Meade 5000 series Ultra Wides

I use four different Naglers for my Meade Mak-Cass 7". I love Naglers for the wide view and crisp image. And since, where I live, it is so light polluted and Polaris is not at all convenient to align with, I just point my Losmandy in the general north direction and go so, I'm never polar aligned. Therefore I have concluded that wide field is best for me.

With that said, I'm wondering how the new 5000 Ultrawides are stacking up. Especially with Meade products. I once had a 4000 series 8.8 Ultra that I regret parting with.

Any comments?

Thanks,

Steve

Steve,
I don't own one of these ep's, but have been reading as many reports as I can get my hands on (a fair number on Cloudy Nights in the eyepieces forum section), and a few here as well. It seems that there is quite a wide range of opinions on these eyepieces, ranging from some glowing reports to some that claim that these are definately a step backwards from the S. 4000 UWA line and pretty poor in fast scopes. In slow scopes though (e.g. your Meade 7"), aberrations would be much more suppressed, so for your purposes, they probably would be a good bet. However, there may be lower cost alternatives that will work equally well in your scope (some of the new ultrawides from China/Taiwan), and you still may be able to find the s 4000 UWAs at closeout prices from a few dealers if you look arouned; they were being sold off very cheaply earlier on this year.

Anyway, best of luck with this!
Tim