Meade Super Plossl 9.7mm

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Meade Super Plossl 9.7mm
good eye relief

Overall Rating: 10
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Meade Super Plossl 9.7mm
Good eye relief, good contrast, nice flat sharp field. Only drawback: the apparent field should be wider, according to specs, than what I see in my scope.

Overall Rating: 9
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Meade Super Plossl 9.7mm
Nice Sharp Views but horrible eye-relief. You really need to jamb your eye right up to the lens to see the whole field of view.

Overall Rating: 7
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Meade Super Plossl 9.7mm
Excellent sharpness and contrast but the one I owned had noticeable color ghosting on bright objects. Eye relief tight but usable with "bare" eyes. Sold it and bought a 10mm Orion Ultrascopic which is just as sharp and contrasty without the color ghosting.

Overall Rating: 6
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Meade Super Plossl 9.7mm
Not terribly good, tiny field of view ...

Overall Rating: 5
Weight: 1 (Unreliable Vote)
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Meade Super Plossl 9.7mm
Bad eye-relief, narrow FOV. Could be my particular EP, but does not deliver sharp views, & does not transmit light well. Seem to be some severe optical aberrations in this EP...have tested it in other scopes with same results.
Not recommended.

Overall Rating: 4
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Meade Super Plossl 9.7mm
This eyepiece is of really high quality, and the only drawback I can see is the eye-relief. To get a full view you really have to push your eye against it, which can be a problem for eyeglass wearers (like me).
When I tested this eyepiece on Saturn with my Meade #395 (90mm refractor, F=1000mm) it was VERY sharp & bright. I could see the cassini division without any problem.

A great eyepiece, but consider choosing another if the eye-relief is a problem.

Overall Rating: 8
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Meade Super Plossl 9.7mm
Very sharp on axis and degrades only when you get very close to field stop. Some color at the field stop when looking at the moon. Tight eye relief, but that is something inherent in the design of short focal length plossols. Overall a pretty good eyepiece at a reasonable price -- especially if you get it with the upgrade offered with their dobs.

Overall Rating: 8
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Meade Super Plossl 9.7mm
Seems that this eyepiece is either good or bad. Mine is and older model and not very good. A lot of color ghosting, light transmission is poor, and sharpness is poor. Eye relief is short but that should be expected.

Overall Rating: 4
Weight: 1 (Unreliable Vote)
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Meade Super Plossl 9.7mm
This is a revision of the previous rating. It is an older model, 5 element. I took the eyepiece apart to clean it....about 13 years old.....and discovered it had been put together wrong. Thtwo doublets had the concave sides away from each other, and one of the separation rings was on top of the top doublet. I cleaned and reassembled it and it works much better. I bought this eyepiece new in the mid to late 80"s and never did like it......No wonder.

I works much better now and I would rate it an 8.

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Meade Super Plossl 9.7mm
I bought this as part of a Starfinder purchase. Now I know why it's offered as a 'special' with the Starfinder.
It doesn't trasmit light very well as the view is darker than my 20mm plossl or 3.6mm SMA (which was a surprise).
Another strange thing I found with the eyepiece is that midway between the edge of field and center, there is a distorted view. Not sure what this is but the center is focused, then becomes somewhat defocused and then returns somewhat to normal near the edge of field (taking field curvature and coma into effect).

Has been relegated to the back of my eyepiece rack.

Overall Rating: 4
Weight: 1 (Unreliable Vote)
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Meade Super Plossl 9.7mm
Hi, I use this eyepiece on a meade etx scope. It provides about 130x, when used with the etx. I find it to be extremly good on contrast and sharpness; very good brightness, but it has awful eye relief. You really have to get close to the eypeice to see the whole field of view. But putting the eye relief aside, I would give this eyepiece a 10; but factoring in the eye relief, I can't give it more than a 8. I remember about 9 or 10 months ago, it provided a stunning image of saturn. My neighbor about "freaked" (LOL!!!) when she saw it. She said "WOW!!! that looks better than some pics of saturn I have seen". If short eye relief doesn't bother you, I would highly recommend it; but if short eye refief bothers you, then go with the televue radian 8mm, if you can afford it. It is has stunning optical quality, with a apparent field of view of 20mm.

Overall Rating: 8
Weight: 1 (Unreliable Vote)
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Meade Super Plossl 9.7mm
Good eyepiece, except eye relief not so good

Overall Rating: 6
Weight: 1 (Unreliable Vote)
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Meade Super Plossl 9.7mm
Used with my 2120 LX3 this EP is totally useless with anything bright enough to be observed.

Overall Rating: 5
Optics:5 Value:5
Weight: 5 (Veritable Vote)
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Meade Super Plossl 9.7mm
I bought the Series 4000 9.7mm to replace my old Celestron 9mm Ortho and Orion Sirius 10mm Plossl. But it fails to outshine either of the eyepieces it was supposed to replace. It truly is the most disappointing eyepiece I have ever bought.
I have now sold it and replaced it with an Orion Ultrascopic (fantastic range of eyepieces, out perform Meade in everyway and cheaper).

Overall Rating: 5
Optics:6 Value:4
Weight: 1 (Unreliable Vote)
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Meade Super Plossl 9.7mm
If you're talking about a plossl with a short focal length, the nature of it is that IT WILL HAVE SHORT EYE RELIEF! Judgement against it should not consider its short eye relief. Thats like posting a review on a mini-van and saying "I give it only 4 out of 10 because it was so slow campared to my Porche. The EP is sharp, contrast is very good and delivers bright images. Eye relief is as it should be.

Overall Rating: 10
Optics:10 Value:10
Weight: 1 (Unreliable Vote)
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Meade Super Plossl 9.7mm
Purchased the Meade as my medium powered eyepiece for an Orion XT10. Never been entirely happy with the Meade 4000, especially as the eyepiece it was supposed to replace, an old Celestron Ortho 9mm, easily out performs it.
Brightness, FOV, sharpness and eye relief are all poor. Doesn't come across as a well made eyepiece either. Noticed Celestron were selling off their Vixen LV eyepieces cheap and bought the 10mm. It beats the Meade by a mile in every area and at last I can pack away the old Celestron Ortho. The Vixen shows that owning a medium power eyepiece doesn't mean you have to have poor eye relief and small FOV. The Vixen is also sharper with better contrast.
All in all, the Meade is the most dissappointing eyepiece i've ever bought.

Overall Rating: 5
Optics:6 Value:4
Weight: 1 (Unreliable Vote)
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Meade Super Plossl 9.7mm
great for planets, nice and sharp looking at saturn,
however its rubbish on double stars, abberation flares onto the double and conceals it, hmm nice one meade

Overall Rating: 5
Optics:5
Weight: 1 (Unreliable Vote)
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Link to this vote: http://www.excelsis.com/1.0/displayvote.php?voteid=317320 

&gt;great for planets, nice and sharp looking at saturn,
&gt;however its rubbish on double stars, abberation flares onto the double and conceals it, hmm nice one meade

see my 6.4 eyepiece report for further details
Meade Super Plossl 9.7mm
What the hell have you done to your S4000 eyepieces, Meade ??????

What a pitty!!!!!!

Jesus, I loved japanese S4000 eyepieces. They were magnificent, well corrected even at f:4 in my 16" dob, very bright, and colour saturation was better than anything else at the time. Contrast... oh wow... IMPRESIVE!!!

But came chinese-made (maybe taiwan, i´m not sure) and now S4000 are basically overpriced Synta rubish-eyepieces.

Simply put: if you find a japanese S4000 eyepiece: BUY IT!!, you won´t be dissapointed. If you´re not sure where it comes from, forget it.

Overall Rating: 3
Optics:3 Value:3
Weight: 1 (Unreliable Vote)
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Meade Super Plossl 9.7mm
The Meade 4000 series are firmly divided between the original Japanese versions which were excellent and the current Chinese/Taiwanese versions which are not so great.

I have 12.4mm and 26mm Japanese versions and they are superb, the 26mm especially. Would never sell it.
But by contrast I've had Chinese/Taiwanese versions of the 9.7mm, 20mm and 32mm, all were varying degrees of bad.

But it's the 9.7mm I pickout for special attention, as it truly has been one of the worst eyepieces i've owned. The Orion Sirius 10mm Plossl, which it was supposed to replace, is better in terms of contrast, sharpness and brightness. Nothing in it for eye relief.

Moral of the story...always check to see if you are buying a Japanese (BUY IT!) version or a Chinese/Taiwanese (AVOID IT!) version.

Overall Rating: 4
Optics:3 Value:6
Weight: 5 (Veritable Vote)
Date:
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