Celestron C70 Mini Mak eye piece replacement?

  • Hey Guest, Early bird pricing on the Summer Moot (29th July - 10th August) available until April 6th, we'd love you to come. PLEASE CLICK HERE to early bird price and get more information.

Mesquite

It is what it is.
Mar 5, 2008
27,807
2,893
62
~Hemel Hempstead~
Not an optics person but the sales blurb for the scope says

1.25" eyepiece adapter allows usage of any 1.25" eyepiece

So it to me it implies you can get any eye piece which is 1.25" and fit that to it and it ought to work without any problem
 

baggins

Full Member
Apr 20, 2005
1,563
300
49
Coventry (and surveying trees uk wide)
its a nifty looking scope, but not sure why you'd want to replace the eye piece. Any further mag would be limited by the size of the objective lens and you could risk loosing image clarity and sharpness. Do celestron offer any other eye pieces?
 

Bionic

Forager
Mar 21, 2018
183
94
Bomber county
Hi. You’d most likely gain an improvement in image clarity by changing from the supplied zoom eyepiece to a selection of fixed magnification ep’s. With the focal length of the scope in question the max magnification of 75x equates to a 10mm eyepiece and the minimum of 25x is 30mm equivalent. I would certainly advise that you don’t try to boost the magnification any higher as with a small objective lens you will lose image quality. Personally I’d go for three decent quality eyepieces to cover the range of the zoom in steps so probably 30, 20 and 10mm. As far as what make and model to go for, ideally the best you can afford but I quite like the celestron X-cel range as a nice mid range set up. As far as a forum to look at for advice I’d thoroughly recommend Stargazers Lounge, it’s a uk based forum with a very wide knowledge base and they’re a friendly bunch :)
 
N

Nomad

Guest
Zoom eyepieces are pretty uncommon, and tend to be pricey (at least £100). Even good fixed focal length eyepieces in the budget range are £40-50.

A zoom type for £119...
https://www.firstlightoptics.com/ovl-eyepieces/hyperflex-72mm-215mm-eyepiece.html

7.2mm to 21.5mm will give a shift towards more magnification than the 10-25mm that comes with the scope: 35-104x compared to 25-75x, and even if the optics are better, you might not get a pleasing image at the higher magnifications anyway (it will certainly be darker).

Probably the most widely recommended budget fixed focal length eyepieces...
https://www.firstlightoptics.com/bst-starguider-eyepieces.html

Given that the whole scope costs about £100, you may well get an improvement, especially at the higher mag end of things, because cheap scopes tend to come with very budget eyepieces to save costs. However, the improvement might not be as big as you expect. The scope itself has a limit to its resolving power, such that putting a top quality eyepiece on it isn't necessarily going to make a massive difference. While the quality of the scope's optics can be a factor, the diameter of the objective lens is as well. The latter places a hard limit on how much detail can be resolved.

Your best bet is to try and find someone local that's into astronomy and get a shot of some of their eyepieces. 1.25" is a standard fitting, and almost anyone into stargazing with a scope will have some. Bung a 10mm or thereabouts into your scope and do a good, critical comparison between that and the supplied version.
 

fenix

Forager
Jul 8, 2008
136
102
Kent
I don't know anything about optics and such so,

Looking to upgrade the eye piece (with its own focus adj) if possible to improve the overall focus at higher magnifications??, if that is possible?

any suggestions how i go about this?

https://www.celestron.com/products/c70-mini-mak-spotting-scope

Hi, if you want to try some kit I am in Kent (near Tonbridge) and have a range of astronomy and optical kit. 1.25" is a standard astronomy eyepiece fit, so you can try an range of eyepieces. A Baeder zoom might be an option but is £££, another cheaper option is a starguider zoom (search ebay), Celestron also do some reasonable priced zoom eyepieces. There is a maximum theoretical zoom any scope can give, in reality due to atmospheric conditions what you can do is less.


You might get better results from prime eyepieces, but they cost more to cover the range. Best way is to experiment to see what works. More than happy to meet up if you want to try some kit. PS I have no kit to sell but can advise., but I do have some reasonable primes, and yes you can add fine focus.
 
Last edited:

BCUK Shop

We have a a number of knives, T-Shirts and other items for sale.

SHOP HERE