Does anyone have ideas about these new eyepieces? They sound too good to be true...how about eye relief? Pricing is $79 to $99. They are 5 element, fully multicoated and come in focal lengths of 15 to 36 mm. Advertised in Sky and Telescope for October.
Meade 4000 QX wide angle 70's
Started by Charles Geiger, 08/29/2005 10:57PM
Posted 08/29/2005 10:57PM
Opening Post
Posted 09/02/2005 02:54PM
#1
Charles,
I have a 36 Meade QX that I am using in a 10 inch, F/6 dob. It works very well as a finder eyepiece, giving over 1.65 degrees TFOV. It does show some sofness in the outer part of the field, though most of the softness appears to be field curvature that you can refocus for, rather than astigmatism. There is some of the latter, but it's not bad at all.
I don't usually use my glasses when I observe, but it seems like you can with the 36 QX with the eyecup rolled down. Eye relief is very adequate without glasses, using the eyecup, and I have not had any trouble with blackout. Based on the above, I would guess eye relief to be about 15mm.
I just had a chance to compare the 36 QX to a 32 Meade Superwide (the just discontinued 4000 version). I was thinking that I might improve on the QX without spending too much more money (e.g., on a 35 Panoptic). Obviously this isn't a perfect comparison given the different focal lengths. But my conclusion was that I will be keeping the QX until I can pick up the Panoptic. The 32 SWA seemed to give a flatter field but more astigmatism than the QX. The QX seemed at least as good or a little better on contrast, which is surprising given the longer focal length.
Hope that helps.
Jeff Bennett
I have a 36 Meade QX that I am using in a 10 inch, F/6 dob. It works very well as a finder eyepiece, giving over 1.65 degrees TFOV. It does show some sofness in the outer part of the field, though most of the softness appears to be field curvature that you can refocus for, rather than astigmatism. There is some of the latter, but it's not bad at all.
I don't usually use my glasses when I observe, but it seems like you can with the 36 QX with the eyecup rolled down. Eye relief is very adequate without glasses, using the eyecup, and I have not had any trouble with blackout. Based on the above, I would guess eye relief to be about 15mm.
I just had a chance to compare the 36 QX to a 32 Meade Superwide (the just discontinued 4000 version). I was thinking that I might improve on the QX without spending too much more money (e.g., on a 35 Panoptic). Obviously this isn't a perfect comparison given the different focal lengths. But my conclusion was that I will be keeping the QX until I can pick up the Panoptic. The 32 SWA seemed to give a flatter field but more astigmatism than the QX. The QX seemed at least as good or a little better on contrast, which is surprising given the longer focal length.
Hope that helps.
Jeff Bennett
Posted 09/06/2005 09:44PM
#2
I use a 36mm for a "finder" eyepiece on my 10" f/5 Dob-Newt. I actually did a little report: http://www.cloudynights.com/documents/BurgessSWA.pdf .
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Mike
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Mike
Funding Member
