Meade 5000 32mm

[huwbellamy]

Hi all,

got a chance to use my new scope and meade 5000 32mm EP last night. It was 11 o'clock so not quite dark and I was having to avoid the odd cloud. The scope I love and can't wait to get better skies to have a go at some deeper sky stuff. I have 2 1.25" 32mm EP's, a Meade 4000 (chinese) and a Celestron Plossl, neither comes close to the clarity and field size of the 2" Meade 5000. Stars were crisper and edge of field was great. I can't imagine what the super/ultra wides are like! My pocket and eye is happy with the 5000 and thanks to Steve at FLO for SGL discount and shipping it while busy with his latest delivery. May have to invest in some other 5000's but not sure which ones are best in my scope.

I have some celestron omni plossls: 4, 9 and 15mm and some chinese meade 4000's: 6.4, 9.7 and 15mm and 1 Japanese meade 4000 12.4mm. I got a little carried away on Ebay, hence the meades. Any ideas on which are best of that lot and which meade 5000 would be a good buy? I have a 2" ED barlow and could get 75X out of the new 32mm.

Also, I have a second chance offer on ebay to buy a used but mint Japanese Meade 4000 8-24mm zoom. It's £100 and from a trustworthy seller - are they any good?

While I'm here I should ask where I can get flexible focus extenders for the slow motion controls on my CG5 mount and are those large Planisphere charts still available/any alternative?

Finally, I would welcome comments on the range of 2" Revelation EP's as they are not too expensive and may be an alternative to Meade 5000's (possibly go for a 42mm if I was feeling reckless),

See http://www.telescopehouse.co.uk/page.aspx?theLang=001lngdef&pointerid=564C7A43D3E24E51B9A28F7E88AE5FF8&action=lnk. for details.

Thanks for all the advice on my previous questions, I have also searched the learning zone going back about 1 year and found some little gems. Huw.

[Whippy]

So Huw, after some eyepieces are we? ....

Personally, I wouldn't bother with the zoom. I'd like to think a good comparison is when you're buying a hifi. If you want real proper quality, then go for seperates. If you want convenience at the cost of sound quality, then get a midi/all in one system My missus bought a 8-24 Celestron zoom and I think I've used it once.

Have you thought about the Baader Hyperion range? Widefield, good quality and a bit cheaper than your Meade 5000. I've got an 8mm and it's the business.

Tony..

[huwbellamy]

Cheers Tony,

could you sense the impending wallet opening? I find it really hard to not worry over this eyepiece or that filter, even though I have only looked through a telescope for 1 month, and perhaps only 10 times. My justification is that the days of pubs and ciggies are long gone and I'm a total fuss Bottom.

You have swayed me with the zoom, I couldn't really see the point but had there been a raft of positive views I would have gone for it. I haven't looked in detail at the Hyperions but am likely to go for an eyepiece upgrade between 9 and 14mm somewhere as when barlowed I would get between 266x and 171x for planetary/glob viewing. I'm not sure what average seeing allows out of my sort of scope and I've never seen a glob. I could get 145x out of my 4" frac previously, anything more was just bigger and more blurred. Does 50x per inch really apply under average seeing? What do others get out of their similar aperture scopes in terms of maximum comfortable mag - may post that question as a thread later..

Clouding over now so may go for a jog,

Huw.

[GazOC]

I think in the UK you can bank on being able to use x200 often, x250 pretty often and x300 now and again. If I was building an eyepiece collection I'd get x200-x250 covered first and x300 with any spare cash afterwards.