Meade 56mm 4000 series super plossl

[deepspacehunter]

I got a Meade 56mm super plossl last week... I will be using it in the 12" DOB for those large objects, double cluster, beehive, M7, etc... as we all have experienced, I have had cloudy skies since getting the big EP... Can anybody let me know about their experiences with this EP..

Thx

Mark

I will give a 1st light report when the CLOUDS GO AWAY, and THE MOON is not present !!

[John]

Hi Mark,

The Meade 56mm is a good quality eyepiece but gives a huge 11.2mm exit pupil with an F/5 scope. You may well be able to see the shadow of the secondary mirror when observing. Personally I find 6mm the maximum size exit pupil that is effective with my eyes but you may find things different for you.

[alan potts]

I had the 55mm TeleVue Plossl which is a similar eyepiece though I used it in my LX with a rather long F/L, I think as John states you could well have problems with the size of the exit pupil and if as he says 11.2 mm is the size I am sure will show the shadow of the secondary mirror.

This was a problem with my M/N 190mm (1000mm F/L) with the TV Plossl though I do get away with the 41mm Panoptic which show almost the same FOV but with smaller exit pupil at 7.8. Even though as i said this works it is something that I rarely do much preferring the 35mm Panoptic. I would have thought if you really want to go down this road of widest FOV, and why not I did, then the 40mm Aero would be a better choice.

I have just noticed you are in the States where Sky Watcher gear is not sold. The Aero eyepiece is the same as the, I think it was called Astro Pro from Astronomics who are a massive USA dealership, I bought mine from them when over there some years back.

Alan

[John]

The Aero ED eyepieces that Alan refers to are marketed in the USA as the Astro Tech Titan II. Originally the same optics appeared in the TMB Paragon eyepieces which got some great reviews when they were around.

[alan potts]

That's it John, the grey matter is not what it once was, thankyou for helping out. They are not a bad eyepiece and I was rather unfair to mine as I thought it was soft around the edges at F10 which it was not, the scope needed a collimation tickle. The other great thing is they are also about half the weight of the Meade SWA or Panoptic. Good eyepiece!