Baader Hyperion 68 Degree Modular Eyepiece 5mm

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Article number:	HYP-5
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Sky and Telescope's Hot Astronomy Product for 2008! The Baader Planetarium Hyperion 68° Modular Eyepieces offer world-class performance and unique photo-visual features, at an unheard of price. No longer do amateurs need to spend more on their eyepieces than their primary instrument, in order to get true high-end performance in a wide-field eyepiece. Not just a different branded version of their highly regarded cousins, the Hyperions have been totally redesigned to deliver better transmission, contrast, and useful new features. Baader Planetarium has worked hard to give the Hyperions the world's finest optical coatings, superb mechanics, and their unique multifunctional design.

As a visual eyepiece, we have found the Hyperions deliver superb sharpness and color fidelity across their 68° wide, flat-field, even in fast telescopes. In our own comparisons to our personal favorites, the Pentax XL, the Hyperions matched the Pentax in every regard, and at just over 1/3 the price! From their superb on-axis and off-axis sharpness, to their pitch-black high contrast field, the Hyperions really work. Viewing through a Hyperion is notably comfortable and relaxing, due to their forgiving eye-position, 20mm of eye-relief, extra-large eyelens, and an optical design that is free of annoying 'kidney-beaning' and blackouts.

Some highlights of the Hyperion;

Consisting of 8 elements in 5 groups (3.5mm - 21mm), the Hyperion optical design delivers outstanding sharpness and color correction over a 68° wide apparent field (65° for the 21mm). The Hyperion optical design has been chosen to deliver a exceptionally comfortable view, thanks to its 20mm of eye-relief, large eyelens, and a pupil free of the kidney-beaning and blackouts common in many wide field eyepieces.
The new 24mm uses a different optical design and delivers the same outstanding performance over it's 68° wide apparent field. It is totally free of blackouts and other annoying exit pupil behaviors, delivers long eye relief (17mm), virtually zero distortion, and is sharp to the edge even in fast telescopes. Its flat focal plane is particularly suited to very fast newtonians that use coma correctors. The 29mm field stop makes the 24mm Hyperion the widest 24mm eyepiece we know of. The 24mm Hyperion is also the smallest and lightest of the Hyperions.
High grade water-white glasses are used throughout, to deliver a crystal clear view with low scatter and excellent color fidelity, free of the yellow or bluish coloration imparted by many other eyepieces. Use of high-index glasses delivers low distortion and astigmatism, even on scopes as fast as f/4.
Baader Planetarium has gone to great lengths to give the Hyperions the most advanced multicoatings ever used on amateur telescope eyepieces (please note: these are not the same coatings other manufacturers use on their similar clones of these eyepieces..). The Hyperion Phantom Group™ multi-coatings and coating equipment are proprietary to Baader and have been designed by German coating engineers specifically for the Baader Hyperions, and optimized for each of the glasses used. These coatings are applied with the latest thin-film German coating equipment, training, and process controls. The result are coatings that truly rival the best in the world - including the famous Zeiss Abbe Orthoscopic! The difference is clearly visible - users report that the Hyperions clearly show fainter stars and darker sky than the competitive clones.
The proprietary Hyperion housings have been engineered by Baader to incorporate careful opto-mechanical design and execution of internal baffling to eliminate stray light and ghost reflections. Uncapping the eyelens reveals a pitch black interior, with no distracting and contrast-robbing glints of light from unbaffled lens or metal surfaces. We call these our 'black hole' eyepieces.
Superb fit and finish. Eyepiece barrels are accurate to size, nicely machined, and hard anodized.
Works in both 1.25" and 2" focusers. The 1.25" barrel is threaded for filters and kept short (0.94") to work well in binoviewers and spotting scopes. Baader's new housing incorporates a full-length 2" barrel (0.94" long) and provides a specially designed tapered locking recess. In addition, the Hyperion field stop locations have been re-designed and optimized to give the shortest focus position possible (important for binoviewer use).
Soft folding rubber eyecups work for both normal and eyeglass users. Each Hyperion comes with protective lens caps and leatherette storage pouch.
All Hyperions Accept popular Astigmatism Correcting Lenses (not available from Alpine Astronomical). The Hyperion eyelens housing is compatible with the full range of correcting lenses from ¼ to 3½ Diopters. Observers with any astigmatism will really appreciate this feature, no longer needing to wear eyeglasses to see stars as true pinpoints. The long 20mm eye relief of the Hyperions works particularly well with these corrector lenses, without forcing the observer to press their eye close to the lens in order to see the entire wide field.
Removable Negative Lens Element permits variable focal lengths using Baader's Finetuning Rings (see section below). NOTE: The 24mm Hyperion is a different optical design and does not permit the use of Finetuning Rings to decrease focal length.
Great for Binoviewing! We've tried most of the wide field eyepieces on the market that are suitable for binoviewing, and the Hyperions are at the top with the very best. When compared to some wide field eyepieces developed especially for binoviewing, we found the Hyperions were superior in every aspect: more comfortable view with better eye relief, smaller housing diameter at the eyelens gives more nose-room, better coatings (=better contrast), wider field, and half the cost.. Our favorite wide field bino eyepieces are the 8/13/17/21/24mm Hyperion. The new 24mm Hyperion works superbly in binoviewers, and delivers the widest true field of any 24mm wide field eyepiece. Some users with narrow interocular separation (like us) may find it is necessary to remove the thin rubber M54 protective ring, in order to increase the 'nose clearance'.

Baader Hyperions incorporate some unique and innovative aspects, which are designed to make them the ideal projection eyepiece;

The optical design of the Hyperions enables them to work as an extremely sharp wide-field projection eyepiece for even large chip CCD and DSLRs.
The eyelens barrel has been provided with two different external threads, M43 and M54 (these are covered by the removable rubber eyecups). A complete system of adapter rings enables cameras to be directly (and rigidly) close-coupled for afocal projection, or variably extended for classical eyepiece projection imaging with our T-Adapter and Extension Tubes. A series of 16 threaded rings provides compatibility with just about every digital (CCD/DSLR) and videocamera made, even large and heavy 3-chip videocameras. For a complete listing of these adapters, please see HYPERION Digital T-Rings and Adapters.

"Bob, I can pass on some very brief comments regarding the Hyperions. I tested the 3.5 and the 21 on my 90m f/9 Vixen fluorite apo. The 3.5 on lunar viewing absolutely smokes my TV 8mm Plossl/TV 2X barlow combination in resolution, brightness, and obviously field of view. Eye position is simple, very enjoyable eyepiece. I am surprised, and very pleased. The 21 on deep sky cruising is good. Got the best view if M31/32/110 the other night of any eyepiece I've tried. The FOV was flat with stars to the edge, no gulls." Reid Williams

"I have had only a few clear moments with them. So far I'm blown away. Once word gets out your not going to keep them in stock. Thanks for the great eyepieces. I don't understand why they don't sell for more." Jim Turner

Bob, I thought I would drop you a note with my comments on the Hyperions that I had recently purchased from you. Last nite was the first time I had the opportunity to use them and I was very impressed. Very clear, sharp and pinpoint. Using the 17mm, for the first time I really saw the fifth star in the trapezium in M42! It was very clear and prevalent. Just for the fun of it, I put in the old eyepiece that I had been using (an Epic ED 18mm) and I couldn't even see it. I like the Epic's but they don't compare to the Hyperion's. The nice wide view is very pleasing, very sharp. ( I don't think I'll bother taking the Epic's out next time.) Phil Chartier

I think the Hype's are fantastic ep's at any price! I use them in both my 14" SCT & 6" F6.5 refractor, and they are clear & sharp to the extreme edge in both! The coatings must be something very special as I get almost ZERO light scatter when looking at the planets. Also very contrasty, and comfortable to use. They are keepers for sure. What you get for the price is incredible! Bob Lindsey

My local observing buddy Doug and I had a wonderful night of observing in North Florida this past night. One of our goals was to test the 17mm Baader Hyperion against the 17mm Stratus in my 8" f/5.6 Starmaster V8 on a Tom O tracking platform. This was mostly a planetary night but M44 (Beehive Cluster) was directly overhead and a good target to test both ep's for sharpness, contrast, and color. What we found was that the Hyperion's focal plane was about 1/4 turn closer to the primary than the Stratus. We found that the contrast was slightly better in the Hyperion than the Stratus and the starpoints in M44 were brighter likely due to the contrast differences. Bob Schilling (Bob likes the Hyperions so much he has replaced his 2.5X more expensive widefield eyepieces with Hyperions)

Saturday night was the first time I got to use the Hyperion 21mm in the 12.5" Astrosystems Telekit. It was sharp all the way out in my F 4.85. I did not see any gulls or off-axis defects to speak of. M13 was breathtaking, and the Veil was ghostly looking and detailed in our dark Kentucky sky. Very impressive, and all for less than one hundred fifty dollars. Perfect views like this can only be loved! You have some winners there with Baader. Greg Myrick

For more information on these novel eyepieces and their many uses, please click on the following links: