Celestron X-Cel’LX 7mm saves the day! (1 Viewer)

[BryanP]

Hi all,
Thought the folks here in the spotting scope forum might be interested in this.

I recently purchased the Celestron X-Cel’LX 7mm eyepiece to replace the stock zoom eyepiece on my neglected 50mm Celestron Hummingbird scope. I chose it based on a positive post in a Cloudy Nights thread and figured I’d comment on its qualities here.
In a word, startling. It turned the dull little Hummingbird from a barely adequate tool to a bright little thing that I will happily use more regularly.

The X-Cel’LX really is brighter and by a wide margin. Its sharper further towards the edges, and the FOV is wider with less ca than the stock zoom. It was a revelation and when I looked through it the first time I actually said “Wow!”

Probably none of this will come as a surprise to the more knowledgable folks here but in my inexperience I was and am excited. Its given a new lease on life to the little Hummingbird.
Now thanks to this eyepiece the noble quest for a sturdier travel tripod and head begins.
Cheers,
Bryan

 

[wllmspd]

Great to hear it’s been reborn. Zooms have advantages, but field of view and general optical performance aren’t usually amongst them.
Peter

 

[BryanP]

Thanks Wllmspd,
That makes sense. As I recall the Baader website shows a photo of the Hyperion Mk IV zoom on a Hummingbird amoungst others so that might be all the evidence I need to splash out for one.
I can justify the expense if I can use the Baader on any future mythical scopes I may acquire.
For now the added utility of the X-Cel’LX on the hummingbird is giving me plenty to be going on with.
Cheers,
Bryan

 

[GeorgeL]

You picked up a good eyepiece. Nice to see it’s working well with your scope with good AFOV.
Celestron also has their Luminos line of eyepieces with wide, 82* AFOV but don’t seem to be very popular amongst the CN crowd.
I have a few Explore Scientific 68* & 82* eyepieces which I use on my Pentax scopes. I got them a few years back when they were reasonably priced, and on sale.

 

[wllmspd]

I can’t really see all of the 82degree field of the Nagler in my spotter, might change to using a Baader morpheus sometime. The Baader zoom models have different focal position requirements.

peter

 

[BryanP]

You picked up a good eyepiece. Nice to see it’s working well with your scope with good AFOV.
Celestron also has their Luminos line of eyepieces with wide, 82* AFOV but don’t seem to be very popular amongst the CN crowd.
I have a few Explore Scientific 68* & 82* eyepieces which I use on my Pentax scopes. I got them a few years back when they were reasonably priced, and on sale.

Thanks GeorgeL,
it seems a whole world of eyepieces are opening up before me which I‘m looking forward to exploring. I also like the low entry fee for a lot of them, relatively speaking Of course 😉
Cheers,
Bryan

 

[BryanP]

I can’t really see all of the 82degree field of the Nagler in my spotter, might change to using a Baader morpheus sometime. The Baader zoom models have different focal position requirements.

peter

Hi Wllmspd,
Thanks, I’m going to communicate with Baader to ensure compatibility before I place any orders.
Cheers,
Bryan

 

[Gypa]

Hello Bryan. I wonder how the celestron x-cel lx 5mm eyepiece would work on the Hummingbird, at 34x magnification.
Is it possible to buy only the body of the Hummingbird and dispense with the zoom eyepiece?
Thanks
Peter

 

[GeorgeL]

I can’t really see all of the 82degree field of the Nagler in my spotter, might change to using a Baader morpheus sometime. The Baader zoom models have different focal position requirements.

peter

Well, with my ES 82 eyepieces, I can see the field stops, even with the ones with short eye relief. I don’t wear glasses, btw. But for pure viewing comfort I prefer my Pentax XW’s a lot better with their large eye lens and eye relief.

 

[BryanP]

Hello Bryan. I wonder how the celestron x-cel lx 5mm eyepiece would work on the Hummingbird, at 34x magnification.
Is it possible to buy only the body of the Hummingbird and dispense with the zoom eyepiece?
Thanks
Peter

Hi Gypa,
I can’t find anything anywhere that suggests we can buy the scope without eyepiece unfortunately.

Here is the Cloudy nights thread that started all this for me with my ears pricking up with post #18.

Celestron Hummingbird 56mm: which eyepieces can focus? - Binoculars - Cloudy Nights

Page 1 of 2 - Celestron Hummingbird 56mm: which eyepieces can focus? - posted in Binoculars: I have a Celestron Hummingbird 56mm micro-spotter. I had to reduce the volume of my gear because of family needs and less free time, this toy allows me to do some birding and even some stargazing in...

www.cloudynights.com

The poster had tried the 9 and 7mm X-Cel’LX and liked them both. He was planning on getting the 5mm which he suspected would work almost as well on the Hummingbird. The thread discusses a number of other eyepieces for this scope as well.
Cheers,
Bryan

 

[GeorgeL]

Thanks GeorgeL,
it seems a whole world of eyepieces are opening up before me which I‘m looking forward to exploring. I also like the low entry fee for a lot of them, relatively speaking Of course 😉
Cheers,
Bryan

Speaking of cheap, I have a couple of SvBony eyepieces that work well with my spotters. Not bad at $35, this one is a clone of the Orion Expanse eyepiece. Good eye relief too.

 

[GeorgeL]

Scratch my previous suggestion on the ES 82 ep’s…

 

[BryanP]

Speaking of cheap, I have a couple of SvBony eyepieces that work well with my spotters. Not bad at $35, this one is a clone of the Orion Expanse eyepiece. Good eye relief too.

Thanks GeorgeL,
That’s looking pretty nifty and a sweet price too. You’ll have to bear with my lack of knowledge here but I’m guessing these SvBony eyepieces will work without adaptors or modifications with the little Hummer scope?
When next I’m back in Vancouver I’m planning on visiting the local Astronomy/optics shop where I hope to spend a happy afternoon trying out their collection of eyepieces.
Cheers,
Bryan

 

[BryanP]

Scratch my previous suggestion on the ES 82 ep’s…

No worries, hadn’t put in an order for them yet so no harm done 😉😂
Bryan

 

[GeorgeL]

Thanks GeorgeL,
That’s looking pretty nifty and a sweet price too. You’ll have to bear with my lack of knowledge here but I’m guessing these SvBony eyepieces will work without adaptors or modifications with the little Hummer scope?
When next I’m back in Vancouver I’m planning on visiting the local Astronomy/optics shop where I hope to spend a happy afternoon trying out their collection of eyepieces.
Cheers,
Bryan

I’m assuming your HB scope accepts standard 1.25” astro eyepieces….. ?…. in other words, they simply slide in and secured in place.

 

[BryanP]

I’m assuming your HB scope accepts standard 1.25” astro eyepieces….. ?…. in other words, they simply slide in and secured in place.

Yup, standard 1.25, thanks.

 

[Jkloz]

Hello Bryan. I wonder how the celestron x-cel lx 5mm eyepiece would work on the Hummingbird, at 34x magnification.
Is it possible to buy only the body of the Hummingbird and dispense with the zoom eyepiece?
Thanks
Peter

I just tried the 5 mm on the hummingbird 56ed . Its a mixed bag . It works , but i didnt find it to pleasent to use on the hummingbird and the Regal 65. Its to dim for one thing , and air and heat distortion is considerable over a hundred yards . It focuses sharp and has a good image at shorter ranges and the 60 degree afov is good to have . If your looking for extreme close ups and have alot of light to work with this will do the job. ( have a good tripod ) . IMO its to much magnification for the scopes im using and is to dim in general. But it does work with a good tripod .

 

[Jkloz]

I just tried the 5 mm on the hummingbird 56ed . Its a mixed bag . It works , but i didnt find it to pleasent to use on the hummingbird and the Regal 65. Its to dim for one thing , and air and heat distortion is considerable over a hundred yards . It focuses sharp and has a good image at shorter ranges and the 60 degree afov is good to have . If your looking for extreme close ups and have alot of light to work with this will do the job. ( have a good tripod ) . IMO its to much magnification for the scopes im using and is to dim in general. But it does work with a good tripod .

I returned the 5 mm and bought the baader hyperion 8 mm , which is spectacular in the hummingbird 56 ed . The 8 mm baader right out of the box with no adjustments or rings goes right on the hummingbird with no problem whatsoever and focuses in its full range . I have it mounted on a ‘ small rig fluid head’ and it holds the extra weight steady with no issues . Compared to the 8mm setting on the baader zoom mark iv the image is brighter and sharper and about the same afov 68 degrees . The ep is wide on top and with the removal of the outer rubber ring the ‘ phone skope universal adapter ‘ works but some of the image (full circle) gets cropped out , but i havent tinkered with it much as of this writing but it works. And thats the only downside there is and i think a little work or different adapter could solve that issue . ….. as i researched this lens i got alot of conflicting information . Baader writes that the ep is good on scopes with focal lenths up to 2000 but doesnt mention the low end ( Hummingbird focal length is 200) . The telescope experts on cloudy nights claim this eyepiece is no good in fast scopes and that the image shows distortion on fast scopes , not true . This ep has a pretty flat field with a minimum of distortion on the edges no curving or anything bad from what i see ( about 1 year beginner ) Ive used the factory zoom , the Regal m2 factory zoom and the Baader mark iv zoom all of which have a good mid range but issues on the high and low end with this scope ( small fov at one end and fuzzy on the other) The 18mm excel and the 8 mm baader solves that issue . Only improvement i could ask for is that the univeral adapter from phone scope was just a little bit wider and had deeper jaws .

 

[wllmspd]

After picking a 56mm hummingbird up for times when even a tripod can’t be taken along I’ve had a play with some eyepieces I had.

The (APM) UFF give a nice view with reasonable eye relief and not too big (apart from the 24mm!).
One issue I’ve had with the hummingbird is the tightness of the eyepiece hole, some eyepieces I couldn’t push fully in as the air trapped underneath kept pushing back!

I attacked the lower edge of the eyepiece draw tube with a sharp edged screwdriver and made a little groove (it’s plastic), being very careful to avoid damaging the window or getting plastic debris in.
My 7mm Nirvana works OK,, bit dim(due to the high power), eye relief isn’t huge and you can’t take in the whole field (I went looking for the actual field edge).
Next managed to get the 12.5mm Morpheus to finally seat down, for me I can just reach infinity focus at one end of the range, the view is beautiful and wide and sharp the practically the edge. I see this has been reported on before, Celestron Hummingbird 9-27x56
You do need to be a bit careful with eye placement and as I don’t use glasses I have the 5mm spacer ring on the top to help me comfortably get the eye spacing rights Will need to star test to confirm it’ll get the infinity and how badly the stars near the edges really are. Of course the eyepiece is not far off the size of the scope.
Remembered I’d got a 13mm Nagler lying about and popped that in, much smaller, but quite long draw tube and doesn’t seat fully. Comes to focus fine, very wide views, though low eye relief and some whacky distortion round the edges as you pan – there is a reason I swapped to using the Morpheus.

Certainly going be leaving the stock zoom behind from now on for when I want a very lightweight setup.

Peter