Choosing Eyepieces; Meade Series 4000 Super Plössl Eyepieces - Meade 6" LS-6 ACF Instruction Manual

OPTIONAL ACCESSORIES
Meade makes a complete line of accessories to enable
you to get the most fun and performance from your LS
telescope. No matter what you want to accomplish, we
have the equipment to help you get there.

Choosing Eyepieces

A telescope's eyepiece magnifi es the image formed by
the telescope's main optics. Each eyepiece has a focal
length, expressed in millimeters, or "mm." The smaller
the focal length, the higher the magnifi cation. For
example, an eyepiece with a focal length of 9mm has
a higher magnifi cation than an eyepiece with a focal
length of 26mm. Experienced users know that higher
powers are, in general, not as useful as lower powers.
Many of the objects in the night sky are relatively large
and faint and look best at low magnifi cations.
The power or magnifi cation of a telescope is determined
by the focal length of the telescope and the focal length
of the eyepiece being used. To calculate magnifi cation,
divide the telescope's focal length by the eyepiece's
focal length. For example, a 26mm eyepiece is supplied
with the LS. The focal length of the 6" LS is 1524mm
(see SPECIFICATIONS, page 40).
Telescope Focal Length 1524mm
Eyepiece Focal Length 26mm
1524 ÷ 26 = 58.6x
The magnifi cation is therefore 58.6x.
Low power eyepieces offer a wider fi eld of view, bright,
high-contrast images, and long eye relief. To fi nd an
object with a telescope, always start with a lower power
eyepiece such as the Super Plössl 26mm or longer
focal length. When the object is located and centered
in the eyepiece, you may wish to switch to a higher
power eyepiece to enlarge the image as much as
practical for prevailing seeing conditions or, for many
objects, the view is best with a high quality low-power
wide-fi eld eyepiece.
NOTE: Seeing conditions vary widely from night-to-
night and site-to-site. Turbulence in the air, even on
an apparently clear night, can distort images. If an
image appears fuzzy and ill-defi ned, reduce to a lower
power eyepiece.
Your telescope comes supplied with a Super Plössl
26mm eyepiece, which gives a wide 53 ARC Minute
(just a little less than 1 degree) fi eld of view with 59x
magnifi cation. This is a very good all purpose eyepiece
for your telescope, but you should consider buying
additional eyepieces in longer and shorter focal lengths
to fully realize the potential of the excellent 6" optical
system in your LS telescope.
The Series 4000 Super Plössl Eyepieces are excellent
well corrected 4 element optics at popular prices. They
come in a wide range of focal lengths to give you the
right magnifi cation for any type of celestial object you
are viewing. You can also use one of the Series 4000
Barlows to double or triple the magnifi cation of a Super
Plössl eyepiece. These eyepieces have been the
standard for over 30 years.
Series 4000 Super Plössl Eyepieces
Focal
Length Type
56.0mm SP 2"
40.0mm SP
32.0mm SP
26.0mm SP
20.0mm SP
15.0mm SP
12.4mm SP
9.7mm SP
6.4mm SP
INDEX
Apparent Actual
Field Power Field
52º 27x 1º 55'
44º 38x 1º 9'
52º 48x 1º 6'
52º 59x 53'
52º 76x 41'
52º 102x 31'
52º 123x 25'
52º 157x 20'
52º 238x 13'
16