Meade 6.7 UWA early version, a very special eyepiece

[mike bacanin]

Hello everyone,

I have an eyepiece that i consider very special. Its a vintage first series Meade 6.7mm UWA series 4000.

Its long been known that the 14mm UWA is one of the finest eyepieces of its type ever made, and the 8.8 UWA is also superb.

But, after testing this liitle gem in a 6" F8 newtonian with a 1/12th wave primary, i was astonished at how good it was.

I used Plato's craterlets, always a fine test of a scope's resolution.

I compared it to one of the finest eyepieces for critical planetary/lunar observation, a TMB 6mm supermono.

here's the result. In the supermono, 4 craterlets visible.

in the Meade, 5 craterlets visible.

astounding for such a complex 84 degree multi coated eyepiece of 80's vintage!

the image remained sharp right out, indicating no curvature to speak of.

the image is quite neutral in tone.

These 1st edition smoothside versions are very hard to come by nowadays, and to me, represent the art of Japanese optics at its best. imagine if this had the exotic coatings as now available!

yes, a very special eyepiece.

Mike

[AndyH]

Very interesting Mike.

I remember discussions on the net regarding this range of eyepieces.

Always good to read about a direct comparison of eyepieces rather than someone trying to remember from past experiences.

I had forgotten all about the plato craterlet tests. I've got a list somewhere. Will need to dig them out.

That's a stunning and fascinating outcome, considering the super-mono's status. Who'd a thunk it? Not me.

Hope to hear more of these types of shootouts of older 'classic' eyepieces.

Cheers,

Andy.

[Fizgig]

Thats a nice eyepiece indeed! How much would one of those be worth now? Are you selling it, or just waving it under our noses?

[AndyH]

Are you selling it, or just waving it under our noses?

The latter, methinks.

;)Andy.

[Rob]

Thats a nice ep.. I can agree these vintage jobs are awsume. I took delivery of a 9mm Meade research grade ortho only 2 days ago. It has the same barrel an black housing. Japan label and the container has a optics test pass label. the views through it are unreal.. beats the current day stuff.

Regards

Rob

[mike bacanin]

No, its not for sale!

but if you come across one, including the later eyecup version, they are quite amazing, just buy it!

imagine a pair binoviewed. (assuming no merge issues)

Mike