Philip Canard Reviews

This came with my Meade LXD75 SN-8 f/4 Schmidt Newtonian. I see moderate astigmatism and considerable lateral color and coma starting about halfway to the edge of field. There is considerable flare on bright objects. My Celestron Omni Plossl EPs outperform it by a very noticeable degree, and for less cost. The Omni EPs are also better finished and have better coatings for more contrast and much better planetary views. If you wear glasses, this EP still provides not quite enough relief to see the entire field. This is not the old Meade 4000 Super Plossl that had a much higher reputation, as it is now made in China.

I have a Meade LXD75 SN8 and use Omni Plossl EPs. The edges were soft on the Plossls near the field stops, so I decided to try a 2.5X Powermate and slow the OTA down to f/10. I had not had much luck with an Omni 2X Barlow, as things just got worse and the longer EPs became useless with way too much eye relief. The Powermate produced excellent results with all EPs down to 6mm. The 4mm has an exit pupil too small to be useful when used with the Powermate, but thats just the laws of physics at work. Now all my EPs are sharp to the edge and color correction is even better than before. I can now achieve magnifications up to 338X with my 8 f/4 scope. I easily split the double double in Lyra last night at 169X. I could easily see black space between the stars. Only the seeing conditions now limit me on my magnification. On deep sky objects, the background stays black and contrasty. There is very little light loss introduced by the Powermate.