Convenient as it may sound there are catches. Zoom EP's are reletivly new to the Telescope scene. These EP's are nice, but the quality of the view suffers. Anyone who is half-assed experienced in these matters will always tell you that a good eyepiece that offers good eye relief and field of view is what counts. Zooms aren't the greatest when it comes to ultimate optical quality. I myself bought a zoon from Orion, after using them one night in all modes, I returned it. Reason being was the smaller the focal the darker in contrast was sacrificed. Not good. Also the outer view edges couldn't really be focused correctly. Regular EPs that use 4 or more elements are somewhat superior that elements that "move". There could be good ones out there, but I haven't heard of any. Televue may have them. There is one good side to the zooms. They are pretty good for wildlife observing during daylight. The zoom I used didn't do badly on my ST 80.

• Re: Re: Why not use a zoom eyepiece? - divenuts - January 10, 2001 - 18:03 UTC