Meade 12mm Series 5000 HD-60

This Meade 12mm HD-60 eyepiece is the latest medium power addition to the renowned Meade Series 5000 eyepiece line. Its advanced six-element optical design uses premium-grade and exotic glass for the best possible performance and image brightness. It is super fully multi-coated, with blackened lens edges for enhanced contrast. The Meade 12mm HD-60 offers a large 60° apparent field of view that is flat and tack sharp right to the edge. In addition, there is as much as a 40% improvement in chromatic aberration levels and edge distortion over traditional Plössls.

The new Meade 12mm HD-60 a good choice for use with short focal length refractors. With the 430mm focal length Astro-Tech AT72ED, for example, it provides 36x and a field over three times as wide as the full Moon. This is well suited for observing globular clusters such as M13 and M22. Both fit nicely into its 1.67° field with the AT72ED, with a framework of black sky around the clusters to set them off. Its sharpness and lack of astigmatism across the field make globular clusters sharp, vivid, and nearly three-dimensional.

It is also well-suited for medium high magnification observing with long focal length refractors, reflectors, or catadioptric scopes. On an 8" f/10 catadioptric, for example, it yields 167x. This is an excellent magnification for planetary and close-up lunar observing. Its overall performance makes it a much better choice as a second eyepiece than merely doubling the power of most scopes' so-so standard 25-26mm eyepiece with a Barlow.

Eye relief is a long 17mm and a twist-up rubber eyeguard provides viewing comfort and improved contrast, with eyeglasses or without. Its 1.25" chromed barrel is threaded for standard 1.25" filters, and a shallow safety groove is machined into the barrel. This groove engages the thumbscrew or compression ring of your focuser or star diagonal to prevent the eyepiece from falling should the thumbscrew loosen accidentally during use.