Amazon.com: Customer reviews: Celestron Omni Series 1-1/4 12MM Eyepiece

Top positive review

Excellent Upgrade for Celestron 8 SE - Celestron Xcel LX 25mm Lens

Reviewed in the United States on November 30, 2023

I recently purchased the Celestron Xcel LX Series 25mm lens for my Celestron 8 SE telescope, and I couldn't be more pleased with the quality and performance I received, especially considering the reasonable price point.

The difference in quality between the Xcel LX Series lens and the ones that came with my telescope is immediately noticeable. The Xcel LX lens provides a significant upgrade in terms of clarity, sharpness, and overall viewing experience. The images are crisp, and the details of celestial objects are much more defined compared to the stock lenses.

The construction of the Xcel LX lens is impressive. The build feels sturdy, and the materials used are of high quality. The eyepiece is comfortable to use, and the adjustable eye relief is a great feature, allowing for a personalized and comfortable viewing experience, especially during extended observation sessions.

One of the standout features of the Xcel LX Series is the wide field of view it offers. It enhances the immersive feeling of observing celestial objects, making it easier to locate and appreciate a broader area of the night sky. This is particularly beneficial for celestial navigation and observing larger astronomical phenomena.

The 25mm focal length is versatile, providing a good balance between magnification and field of view. It's suitable for observing a variety of celestial objects, from the moon and planets to deep-sky objects like nebulae and galaxies.

In summary, the Celestron Xcel LX Series 25mm lens is an excellent investment for anyone looking to enhance the performance of their Celestron 8 SE telescope. The improved optics, solid construction, and reasonable price make it a standout choice for amateur astronomers seeking a quality eyepiece. I highly recommend the Celestron Xcel LX Series to fellow enthusiasts looking to take their stargazing experience to the next level.

6 people found this helpful

Top critical review

Critical reviews›

Yamez

Awesome eyepiece, but rubber tears off easily.

Reviewed in the United States on July 28, 2015

Great 12mm eyepiece, it's a vast improvement over the basic 20mm and 6mm eyepieces that came with my Galileo brand 80mm reflector telescope. The image of Saturn seems nearly if not just as bright as my 20mm, but 50-75% larger and more detailed. The field of view is also fairly wide, almost as wide as my 20mm. The whole moon fits nicely. This is a great buy for someone like myself who is just starting out. However, I gave 4 stars (up from 3 for no-questions-asked free replacement) because after 3-4 uses where I removed and replaced the cap on the top of the eyepiece, the rubber/silicone tore halfway along the circumference. I don't think it will last much longer before it comes off completely. I'm very careful with my things, so I may have just gotten a bad apple, but it's a little disappointing that something like this happened so soon. The picture I provided of tonight's moon was taken with my cellphone held up to this eyepiece. Not bad at all.

Edit: Reduced to 3 stars again. The optics on this eyepiece are good, like I said before, but my replacement eyepiece arrived with the rubber already torn. After I had requested a replacement for the original eyepiece that had the rubber torn after a few uses. How am I supposed to protect the lens from dust and scratches if I can't store it with the cap on for fear of tearing off the rubber?

21 people found this helpful

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From the United States

JDizzle

Excellent Upgrade for Celestron 8 SE - Celestron Xcel LX 25mm Lens

Reviewed in the United States on November 30, 2023

Size: 1.25" 25 mmStyle: X-Cel LX EyepiecePattern: EyepieceVerified Purchase

6 people found this helpful

Helpful

Jake L.

Finally! An eyepiece for glasses wearers.

Reviewed in the United States on April 13, 2023

Size: 1.25" 40 mmStyle: Omni EyepiecePattern: EyepieceVerified Purchase

First off, let me start this review by saying, for an eyepiece made in China, this thing feels very well built. It's solid in your hand, actually weighs a good bit for an eyepiece. The view is incredibly clear, and the field of view is very wide. This is great for viewing large swaths of the sky at a time, not so good for small targets like planets. This is more of a nebula/star cluster eyepiece. It is a plossl design, so there are two doublet lenses inside. It added no extra chromatic abberation, so it's perfect for reflector and Cassegrain telescopes that don't produce CA on their own. On my 102mm refractor, the views were great, but because that scope is an achromat, there was chromatic abberation, but not from the eyepiece. For under $50, I can't see why you wouldn't buy one of these if you're on a budget. Eye relief is about an inch, so you don't have to hold your eye on the glass for once.

7 people found this helpful

Helpful

Todd Ruch

New to astronomy, but happy with eyepiece

Reviewed in the United States on November 3, 2023

Size: 1.25" 12 mmStyle: X-Cel LX EyepiecePattern: EyepieceVerified Purchase

I’m new to astronomy so I don’t know what I don’t know. That being said, this eyepiece is 100 times better than the eyepiece that came with my Celestron telescope. Very happy with it for the price.

2 people found this helpful

Helpful

Hari

Decent for its price, lesson learnt - get the 32mm instead of the 40mm.

Reviewed in the United States on November 25, 2013

Size: 1.25" 32 mmStyle: Omni EyepiecePattern: EyepieceVerified Purchase

I wanted the widest eyepiece I could afford that I could use with my Celestron Omni XLT 120 refractor. I purchased the 40mm version first before buying this thinking I will get the widest view because of the longer focal length. The 32mm eyepiece has an apparent field of view of 50 degrees whereas the 40mm has a 43 degree view. I had overlooked this but waited for both the eyepieces to arrive so that I can test it myself and compare them both in my scope which has a 1000mm focal length.

Both of them are pretty sharp but start getting slightly blurry towards the edges which is expected for eyepieces in this price range. The 32 mm has a slightly wider view than the 40mm. This might be because of the 1.25 inch format of the eyepieces which restricts wider views beyond a point. That's why it makes sense to go for 2 inch format eyepieces which have larger openings for wider field of views provided your focuser supports it. What I noticed was that the 32mm's slightly wider view was also slightly more magnified than the 40mms because shorter eyepiece focal length translates to more magnification.

I tested it in clear skies last week and the Pleiades cluster still doesn't fit into the field of view with the 32mm but it still provided bright crisp views almost to the edges. The star cluster just spills outside the field of view but note that my scopes focal length is 1000mm which is not a wide scope.

The finish and build of the eyepiece is very good and the rubber eye cap is excellent and very useful if you wear glasses like me. Even otherwise, it acts as a shield preventing stray light degrading your image. The eye relief is good as well.

The conclusion - the 32mm is a clear winner here and I don't understand why Celestron would even offer a 40mm version in 1.25 inch format. I am going to be returning the 40mm and I hope this experience helps others in making a decision if they are confused.

170 people found this helpful

Helpful

Sara

Great!

Reviewed in the United States on April 20, 2024

Size: 1.25" 32 mmStyle: Omni EyepiecePattern: EyepieceVerified Purchase

The optics are very clear and I use it all the time.

Helpful

Robby

Perfect for Moon gazing

Reviewed in the United States on September 7, 2022

Size: 1.25" 40 mmStyle: Omni EyepiecePattern: EyepieceVerified Purchase

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Looking at the stars at night, nothing beats a good time with a telescope. The Moon, in particular, is my favorite astronomic object to look at...

Recently, I got a Newtonian Reflective Telescope from a buddy of mine but all of the eyepieces he had were the kind that you need to have your eye almost touching the eyepiece. So I wanted a brighter and easier-t-use eye piece. This is it!

It's definitely beginner friendly and the 40mm size made for wonderfully bright images. Also makes it much easier (it's still tricky) to take photos of the Moon with a phone.

Not for gazing at the rings of Saturn, but perfect for staring at the Moon.