Baader Hyperion 8-24mm zoom (2 Viewers)

I am resurrecting this thread for further discussion. I recently purchased a Promaster Infinity Elite 65 mm ED scope. The scope comes with a "Plano Zoom" eyepiece which has an uncanny resemblance to the Baader Hyperion Zoom mentioned in this thread. In fact the entire scope resembles a Baader 65 mm scope that was sold two or three years ago.

After reading through this thread I yanked the Plano Zoom off of the Promaster and put it into the Pentax 65 EDA body. It is dark outside right now so I cannot check the scope at extreme distances. I can zoom in on a houselight approximately 200 yards away from my home. With the zoom set at the lowest setting I can just achieve perfect focus on the porch light. Cranking up the zoom to its heighest setting gives me some room to focus beyond the 200 yard porchlight but under current conditions I cannot tell how far.

Does this sound similar or dissimilar to the Baader Hyperions previously listed performance in this area?

I have to readily admit that most of my birding is done under 200 yards....even with the scope. If I were to be looking at objects farther than that then I would be wanting more magnification than the 15-20x that this zoom starts out at....in which case I should be fine with the zoom's ability to focus beyond that 200 yard distance at the higher settings.

I will follow through with more experimentation tomorrow morning.

Any thoughts/comments would be welcome.

Frank..same thing happened to me with the Swarovski Astro zoom on the Pentax PF65ED..I wasnt able to focus infinity at the lowest power..only a little zoom in ,and I was the reaching infinity without problem..It never bothered me..The Vixen zoom is more forgiving in that respect,as you know,But If it works this way,maybe you found yourself an excellent zoom for the Pentax!!..
I'd say,use what you have,and adapt..We are going to need a lot of that philosophy in the next one or two decades!!!....
One more thing...How is the fit of the Zoom on the Pentax..is there room for any alteration or custom fitting that would improve close focus range?...

Frank,

I examined a photo of the Promaster scope from a 24hourcampfire.com review dated 10/23/08. While the eyepieces appear to be very similar there also seem to be some differences. For instance the knurled locking ring at the front looks wider on the Baader zoom to me and the zoom adjusting ring on the Baader appears narrower and placed closer to the back of the eyepiece. It seems possible that both eyepieces come from the same source and I suppose the optics might be the same, but it would be odd for the mechanical parts to be slightly different if they are the same eyepiece. Probably the only way to know for certain is to examine them together.

The Baader scope may never have actually been available. The photo I linked to is the only place I've ever seen it.

Henry

One thing that seems strange about this zoom being a Hyperion,is that it would be THE only Hyperion that reaches focus in a pentax Scope..Multiple users tried the Hyperion on their Pentax scopes,and they dont seem to reach focus..Frank's eyepiece doesnt reach infinity at the lower powers,but does ok at higher magnifications..That is not way Hyperion Zooms worked in the Pentax PF80/65 ,if I remember well...

One more thing...How is the fit of the Zoom on the Pentax..is there room for any alteration or custom fitting that would improve close focus range?...

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No, not that I can tell. The Plano zoom does not have a 1.25 inch collar to remove and it does sit flush up against the locking collar. I don't think even removing the plastic lock-down collar in the Pentax body would do anything.

Henry, Mayoayo,

I played with the zoom on the Pentax further today. Same findings in daytime as last night. I was able to focus on objects out to 500 yards....just barely at the lowest magnification setting of the zoom. At any of the higher settings I have a very small fraction of a turn left on the focus knob to focus past those objects.

Henry,

Yes, the rubber magnification adjustment ring on the zoom, as well as the metal parts in between the rubber rings is of a different size to that of the Hyperion. That is what I was referring to in my earlier post.

Optically it does offer the same wide field of view that the Hyperion lists. I have a Celestron 8-24 zoom that I have been using on the Pentax periodically and compared it directly to the Plano zoom. The Plano is noticeably wider at all settings. However, there definitely is a different color representation to each zoom. The Plano looks just a bit warm while the Celestron looks decidely more neutral or "blue-green" in representation.

Edge distortion at the low setting of the Plano is evident. It reminds me of the comments on the Zeiss zoom at low settings though I have never personally looked through a Zeiss to be able to compare even by memory. Once you hit 25x the edge distortion is reduced dramatically. At the highest setting it does not seem to be evident.

All I can think of for now.

OwenM said:

Has anyone here tried the new version of the Hyperion zoom, and if so, does it suffer the same problems with focus on Pentax scopes as its predecessor?

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From the Baader Hyp Mark iv site's questions:

Will the new Mark IV work with a Pentax 65mm spotter and if so are any additional adapters required?
3

Question by: Jason Rex on Jun 6, 2017 2:41:41 PM | 2 Answer(s)
We could not test it with every spotting scope on the market, but if you use the included spotting scope ring and the included 1,25" barrel, there should be no problem - the Pentax is designed for the 1.25"-standard, and the Hyperion Zoom works with all similar spotting scopes which we have tested. If the Pentax 65 works with any 1,25" eyepiece, then the Hyperion should work fine, too.
Answer by: Baader Web Team (Admin) on Jun 12, 2017 11:11:00 AM
-5

I have the Pentax 65mm spotter scope and this zoom does not reach infinity focus at all zoom ranges. Needs a bit more in focus than my other eyepieces which do come to focus in the same scope. The Pentax uses standard 1 1/4" eyepieces. It s just barely missing focus...maybe another 1/8" would work over all the zoom range. Too bad as other than that this is a great eyepiece with all my astronomy telescopes.
Answer by: Robert Berta on Oct 6, 2017 10:44:11 PM

Click to expand...

https://www.baader-planetarium.com/...l-zoom-mark-iv-8-24mm-eyepiece-(1¼"--2").html

Too bad as I was looking into fitting it on a pf80. That tiny miss of focus will probably going to annoy me.