Much better than expected
I was a bit leery of buying a "zoom" eyepiece and suspected that the movement within the lens assembly would greatly effect the optics. I took a chance because I wanted a quick and dirty spotting eyepiece that would give me a sneak peak at objects before I bothered switching eyepieces. I have now tried this eyepiece on my Celestron 130SLT and compared it side by side with a set of comparable fixed Celestron Omni Possls which should be of comparable quality. I was very pleasantly surprised as I saw very little visible difference when viewing Mars and Saturn. I had expected the zoom to cause significant distortion outside the center of the viewfield and to give substantially less sharp views. However I found the views very nearly the same. I also tried the zoom over my Celestron Ultima barlow with good results. Some minor refocusing was required with any significant change in zoom but this was not unexpected. That said there was a difference between the zoom and fixed lens eyepieces. I did see some differences at higher magnifications particularly with the barlow. As such I don't think a zoom lens is a replacement for a range of fixed eyepieces particularly if you're doing photography or viewing deep sky objects. However this zoom exceeded my expectations and will probably become my main eyepiece for locating and previewing objects. I should note that the barrel of this eyepiece is a few mm wider than other 1.25" Celestron eyepieces and barlows. It still fits nicely and functions well. It just looks a bit bulky when mounted over a narrower barlow.More detail ...
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