Meade Series 5K HD-60 Eyepieces

Started by daqua, 10/14/2012 09:20PM
Posted 10/14/2012 09:20PM Opening Post
Has anyone had experience with any of the Meade series 5000 HD-60 eyepieces? Meade advertises 17 mm eye relief. They seem to be Meade's answe to the radian at a much lower price. I am particulary concerned about kidney beaning, construction quality, and image quality.

I tried the ES 8.8 mm ultra wide angle and found that while the construction quality was superb, it was impossible to see the entire field to the edge without moving my head from side to side. When moving my eye close enough to see the entire field from a single eye position, the eyepiece exhibited severe kidney beaning, so the 82 degree field of view could not be realized. This was with an f/11.4 refractor. I imagine the problem would be worse with faster scopes.