Pleasantly Surprised

I bought this to try out on my son's new Nexstar 4 SE. I also bought the Celestron larger eyepiece/filter kit. I thought we might like the convenience of the zoom (we did!) and I did not see much of a difference in the images between the zoom and the fixed EPs. Unlike the fixed EPs, the focus barely changes when changing the magnification on this zoom, and only slight adjustments are required. I also REALLY like the better eye relief and larger "field of view" vs. the smaller f/mm kit EPs.
The barrel of the zoom is bigger then the stock 25mm, and seemed to be a nice quality item. I kept this, and sent the kit back. I will also get a good Barlow and the moon filter, and feel pretty well set (for now).

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.  more