Re: New Meade Series 5000 Eyepieces - Taking a run at Televue

From: Alan Dana (alan_dana_at_hotmail.com)
Date: 10/12/04 

Date: Mon, 11 Oct 2004 22:51:27 -0500

"Craig Levine" <apoguy@*spamkill*ns.sympatico.ca> wrote in message
news:0spjm0lg6cd98v8cam2gn0uo5hds47r2ks@4ax.com...
> This could be interesting. Based only on this announcement ,
> http://www.meade.com/authdealers/series5000/pdfs/series5000_lowRes.pdf
> , it *looks* like Meade is taking a serious run at Televue in the
> eyepiece game. I notice that Meade has gone back to the 5-element
> design for the Plossls (which makes it no longer a Plossl, but that's
> splitting hairs). This is a Masuyama design (i.e. Takahashi LE
> series), and this design is very good, though Meade describes theirs
> as having a 60º apparent field of view vs. the standard 52º.

Looks very promising. If the 60 deg claim is true, that would be a nice
advantage vs typical "plossls". Wonder what the eye relief will be.

> I also note the the current Meade 14mm UWA sells for about US$300 and
> in the new series, the 14mm is US$100 cheaper.

This is great news. I own 4.7mm & 8.8mm UWAs and really like them. Got
them on a Meade buy 1, get 1 free deal a few years back. I also own a
Televue standard plossl 7.4mm. After using the 8.8 for a while and then
switching to the 7.4, one really appreciates how much nicer the wider
field and longer eye relief are. I feel like I have to squint to see anything
through the 7.4. (I'm not saying this is a fair price comparison, just
commenting upon how the UWA is a joy to use.)

About time we've seen some pricing actions from lower cost Chinese
manufacturing in the brand name eyepieces. You know manufacturing
cost is much lower, and I doubt there is little, if any, original R&D costs
to recover on these pieces.

Alan

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Do you reviewed the RCX 400 ?
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    (sci.astro.amateur)
  • Re: Im disappointed, why would Tom Back say this?
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