BinocularSky

17 hours ago, Ships and Stars said:

@BinocularSky is a walking goldmine of binocular information, not only the equipment, but what you can see with binoculars - Steve may weigh in here!

Weighing in.... 🙂

@TrevorW45 - I've seen fleeting dark space between Saturn's disc and the ansae with a mounted Helios Apollo 15x70, and with a Lunt Magnesium 16x70 -- but I do mean "fleeting". More clearly an actual ring in Pentax 20x60, so your suggested 25x100 will let you see it has a ring (optical quality permitting), but you really need to get to around 35x before it becomes reliably distinct.

But really, as @Ships and Stars indicated, the requirements for starfields (wide angle) and planets (magnification) are mutually exclusive. Binoculars are superb for the former, but not the weapon of choice for the latter, unless you are going for really top-end stuff that I would not advise a newcomer to buy (pick a number between 5 and 20, and add three zeroes).

Some ideas + reviews + what to look at on my website; URL in sig. FYI, I recently reviewed the Orion GiantView 25x100 for AstroGear Today.

I hope that helps; do ask if you have any questions.

2 hours ago, DaveL59 said:

I think it was a weakness in that model era, the note-10 so far hasn't needed this.

Ah, thanks for that, Dave. I wonder. Mine's a Galaxy S7. I don't really want to upgrade a phone that is still perfectly serviceable for everything else I use it for. (I'm happy enough  star-hopping anyway 🙂.)

Also, just noticed the FAH notice in your sig. Just signed up and joined team SGL. What a good idea!

On 23/09/2020 at 12:57, markse68 said:

maybe a wearable for starbathing

(from http://www.kasai-trading.jp/widebino28e.html)

I use a Rigel QuikFinder - the outer circle is 2*, very close to the 1.8* of my 37x eyepieces; makes star-hopping a doddle. I look through (and past) the QuikFinder with small binos if I want fainter stuff.

I tried using SkEye with my Dob - marginal success; I suspect the phone's magnetometer is just not precise enough (yes, I do know about "figure-8-ing" it 🙂 )

17 hours ago, bond19 said:

I was thinking of a fork or Alt Az mount with encoders to help me find things. Is this overkill for a decent pair of 100mm bins? I love sweeping the sky but don't really know how to find things or what I'm looking at?

I don't do it, but I don't think it's overkill at all. If it's what you need to enjoy your binoculars, then do it. Seems to me to be a waste of money to buy decent optical kit and then not mount it in a way that is ideal for you.

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Does a parallelogram 'fold up' easily for compact storing or does it need to be always assembled for 'grab and go' (this is a big consideration for my needs). 

No, unless you dismantle it, storing a P-mount can be a pain. Mind you, mine has the UA "deluxe" head, which adds another level of storage - and transport - hell because of the system for attaining front-back balance (but I think it's worth it for the sheer joy of using it).

17 hours ago, bond19 said:

and purchasing a BT with changeable eyepieces.

Mine is a Miyauchi BJ100 - no longer made, but I have compared it to others that are available. Quality-wise I prefer it to the Helios offerings, but a friend had the APM ED version, which was noticeably better. He mated it with some TV eyepiece pairs and it was, frankly, stunning. I was tempted to consider selling the Miya and getting one.

One caveat about eyepiece pairs: make sure you get them from the same batch. A bloke in our club has the 125mm Vixen and bought two used eyepieces separately; although nominally the same, they were slightly different.

Parallelogram; I've a UA T-mount for my big binos (6kg-ish), for more than 15 years, and I can't imagine going back to anything else, not least because I can always have the eyepiece at a comfortable height, and I can see nearly a quarter of the sky without needing to move (handy if seated).

I love my 100 mm binocular (probably my most-used bit of astro kit) but, looking at your kit list, I wonder if a bog standard 25x100 is what you need. Your TV 102 + 41mm Panoptic  will give you far better wide-field views. Something like the Helios LQ-HR  might suit you (my review is here ), but the cheaper ones tend not to have anywhere near as sharp a field. The common 100mm binocular lenses tend to be around f/4, so aberrations tend to be quite pronounced.

In view of the duplication in aperture with your TV, have you considered something bigger? APM and Vixen both do bigger binos - but they are pricey, mind!

But, to directly answer your question, in my opinion it is worth lugging around the bigger bino (+ sturdy parallelogram and tripod), but I wouldn't do it if they didn't have angled eyepieces.

I've just noticed @Tomatobro's post - mine has x20 and x37 eyepieces; I've not used the x20 for more than a decade - the wonderful variety of human experience... 🙂

Field of view is fairly "flexible" with Galilean optics - it depends how close you get your eye to the exit pupil - which, just to complicate matters, is virtual and between the objective and eyepiece.

it's almost certainly because the right eyepiece dioptre has been mis-set. I don't know how applicable this will be to your binocular (there have been several incarnations of Opticron 20x80s), but if it is one of the more recent ones, this might help:
Resetting the Right Eyepiece Dioptre

2 hours ago, pedromreis said:

Those opticrons and hellius recommended above fall into that cheap category?

No - I was referring to this sort of optomechanical dross. The Opticrons can definitely be user-adjusted; I'm not sure about the Helios.

On 15/09/2020 at 16:37, Ships and Stars said:

Yes I've read about the blinking technique, think that's useful for isolating very small planetary nebula etc. Not tried it myself, but makes sense.

It works 🙂

Oops; for some reason this got posted in the wrong thread...

On 16/09/2020 at 08:49, pedromreis said:

So I've read a bit about binoculars and came across some horror stories about collimation. If I understand correctly, I cannot repair it if it become un-collimated right?

No, most binoculars can be recollimated. The exceptions are mostlycheap tat.

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Since I'm inexperienced, how easy is to detect if a binocular is not correctly collimated?

Easy. Don't trust daylight tests on terrestrial objects - your eyes & brain try, and often manage, to compensate; this can lead to headaches and/or nausea for prolonged use. Use a bright star. Defocus the right hand side of the binocular (eyepiece dioptre adjustment). Your brain will superimpose the images from either side; If they are collimated, the focused star will appear in the middle of the defocused blob.

On 16/09/2020 at 19:26, Stardaze said:

FLO confirmed that the Stellar II’s don’t have filter threads 😂 Might have to save a bit for the Apollo’s unless maybe @BinocularSky could recommend a pair of 15x70’s for around £200 with filter threads? 

AFAIK it's only the Apollos that have filter threads. The downside is that usable eye relief for spectacle wearers in, at best, minimal. I no longer have the Apollos; I replaced them with Lunt Magnesium. I sometimes use a UHC by "pinching" the rubber eyecup to keep it in place.

Ask OptRep - if anyone knows, they will.

I don't know them, but if your eyes are quite close set, do check the actual minimum IPD - which is limited by the aperture. If the eyepieces are on axis with the objectives, which  is the case with most roof prisms, the minimum IPD cannot be less than the outer diameter of the objective tubes.

🙂

Are those the "triple tested" ones? Great no-nonsense binos, and so much better than today's budget offerings.

I'm not a great fan of tripod-mounted "straight through" binoculars because looking at anything higher than about 45* is a pain. Literally. The Celestron 20x80 is relatively light, so you can get away with a trigger-grip (see above) on a monopod. The monopod need not be perfectly vertical, so you can sit/recline with it as well for greater comfort. For greatest satisfaction, though, ultimately a parallelogram is the way to go, IMO.

Celestron Skymaster Pro 20x80 on trigger grip

Helios 20x80 on parallelogram - very versatile.

21 hours ago, jcj380 said:

If I stay with 15x70s, the current frontrunners are Oberwerk Deluxe.

Have you had a look at the Bresser Spezial? Better usable eye relief and, (matter of preference) when it comes to those big eyepieces, I find pliable fold-down eye-cups far more comfortable than rigid twist-up ones.

The September edition of the Binocular Sky Newsletter is ready. Astronomical darkness returns to the southern part of the UK this month, and we have:

* Uranus and Neptune
* A dwarf planet
* Mira near maximum
* A grazing occultation within reach of much of England and a bit of south Wales

I hope this helps you to enjoyably fill these lengthening evenings.

To pick up your free copy, just head over to http://binocularsky.com and click on the Newsletter tab, where you can subscribe (also free, of course) to have it emailed each month, and get archived copies.

On 12/08/2020 at 13:27, Swoop1 said:

How about  a ROROO (Roll On Roll Off Observatory)- a small shed on wheels that rolls off to expose your whole rig

In principle, nice. In practice, it will remove moving braais and seating every time I use the observatory. I need something that "flies" above the established occupants of the roll-off space.

There is limited space for an observatory in the garden, not least because we do like trees. Best location is the "lawn" (hah ha) between the paved area and the concrete patio.My idea is to make a small remote observatory, but the main problem I'm facing is the roof.

The minimum size for the observatory is (interior measurements) 140 (h) x 160 (l) x 160 (w) cm, which leaves a few inches clearance all round (I've mocked it up with a bamboo frame -- see image --  and yes, my calculations are correct 🙂  ). It needs to be very close to the boundary fence, so no room for a balanced fold-off roof in that direction. Ideally, it will be off-grid, run off a substantial LiFePO4 pack charged by a solar panel mounted on the obsy roof - hence a roll-off pent roof seems to be simplest. Fence runs EW on N side of property, so solar panel would naturally be on an S-facing pent roof. The natural direction for the roll-off would be east, towards the house, but the rails would run into the BBQ/seating area (the shrubs and  fruit bushes in the image will be transplanted), so I need some species of non-permanently placed rails.

I've seen on here some fold-up rails, but the wall height of mine is less than the wall length...

Best solution I've seen so far is Tony Rodda's gate-leg (here) - except mine would be horizontal, not sloped.

Is there another possible solution that I'm ignoring, and are there any caveats with the gate-leg idea?

If the entire roof mech could be remotely controlled, that would be a bonus!

Overall, I'm thinking of adapting the build on the Blackwater Skies site - again, any caveats?