Old school Meade 4000 ultra wide 8.8mm.

[cotterless45]

Snapped up on Fleabay and a worthy gap filler for planetary, Moon and galaxies. 84 degrees fov and generous eye relief. I generally go for older Japanese eps and had a stunning first light in poorest seeing last night.

Jupiter presented a pin sharp black transit shadow of Io across the disc. The colours of the belts were well defined. This was at x136. I then put in the end of a x2 Barlow to give a pleasing x 218.

Without the Barlow I caught the centre of NGC 7789 before the Moon arrived, just a stunning glittering sea of stars, really impressive. The Moon was wobbly over the house tops, so it'll have to wait.

The ep is well made and the outer base slots over the 1.25" or sinks into the 2" focuser held by a side bolt.

I compared it with my Hyperion 10mm and found no loss of sharpness at the field edge in the Meade. For double stars it defines seperation very finely and am awaiting the New moon soon,

Nick.

[Daniel-K]

did you get that of ENS? i have a chance to buy one of these this weekend still debating how well it will be @F4.5

[jetstream]

I heard these are very good....

[rl]

I picked up the smoothside version for £70 on astro b+s and have been delighted with it. I've got more expensive eyepieces but use the meade often on field trips or abroad where I don't want to risk losing an ethos or where fingerprints might happen in bad places.. It gives up a bit of contrast to the ethos but not a lot else. Not too heavy either. Using a 12" F/4 scope.

RL

[rwilkey]

Great report Nick and a good purchase, well done!