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Meade Electronic Eyepiece

Meade Electronic Eyepiece
Brand: Meade
Category: Photography

List Price: $104.92
Buy New: $44.99
You Save: $59.93 (57%)



New (3) from $44.99

Rating: 4.0 out of 5 stars 8 reviews

Media: Electronics
Batteries: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.5
Dimensions (in): 8.8 x 5.4 x 2.6

MPN: 07166
UPC: 709942007015
EAN: 0709942007015
ASIN: B00005QWZ4

Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days

Features:
  • View live monochrome video images through telescope
  • Composite video port for sending image to TV, VCR, or camcorder (6-foot RCA cable included)
  • Use with any telescope with 1.25- or 0.96-inch eyepiece
  • Powered by 9-volt battery (not included)
  • Easy to use and setup with contrast control dial

Editorial Reviews:

Product Description
This electronic eyepiece can be used with virtually any telescope to show you real-time live black and white images of the Moon, planets, stars, and daytime terrestrial objects on your television screen. Just connect the supplied cable to the yellow-colored Video-in port of your TV set, VCR, or camcorder. The Electronic Eyepiece has a 320 x 240 pixel CMOS monochrome imaging sensor. Barrels are included to allow you to fit the eyepiece into either 0.965" or 1.25" focuser sleeves. The eyepiece includes a 6 ft. cable and is powered by a (user-supplied) 9-volt battery that fits neatly inside the eyepiece housing. A built-in control permits contrast adjustment of the image. The Electronic Eyepiece is perhaps the largest-selling product of its type ever developed. Tens of thousands of Meade #902 Electronic Eyepieces are now in use in telescopes ranging from 60mm refractors to 12" Schmidt-Cassegrains


Customer Reviews:   Read 3 more reviews...

4 out of 5 stars Exploration is fun....   September 25, 2007
Backyard Stargazer (Suburbs of Detroit)
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....



4 out of 5 stars Almost perfect device   January 10, 2007
Zooball (Boulder City, Nevada United States)
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.


4 out of 5 stars It was worth the price, but don't expect ccd performance   August 7, 2006
New Star Gazer (Detroit, MI USA)
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.



5 out of 5 stars Excellent product with alot of potential   July 8, 2005
Joe C (Pennsylvania)
3 out of 3 found this review helpful

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.


5 out of 5 stars great addition to any telescope   October 27, 2002
David Kraut (Palm Harbor, Florida USA)
5 out of 6 found this review helpful

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!

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