Customer Reviews

Meade Electronic Eyepiece

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The name is somewhat misleading. What this is, actually, is a small, senitive black and white TV camera designed to slip into a telescope focuserin place of an eyepiece. Now this won't deliver images of faint, deep-sky objects- you need a cooled CCD and long exposures for that- but it will deliver excellent views of the moon and planets to a TV monitor, videorecorder of computer with video converter. Using videotape and a digitizer as a "poor man's active optics" it's possible to select frames and produce suprisingly good results.

At the asking price, it's a pretty good deal, too, and an inexpensive way to get started in digital astrophotograp

There was very little documentation, nothing saying anything about the focal length to give any idea of the actual magnification.
Fun for bright objects, I've used it to get images of Jupiter and Saturn and some of the moon. I could only faintly see Jupiter's biggest moons when viewing on the TV screen (with the contrast set so Jupiter is washed out). When using my video capture card I couldn't get the moons to show up at any level of contrast, but still got some medeocre pics of Jupiter itself. There's not a very wide feild of view so it's very dificult to center something without tracking.
I've noticed that I can use it as a poor-man's electronic microscope by attaching my 25mm Meade eyepiece to it and using my trypod to help steady and focus.
A fun toy but I wouldn't expect to get any nebula or any other faint object with it.

A few things you must know before purchasing the eyepiece:
1. The display is MONOCHROME (black & white)
2. You will need a 9-volt battery
3. In order to hook it up to the TV, your TV needs to have a yellow-colored Video-In port. Many TVs have it, duh, but yours might not. Some of us might have pawned our good TV set just to get enough cash for an ETX-90EC.
4. Keep in mind that you will need to take your TV or VCR where your telescope is. You might need an extension cord.
Have fun~*

I bought this product on sale for $39.00 at a local camera store after reading the reviews on this page. This was after I also bought an Orion Electronic eyepiece the week before. One thing that makes this eyepiece infinetly better than the Orion eyepiece is the fact that it is threaded for filters (or stacking of multiple filters) whereas the Orion eyepiece is not. Using it on my 6" reflector, I first tried it with a white light solar filter. The view was crisp as I expected on both the Meade and the Orion eyepiece. The Meade eyepiece is alittle larger than the Orion eyepiece (4mm vs. Orion's 3.8mm) but it is not really too noticeable. Viewing the moon at gibbous phase and the contrast tweaked, the view was also crisp and defined in both eyepieces. I finally tried it on Jupiter. Here is where the difference between the Orion eyepiece and the Meade eyepiece was most pronounced. Because the Orion eyepiece is not threaded, Jupiter came out completely whitewashed, even when the contrast was completely tweaked. Because the Meade eyepiece is able to be used with a filter, I placed a Baader's Planetary Contrast Booster on it. The 2 cloud belts at the equator were visible on my 20" TV as a monitor. Also visible were the 4 moons at the same setting. When used with a video card tied in to a pc, a person can frame-grab and have their own "poor man's" version of a CCD picture. Using this method, suprisingly good pictures that rival much higher priced CCD's may be achieved. This eyepiece in my opinion is well worth the price (even if you don't get it on sale) and has alot of potential when used with a video card. Just remeber to buy some extension cords and adapters for the RCA cables.

This eyepiece is quite nice. I tried it out and was amazed at the results. I use it on a six inch reflecting telescope. I used it first on the best target in the night sky, the Moon. It looked as though I was looking through a window on an apollo capsule orbiting the moon. I am not kidding. It was great. I then moved over to Saturn. I could clearly see the rings and bands of clouds. This item is worth the cost!

AWSOME, EASY, BEAUTIFUL. works as described and so easy to use and setup.
(i don't get to use it any more but when i did it was great.)

But not when it comes to locating information omitted from an instruction manual. The expected image I saw of the moon through my 9mm lens initiated the search. I should have came here first, because it would have saved me a lot of time - as would Meade mentioning somewhere on the box or in the manual that this was a 4mm eyepiece.

So now I know I need a reducer for decent lunar observation. Since they failed to mention the mm of this eyepiece, it should come as no surprise that Meade also fails to mention the use of filters with this eyepiece - neutral density or variable polarizers (which is nice to have for lunar observation), or Light Pollution/Broadband filters for deep-space observation (which is a must-have if you live in/near the city).

You may very well be able to see some deep space objects using this eyepiece with the proper filter - I have no clue yet. I was planning on purchasing filters anyway, so I'll update this review with an answer to those questions....

I used this Electronic Eyepiece to make some movies of the Mercury Transit in 2006, and it did that very well with my Coronado PST and Konusmotor 500/Thousand Oaks White Light filter. However, I had to hook this up to my VCR to make the movie using a twenty foot long coaxial cable with RCA adapters. I had really planned on connecting it to my Sony Camcorder so I could have a lot of mobility, but the Camcorder and eyepiece simply cannot work together. It does work well with my VCRs and televisions, though.

Having read the reviews of others prior to purchasing my electronic eyepiece, I did not expect too much from it. But for the price I paid, I would buy it again. My main dislike is the apparent focal length. It is the equivalent of about a 4mm lens. I live in a major metropolitan area with lots of haze and light pollution, a 4mm optical lens is of questionable value. The electronics makes it worst. I can see earth's moon pretty well, but only the brightest two of Jupiter's four visible moons. Forget about seeing dim stars or deep space objects.

I am relatively new to astronomy. I have two point and look refractors, a 350mm and a 700mm. I tried the Meade Electronic Eyepiece in both. The 700mm results in too much magnification. The eyepiece works better with the 350mm, but images go completely across the TV screen in about 40 seconds, resulting in a slight smearing as they move.

A control to increase the focal length would have made this eyepiece more usable. It also needs to be used on a telescope that tracks. I have now ordered such a telescope, which is costing me far more than the electronic eyepiece did in the first place.