Meade LT Series, LT SC Series, LT ACF Series Optional Accessories, Choosing Eyepieces, 52º

OPTIONAL ACCESSORIES

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

Choosing Eyepieces

A telescope’s eyepiece magnifies 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 magnification. For example, an eyepiece with a focal length of 9mm has a higher magnification 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 magnifications.

The power or magnification of a telescope is determined by the focal length of the telescope and the focal length of the eyepiece being used. To calculate magnification, divide the telescope’s focal length by the eyepiece’s focal length. For example, a 26mm eyepiece is supplied with the LT Series. The focal length of the 6" LT Series is 1524mm (see SPECIFICATIONS, page 47).

Telescope Focal Length 1524mm

Eyepiece Focal Length 26mm

1524 ÷ 26 = 58.6x

The magnification is therefore 58.6x.

Low power eyepieces offer a wider field of view, bright, high-contrast images, and long eye relief. To find 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-field 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-defined, 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) field of view with 59x magnification. 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 LT Series 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 magnification for any type of celestial object you are viewing. You can also use one of the Series 4000 Barlows to double or triple the magnification of a Super Plössl eyepiece. These eyepieces have been the standard for over 30 years.

Series 4000 Super Plössl Eyepieces

Focal		Apparent		Actual
Length	Type	Field	Power	Field
56.0mm	SP 2"	52º	27x	1º	55'
40.0mm	SP	44º	38x	1º	9'
32.0mm	SP	52º	48x	1º	6'
26.0mm	SP	52º	59x		53'
20.0mm	SP	52º	76x		41'
15.0mm	SP	52º	102x		31'
12.4mm	SP	52º	123x		25'
9.7mm	SP	52º	157x		20'
6.4mm	SP	52º	238x		13'

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