Meade 4000 apochromatic 2X Barlow

[Nordo]

Does anyone know what Meade barlows are like?
There is one on Ebay which I am thinking of bidding for, but it would be nice to know a little bit more about it's reputation:) .
Thanks.

PS I just missed out on a 15mm Meade 4000 super plossl for about $50.00. For some reason Ebay was telling me the auction had 1hr to run, when the time had actually run out:mad2: .

[Tamtarn]

When bidding on ebay you need to keep refreshing the page in order to update the current time left for auction.

Have not used Meade Barlow so cannot comment on results.

David

[Nordo]

Thanks David.
Have you had any experience with 4000 series eyepieces?
There are quite a few 4000 series Plossl EPs of various FLs for sale .

[Tamtarn]

Hi John

We have three Meade 4000 series eyepieces which we use with our Meade ETX 125PE (5") these are 12.5 : 15 : & 26mm. For the price we find them very good on this scope, we have also used them in our 12" Dob and they work well.

We now have premium eyepieces for our Dob.

To upgrade from your GSO plossls Meade 4000 plossls would be good value, if you can get them at a good price. Keeping in mind that they are only $89.00 new at Bintel.

There are other choices that would be better, but it depends on how much you want to pay. If it's $50 - $100 there are not too many choices.

David

[asimov]

I have the barlow in question, for a little over 2 yrs. I like it & have no desire to replace it in the near future.

[Nordo]

Thanks for the heads up on the Bintel prices. I didn't realise they were relatively cheap.

What I REALLY want is one or two wide field EPs for DSOs combined with say an Orion 2X 2" deluxe barlow. My scope is a 10" f5 dob and I'm over 60 (just:P ) so my exit pupil is probably limited - although I don't wear glasses, so eye relief isn't important. I do a lot of viewing at Astroron's in Cambroon which is pretty dark, although I live about 8km out from a small town (Tewantin, Qld) so I can get pretty dark skies at home too. My budget is pretty tight, but I guess I would be willing to spend a bit more for an EP that I would never grow out of.

After saying all that, I should have started a new topic:help:

[Nordo]

Thanks. I was wondering how it compared to the UO barlow, which everyone says is the same as the Orion 2" Deluxe barlow that is still available.

[casstony]

Hi John,
I think you'd be wasting your money to upgrade from GSO plossls to Meade s4000 plossls. Figure out what your most used magnification is and save your pennies until you can afford a top shelf eyepiece at that focal length. While you're saving you might run into a good deal on a used eyepiece. A 65 to 70 degree AFOV is really worth it.

[Nordo]

Thanks Tony
I haven't been observing for very long, but because I don't know my way around the skies, I tend to use my 30mm til I stumble across something, then I work up to what gives the best viewing. Sometimes this can be as high as my 9mm, and other times the 15 or the 25mm gives the best view. Luckily I do a lot of viewing at Astroron's where everyone is happy to point me to something I haven't seen. I think I need to try other people's EPs to give me an appreciation of what the various EPs will do for me.

BTW, I grew up in Yallourn in the 40s through to the late 60s. There's no Yallourn any more, but good to see Morwell is still alive and kicking. I wonder what happened to all the girls I took out from Morwell:whistle:

[casstony]

It's good that you escaped to better skies - Morwell and the Valley is still very much alive and kicking and so are the power stations, pumping out water vapour to disrupt my viewing.

[Tamtarn]

Hi John

I aggree with Tony in saving for a top shelf Ep at your most used focal magnification. My reply on your thread was based on the fact that you were looking for EP'S around $50.00.
A top shelf EP is going to cost a heap more, even secondhand.
It would be an advantage if you can view through various EP's on a simular scope to your own before you purchase.

You can also use the search tab on this forum to find out what others have said about various EP'S

We were advised by some of the most knowledgable people on this forum and are extremely happy with our selection.

David

[janoskiss]

I have had the Meade 4000 #140 apo, the Orion Shorty Plus and an Orion Deluxe equivalent 2" Japanese barlow amongst many others. Barlows are hard to get right: Orion Deluxe 2" aka UO 2" is the best I've used, TV 1.8x second.

I've seen a few examples of Meade #140s. At best they are good optically but need a bit of work (barrel blackening) to make them perform well. At worst they have bad astigmatism and are useless (the one I ended up with and still have is like that). IMO they are not worth it unless cheap and you know how to tell a good barlow from a bad (defective) one and buy from a dealer who will refund.

Re meade 4000 Plossls, I don't think the current crop is any better than the GSO Plossls, which are quite good already. Comparing my 25mm GSOs with the 5-element Antares Elite (top of the range Celestron Ultima style) plossl at f/5, they perform similarly. They both show about the same amount of astigmatism on bright stars in the last 10-15 degrees. The Elite has a more even illumination of the full field. The GSO darkens a bit towards the edges. It is not a big difference but it is fairly obvious to me and does make the FOV feel narrower in the GSO, although it's virtually the same.

[Nordo]

Thanks Guys for all your help and advice.

Tony - Your welcome to visit anytime your up in Queensland.

David - I think your right. I have access to a great bunch of guys here on the Sunshine Coast, mainly through the star parties at Cambroon (Astroron's place). I think they probably have a good range of EPs which I'm certain they would all be happy to let me try them in my own scope.

janoskiss - Thanks for comparing the 4000s to the GSOs. Makes me realise that a name (Meade) doesn't necessarily mean quality. As far as a barlow is concerned, it didn't take me long to realise that UO/Orion 2X was a very highly respected barlow. I was curious as to how the Meade stacked up against it.

Thanks again:)

[CoombellKid]

I agree with the above statement, mine was somewhere in between. Not
only that, some months after purchase the coatings on mine started to
pit or became mottled. I kept it in the same EP box as with all my high end
ep's and barlows along with a couple of packs of silica. All my ep's and
barlows are cleaned in the same careful manner using pharmaceutical
grade isopropyl alcohol, yet this only happened to the Meade #140 apo
barlow.

Rob