Meade QX reborn?

[great_bear]

Call me cynical, but the new 70 degree eyepieces from Explorer Scientific listed here <click> look suspiciously like rehoused versions of the Meade QX eyepieces listed here <click>

Don't you think?

(especially given the relationship between the two companies)

If so, then you're paying top prices for what's considered to be a rather old and not-particularly-stunning eyepiece range...

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Hard to tell from the images. The internals might be redesigned.

[great_bear]

There really are surprisingly few eyepiece ranges on the market - when you start discounting all of the rebranded ones sourced from the same factories. Usually, an eyepiece range's focal-length lineup (give or take the 1mm rounding errors here and there) can be considered - in conjunction with physical form factor - to be their signature.

Given that Explore Scientific's parent company makes Meade's eyepieces, I can't see them redesigning the optics for this budget range of eyepieces - especially when it's widely believed that Explore Scientific's 82 degree range is merely waterpoofed Meade UWAs, and their (long-awaited) 68 degree range looks like waterproofed Meade SWAs.

[John]

They do look similar but I hope they are not. I've tried a couple of QX's and they did not perform anywhere near as well as their glossy exterior and major branding suggested they might. The 26mm 2" one was pretty awful but Meade still persisted in supplying it as the standard eyepiece with the Meade Ligtbridge dobs.