This past week, I enjoyed another flawless transaction with an great Astromarter who sold me a Celestron MZ 8-24mm Zoom eyepiece. I had never seen one of these before, but discovered, after a little research, that it is actually the zoom eyepiece from the Celestron Ultima 80ED spotting scope.
The eyepiece appears identical in construction, mechanics and optics to a Vixen 8-24mm LV Zoom with a barrel that is 1/8 inch longer. Last night I compared it side-by-side with the Vixen and found views of both deep sky and Saturn to be virtually identical, with the exception of the Celestron zoom having a noticably wider field of view and slightly higher magnification in the 8-15mm range lengths (perhaps caused by the slightly longer barrel). All in all, extremely good.
Does anyone know if this Celestron spotting scope zoom eyepiece is indeed the same as the Vixen/TeleVue/Meade 8-24 zooms, or is it different in some way - eg: glass, coatings, # of elements, etc.
I'd like to know what I've got here. Thanks for any insight you can provide.
- Peter
The eyepiece appears identical in construction, mechanics and optics to a Vixen 8-24mm LV Zoom with a barrel that is 1/8 inch longer. Last night I compared it side-by-side with the Vixen and found views of both deep sky and Saturn to be virtually identical, with the exception of the Celestron zoom having a noticably wider field of view and slightly higher magnification in the 8-15mm range lengths (perhaps caused by the slightly longer barrel). All in all, extremely good.
Does anyone know if this Celestron spotting scope zoom eyepiece is indeed the same as the Vixen/TeleVue/Meade 8-24 zooms, or is it different in some way - eg: glass, coatings, # of elements, etc.
I'd like to know what I've got here. Thanks for any insight you can provide.
- Peter
