Meade Research Grade Wide Angle 20mm

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Brand and Model:Meade Research Grade Wide Angle 20mm
Price ($USD):Discontinued
Type:Erfle
Focal Length:20 mm
Barrel Size:1.25 in
Apparent FOV:70.0 degrees
Field Stop Dia.:0.0 mm
Eye Relief:10 mm
Elements:5
Weight (lbs):
Description:

Vote Highlights Vote
Meade Research Grade Wide Angle 20mm
My wife bought this for me one Christmas by accident (but that's a long story) Any way I already have a Tele Vue 19mm Wide Field so why do I need this out of date (and discontinued) eyepiece? Simple it's a very good eyepiece.

Compared to the TV 19 wide field it is not quite as sharp at the edge but seems just as sharp in the center. Contrast seems about the same. It has a wider field of view, 65 degree AFOV in the TV vs 70 degree in the meade,

The coolest things about it in my opinion are that it is much lighter than the TV 19 WF and does not have the pin cushion distortion infact it does not seem to have any distortion at all.

I own or have owned a few of the big honkin premium eyepieces, 8mm radian, 16mm Nagler and have used many others and they are great eyepieces.

I won't tell you that this little Meade can compete on an absolute basis with the premium wide field eyepices of today It does however give me much more of that spacewalk feeling than my TV 19WF and enough so that I usually don't bother to rebalance my 85mm refractor for a Nagler 16 mm type 2.
Great little eyepiece to go with a set of plossls or orthos for a small delicately balanced scope like my alt/az mounted TV 85

Overall Rating: 8
Optics:8 Value:9
Weight: 3 (Unreliable Vote)
Date:
By:
Link to this vote: http://excelsis.com/1.0/displayvote.php?voteid=174053

Meade Research Grade Wide Angle 20mm
Another great, classic eyepiece. Very light weight, extremely high contrast and the widest AVOF ever in a 20mm Erfle.

Although newer designs have far better edge-of-field performance, this eyepiece has central-field sharpness and superb contrast that are the envy of any more modern design.

Best of all, this eyepiece can sometimes be found at prices well under $100.

If you aren't bothered too much by less-than-ideal edge performance in instruments under f=7, this eyepiece still have much to recommend it. If you've got a 6" f=8 reflector or an 8" SCT this is a must-have eyepiece for those wanting top quality at a bargin price.

Overall Rating: No Vote
Optics:10 Value:9
Weight: 3 (Unreliable Vote)
Date:
By:
Link to this vote: http://excelsis.com/1.0/displayvote.php?voteid=47451

Meade Research Grade Wide Angle 20mm
The Meade 20mm RG Erfle is one of my favorite eyepieces. I purchased mine in 1979, other "newer" eyepieces have come along, but it is hard to beat this eyepiece. I find myself reaching for it on every observing session, and I can't see giving it up, especially for what I payed for it in 1979 as oppossed to some of the premium designs of today, I can fully recommend anyone grab one of these eyepieces on the used market if you can, overall performance is great and puts some of these heavyweight monsters of today to shame.

Overall Rating: 9
Weight: 3 (Unreliable Vote)
Date:
By:
Link to this vote: http://excelsis.com/1.0/displayvote.php?voteid=43583

Meade Research Grade Wide Angle 20mm
I have used this eyepiece for years and find it to be a very fine example of the Erfle design. Edge sharpness does suffer very slightly toward the edges of the field, but, this eyepiece is smaller, lighter and lower cost than some of the other super wide field designs (i.e. Nagler). This eyepiece provides about the widest field theoretically possible in a 1 1/4 inch eyepiece design since the field stop is only a tiny bit smaller than the barrel itself. Eye relief is to short to allow use with eyeglasses without cropping some of the very wide field, but for non-eyeglass wearers this eyepiece can provide that Nagler style “space walk” experience at a small fraction of the cost. Users of smaller scopes with less rigid mounts will be pleasantly surprised to find that this 70 degree plus FOV eyepiece weighs only a few ounces instead of half a pound or more and is only about 3 and 3/4 inches in hight. A pair of these would be about the perfect combination for a binoviewer as long as the binoviewer optics can handle the very wide field without cropping. Highly recommended if you see one on the used market at a reasonable price.

Overall Rating: 9
Weight: 3 (Unreliable Vote)
Date:
By:
Link to this vote: http://excelsis.com/1.0/displayvote.php?voteid=43582

Meade Research Grade Wide Angle 20mm
I found this ocular to be very sensitive to short focal telescopes, especially refractors. I would opt this eyepiece only for reflectors. Nonetheless, a very special eyepiece for galaxy hunting and, of course, the double cluster.

Overall Rating: 7
Weight: 1 (Unreliable Vote)
Date:
By:
Link to this vote: http://excelsis.com/1.0/displayvote.php?voteid=43584

Meade Research Grade Wide Angle 20mm
I used this eyepiece for years with my Mead 8" SCT and loved it. It wasn't the sharpest, especially near the edge, by a wide margin. But it was amazingly comfortable! absolutely no black out areas, perfect eye relief, huge eye lens, and a razor sharp field stop all made this eyepice a joy to look into. I wish the sharper designs had these characteristics also.

Overall Rating: No Vote
Weight: <none>
Date:
By:
Link to this vote: http://excelsis.com/1.0/displayvote.php?voteid=43580

Meade Research Grade Wide Angle 20mm
I used this eyepiece for years with my Mead 8" SCT and loved it. It wasn't the sharpest, especially near the edge, by a wide margin. But it was amazingly comfortable! absolutely no black out areas, perfect eye relief, huge eye lens, and a razor sharp field stop all made this eyepice a joy to look into. I wish the sharper designs had these characteristics also.

Overall Rating: No Vote
Weight: <none>
Date:
By:
Link to this vote: http://excelsis.com/1.0/displayvote.php?voteid=43579

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