New Meade Series 5000 2" 20mm UWA

[bytor666]

I just got this yesterday, brand spanking new! I wanted to give it a try to see if the correction on it in a fast scope was anything like the 30mm Meade UWA. This is the new waterproof Series 5000 version. I have owned the 5.5mm Meade Series 5000 WP UWA for a bit now and I really like it a lot as the correction and sharpness is top notch.

I still need to get the 20mm UWA out to try it soon.

Weight is 1.5 Pounds.

Cheers,

[brian nordstrom]

Hi if your 20mm is as good as my 14mm one , it must be as good as you are saying .
My 14mm is a great eyepiece in all my scopes zero issues optically and so very light as well .
Here is mine next to a few TV's to show its size , that's a 24mm Panoptic to its left .
Brian.

[bigjoe]

BRIAN ,wished I'd never sold my 6.7 meade uwa.It was the equal to me of any TV I've Owned amazing resolution and clarity for such a multiple glass ep bty aren't these made at Kunming Joc who make ES Eps. Who have or are acquiring Meade ?for peanuts.CHEERS bigjoe:)

[brian nordstrom]

:) I hear you Joe , as you can see my 14mm is not at all disgraced in amongst all my TV's , no sir , it performs so very well .
I often think of it as a 14mm Panoptic , very similar views to my 19mm , 22mm and 24mm Pans but with higher powers , I wont be selling mine any time soon .
I don't know :shrug: where these are made , anyone else know ?.
Brian.

[bytor666]

Hi Brian,

I was able to get out and test the 20mm Meade 5000 waterproof eyepiece a few nights ago. I let my 10" F/4.7 reflector cool down for over an hour with the fan on the back of my scope on full speed. Once I got out in my yard, I lowered the fan to the slowest speed and then I checked out a few open clusters.

Only the central 50% of the field had sharp stars in it. So I thought maybe my scope was not cooled enough, but the temperature was pretty much the same outside as it was on the inside of my house , (where my scope sits when I am not using it), So the scope not being "cooled" enough was ruled out. I also popped in my 14mm ES 100 and stars were sharp all over the field, except maybe the last 5% or so.

...So the bottom line with the new 20mm Meade 5000 waterproof UWA is that it does NOT PLAY WELL with short focal length telescopes. After fiddling about with the focuser I knew exactly what it was: FIELD CURVATURE.

I knew it was that because with field curvature, you can re-focus stars at the edges and the stars in the central FOV became de-focused, and when I focused stars in the central FOV, the outer 50% of stars were defocused. Another thing that miffed me about the 20mm WP UWA was the bothersome eye positioning. I had to leave my eye in one area only or I would get kidney beans.

So, needless to say, I sold the 20mm off the very next day and I won't be missing it one bit. It's a very nice looking eyepiece, but that's where it all ends, LOL. I've owned two Meade 5000 24mm UWA eyepieces, which is NOT the waterproof series, and that one has much better correction all over the field of view. I own the 5.5mm Version of the waterproof series, and that one is excellent across the entire field of view, and it also has really good eye relief.



PS: Brian: How does the 14mm Meade 5000 waterproof work in a fast scope? Have you tried it in a fast reflector like mine?

Cheers,

[brian nordstrom]

:) That's a shame Bytor that the 20mm was a dud , my 14 works very well in my Takahashi SKY90 at f/5 , no problems there and I use my TV Radians 3-12mm in this scope all the time as they are well matched as a unit , again its not embarressed at all .
In my Istar 127mm f/8 frak it's where it really struts its stuff , perfect ! :eyepop: . That's why I say it is as good as my TV Pan's because that's where my Panoptics get most use , an f/8 , 5 inch refractor ,, nice ;) .

On a side note I have a TV Radian 14mm on the way , just to fill the gap in my Radian collection and I will do a detailed comparo between these two .
As I say the Meade 14mm is a perfect match for the 127mm f/8 Istar , these 2 will be together for as long as I own both ,, a match made in heaven , so they say .
Brian.

[Wavytone]

Markus, Brian...

Eyepieces usually don't have flat fields. The trouble is, manufacturers don't disclose what the field curvature is so it's pot luck when buying one without trying first.

In a fast small refractor the field curvature is strongly convex towards the eyepiece. The field curvature of a fast 10" f/4 newtonian is exactly the opppsite - concave towards the eyepiece. I did some calculations on this recently and concluded that at the edge of the field of view the disparity between the focal plane at the edge of the field in a 1.25" barrel could be as much as 2mm. for scopes at 1 metre focal length.

So it's really no surprise to me that the series 5000 is a good match in one, but not the other scope.