Meade 4000 EP's

[Jupiter Martin]

Hi can anyone tell me what the difference is in the meade 4000 EP's Made in China and Made in Japan

[mike bacanin]

Hi Martin,

I'm an enthusiastic fan of older Japan made eyepieces,

see this link for the answer to your question

Meade Series 4000 12.4mm "Super" Plssl Eyepieces: A primer to Confusion - Review

Regards

Mike

[Jupiter Martin]

Thanks for that Mike

[Saturnalia]

Just wanted a little advice on these too - I have recently picked up a Meade 4000-series Super Plossl from Fleabay but as I don't own any others from this range, I'm unfamiliar with them.

My EP doesn't mention '4000-series' on it anywhere...?

Can any 4000-series owners confirm for me what is written around the barrel on a genuine Meade 4000...?

TIA

[beetlejuice]

They don't say '4000 Series' or similar. Mine all say MEADE SUPER PLOSSL XXmm MULTI-COATED.

[Saturnalia]

Great - that's what I needed to hear...!

Thanks

[beetlejuice]

Great - that's what I needed to hear...!

Thanks

No problem. I think they are every good eyepieces for the money. I also have 5000 series Plossls and they are even better.

[Saturnalia]

Don't get me started...!

I'm already looking at trying a TeleVue Plossl...this is going to get expensive I fear

[kniclander]

I know there were supposed to be some "fake" 4000s floating around on ebay a year or two ago. i bought a set (very cheap) and they were definitely a bit dodgy (eg missing filter thread on one of them and wrong colour blue on all the boxes) but optically they seemed fine. I had a "real" one to compare. i suspect they were seconds.

[beetlejuice]

Don't get me started...!

I'm already looking at trying a TeleVue Plossl...this is going to get expensive I fear

No need to spend a fortune. Short focus 'scopes can be a bit picky but for anything over f/8 good old Plossls will perform more than adequately (you don't really need that Ethos or Nagler). Meade 5000's are more than a match for TV Plossls and can be picked up for very reasonable price secondhand. 60 quid is the max I've paid for a 32mm. The others were a lot less.

[Jupiter Martin]

Telescope House do a set of 3 Meade 5000 for £145 which is a great price it includes 5.5mm 9mm 14mm

[beetlejuice]

I know there were supposed to be some "fake" 4000s floating around on ebay a year or two ago. i bought a set (very cheap) and they were definitely a bit dodgy (eg missing filter thread on one of them and wrong colour blue on all the boxes) but optically they seemed fine. I had a "real" one to compare. i suspect they were seconds.

I had two Meade 26mm Plossls at one time. One came with a new ETX I bought and the other I bought off fleabay. The fleabay one was a different size physically to the Meade-supplied one, but apart from that it performed just as well and seemed to be just as well built. I also have a 32mm Meade Plossl which is slightly different in barrel design from another recent Chinese-made one I've seen. I suspect they are not fakes but from different Chinese factories. Meade has never confirmed one way or the other that there are fakes out there.

[beetlejuice]

Telescope House do a set of 3 Meade 5000 for £145 which is a great price it includes 5.5mm 9mm 14mm

Bargain. If I didn't already have them, I'd buy them!!

[Jupiter Martin]

I bought them already great deal your basicly getting one free