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Shocking QC- Meade HD-60


markse68

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It’s no longer made so a bit unfair but I recently bought this seemingly pristine HD-60 25mm and finally had a chance to try it out last night. Pretty shocked at the QC!

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The field stop is hairy! Looking closer there seems to be myriad tiny bubbles- I guess in the cemented elements though i can’t figure out how to open it to check. They reflect the light into radial “hairs” :( 

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Even worse though is the 1.25” barrel. The nose is undersized at 31.65mm but the upper collar is 32mm- it doesn’t fit in a focuser. So the ep can’t be clamped without it wiggling about in the undercut! :( 

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Its a nice looking ep and I had read pretty good reports about this series but this one is pretty awful!

Mark

Edited by markse68
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I'd check my HD-60 set to compare, but I've loaned them out to my grown daughter for her use.  I don't ever recall having any issues fully seating them in a diagonal or Newtonian focuser, though.  The field stop was a bit indistinct in a most focal lengths IIRC, but I always wrote it off as the field stop being positioned incorrectly.  I had never considered poor glass or cementing issues.  I never noticed scatter in the field around bright objects that such flaws usually introduce.  It doesn't mean it wasn't there, just that I never noticed it.

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The eyepiece may or may not be a "second", or at least one sitting on the shelf for a long time.

The "bubbles" might be fungus on the surface of the lens, and likely internal.

I would dismantle the eyepiece and thoroughly clean each element.

As for the barrel, well, there is nothing to do about that unless you're willing to have it machined down.

I would give serious thought to returning it.

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On 07/12/2022 at 23:03, Don Pensack said:

I would give serious thought to returning it.

Thanks Louis and Don, I have decided to return it- too much trouble to try and rectify the issues and if it did turn out to be bubbles in the lens cement then impossible really. Shame as I had been after one of these for a while too

Mark

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