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Is there a difference from Meade 5000 and HD 60 eyepieces


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I assume you mean the Series 5000 Plossls vs. HD-60?

They're very different eyepieces.

I don't know much about the actual lens design inside the HD-60s other than the fact that they're optically identical to Celestron X-Cel LX eyepieces, but with a different casing. The X-Cels - and the HD-60 that I had - were comparatively sharp eyepieces - the 25mm HD-60 in particular being exceptionally sharp on the moon compared to other eyepieces of that focal length.

The Meade Series 5000 Plossls are - somewhat curiously - not actually Plossls at all, but Erfles. They can turn in a reasonably good performance if the scope isn't too fast - the centre of field in particular, being nicely sharp and contrasty. There is something about the view in the Series 5000 "Plossls" (sic) that I am very fond of, and I don't know why. It's as if the glass is somehow "clearer" than other eyepieces. Also the field-stops are positioned in close-focus, so those of us who are short-sighted get treated to an exceptionally sharp field-stop framing the view, which is nice.

The 14mm Meade Series 5000 "Plossl" eyepiece is - in my view - a bit special. It's wonderful in a binoviewing pair in my Mak 180, but also provides exceptionally rich contrasty views in my 150/F8. It is on my "Do not sell" list :)

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The only meade 5000 'plossl' that i owned was the 32mm which was a 2" eyepiece. As you say i found the middle excellent - televue plossl esque - however not too far from the centre the performance was very poor and that was at F7 ! A far cry from their original 5 element type 'super plossl' .

andrew

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The 14mm Meade Series 5000 "Plossl" eyepiece is - in my view - a bit special. It's wonderful in a binoviewing pair in my Mak 180, but also provides exceptionally rich contrasty views in my 150/F8. It is on my "Do not sell" list :)

Nah, you do want to sell them :evil:

This is exactly how I feel about the 14mm, which is why I'm looking for a second one now that I have BVs. I've replaced every other eyepiece in my collection over the past year - I was hoping the 16mm SWA would be the same, but 68 degrees, however the eye relief of the 14mm plossl feels longer, whilst being listed as slightly shorter.

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I like te Meade 26mm series 5000 and I am about to get the 14mm Meade 5000 I heard that one is special I guess if its like an erfle Than It performs best at slower f/ratio scopes ingot a f/8.3 reflector so it should perform ok

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Great bear you think the fov will be sharp to the edge in my criterion f/8 scope with the Meade 14mm 5000 eyepiece? You said it was clearer And special? You mean clearer and special Do you mean It was as sharp on axis as an orthoscopic I think it is an erfle design Plossls Have a 4 element not a 5 like the Meade 5000

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Easily as sharp on-axis as an ortho, and whilst it's possible to have 5-element designs other than the Erfle, I've dismantled my 14mm for cleaning and the lens configuration is per Tamasflex's Erfle illustration from Wikipedia

Erfle_1917.png

(reproduced here as permitted under the under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license)

What's less clear is why - given that the range uses a scaled design in all but the 5.5mm (adds a Smyth lens) - it should perform better in some focal lengths than others.

It seems commonly accepted in the community to call a five-element design a Plossl if the fifth element is a bi-convex corrector between the achromats, but in this case inspection reveals the design as essentially Erfle with maybe some index tweaks in the glass choices.

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So great bear Why does Meade call it a super plossl It should be a erfle and erfles only perform sharp to the edge of the fov in f/7 or slower scopes Is the Meade 14 mm sharp to the edge in your telescope What kind of telescopes you used on the Meade 14mm thanks

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