Tonight I had the chance to check out a new Meade 5000 5.5mm plossl. I had ordered it as a friend's gift, but couldn't resist putting it first into the focuser of my 7" maknewt. It is a pretty eyepiece with the red band on the barrel, lying in its black velvet-lined case. The twist-up eye guard has a nice feel to it and stays in place. I was able to see the full field of view with it up about halfway, but not all the way. Eye relief on the plossl was tight but acceptable. Of course, the seeing tonight was bad, so I not only looked at saturn, but for a sharper image a streetlight about 40 yards away. I was able to compare it with a 6mm Radian. Their apparent fields of view appeared to be identical when I put an eyepiece in each eye. There is no question that this plossl has a wider field than other plossls I've had. Edge-of-field sharpness showed a gradual dropoff, and did not significantly break down at the extreme edge. Saturn's Cassini division faded out there but the banding on the globe and overall shape were still intact.
The street light afforded a fairly crisp image, looking at grains of dust on its plastic cover. I was not able to detect any real difference in center field sharpness as compared to the Radian, switching them back and forth several times. Brightness and contrast were too close to call. The principal difference was edge-of-field sharpness, the Radian being clearly superior. Unfortunately I didn't have another short plossl for comparison. I would like to try them out again on a night of better seeing, and with the moon well up. Overall, I'm impressed, and from these simple tests would guess that the 5000 plossls can be a very good frugal alternative to the Radians.
The street light afforded a fairly crisp image, looking at grains of dust on its plastic cover. I was not able to detect any real difference in center field sharpness as compared to the Radian, switching them back and forth several times. Brightness and contrast were too close to call. The principal difference was edge-of-field sharpness, the Radian being clearly superior. Unfortunately I didn't have another short plossl for comparison. I would like to try them out again on a night of better seeing, and with the moon well up. Overall, I'm impressed, and from these simple tests would guess that the 5000 plossls can be a very good frugal alternative to the Radians.
