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TS Marine 15x70s [Kunming BA8]


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Visiting family in the north of Scotland and finally had the good luck to get a cloudless, moonless, inky black sky. Probably the best seeing I've ever had, no room in the car for a scope but had the bins.

Panstarrs tail grew from about 1º under ok-ish skies to 2º in the blackness and looked great with Andromeda stretching to a good 3º.

Everything around Cassiopeia was alive with stars, the Double Cluster just about naked eye and sparkling like I'd never seen, Kembles Cascade prominent and Stock 2 very delicately detailed.

Sweeping the Milky Way was spectacular.

M44, M45 and the Clusters in Auriga all great viewing, Saying goodbye to Orion as it slips away for another year.M82 obvious and M15 for the first time this year.

Stayed out until about 2.00am when I started to suspect I'd got frostbite in my toes.

So just one night, it's now snowing again and it's back to orange street lamps tomorrow.

but it sure makes visiting the in-Laws more bearable.......

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Space dragon,

What a shame you couldn't get a scope there with you but it sounds like you enjoyed the Bino's. I am lucky with a sky like that every night the moon isn't around and the clouds of course. I haven't had a lot of good seeing in the direction of Panstarrs though, I have hills in the way and loose about 7 degrees of sky that way, two nights ago I managed to put the scope in the only place I couldn't see that part of the sky, the very end or the barn roof was in the way. But it was nice in the 10.5 X 70's before it disappeared into the tops of the trees.

Alan

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Alan

We stayed on an extra night and had another clear one, this time looking out over the sea to the west. It was great to have views right down to a dark horizon without the usual hills and trees in the way.

Panstarrs tail was about 3º.......

You know how lucky you are to have dark skies so often, this winter, when we have had one, you feel duty bound to go out, whether you feel like it or not, even if you're too tired or have to get up early, you feel you have to make the most of it.

And this cold east wind is still blowing, which doesn't help......couldn't make it past midnight last night.

I'll have to move to Arizona.

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Two ways, the first of which require's about a minute's worth of surgery (to the recliner) with a soldering iron (stops the edges of the hole fraying. Tried the hole-in-the-chair option, but I prefer the down-the-side one.

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The one downside of this Manfrotto monopod compared to the cheap 7-day Shop one is the lack of ground spike in the end, so it does tend to slip more. However, slippage is not an issue with the "down-the-side" method. Still need to concoct an altogether better "universal" solution for using a binocular with a recliner and not having to cart so much crud that the whole portability advantage goes down the pan.

Frankly, the Celestron are not very good, not least because they are actually 10x62 (stopped down internally). They are better than the 10x50s of the same quality (actually 10x43), and show more than the unaided eye, but they are over-represented in "How do I fix...?" type threads on astronomy message boards for a reason.

Inevitable. To be sensibly achromatic, a 70mm would need to be around f/14, maybe f/8 or so with ED glass or f/6 or so with fluorite (like hen's teeth nowadays). These binoculars are about f/5.

Allow me to introduce you to my Bj100B :grin:

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A few of things about the head: like a lot of Chinese stuff, QC isn't brilliant, and they tend to loosen up with use. You can adjust the ball stiffness wiht the little black grubscrew in the head -- takes a 3mm hex-wrench (Allen-key). Don't over-tighten, as it gets jerky, but about 1/8 turn at a time should find you the sweet spot for your binocular. Also, the silver-coloured bolt under the mounting plate may get loose -- symptom: stuff wobbles slightly. Easy to remedy with a 4mm hex-wrench. Lastly, the screw holding the leaf-spring that holds up the video pin can work loose. You can either remove the whole caboodle altogether, or put a drop of CA in the thread and tighten it.

The I'll try to get some pics up in the next few days.

Steve, I've been googling for that chair you're ina nd can't find anything that appears to be as sturdy. Any pointers [moosh] ;-)
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Steve, I've been googling for that chair you're ina nd can't find anything that appears to be as sturdy. Any pointers [moosh] ;-)
It's a "Mac Sports Retracting Footrest Chair" that I got about 8 years ago. They still do a similar one but, if the reviews here are anything to go by, the quality has declined markedly over the intervening years. Sorry I can't be more help.
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It's a "Mac Sports Retracting Footrest Chair" that I got about 8 years ago. They still do a similar one but, if the reviews here are anything to go by, the quality has declined markedly over the intervening years. Sorry I can't be more help.

You've been really helpful Steve. Will just get a cheap garden recliner from Argos for now as most viewing is from home anyway.
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  • 6 months later...

It does sound an easier option than using the tripod for anything above maybe 40 deg. Can you specify the individual head and pod so I can google please?

May I ask why a bino-viewer with a decent refractor wouldn't be as good an option, not forgetting the added flexibility?

Am still enjoying my Extreme 15x70's. ED or not, they're very clear!

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A binoviewer is generally not a widefield thing, although with a fast refractor and a bino with the shortest possible light path and widest clear aperture and EPs with long focal length and widest field stop...........you can achieve a wider FOV.

At the moment I'm waiting for an adapter from Precise Parts to put my Earthwin binos directly on top of a Baader T2 prism diagonal [very short light path] which will keep the FOV wide and the weight and moment arm down on the Skytee alt/az mount.

This will go onto a 6"F5.9 refractor which will give a similar light grasp to a 100mm binocular but with the ability to use preferred EPs with an un-vignetted 90º angle and the ability to use much higher mags.

After a lot of research, this seems to be the most cost effective and portable solution.

I was thinking of making a binoscope from 2x6" scopes but the problems of machining them into alignment and making them portable were too much.

And the added cost.

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