meade 4000 super and super wide eyepieces

Hello everybody,
Just wondering if there is much of a difference between the meade 4000 series super plossls and the superwide plossls besides the price. Thanks, T. J.

Meade Superwides are obviously wider. The 18mm has Afov of 63°. The field of view is without distortion for only the middle 60%. Beyond 80% the view is poor. Which brings you right back to the equivalent of a 52° Afov plossl.

I can only speak about my experience with the 18mm. I like the eyepiece, but when I measured the technical abilities I was disappointed.

edz

Tom, with a name like Koenigsfield, you might also want to consider the UO Konigs. The 16mm UO Konig has an advertised FOV of 65*. The field stop on mine measures exactly .75" or approx. 18.75mm. Compare that to the 15mm Meade Series 4000 super plossl which has a dinky little .52" or approx. 12.5mm field stop. (Somebody should check my caliper to metric conversions.)

I've never checked either one of these by star drift, but my overall impression in several scopes has been that the amount of useable field in the 16mm Konig makes it a worthwhile choice when a wider FOV is worth sacrificing some contrast to achieve. I don't know about others in the Konig line. Not all have such a wide FOV.

I like the 16mm Konig II a lot, but it doesn't take barlowing as well as the 15mm S.P.

In terms of overall performance for the buck, I like the orig. Japanese Meade Super Plossls a lot. They are the backbone of my e.p. collection. The 32mm will give the widest FOV possible in the 1.25" format. It's a good alternative to some of the "wide field" e.p.s The 26mm is a very consistant performer in all scopes that I've tried it in, and doesn't suffer from the quality issues that plague so many of the Chinese plossls. Barlowing the 15mm & 12.4mm S.P.s works out to be a very good alternative to using short eye relief orthos with very little performance lost. I like that solution so much that I just ordered the 9.7mm S.P.

Mike Swaim

Tom,

I agree with Bret that the 24 Pans are optically better than Meade's, but for the money and the quality you get I love 'em. I use an older pair (no eyeguards) on my binoviewer and get great results. If you have the money get the Pans, but you won't go wrong if you buy the SWA's.

guy