Tonight tried the zoom in my LX-90 and I can see why people hate zoom eyepieces. Compared to fixed focal length eyepieces the zoom is awful. I wouldn't buy it for my scope.
That said, in the wife's TV-85 it's worth every penny. The view are sharp and clear, (a bit of induced color that I can live with) the zoom is the way to go. You don't have to take along as many eyepieces, just a couple of PowerMates. With the zoom the TV-85 gets 25-75x straight, 50-150x with the 2x and 125-375x with the 5x giving a nice range. We use the TV-85 a lot more then my LX-90 since we got the TV-85 because of how quick and easy the setup is. Not having to open my eyepiece case and drag everything out for a quick peek at the sky makes the zoom well worth the investment.
Best advice to anyone thinking about buying this eyepiece is to try someone's first. Might be an RFT only thing.
It's nice to have a wife that's into the hobby, the zoom was her Valentines Day present. (with the weather we've been having this took awhile)
That said, in the wife's TV-85 it's worth every penny. The view are sharp and clear, (a bit of induced color that I can live with) the zoom is the way to go. You don't have to take along as many eyepieces, just a couple of PowerMates. With the zoom the TV-85 gets 25-75x straight, 50-150x with the 2x and 125-375x with the 5x giving a nice range. We use the TV-85 a lot more then my LX-90 since we got the TV-85 because of how quick and easy the setup is. Not having to open my eyepiece case and drag everything out for a quick peek at the sky makes the zoom well worth the investment.
Best advice to anyone thinking about buying this eyepiece is to try someone's first. Might be an RFT only thing.
It's nice to have a wife that's into the hobby, the zoom was her Valentines Day present. (with the weather we've been having this took awhile)
