Meade 4000/3000 or Vixen NPL?

[stem1989]

I am looking to upgrade my scopes eyepieces, im not after spending a bomb, about £150 for 3 (one 30ish, one 15ish and one 8ish)

All used conditions but here are what I have found

Meade 3000 - £80 for all 3 used

Meade 4000 - £110 for all 3 used

Vixen NPL - £90 for all 3 used

Im only a casual observer looking for a better quality EP than those supplied and these are what Ive landed on, Is any better than any other and given the prices and my budget are these good deals? Are the Meade 4000 superior than the other 2? I most look at DSO's in my 150p but have a 127 which I use for planetary now and again.

[Spec-Chum]

90 for 3 used npls seems a lot? Wouldn't cost much more new.

[John]

All those prices seem rather high for used eyepieces to me. Normally I'd expect to get 3 for around £60-£70. I had to virtually give away the last Meade 3000 I parted with !. They are all good eyepieces of their type though. You could get 3 BST Explorers for a bit less than £150 (new) I think and they would be more comfortable to view through at the shorter focal lengths than plossls.

[Spec-Chum]

Just noticed the npl's have gone up in price, would be 115 for those 3 focal lengths new

[alan potts]

I have only had any time with the Meade 26mm 4000 and the 32mm from the same series. I firstly would be shocked if you had to pay 110 pounds for three of these eyepieces as they are a simple 50 degree plossl design, nothing special but they do a fairly good job, well at least they did on my LX 200 a few years back. You will have to bear in mind that a LX is F10 and looks kindly on any eyepiece, so much depends on the speed of your scope. I would have thought that if you shop around and wait you could pick up 3 Series 5000 Super Plossl from Meade which are much better than the other Meades you mention and a wider FOV, I have never seen any Vixen eyepieces so cannot comment.

Alan.

[stem1989]

Thanks for the replies! Ive decided to get 6.4mm 15mm and a 32mm 4000 Meade for £110 brand new, After looking around its got to be a step up from the Super MA's

[andrew63]

I would not consider a 6.4mm plossl - as they have very poor eye-relief. The 15 and 32mm will be fine though. Most of these that your looking at will sell for around £20 - look on astro buy and sell.

andrew

[Spec-Chum]

I would not consider a 6.4mm plossl - as they have very poor eye-relief.

I'm one of the weird ones that doesn't get bothered by even a 4mm plossl