Last night I had a chance to use my new Meade Series 5000 14mm UWA. I was using an 8" LX 200; an F10 scope with a 2000mm focal length so the 14mm gave me about 140 power. Be forewarned, I am no expert and we had no Naglers to compare the eyepiece to.
The eyepiece seems solid and the coatings very noticeable, giving the lens a distinct green tint.
The seeing was excellent - the best I have ever had in our light polluted southern Connecticut skies. The 14mm performed well in my F10 scope with little distortion out to the edge. The wide view was comfortable once I got the eye cup adjusted properly. The views were sharp with good contrast. The contrast and sharpness were better than a 15mm series 4000 plossl and a 13.4mm Series 4000 SWA. I had a couple of people look through the various eyepieces and they all agreed. Jupiter (not a normal target for a widefield) showed the main bands and the polar regions distinctly. M81 was very visible with some of the dark lanes visible. The views of the globular clusters M3, M13, and M92 were all very good. It was a great eyepiece for my scope.
Before anybody gets too excited however, we also tried it in a 12.5" F4.5 reflector. There the eyepiece did not show so well. The chromatic problems were typical and maybe worse than normal and it started distorting noticeably about 50 to 60% of the way to the edge. We compared it in that scope to a Meade Series 4000 14mm UWA (some would say the best eyepiece in that size ever made) and the series 5000 was poor in comparison. Although the contrast was comparable, the Series 4000 showed only small distortion out to the edge and clearly beat the series 5000.
My conclusion is that the 14mm Series 5000 UWA is fine for fast scopes but cannot compete in performance with the old Series 4000 14mm UWA and, I suspect, the good Naglers in the faster scopes. People with fast scopes will probably be unhappy with the series 5000 UWAs, but they may work well at a more economical price for people with faster scopes. I suspect Meade designed them for use with their relatively fast SCT line of scopes.
The eyepiece seems solid and the coatings very noticeable, giving the lens a distinct green tint.
The seeing was excellent - the best I have ever had in our light polluted southern Connecticut skies. The 14mm performed well in my F10 scope with little distortion out to the edge. The wide view was comfortable once I got the eye cup adjusted properly. The views were sharp with good contrast. The contrast and sharpness were better than a 15mm series 4000 plossl and a 13.4mm Series 4000 SWA. I had a couple of people look through the various eyepieces and they all agreed. Jupiter (not a normal target for a widefield) showed the main bands and the polar regions distinctly. M81 was very visible with some of the dark lanes visible. The views of the globular clusters M3, M13, and M92 were all very good. It was a great eyepiece for my scope.
Before anybody gets too excited however, we also tried it in a 12.5" F4.5 reflector. There the eyepiece did not show so well. The chromatic problems were typical and maybe worse than normal and it started distorting noticeably about 50 to 60% of the way to the edge. We compared it in that scope to a Meade Series 4000 14mm UWA (some would say the best eyepiece in that size ever made) and the series 5000 was poor in comparison. Although the contrast was comparable, the Series 4000 showed only small distortion out to the edge and clearly beat the series 5000.
My conclusion is that the 14mm Series 5000 UWA is fine for fast scopes but cannot compete in performance with the old Series 4000 14mm UWA and, I suspect, the good Naglers in the faster scopes. People with fast scopes will probably be unhappy with the series 5000 UWAs, but they may work well at a more economical price for people with faster scopes. I suspect Meade designed them for use with their relatively fast SCT line of scopes.
