Meade 14mm Ultra Wide Angle

	Meade 14mm UWA

In the fall of 2005, with Mars making another of its close appearances, I decided that I needed to have a high quality medium to high power eyepiece. After having recently acquired a 36mm QX eyepiece, I decided that henceforth, I was converted to using 2" barrel eyepieces with large eye lenses and wide apparent fields of view. So began the search for such an eyepiece. Initially, I had decided to try a set of Baader Hyperions, a close relative of the Orion Stratus eyepieces. However, while waiting for these eyepieces to become available, I noticed a couple of Meade Series 4000 UWA eyepieces on Astromart. After investigating these, I found that they have an almost legendary reputation. After having experienced the stellar performance of the Series 4000 QX eyepieces, I decided to give the Meade UWAs a try. In recent months since they were discontinued, they have become quite scarce, even on Astromart. However, after a few weeks of looking and inquiring, I finally located a 14mmUWA in new condition.

	Meade 14mm UWA Top View and Bottom View

First Impressions

	Specifications Focal length: 14 mm Apparent field of view: 84 degrees Number of elements: 8 Optical design: UWA, similar to Nagler Type 1 Manufacturer: Meade Cost: $299 new, between about $200 and $260 used
	Advantages Ultra wide field of view Very flat and sharp across entire field of view Almost no chromatic abberations Neutral color balance High build quality Large eye lens Foldable rubber eyecup Focal plane is located inside of eyepiece, free from dust
	Disadvantages "Kidney bean" / blackout effect when eye is not perfectly positioned Short eye relief - must position eye close to eyepiece Can't see the entire field of view at once - some people may find this frustrating Interior of eyepiece could be better blackened - some scattered light from interior surfaces is visible Heavy - may unacceptably disrupt the balance of some telescope mounts 2" barrel may not work with some telescopes 14mm focal length is too short for many deep sky objects, but too long for planets

Initial impressions of the eyepiece were mostly very good. As in other Series 4000 eyepieces, the build quality of this eyepieces is outstanding. People tend to be amazed at the size and weight of this eyepiece. However, after having used 2" eyepieces for a short time, you tend to quickly get used to the size and weight and so the dimensions of the 14mm UWA did not surprise me. The size of the eye lens is quite large for a 14mm eyepiece - almost as large as the eye lens in the 36mm QX. The coatings are multicolored hues of violet, pink, yellow and green, rather than the vivid blue and green hues of the QX and other modern eyepieces. The reflectivity of the coatings is hard to gauge, but they appear to be perhaps just a slight bit less effective than the more modern blue and green hued multicoatings.

Field Of View

Given the stated apparent field of view of 84 degrees, I was eager to take a look through the eyepiece to see if it had the coveted "spacewalk", "picture window" or "porthole into space" effect. My initial impressions were good, but a bit mixed. The UWA does have a noticeably larger field of view than an eyepiece like the QX with its 70 degree apparent FOV. However, the effect of the larger field of view is slight and it is offset by the shorter eye relief. With an eyepiece like the QX, if the eye is placed properly, it is possible to take in the entire field of view at once. With the UWA, the field of view and eye relief are such that it is impossible to take in the entire field of view at once. You need to actually move your eye around to be able to see the entire field of view. This seems to reduce the effective FOV to something closer to the 70 degrees of the QX. When you look to one side of the field of view such that you can clearly see the field stop, a portion of the field of view at the opposite side disappears. If you are used to eyepieces where you can see the entire field stop at once, then this takes a bit of getting used to. In addition, the actual field of view that is presented by the 14mm UWA has a few limitations. In some ways, the 14mm focal length of the UWA seems to lie in a bit of a no-man's land - too much magnification for many deep sky objects and not enough magnification for planets. However, it's just about right for planetary nebulas and other smaller deep sky objects. The higher magnification also provides a significant amount of sky darkening and is useful for bringing out details in a variety of deep sky objects, even if many galaxies, nebulas and other extended objects will not quite fit inside the field of view.

	Meade 14mm UWA Coatings (Upper Left) Compared to 36mm QX Coatings (Lower Right)

Optical Quality

In terms of optical quality and freedom from abberations, this eyepiece seems to live up to its reputation. The field of view is wide, flat, free of chromatic abberations, uniformly sharp, and close to uniform in brightness. The eyepiece does seem to transmit slightly less light than simpler optical designs, but overall, the gains in terms of field of view and freedom from abberations seems worth the cost of the extra elements. Like other high end Meade eyepieces that I have tried, the color balance seems to be neutral.

Ease of Use

The one area where the UWA seems to fall short of expectations is in ease of use and "eye-friendliness". With the UWA, the postion of your eye relative to the eyepiece is critical to getting a good view. The eyepiece suffers from the so-called "kidney bean" or "blackout" effect where a portion of the view darkens if your eye is placed off-center. During my daytime tests of this eyepiece, I found that this issue make the eyepiece a bit frustrating to use. Luckily, I also found that this effect is far less noticeable at night since a good portion of the field of view is usually taken up by the blackness of space anyway.

	Meade 14mm UWA Compared with 36mm QX

Focal Plane Location

In an ideal world, eyepieces would always be perfectly clean and we wouldn't have to worry about the effects of contamination by dust, fuzz, and other debris. In the real world, this seems to be an ongoing probem. Due to differences in optical design, some eyepieces handle this sort of contamination much better than others. The factor that determines how well an eyepiece will deal with dust is the location of the focal plane. In some eyepieces, the focal plane is located very close to the outer surface of the field lens. This means that any dust on the outer surface will almost be in focus and will therefore be quite noticeable. The 14mm UWA is excellent in this regard because the focal plane actually appears to be located inside of the eyepiece where it can be sure to be free from debris. This makes views through the UWA always appear clean and free of little black specks. While this may not make much difference for deep space objects, when viewing objects like the moon, this can make a huge difference in the quality of the view. This is another one of those factors that never appears on any of the specs and nobody talks about, but can make a significant difference in real world performance.

	Meade 14mm UWA Compared with Other Eyepieces

Conclusions

While the 14mm UWA has taken a little while to get used to, after spending time with it in the field, I can see why this eyepiece has acquired such a great reputation. The wide angle views of deep space objects like the ring nebula, other planetary nebulas, planets, distant galaxies and other objects that require a moderate amount of magnification are stunning. The Ring Nebula must be seen to be believed. It also tends to bring out a great amount of detail in many deep sky objects, even if the magnification is a bit high. The eyepiece always provides nice clean views, free of abberations and sharp right to the edge. The eyepiece is not the easiest eyepiece to use, but if you are willing to work a little bit to get your eye position right, the views that it provides are large, rich, and detailed.