25x100s first dark sky site views!

[dezzie]

Finally managed to get my quantum 4s up to derwent reservoir last night, all I can say is WOW, although milky way could be seen with nakid eye I have seen it better previously with my mak I had but anyways, Andromeda looked fab, filled my whole lens with a big bright disc pity it was in grey though but still excellent, milky way views looked immense, pleaides was a wow but what blew me away was the views of orion nebula, I looked at it through a 200 Newtonian and it looked great and much bigger than my binos but the view in my bins showed a massive amount of luminosity, a member of the club who is very experienced said it was the best he had ever seen it and better than the scopes he has looked through, all I can say is if you ever get the chance to look through big binos at a dark sky site, do it, your socks will be blown off, only criticism I had was looking through the straight through eyepieces at zenith views as my neck was killing even with the "P" mount.

I may never buy a scope only better bins!

[Damo636]

Nice report Dezzie & totally agree with you, big bin's really are the business from a dark site!

Regarding the stiff neck, try using a reclined chair of some sorts. I use a reclining patio chair on a simple home made plywood wheeled platform. The chair has a built in neck support attached & when I want to view at zenith, the neck pillow simply flips back over the top of the chair and out of the way, simples!

I took delivery of a new gun during the week & just today finished building a heavy duty mount for it. The brief views I've had from it mounted on the fluid video head have been breathtaking! I can't wait to get it up and running on the P-mount though, I'm much happier lying back observing. (Yep, I'm a lazy so & so!)

[NGC 1502]

Nice one Dezzie.  Sounds great, I've looked through 80mm binos (not mine) from a dark site, and been very impressed indeed, so 100mm will be a step up.

Add to the enjoyment the relative portability of bins, you have a winner by the sound of it.

Regards, Ed.

[Jason71]

Good report mate. Sounds like you had a good time.

[kirkster501]

Any photos of the quantum 4's and the head/tripod please Dezzie?  My dad is thinking of some big bins like those!  You mind me asking how much it all cost please?

[dezzie]

paid 270 for the binos, guy at my local club had an old eq2 mount and made the rest for 50 quid but I gave him another 20 for the work he put in, he just likes to make things as he is retired and will do anything at the club, real gentso 340 quid therebouts!

[dezzie]

[kirkster501]

Thats superb mate.  Well done!

[Russko13]

Wow comparing those to my 10x50's they are beasts!!!

[Special K]

Good report Dezzie. Those are big bins for sure! This kind of talk is really making me look forward to my Xmas 10x50s

[Alfian]

Good report Dezzie - and photos. I've seen 25x100s on supplier sites but its hard to get an impression of size - they are HUGE! And what  a great mount. The clear nights (hopefully) of the winter are going to be a treat.

[tingting44]

wow sounds great!!! im just looking to get my 1st pair of bino's, im looking at the pentax 10x50, your 25x100 sounds amazing!!! can you use them hand held?

by the way, what would be your dream pair of bino's

[dezzie]

Well I am a relative beginner, I have only been observing since august but as a kid sat in the local library reading everything I could understand which was not much, just aswell it had pictures haha but I have sat hours daily pouring over forums, reviews, knowledge from folk in my local clubs etc, and honestly I think all I will ever have is binos although a small apo refractor is tempting me, but reading reports on the fella in Germany who is starting to produce a full apochromatic bino, same aperture as mine but with interchangeable eyepieces with possible mags of over 150x with no false colour or aberration, I think these are my dream bins, although somewhat out of my budget but you never know if my lottery ticket wins and I would be ordering it straight away.

My binos are around 18 inches long and weigh around 11.5 lbs so they are massive and not really for holding although I can for very short periods of time with a bit of shake, you definitely need a good sturdy mount, my mount is not perfect, I feel it should have been slightly longer, ideally I would love a star chair so I can sit in comfort, be able to spin 360 degrees and tilt and have some sort of gps stellarium mounted on the binos but this is wishfull thinking, after seeing the heavens in dark skies I could barely make out the constellations as there were so many stars on view which I found frustrating and where the site is it is known to have strong magnetic fields which mess with anything like phone apps, etc but its a learning curve and I have a lifetime to buy or design upgrades and get around these problems.