Meade Series 5000 1.25" HD-60 Eyepiece - 18mm # 07734

5.0 Excellent eyepiece

I recently purchased a new telescope and decided to revisit my set of eyepieces. Eye relief is extremely important to me, so I searched through the offerings of various eyepiece manufacturers. An 18mm eyepiece fit well into my series and this Meade's specifications met or exceeded those of the competition, while bringing in the package at a lower price. While I did have a pair of Meade eyepieces in my box, the remainder of my eyepieces carried T V engravings.

The 17 mm of eye relied was well beyond my personal minimum distance for new eyepieces, while giving me a real Field of View of 0.5 degrees at 113x. Not bad.

Actual use in the field has been on par with my expectations for an eyepiece of this design and price; Better in fact. My biggest complaint is that eye shield extends and retracts via rotation of the outer most part of the barrel. I prefer to have the eye shield all of the way down for people who wear glasses, especially the first time they look into the telescope. With the shield retracted fully, the barrel shell extends past the top of the 1.25" tube. When you insert the eyepiece into the diagonal or visual back fully, you cannot retract the eye shield fully. The is solved by bringing the eyepiece up a bit out so the shield can be fully retracted, but in truth, Meade should supply a slightly longer barrel.

Images are sharp and essentially flat to edge of the field. I have yet to detect any spurious colors in the stars I have observed. This is a serious piece of glass, and while heavy, it is not quite as heavy as it looks. You probably would need to rebalance when changing to or from this eyepiece.

If you need an 18mm eyepiece with a wide apparent and real field, with good eye relief, this is a good choice.

This review was provided courtesy of AgenaAstro.com