Meade Ultra Wide Angle 14mm

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Brand and Model:Meade Ultra Wide Angle 14mm
Price ($USD):$299.95
Type:Ultra Wide Angle
Focal Length:14 mm
Barrel Size:Dual
Apparent FOV:84.0 degrees
Field Stop Dia.:0.0 mm
Eye Relief:10 mm
Elements:8
Weight (lbs):1.6
Description:

Vote Highlights Vote
Meade Ultra Wide Angle 14mm
After years of searching and trying every new EP that came along (in my FS-102 and C9.25), I finally got around to trying one of these “old tech” monsters. Incredibly sharp (noticeably sharper than a 13mm Nagler type 6) and contrasty over all 84 degrees, with no ghosting (!) and an incredibly comfortable eye lens! Why did I waste all that time?

P.S. Yes it’s big, and heavy, but pair it up with a 35 Pan and an 8.8 UWA and you won’t have to rebalance most scopes, while having the ultimate views to be found anywhere.

Overall Rating: 10
Optics:10 Value:10
Weight: 20 (Notable Vote)
Date:
By:
Link to this vote: http://www.excelsis.com/1.0/displayvote.php?voteid=311173

Meade Ultra Wide Angle 14mm
My own personal experience through an LX90 . . . awful!
It's dim, brown, but with a great flat field.

Nagler 17mm T4 blows it away, with liquid clarity, resolution and brightness!

The 13 mm Nagler type 6 is better than this Meade, although, to its' credit, an 1.25 eyepiece. . . I'm sorry, but it's the truth . . .

I've never observed through any Meade that was better than a Nagler!

Just my two cents . . .

Overall Rating: 5
Optics:10 Value:10
Weight: 10 (Trustworthy Vote)
Date:
By:
Link to this vote: http://www.excelsis.com/1.0/displayvote.php?voteid=353376 

>My own personal experience through an LX90 . . . awful!
>It's dim, brown, but with a great flat field.
>
>Nagler 17mm T4 blows it away, with liquid clarity, resolution and brightness!
>
>The 13 mm Nagler type 6 is better than this Meade, although, to its' credit, an 1.25 eyepiece. . . I'm sorry, but it's the truth . . . 
>
>I've never observed through any Meade that was better than a Nagler!
>
>Just my two cents . . .
----------------------------------------------------------
Guess what?  your 2 cents just went out the window. 
I use a 14mm UWa in my F/5 newtonian and the images right to the extreme edge are immaculate. I would highly suggest a good pair of glasses...(HAHAHA), because I myself have looked through Naglers as well and the 14mm UWA works better.
The Naglers have pincusion distortion near the edge of the field stop, whereas the 14mm UWA DOES NOT. Your rating of a 5 obviously gets outdone by all the other 9's and 10's that this immaculate eyepiece really deserves.
You must have gotten a dud bud.
Meade Ultra Wide Angle 14mm
They'll take this away from me out of my cold dead hand. Seriously, I have owned > 100 eyepieces, and have had negaive things to say about most. Not this one. Perhaps it could be cheaper, but you won't find higher performance. It's sharp, free from ghosts, and has remarkably little kidney-bean effects unless you hold your eye too close. In most modern scopes, it produces exit pupils at or near optimum (f/5-f/8 or so). Sharpness only drops off in the outer 10% and you'll be looking at a 45 degree angle through the field lens to see that far out in the field of view. It's my most use eyepiece in my SCT, my MCT and my Newtonian. Heavy, but superb sharpness of image and my, what a wiiiiide field! Recommended. Easier to use than the other eyepieces in the Ultra-wide series. As close to perfect as the current crop of eyepieces gets. pensack1@excite.com

Overall Rating: 10
Optics:10 Value:9
Weight: 10 (Trustworthy Vote)
Date:
By:
Link to this vote: http://www.excelsis.com/1.0/displayvote.php?voteid=324206

Meade Ultra Wide Angle 14mm
This is my favorite eyepiece for my 8" F6 dob. I did do some rebalancing to accomodate this eyepiece but it's well worth the effort. Great contrast and sharp to the edge. Eyerelief is just right. The views you get with this big eyepiece are stunning. Used a 3X Antaries barlow on Saturn with surprisingly good results. This eyepiece is in a great focal range and is very easy to use. Highly recommended.

Overall Rating: 10
Optics:10 Value:9
Weight: 10 (Trustworthy Vote)
Date:
By:
Link to this vote: http://www.excelsis.com/1.0/displayvote.php?voteid=82832

Meade Ultra Wide Angle 14mm
The best eyepiece I own and I have a 31 Nagler. This eyepiece offers great deep sky views but also is fantastic for planetary observing with its sharp optics. For the money (especially on the used market, discounted), it's a steal.

Overall Rating: 10
Optics:10 Value:10
Weight: 10 (Trustworthy Vote)
Date:
By:
Link to this vote: http://www.excelsis.com/1.0/displayvote.php?voteid=80853

Meade Ultra Wide Angle 14mm
When I originally rated this eyepiece I was using it in a 6" reflector. I have since purchased a 6" refractor and would like to further report that this eyepiece works equally well in both telelscopes. As stated prior, it is big and heavy but very well worth every penney paid for it. Versatile well made and optically excellent for all types of viewing, especially clusters and galaxies.
My most used eyepiece with both telescopes.

Overall Rating: 10
Weight: 6 (Veritable Vote)
Date:
By:
Link to this vote: http://www.excelsis.com/1.0/displayvote.php?voteid=42860

Meade Ultra Wide Angle 14mm
This is my go-to eyepiece. Beats my former 13mm Nagler in every way possible. Sharper in fast Dobs (center and edge), far more color free, more contrast, etc... Great for both DSO's and planets. Works well barlowed also. The best single eyepiece one can add to their collection!

Overall Rating: 10
Weight: 6 (Veritable Vote)
Date:
By:
Link to this vote: http://www.excelsis.com/1.0/displayvote.php?voteid=42858

Meade Ultra Wide Angle 14mm
I have been using this eyepiece in my circa 1980 C8 for about a year now. I use this more than any other eyepiece. The image scale is something I don't see talked about too much. The combination of 140x in the 8" SCT with the amazing wide true and apparent field of view makes for a very versitile combination. I find myself just leaving this eyepiece in the diagonal for most of the night.

Overall Rating: 10
Weight: 6 (Veritable Vote)
Date:
By:
Link to this vote: http://www.excelsis.com/1.0/displayvote.php?voteid=42855

Meade Ultra Wide Angle 14mm
Only its weight is a problem, and only on some scopes.
But with most currect f/4.5-f/10 telescopes, this could
be the Optimum Eyepiece. Sharp field, excellent contrast,
easy to use eye relief, it's a winner. No inherent astig-
matism. If you see the stars with coma, you can rest
assured that it's your scope, not the eyepiece.

Overall Rating: 10
Weight: 6 (Veritable Vote)
Date:
By:
Link to this vote: http://www.excelsis.com/1.0/displayvote.php?voteid=42853

Meade Ultra Wide Angle 14mm
This was the legendary eyepiece a few years ago; Astromart was croweded with "wanted" ads and you still see some of those. It was my first "damn the cost" eyepiece. Discussion of the eyepiece on TMB group indicates considerable variability among units. I don't think mine was bad, but after I acquired the 17mm Nagler T4 I practically ceased using it. I thought at the time it was because the Nagler yielded less power (230x vs. 280x) and was a more pleasing observing range in my f/11 instrument. After I got the Pentax XW14, however, the superior contrast (both planet detail and dso/sky background) and less light reflection pulled me back into the 14mm range again, and the Nagler has gotten much less use--has become a second string eyepiece. The 14mm UWA got sold to someone who was curious about this legend. I don't regret having owned it, but I don't miss it. I never found the perofrmance superior to the 1 for planets (I don't mind using wide fields for planet viewing becuase I like the planet--Saturn or Jupiter--and its moons) to the Nagler 17mm which I used to attribute to pushing the magnification beyond the sky conditions. Light throughput of the UWA series is not high compared to other lines of eyepieces. I have always been skeptical about assessing light throughput subjectively in the field but I am referring to some German lab data that used to be on the net (in May 2006 got posted to the TMB files section). But this data is not for the entire UWA series. So I don't want to make any assertions. But in sum we all make up our minds one way or another. I tested this eyepiece against two of its peers in price and reputation and sold the Meade 14UWA, perhaps to someone who is enthusiastically defending it in this review section.

Overall Rating: 8
Optics:8 Value:8
Weight: 5 (Veritable Vote)
Date:
By:
Link to this vote: http://www.excelsis.com/1.0/displayvote.php?voteid=507159

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