Celestron – Zoom Eyepiece for Telescope – Versatile 8mm-24mm Zoom for Low Power and High Power Viewing – Works with Any Telescope That Accepts 1.25" Eyepieces

I purchased this in April 2011-after the March Supermoon and it quickly became my primary eyepiece! AFOV is wider than my standard MA (Modified Achromat) eyepieces and the wide exit pupil allows for an easier stance over whatever telescope I am using at the time of viewing. I will admit that while adjusting the zoom the view would often show some distrortion, but, in the beginning, I was able to spin the zoom function back and it would self correct. Over time, that 'self-correction' stopped unless at either stop (8mm or 24mm focal length).Problems:1) See above for distrortion issues. (Mine may have passed QC by mistake).2) Weight. Small, beginner scopes are impacted severely. Most impacted are refractors, as they 'balance' on the mount.3) No clicks during focal length. Must turn on light to see where length is.4) Overall EP assembly gets loose. I needed to tighten the chrome sleeve to the body of the assembly every time I used it.5) Mine cracked during use on a cold night? The focus changed and the view went distorted. No visible broken glass, but, something went loose (I can hear it when I shake the EP!)With these things noted, I must say that while it worked- it worked great. I'm not sure if all of the glass was mutli-coated because I did get quite visible reflections- but, the view was clear with a nice big exit pupil. So large in fact, I was able to use a high quality, multi-coated (multi lens) 3x achromatic Barlow lens with it- creating very crisp lunar views under exceptional seeing conditions. However, that only worked on my largest GOTO scopes: a 90mm refractor & 114mm reflector-both of which needed to be balanced with all of that weight mounted. Anything smaller was at risk of toppling over and could not be locked down hard enough to bear the excessive load.So, if you have a smaller manual refractor, say 60mm, 70mm or 80mm or even a smaller manual reflector- make sure that your mount will bear the load and that you can acheive balance prior to buying one of these. Otherwise, you'll be very frustrated!I strongly recommend this EP to someone who has limited funds for buying a variety of high quality lenses. If purchased with a very high quality 2x Barlow, it will cover many lenses that can be purchased separately. I think mine passed QC in error, or was dropped during shipping because my distrortion issues & constant need of tightening haven't been mentioned by other reviewers. Also, I cannot imagine that mine would 'crack' during use, unless something was already defective.Now, I'm hoping that Celestron will repair or replace mine (it's still under warranty), but, I don't want my issues to prevent someone from seeing the value in this pretty high qaulity eyepiece. The glass is very clear, the exit pupil is very forgiving and the views can be tremendous!Clear skies to all!Dave

Yeah the clarity is great, zoom range is huge, clarity excellent. Image quality and details are excellent. This is a high value piece , 100% recommend . It’s the only eye piece that i use. Find the object , than zoom on it and track it before the planet spins on you ;-)

Couldn't be happier.Good quality,saves time,space and money if you are just starting out in astronomy and telescopes and are looking for an all in one eyepiece and not ready to spend ALOT of money buying multiple different eyepieces and having to change them out and carry them around then,this is a great starting point that will get you going easily and for much less cost. Image is clear and sharp.Easy to zoom in and out and good eye relief.As a noob myself,I can say this really has made my viewing sessions alot better and less of a hassle.

Variable eyepieces are not as clear as fixed eyepieces but this variable is very good and easy to use.

Have other eyepieces this one is the best, smooth easy to use great quality and comes with a sleeve for storage

just amazing product. Lenses are clear, quality of picture is next to the perfect. 'Zoom' works great too.extra star( 6th one ) for packing. hard plastic and tight cap are amazing for transporting eyepieces without worryingjust great eyepiece, thanks.

This zooming eyepiece does a great job, but you need to be aware that somethings do not appear as well as others when zoomed in. This is an inescapable fact of life. Additionally, as with any zooming optical piece, the more you zoom in the smaller the field of view becomes. This means that the object can become too big to see all of it in the eyepiece when zoomed in depending on how big it appears to start with. The moon, for instance, will go from filling the whole eyepiece to just 1/6 of it filling the whole eyepiece. This is, again, just the nature of optics and is no fault of the manufacturer. But for viewing much farther away objects this zooming eyepiece is excellent at making them appear larger, which can greatly increase the detail visibility.Note: there are many objects for which the optimal view is a finite point in the range of zooming. For those objects, it's best to find that sweet spot and not try to zoom in too much. Also, it's best to turn the barrel, the zooming, slowly to find that right spot. The main reason for having a zooming eyepiece is to avoid having a dozen different sized eyepieces, any eyepiece within the range of this eyepiece becomes redundant. Thus, it's fine to have a 4mm eyepiece as this one only goes down to 8mm, or to have a 32mm since this one only goes up to 24mm.The base of this eyepiece has a threaded adapter which allows filter inserts to be mounted to the eyepiece. And, it comes with its own nice protective container. The container has a threaded lid that screws on, and the lid has an extension that fits the bottom of the eyepiece -- the eyepiece fits in the container upside down. The bottom and the top of the eyepiece also come with rubber dust caps.All in all, this eyepiece is very much worth buying for its convenience, function, and the fact that with it one does not need a handful of specifically sized eyepieces.

This is a very good eyepiece for viewing multiple types of objects. The zoom is smooth and requires minimal refocusing when changing powers. Objects appeared very sharp and clear. This will be my primary eyepiece for most viewing.