Celestron Axiom 23mm

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Celestron Axiom 23mm
The Celestron Axiom 23mm is a very nice eyepiece. Designed exactly like the Ultima 24mm, but slightly larger. I also compared the Vixen Lanthanum 22mm widefield to the above two. The eye relief was excellent on all three, and at 88x the Axiom 23mm was pinpoint, sharp, and very contrasty on M82 through a C8. However, between the Ultima 24mm and Axiom 23mm there was only a slight difference in the actual field of view, and the Vixen Lanthanum 22mm with a 65 degree field had a slightly smaller field then the other two! Plus I felt the Axiom 23mm had only the slightest gain on contrast, sharpness, and edge correction over the Ultima 24mm (which is being phased out by the way.)The Ultima 24mm may have the slight edge in field flatness. At this point, I am assuming the Ultima eyepieces have a larger apparent field than advertised. Why buy the Axiom eyepieces? If you are a perfectionst and want to buy the best eyepieces Celestron has to offer then go for it. These are the types of eyepieces which are going to take quite a bit more testing in different scopes, but as far as I am concerned still a bargain as compared to more expensive widefields. Recommended.

Clear skies,

JoeM

Overall Rating: 9
Weight: 1 (Unreliable Vote)
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Link to this vote: http://www.excelsis.com/1.0/displayvote.php?voteid=43817

Celestron Axiom 23mm
This is one really nice wide FOV EP, its sharp, has great contrast, is sharp almost to the very edge of the FOV,good detail on the Moon and great on DSO's, likes to be barlowed, has ok eye relief which seems to be around 12 mm
fit and finish is very good plus for around $150 this is one hell of a buy. I generaly don't care for Celestron products but this ones a keeper and it also looks like it might be made by Vixen in Japan so you get some good optical glass and coatings. I use it on a 6" F8 refractor and it does a great job of keeping objects in the FOV without always moving the scope. Recomended!

Overall Rating: 9
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Celestron Axiom 23mm
I tested the 23 mm Axiom in a 8" f/6 Newtonian and a 4" f/10 SCT. Here are
my impressions:
The 23 mm Axiom is a well made eyepiece. It has a very nice wide apparent field, good light throughput, decent eye relief if you don't wear glasses, and very good sharpness on axis. In fact, with a 3X Barlow, it gives views of Jupiter similar to a 7 mm or 9 mm Nagler. However, I am not happy with this eyepiece's edge performance in my 8" f/6 Newtonian, where only the inner 70% of the field is sharp. Apparently, the eyepiece can't handle an f/6 light cone at the edge. This theory is supported by the excellent performance when combined with a barlow, and the fact that a lot more of the field (at least 90%) is sharp with the 4" f/10 scope. I would highly recommend this eyepiece to users of scopes f/10 or slower. Those with relatively fast scopes should look elsewhere.

Overall Rating: 8
Weight: 4 (Unreliable Vote)
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Celestron Axiom 23mm
See comments under the 15mm

Overall Rating: 9
Weight: 3 (Unreliable Vote)
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Celestron Axiom 23mm
How is it possible that the first reviewer states that the APOV between the Ultima and Axiom is apparently the same, while the other reviewers don't notice that? It's either one or the other. Which is it?

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Celestron Axiom 23mm
I've used the 23mm Axioms twice now and my experience mirrors that of the previous reviewer. When using it in my f/7 refractor and f/5 newtonian the coma starts half way out from the centre of view and is unacceptable nearer the edge. But when I use a pair of them in my binoviewer with a 2x bino-barlow which doubles the F/L of the scope, the coma pretty much dissappears. Using them in the binoviewer with 2x bino-barlow, my f/5 newtonian becomes an f/10. The moon, for example, is sharp 80% out from the axis then softens just a bit the last 20%, which is hardly noticeable in the wide 70* AFOV. The 8mm "usable" eye relief (according to Astronomics), while not generous, is comfortable if you don't wear glasses (I don't). From what I could tell, contrast was excellent. I have no doubt that a pair of 19mm Panoptics would beat these hands down, but since I got both of them (used) for the price of 1 Panoptic I am quite pleased.

For cyclops viewing, though, I'll still be using a 30mm Ultima.

Gary Irwin
ON Canada

Overall Rating: 7
Optics:7 Value:7
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Celestron Axiom 23mm
Great eyepiece for the price. Affordable performance for the mid to low class.

Overall Rating: 10
Optics:10 Value:10
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Celestron Axiom 23mm
The Axiom eyepiece affords a very wide field of view in my 16" F4.5 dob. There is minimal coma around the edge but the overall view is bright and the contrast is quite good. I purchased it online at Adorama for $139.00 and I believe it to be an excellent vaue. The wide-field performance is very impressive.

Overall Rating: 9
Optics:9 Value:10
Weight: 1 (Unreliable Vote)
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Celestron Axiom 23mm
Excellent wide angle lens for an F10 SCT. Provides an excellent combination of low-middle power magnification with the widest field possible on an F10 2000 mm SCT. Provides apx. 85x and 45' of viewing angle, which is the maximum a 2000 mm SCT can provide from a 1.25" lens. Because of the overall field of view, and crispness of the 23 mm Axiom 1.25" eyepiece, I prefer this eyepiece for over 90% of my easy viewing only switching to other eyepieces for special purposes.

Overall Rating: 9
Optics:10 Value:8
Weight: 1 (Unreliable Vote)
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Celestron Axiom 23mm
Excellant W.A. budget eyepiece. Deep sky stars were pinpoint across the whole 70 deg field, except with some minor distortion with the outer 10%. Dark sky background, bright stars,quality coatings and workmanship with this eyepiece, rates this a keeper! Filter threads were perfect.Excellant barlow images with my Ultima 2x .The only negative would be the tight fit in the barlow. I'm using this with my Skywatcher 150mm. f/8 refractor.

Overall Rating: 9
Optics:9 Value:9
Weight: 1 (Unreliable Vote)
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Celestron Axiom 23mm
Not a bad eyepiece for the price. The FOV is nice at over f/5 but degrades when using f/4.5. I used with my 17.5" f/5 for several months and will credit the Axiom getting me hooked with wide field eyepieces. If you can ignore the softness at the edge, it should work just fine. But, as mentioned, when I used this in a f/4.5 is became an issue. Though, the replacement was a 22mmT4. Wonder if a paracor would of worked to correct some of the softness at the edge? SCT users will not have to worry about this though as it performed well in the 8 f/10. Nice clear views without any color issues or hit with the edge distortion. If you have a scope with a f/5 or less, you may want to try it before you buy it.

Overall Rating: 7
Optics:7 Value:8
Weight: 5 (Veritable Vote)
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Celestron Axiom 23mm
Nice widefield eyepiece at a reasonable price. Stars are a bit fuzzy at the edge in my f/10 SCT. Workmanship is top-notch.

Overall Rating: 7
Weight: 3 (Unreliable Vote)
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Celestron Axiom 23mm
The first Axiom I bought. Excellent in my 11" sct. Edge-to-edge sharp, good contrast, 70deg FOV.

It measures up very well against far more expensive glass, and will quickly becomes the most used eypiece in your kit.

Overall Rating: 9
Optics:9 Value:9
Weight: 5 (Veritable Vote)
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Celestron Axiom 23mm
OK, one thing you should know about Axioms: they work better above f/6. Preferably above f/8 if you are really picky. I use mine in an f/15 Mak-Cass, and find it works very well on the brighter deep sky objects and gives a feeling of being immersed in the view. The eye relief is about perfect for me, as I do not wear glasses when viewing. The 30mm Ultima is better if you MUST wear glasses. These EP's are NOT made for fast Dobs, so you really can't really honestly compare them to Panoptics. In the slower scopes, I will take this over a Panoptic any day due to being lighter, smaller, less distorted and less expensive....and a bit more AFOV.

Celestron screwed up when they dropped this EP line, just as they did when they dropped the Ultima line. These are fine Japanese EP's.

Stars are soft at the very extreme edge next to the field stop. That's about it as far as optical defects go, and the Axioms are slightly less contrasty than the extremely contrasty Ultimas due to two more glass elements. If you didn't own Ultimas like I do, you might not notice it. Unlike a Panoptic, these are very useful in daytime terrestrial viewing due to much lower pincushion distortion.

Overall Rating: 9
Optics:9 Value:10
Weight: 1 (Unreliable Vote)
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Link to this vote: http://www.excelsis.com/1.0/displayvote.php?voteid=559336

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