The housing (including barrel) is approximately 85mm in length and 95mm with the twist-up eyeguard extended. It has a generous eye lens and I make the field stop about 26mm. The housing sports a novel equatorial treaded rubber grip reminiscent of a tractor tyre. The barrel includes a filter thread, adequate baffling and a shallow undercut. The eyepiece weighs around 170g according to my scales and is supplied with its own bolt case.
I now own several X-Cel LX eyepieces. About seven years ago I acquired the 9mm.
It was the first X-Cel LX I bought. As it had a 60º
The original Celestron X-Cel eyepiece range were reputedly among the worst designed eyepieces in the world. They were not particularly successful. Celestron eventually released a new range with the same X-Cel brand name but with the letters ‘LX’ added. So, no confusion there then! These LX versions generally have a very good reputation. Although I have had quality control problems with them in the past. Three or four years ago I had to return three 7mm focal length LX’s consecutively due to visible debris in the field. This was a known problem with some other focal lengths as well. Apparently due to a bad batch. I’ve not had the same problem with recent purchases.
X-Cel LX eye lens dust caps are very close fitting. This seems to be the same throughout the range. The upside is that the cap won’t come off if the eyepiece is in your pocket. The downside is that you may lose a fingernail trying to remove the cap in the first place. Okay, maybe it’s not that bad. The field lens caps are fine.
I got first light with the 25mm X-Cel LX in my 72ED DS Pro Evostar. It gave 16.8x for (about) 3º, 34’
Overall this is an enjoyable eyepiece to use and I specifically bought it for the 72ED, primarily due to its comparatively light weight. It’s definitely a keeper.