Where: My backyard in Arizona
Target: Saturn
Telescope: Meade 127mn
The 12 First Light Eyepieces:
Meade 25mm, 18mm, 12mm, 9mm, 6.5mm, 4.5mm ED-60
Meade 8.8mm & 6.7mm UWA Series 4000
Alstar
Celestron 5mm X-Cel LX
Comparison Eyepieces:
TeleVue 4mm & 10mm Radians
Meade 14mm UWA Series 4000
Baader 18mm Classic Ortho (not shown)
8mm TMB Optical Planetary
First of all, I apologize for this report taking over a week to get posted. But for what it's worth, here it is!
After buying the Skywatcher mount and the above eyepieces listed under First Light Eyepieces above, it seemed as if the clouds would never clear and when they did, I had other plans with friends and family, or I was working. Everything finally fell into place and I had planned to have First Light for the mount and the eyepieces on Saturday September 23, but the night proved to be a disaster. Sunday night I was determined to make it happen!
This is a rather limited, non-technical, and non-professional comparison and is based on what I experienced that night. There are plenty of great eyepiece comparisons and reviews under better testing conditions, equipment, and targets.
The Meade HD60 eyepieces comparison
I was pleasantly surprised how well the Series 5000 Meade HD-60 series compared to the other eyepieces. As a set, the images were all tack- sharp, clear, and without added color as far as these old eyes could tell. The 60°
Looking at the design build, and size, I thought the eyepieces would be heavier, but the eyepieces weigh between 6.6 to 8 ounces. The magnifications in my 127mm
25mm (47x ), 18mm (66x), 12mm (99x), 9mm (131x), 6.5mm (182x), 4.5mm (263x).
I did not compare the 25mm to any other eyepieces this time. I compared the 18mm to my 18mm Baader Classic Ortho; the 12mm to my 14mm Meade UWA; the 9mm to my TeleVue Radian 10mm and Meade 8.8mm UWA; the 6.5mm to my 6.7mm Meade UWA and Alstar 7.5mm; the 4.5mm to my TeleVue Radian 4mm and 5mm Celestron X-Cel LX. And I also checked the 4.5mm and 6.5mm against the
I also compared my Alstar 7.5mm to my 8mm TMB Optical eyepiece.
I consider my 8mm TMB Optical eyepiece to be a poor man's Radian. In my opinion, it is that good of an eyepiece. But I feel the Alstar 7.5mm eyepiece just edged over the view of the 8mm. The other eyepiece I have to mention is the Celestron X-Cel 5mm. I found myself enjoying the view of Saturn through the Celestron just slightly more than the
Other than the aforementioned Alstar 7.5 and Celestron 5mm eyepieces, and the different
Ultimately, I will add on to this post to compare these eyepieces again while observing some deep sky objects, double stars, the moon, and other planet(s) for a more fair comparison.