Star Sailor

I know you didn't ask me , but I use a Rigel Quikfinder on mine. It helps enormously that the outer circle is as near as dammit the same size of the FoV of my x37 eyepieces.

Cheers Steve, I'll have a look at that too :-) 

I actually emailed you a couple of months ago about spending approx £275  and you recommended the Helios Apollo  15x70, well I managed to wangle another £100 out of the relatives (it was for a birthday present), so I went with the Helios Apollo 22x85 instead. They look and feel like great bins, but not had a proper chance to use them as yet.

Many thanks for your help and advice - it was much appreciated!

Wayne.

Hi Wayne, Thanks for your message. The red led finder I'm using on the Apollo's is a 'Sky Surfer III LED-Fiber Pointer' from Baader Planetarium. It has a variable intensity red dot control as I have found some others are just 'on' or 'off' and can be too bright. I originally bought mine years ago together with a purpose made L bracket from 'Scopesnskies. Depending on how you Internet search you either come up with  http://www.scopesnskies.com/prod/binocular/red-dot/tripod-bracket2.html (currently out of stock) or http://www.scopesnskies.com/prod/binocular/red-dot/tripod-bracket.html and in stock :-) Best to ring and check!

Cheers,

Steve

Cheers Steve, I'll have a wee look!

Wayne.

I seem to use my binoculars for virtually all my observing nowadays (a case of two poor eyes propping each other up). Here is a photo of my Helios Apollo 15x70's, I use them with a one piece bracket and red led finder and a Vanguard Tracker 4 heavy duty tripod. They are my mainstay and despite the heavy tripod are quite movable.

IMG_1876.JPG

And my two Pentax binoculars the 10x50 and 20x60-

IMG_2073.JPG

For my 60th my dear wife bought me some Vixen 81mm binoculars (BT81S-A) that stand on the Vixen SXG-HAL 130 tripod, fork mount and plate which can have their eyepieces swapped to give magnifications of between x19 and x48 and varying FOV's. M45 looks magnificent through them at x19. I must get to take a photograph of these binoculars next time I use them.

Cheers,

Steve

Hi Steve,

Love your set-up! I haven't thought of using an LED finder with my bins - yours sounds great! Which make/model is it?

Cheers,

Wayne.

So very helpful for us beginners - cheers Nick :-)