Winter doubles session with new swift Newport bins

[mdstuart]

Enjoyed the sky giving some swift Newport mark II 10x50 bins a first light.

They seem very sharp on axis and have a wide field of view.

Started by splitting the pair at the base of the sword of Orion, the west belt star 57 Perseus then lambda 14 and 30 Aries followed by psi and 77 Pisces.

Struggled with iota cancer but got the 70mm celestron out and split this one.

So they work well down to about 30 secs of ark.

Very pleased with them especially as they cost me less than £20 inc postage. I did have to remove a small bit of fungus but that was relatively straightforward with a lens pen.

Might have to sell the Russian bins now!

Mark

[BinocularSky]

swift Newport mark II 10x50

How are you finding those? I had one about 10 years ago and was really disappointed with the edge performance and the overall sharpness and brightness as compared to the Mk1. Curious to know if I just had a Friday afternoon job, or if my experience is the norm.

[mdstuart]

Steve

They are sharp on axis based on looking at the tight doubles. The 30 sec arc ones were nice dots with black space between such as the double at the bottom of the sword.

The field is wide with the same FOV in the Swifts and the 7 x 50 russian bins which are probably like two plossl eyepieces...The swifts are about 60 deg FOV I would say...

The Swifts are sharp out to about 70% but clearly going off around the edges.

Very nice large eyepieces and the same size glass at the other end of the eyepiece barrel...

BAK 7 prisms....as far as I can see.

So a nice 10 x 50 set for £12 plus postage..

Mark

[BinocularSky]

Thanks for that, Mark. You're now the 2nd person whose experience is unlike mine. Seems that the one I had must have been a bad 'un. Oh well....