Baader Planetarium Hyperion Eyepieces12 January 2010 Baader Planetarium, first introduced to many in North America by its solar (S&T: September 2000, page 63) and minus-violet filters (S&T: April 2004, page 54), has garnered a solid reputation in a new arena due to their new Hyperion eyepieces. Selected as one of Sky and Telescope's Hot Products for 2008, the Hyperion eyepiece line has established itself among a loyal and growing base of visual and astrophotography amateur astronomers. Baader Planetarium is a family-owned German company with an obvious passion for designing innovative, high-quality products for astronomers. Their newest line of eyepieces demonstrates this passion in the highly competitive field of eyepieces.
The Line-Up The standard Hyperion series includes seven eyepieces with focal lengths from 3.5mm to 24mm. The eye relief is approximately 20mm and the apparent field of view is 68 degrees. The optical design utilizes 8 lens elements. Fold-down eyecups aid in blocking stray light and correct eye placement. The Hyperion Aspheric series is available in 31mm and 36mm focal lengths. The eye relief is approximately 20mm and the apparent field of view is 72 degrees. The optical design utilizes 6 lens elements. The design includes fold-down eyecups and the eye (top) and field (bottom) lenses are sealed with O-rings to keep the interior free from moisture and dust. In fact, Baader states this seal allows cleaning without fear of fluids entering the eyepiece. The Hyperion Clickstop-Zoom is an 8-24mm zoom eyepiece utilizing 8 lens elements. The eye relief of the zoom varies from a minimum of about 9mm to a maximum of about 12mm. The apparent field of view on the zoom varies from 50 degrees at 24mm out to 70 degrees at 8mm. The top sports an eyecup attached to a twist-up mount to customize eye placement. Both a 2-inch and a 1.25-inch barrel/nosepiece are included to allow use in either format of focuser or diagonal. As a bonus, the nosepiece can be removed to allow the Zoom to be mounted directly to many popular spotting scopes. The eye lens on the Zoom is sealed with an O-ring to partially waterproof this eyepiece. All this describes premium features to be certain, but nothing that can't be found on other high-quality eyepieces. But the price of these eyepieces is much lower than most premium lines and the Hyperion series are indeed a new optical design with unique features. One pioneering feature are threads at the top of the eyepiece and dozens of adapters for eyepiece projection and afocal imaging. Unique "Fine Tuning Rings" (FTRs) are available to actually change the focal length of the 3.5mm through 21mm Hyperion eyepieces; for example, coupling the 8mm Hyperion with a 24mm FTR results in an eyepiece of 5mm focal length. The threads at the top of the eyepieces accept Baader's premium coated astigmatism correcting lens to allow those with astigmatism to view without eyeglass. An aspheric lens element in the 31mm and 36mm models produce excellent edge performance while allowing for a much lighter and more compact design than eyepieces with similar performance. The overall design of all these wide-field eyepieces creates an eyepiece that is very forgiving of eye placement exhibiting no black-out zones or "kidney bean" problems. And the excellent optical performance of the Zoom dispels the common opinion that such eyepieces are very convenient, but result in a significant compromise in the quality of views. It would take literally dozens of pages to describe all the features and options of this innovative line of eyepieces. Visit the Alpine Astro (www.alpineastro.com) or Baader (www.baader-planetarium.com/en/) websites and review the following documents from Baader for more details:
Performance Common to all three series is excellent contrast. The Phantom Group Coatings deliver excellent light throughput while internal reflections are eliminated producing bright, high contrast views. Color correction is also excellent with little to no noticeable chromatic aberration. The apparent field of view (AFOV) of the fixed focal length eyepieces, while not as wide as newer (much more expensive) designs, is expansive and hard to turn back from once experienced. All 4 of the eyepieces exhibited high optical performance to the edge of the field of view. In both a 102mm f/6 refractor and an 11-inch f/10 SCT, stars are pinpoint almost to the edge in all of these eyepieces. The optical performance of the Zoom is very, very good. Across the entire range it gives up nothing to high quality Plossl eyepieces. And at the shorter end of its focal range the AFOV is much wider, ranging from approximately 70 degrees at 8mm down to a bit less than 50 degrees at 24mm. Stars are sharp nearly to the edge at all positions in the zoom range. In fact, the Hyperion Clickstop Zoom is my single, most used eyepiece, rarely leaving its place in the diagonal unless I am seeking wide-field views offered by the 24mm fixed focal length Hyperion (68 degree AFOV) or the 36mm Hyperion Aspheric (70 degree AFOV). The series is not parfocal; swapping to a different eyepiece requires a bit of focus change. But, the Zoom does maintain focus throughout its range. Speaking of focus, many Newtonian reflectors and some refractors might not be able to come to focus if you use the standard Hyperion eyepieces in a 2-inch eyepiece holder. In that case you would just need to use a 2-inch to 1.25-inch adapter in the scope. This is due to the fact that the 2-inch barrel on those eyepieces is much higher up on the eyepiece (see the picture at the top of this page). For that same reason, if using the standard Hyperion eyepieces in a 2-inch diagonal, one must ensure the 1.25-inch barrel does not insert far enough to touch the mirror. If that is the case on your diagonal, either use the 1.25-inch part of the barrel in a 2-inch to 1.25-inch adapter or Baader makes a 2" stop ring that can be mounted semi-permanently on the eyepiece to limit the amount it can be inserted into a diagonal. More About the Clickstop
Zoom The Clickstop Zoom has other features designed with binoviewers in mind. The body is fairly narrow design allowing most people to fit their nose between a pair when mounted in a binoviewers. And, the twist-up eye cups can actually be removed, gaining a bit more space. Astrophotography Uses And here is a digital camera connected in afocal configuration:
Conclusion For more information, visit:
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