Need a 10-40mm Zoom - is there such a thing?

HI,

Need some advice from folk who know more than I... I have a 80x500mm short-tube Orion refractor - an out-of-production model with ED glass. Very nice, sharp, portable. I want to use it for terrestrial spotting as well as astronomy on an upcoming trip this winter. I have 45deg mirror that corrects the image and use it primarily with a 40mm and a 24mm plossl. I would like to find a zoom eyepiece that will get me effectively 12x to 50x, so in 10mm-40mm range. Does such a beast exist and can anyone offer advice (or one to buy?).

Thanks - Sal

Sal,

The closest zoom you will be able to find is probably the Vixen LV 8 - 24mm zoom (same as the Televue 8 -24 zoom but less expensive). If you need additional eye relief, then the Pentax XL (also about 8-24mm) would be an option, but it costs twice as much. One thing to remember is that with these zoom designs, the apparent field of view gets smaller at the longest focal length setting.

Joplin