Meade 5000 or TV

[ColHut (Colin)]

Sigh - I am looking for the widest possible TFOV eyepiece in 1.25" for both my 4.5" f8 and 10" f5. Coincidently this brings me to either a TV 32mm plossl @ 50 degree AFOV or a 26 mm Meade 5000 plossl @ 60 degree AFOV. If anyone has both of these is either better in both scopes or would they care to profer an opinion? I note the TV is currentl $145 at bintel and the meade on special for 109(?).

cheers

[Kevnool (Kev)]

Hi I own a Meade 5000 26 mm its a fantastic eyepiece its my 2nd favourite eyepiece alongside the Meade 4000 14mm with 84 degree FOV.....................Both eyepieces perform exeptionally well in both my 10" and 16" Dobs.........Its your choice Col......cheers Kev.

[wavelandscott (Scott)]

Originally Posted by ColHut

Sigh - I am looking for the widest possible TFOV eyepiece in 1.25" for both my 4.5" f8 and 10" f5. Coincidently this brings me to either a TV 32mm plossl @ 50 degree AFOV or a 26 mm Meade 5000 plossl @ 60 degree AFOV. If anyone has both of these is either better in both scopes or would they care to profer an opinion? I note the TV is currentl $145 at bintel and the meade on special for 109(?).

cheers

I'll add to your choices and recommend one of my favorite eyepieces...the 24 Panoptic. I also have a 32 mm TV Plossl which is a nice eyepiece but I prefer the Panoptic...

If forced to choose between the Meade and TV as you have outlined I would choose the TV. The reason I say this is that I have not used any of the 5000 series from Meade....

I've never looked through a bad TV (Plossl, Radian, Nagler, Ethos, Panoptic) but I have looked through some not quite high end performance Meade eyepieces (I've also looked though some good ones). TV has been and is top shelp across the range...consistently good across the board...so that is the basis of my opinion...your mileage my vary

Having said all of that, if budget will allow, I'd go with the 24 Panoptic.

[bmitchell82 (Brendan)]

I have a whole heap of Meade 5000, I can say they produce crisp clear images. The Eps i have is 26mm 20mm 40mm(2"). so i cant complain Though i havn't used the other eps you have specified!

Brendan

[OneOfOne (Trevor)]

I would like to put in a vote for the 24 Pan...truly an excellent eyepiece, but maybe outside your budget. I actually bought mine for the very reason that it was the 1.25" with the widest field of view (ie. longest focal length) in the F5 200mm Newt, but with the C11 it has now become my most used eyepiece!

As for AFOV (the other scope will give similar ratios):

32mm Plossl
50 / (1000 / 32) = 1.6 degrees

26mm Meade
60 / (1000 / 26) = 1.56 degrees

24mm Pan
68 / (1000 / 24) = 1.63 degrees

The Pan has the widest field of view, but not enough that you would notice. The next widest is the Plossl, but will have the smaller view, so you will see "more" but it will be smaller. The Pan would actually cover the largest field, and everything will be larger...if you get what I mean. But if you look at the figures, there is not much between any of them, they will all effectively fit in 3 Moons with a tad to spare.

[ColHut (Colin)]

Dear All,
Many thanks for your comments
much appreciated.

[PeteMo (Pete)]

The Panoptic 24 gets my vote for the 1 1/4" eyepieces. Whilst not as wide as a Nagler, the 68 degree gives a natural view, with almost 3D perspective. I was impressed with MikeyB's Pan 24, so much that I almost got it ahead of the Nagler 13mm.