| This Meade Ultra Wide Angle is an exceptional short focal length eyepiece for high magnification observing with all telescope types. This 1.25” eyepiece uses seven optical elements for sharp performance across a very wide field of view. Even with its quite long usable eye relief of 15mm, the 8.8mm Meade would normally somewhat vignette the field of view for eyeglass wearers. However, since its 82° field is so wide that you can’t see the full field without having to move your head from side to side to take it all in anyway, vignetting in the conventional sense is not a problem. The image is well corrected and sharp from edge to edge. There is a slight loss of contrast in lunar and planetary observing when compared to an eyepiece with fewer elements, due to the additional lenses needed to achieve the unique combination of short focal length and very wide field. The loss is minimal though, on a par with the contrast loss in an eyepiece/Barlow combination with the same effective focal length. In the eyes of many observers, the “picture window on space” observing experience of its exceptionally wide field more than makes up for any slight contrast loss. The eyepiece comes close to the optimum 1mm exit pupil that most closely matches the resolution of your eye to that of a Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope. This makes it a good choice for critical observing with this type of scope. |
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