnification limit. Makes for a simple, compact travel rig

Another great video thanks Jason. I do agree with you, i bought an SVBONY zoom 8-27mm and i was somewhat disappointed with it. I also want to tell you that about a week ago i finally had a clear night and i was a little tired so i set up my telescope in my bedroom and i told you before that where i live there is a lot of moisture and humidity. So i took a picture of the moon through the glass of my bedroom window ( the window stayed closed) and i used my cell phone camera and the pictures turn out very well to my surprise. I know that its not recommended to look through glass with a telescope because it adds another layer of refraction but i could share the pictures with you and you would see that it is pretty good. Anything which makes astronomy pleasureful is with trying!!!

What about use of a zoom eyepiece as an aid to aiming the 'scope?

I own the Baader Hyperion Zoom and it is awesome!

I've never tried them in astronomical telescopes but obviously have on spotting scopes.The pundits always advise people to avoid zoom binoculars although they and spotting scopes are a tad different as you can't take out the eye pieces although some exceptions exist like the Celestron Hummingbird mini spotter which have a removable zoom eye piece and you can actually pop in astronomical eye pieces as it's 1.25"but I don't know what the view is like.

Thank you Jason, I'm learning alot from you. Can you please tell me this; Many (maybe most) EQ mounts seem to bottom out at 60° or 62° latitude. I live north of 62. If I were to raise the northern tripod leg, would that compensate for the missing degrees or am I missing something? I just got my first telescope, a dobson. And the kids seems to be interested in what I'm doing. Aiming the dob seems a bit wonky for them though. Especially for the younger one who seem to be most interested in viewing the planets at high power.... A single knob would certainly help in keeping the object in view, if I could align it properly. But... Can I?

Can i combine barlow with zoom eyepieces?

Spotting scopes need zoom eyepieces. Swapping eyepieces while trekking across a mountain with a rifle is a bad time...lol. Is there a recommended mid-priced zoom eyepiece?

Thanks sir.... For your valuable inputs. I would like to add one more. I have Celestron 8-24 mm Zoom eyepiece and using it since 2018 and I am really enjoying it as you have mentioned at @7:25. However I must say zoom eyepiece are heavier and increase the load on telescope. I am using equatorial mount and this zoom eyepiece add more load on tracking motor drive and very difficult to keep Reflector telescope on equatorial mount in balance.

Great Overview Jason. You covered some Great Points. I guess A zoom Eyepiece is Great for Portability and Planetary observations, that svybony Eyepiece it's On my list! :) Thanks Jason!

I wouldn't be without my baeder zoom,superb,views through my 10 inch dobsonian are breathtaking.

Using a Baader Hyperion Universal Zoom Mark IV with my f8 refractor gives great views - but eye relief can be an issue

Thanks!

Yeay!

Bought the zoom eyepiece in the picture you showed about 5 years ago for i think £15 out of curiosity. Was surprised that it was all metal and glass. Works well at F9 but in faster telescopes, well, straight lines were not straight, chromatic aberration abound, blurry and all round crap. Tried and owned others, Baader is expensive, nice but not worth the price however, SvBony zooms do actually work very well in fast telescopes, especially the SvBony 7-21mm zoom eyepiece, very few people knock this one, when you look at the price of zoom eyepieces, this one comes across as under priced, so if you must have a zoom, just save the extra money and get this with a 2X barlow lens where the nose piece screws off to give you 1.5X and a 32mm or 30mm plossl and then buy a wider eyepiece in your most used magnification setting. One of the positives of a Zoom eyepiece is for kids and outreach, simplifies viewing for those new to the hobby.

I've got a hypoflex 8e zoom eye piece and it's Superb ,especially with a 2x Barlow. Can't fault it.

I have an Apertura 9-27mm & Baader 8-24mm. Although the Baader is of course the better EP, they're both great used in my AD8 (modified 8" f/5.9 Dob). Different strokes for different folks I guess.

If its a high power zoom like the Televue 3-6mm, or SvBony 3-8mm, you probably don't need glasses on to view as astigmatism generally goes away with small exit pupils, and generally even people with severe astigmatism will most like not want glasses on when high power planetary/ or double star viewing, as glasses if they are not clean will degrade the view , but with the 8-24mm zooms I agree with you.

Hey Jason I've never used zoom eyepieces as you say too good to be true. Too much junk on market these days. Glad I've watched this video and I'm not even bothering to look at them. Who knows in future they could be improved but not likely. I like to read reviews first on amazon uk then make up my mind. Swiss army knife there is a great little bit of kit that lasts years and one time I lost my Swiss army knife and it was soaking wet but managed to get all tools moving as it was hard moving the tools brilliant bit of kit. Take care buddy and clear skies this winter!

Obviously a set of fixed eyepieces are better but you have the neighbors crowded around and rather than fumbling with several eyepieces, you can do everything with one.

i made a eye piece out of 4 binocular objectives gives brilliant eye relief and brilliant viewing,

I own a SVBONY 7-21mm zoom eyepiece, which I'm pretty happy with. Though to be honest, I don't own anything else to compare it against :)

I don't think they're for me. Once I've found what I want to look at, fiddling around with the eyepiece is the last thing I want to do. Doesn't take much to knock you off target. Especially going down to 8mm. You'd easily lose what you're looking at. On my mount, anyway.

I am a beginner but my Baader Hyperion 8-24mm Zoom is awesome. I start out with it and the the Baader Barlow. It makes things easier to find at 24mm, and then you can increase the magnification as seeing conditions allow. The Baader is almost as sharp as my Televue Delos and Ethos eyepieces but the FOV is not as wide. Eye relief is fine by me. The Televue 10 mm Delos is sharper than the Televue 4.7mm Ethos, but of course you don’t get the awesome magnification. For the planets and the moon I never really noticed any distortion. Typically you get what you pay for. The Baader Zoom/Barlow combo was $400 USD. I imagine the Televue 8-24mm Zoom is even better. 😊

I don’t know. My Svbony zoom is like my utility eyepiece. I like it just for the fun of pushing in on stuff

He is not wrong .. Especially with those cheapy Ali Express low enders. For a bit more he could move into the Svbony range. My SV191 was $49 on sale (inflation since his video his cheap zoom is $29 -$32 at this time). The SV191 is 9mm-27mm, FOV 40°-60° (all zooms are lower). All lens fully coated, 17.5mm Eye Relief.. twist up eye cup . Image is very clear, parfocal but needs tweek with zoom in. Chromatism and Aberrations are minimum. So instead of the Ali Express cheapo.. move up to a branded better made Chinese one. For a bit more you will be happier. I have not yet found a Svbony accessory that I did not like considering the price

Obviously the 1,000 pound Zeiss zoom EP is not included either. Yes buy fixed focal length unless you are buying quality. I use the Pentax 6.5~19.5 zoom & Nagler 16mm with A Takahashi FS-60CB as a perfect combo quick have a view scope.

I disagree about the eye relief. I have the SvBONY 7.2-21.6 premium zoom eyepiece, so I can't speak to the 8-24 one. The one I have is more expensive (although still reasonable). I have glasses and as long as I put the eye cup all the way down at each magnification, the eye relief is fine. It's not great in that I have to put my glasses up against the eye cup but I can see the whole view in the eye piece at every zoom setting. I haven't checked the coma and chromatic aberration yet but I will get back to you on that (the mosquitoes chased me away before I could check. I have since remedied that problem).

Thanks

I have a Svony 24/7 and yeah I see what you are talking about, It lets me adjust focus again and again until I drop my 8mm in and I'm still on target and tweaking focal. Using a Manual EQ you can lose the object completely and I was tired of dropping in my 32mm just to find it again. When I get the object I go to the eye piece I wanted which zoom speeds it up, Never max just, down to a 14 or 12 then I use a real eye piece. Have you seen people try to Barlow 5X and then bitch they can't see anything? Well I have a answer!

3:22 I guess it depends on the reason you have them, for me looking through one without my glasses doesn't make s difference because the telescope optics seem to correct things anyway..

I have been a astronomer for 30 years and I bought a Baader 8 to 24 zoom and found that it is better than any plossel eyepiece could ever be

Even though I agree with everything you said Jason, there is at least one very good zoom eyepiece out there, and it is: The Baader Hyperion (Mark IV) 8-24 mm!!🙂 Field of view ranges from 48 degrees at 24 mm all the way to an impressive 68 degrees at 8 mm! Yes it is costly but it’s worth every penny (or cent for that matter 😉)! I also have a cheap zoom eyepiece, that I regret buying. It’s more or less ok on the moon, but everything else is terrible. I don’t even “dare” to give it away for free because I’d feel bad for the person/friend I’d give it to. So it just sits there in my eyepiece case taking up space 🤔

Can you review the svbony 21-7mm zoom eye pice has good reviews

I agree. Especially on small grab-and-go scopes, Zoom eyepieces are mistakes. The eyepieces are heavy and stick out excessively -- affecting both aesthetics and balance. The newer SvBony zoom eyepieces seize up in cold weather. And, as you note, they encourage you to waste time zooming when you should be studying each night sky object more patiently. I like having a 25 mm wide angle, a 17 mm, and a 2x Barlow. That's all I need on a small scope.

Re spectacle wearers: I wear spectacles to read my monitor, books, papers etc and while I have a "good zone" perhaps between 5 and 20 metres away, my long distance eyesight (reading road signs or registration plates) isn't too great either. BUT, when it comes to using my telescopes, I always remove my glasses to look in the eyepiece. At low mags (8 inch SCT) say with a 25mm plossl with good focus, I can clearly see belts and, if seeing is good, red spot on Jupiter. So, I don't understand why glasses wearers need to use their glasses when looking through a telescope?

Hi use like the last comment a Baader hyperion Mk 3 zoom eyepiece and tbh I cannot fault it, I image the moon and planets with it using a Dslr camera and they are pin sharp with no false colour

Friends do best do what friends do best-speak truth.

The SVBony is rubbish but picked up a Pentax 19.5 to 6.5 zoom which is a very good design.

I got a SVbony 7-21mm some time ago, just to give it a try, but I never really use it. My Orion 28mm is a lot better and more interesting to use imho.

It's funny ..anybody I have talked to who owns one....seem to love them...especially the Baader Hyperion 8 to 24 . Odd

It is clear that no zoom eyepiece can give the benefits of eyepieces of similar quality and fixed focal distance: all the amateurs who have had the chance to compare them know it, like every photographer knows that a Telo lens is never the best for every focal length instead the interchangeable lens of fixed focal length, but even so the teleobjectives are widely used. I think that zoom eyepieces also have their usefulness and interest for a certain profile of casual observers, not so demanding with image quality, who do not want or cannot afford to invest much in a range of eyepieces, and/or who have manual azimuth mounts (such as Dobson) and find it is annoying to keep changing eyepieces, risking that the object disappears from their field of vision. In addition, I think that economic range eyepieces from €50-60 already have decent optics that do not present the eye relief or aberration problems described in the video, at least in an unacceptable level, I am speaking for example of Omegon Magnum 8-24mm, in my opinion a very acceptable EP zoom. We have to flee, yes, from those supposed bargains of picturesque brands that are offered on Amazon or Aliexpress, whose quality guarantee leaves much to be desired...

Jason I have viewed the Orion nebula with my 25mm and 10x30 bino's .look way better than that.Check out my favorite. The alligator cluster just sse of it. Anyway clear sky's to everyone .From across the pond in south USA

Oh ya take time off and then come in peeing in my ear trying to make me think it’s rain! Well! Maybe it is rain? Maybe I’ll change my mind 😅 glad you’re feeling better

Some of us can't afford the good zooms.

(Note: I suggest you read through it all for best assessment of the worthiness of my advice, so I don't fool anyone! ;D Sorry for the novel format. It just happened... haha) Jason I love your videos, but Noooo God noooo! Folks, don't scratch it of your shopping list. Save up just a tiny bit to a zoom eyepiece in the likes of Skywatcher 8-24 mm (not 7-23 mm), try it and then send all your plossles (except if your 25 mm) to Jason.. ;P ;D Haha, okey, but seriously. I couldn't live without my Skywatcher Zoom EP. I like my 32 mm Plossle, I love my super cheap legendary SvBony set (4, 10, 23 mm.. Get it!), I think my stock SW 25 mm EP is eeh ok. Then I have my Baader Planetarium (5 mm), for when I just really need a closer look at that planet or moon crater (I can live w/ the slightly blurry view, Moon always looks gorgeuos though). Still none of all these EPs get nearly as much private time with my scope as my Skywatcher Zoom. It is excellent, with the exception of a bad 40° FOV at lowest power (thus keep that plossle/SvBony)... ;) Besides that, it's great value for what you get. I experience no significant issues with chromatic aberation (not even on the moon). Even Venus looked great at good altitude (some years ago). In fact, the bird you see as my avatar is taken through a window w/ my SW 8-24 mm EP. Think it looks great (maybe I'm just tolerant.. :P). But what abt fiddling with the zoom. Yes, it happens, but there is no better feeling then to find your target at lower power. Enjoy it from a distance. Then swiftly w/o effort travel through space towards the target without ever having to leave the EP to fiddle w/attaching the new EP. It is just so much better/easier to just twist it.. ;P I've also been able to take a good 3 stack (1 s exp./img) newbie astrophoto w/my Galaxy S21 attached to my SW Zoom EP. Looked great (possibly I'm tolerant.. ;P). ...BUT... Here is the catch (I think, perhaps?), 90% of the time I have used my SW Zoom in a Skywatcher Evostar 90 mm, i.e. a nice slow F10. As far as I know, they tend to make great love to all kinds of EPs during their private time (;P). But listen, I have been able to test it two nights in my new faster Skywatcher Skyliner 200P (an F6), and guess what. I still LOVE the twist. Mm! ;) BONUS CONTENT: Unfortunately I've only been able to try that later combo for like (4-5 hours). Blame goes to burn out recovery, super bright summer night skies in mid/north Sweden, recent move to new town (central appartment => need new stagazing site), and then I was annyoingly robbed for my car just when the night skies began to get interesting again. That was more than a month ago now, darnit robbers & slow insurance company!! I need my good ol'e stargazing volvo back. Now!) So that was that! ---- I hope you enjoyed this long read. I will admit I'm not even nearly as seasoned as Jason, I still consider myself a newbie (ca 5 yrs w/to little time for relaxing amateur astronomy then I'd have liked). Havn't tried e.g. medium powered plossle but I do own the great SvBony EPs (of which 10 mm is my second most zoom EP, sliiightly better thsn 10 mm in zoom) but to be fair, Jason you should try a SW 8-24 zoom, or better! ;D Would love to hear your more experiences assessment, but I guess the scope matters quite alot. Wow..sorry END of story. I'm sure I've wasted someones time by now. Hopefull not to hurtful! ;/ Sorry. Anyways: Wish you Good health & Clear Skies, folks!! :) & Keep up your cheerful YouTubing Jason.

Tic-Tacs ? UFO's ? 🖖🏻👽

haha ... you forgot the main thing that does me in with those ... 30° Field of View at their lowest power ... gets to about 50° on highest power ... having said that... getting the very eyepiece you described felt like a huge leap forward from the plastic mess excuse for an eyepiece i received with my first scope ... the SVBONY red series pieces are great value and still cheaper than a decent zoom eyepiece like Baader Hyperion... and an order of magnitude cheaper than the Nagler zoom ...