Helios Apollo 15x70 - my musings

[spike95609]

So I ordered the Helios Apollo 15x70, Manfrotto 502AH head and 475B tripod, and a Strathspey L Adapter on Thursday morning. £650 for the lot. By midday on Friday, everything bar the tripod had arrived at my house and it was all on standard shipping rates. What can I say but wow, and thank you to MicroGlobe, SpeedGraphic and whoever it was on Ebay who sent the adapter. The tripod, coming via Amazon, isn't likely to arrive until well into next week which, looking at the weather for the next few days, seems no great loss.

My first impressions then. The binocular was well packaged in its aluminium case, wrapped in bubble wrap, and with an identical L Adapter thrown in which was most kind - I probably should have waited before buying a separate one. The first thing that struck me was the size of the damn thing, for a brief moment I thought they'd sent me the 15x85 by mistake. No, definitely the 15x70. Very large, very solidly built, and quite heavy. The weird thing is, and I've read other people say the same, although they're 2.5kg they're not at all difficult to hand hold for short periods. I don't know if this is an issue of ergonomics or balance but they just seem to sit very well in the hands. You can't hold them steady of course, the magnification alone is enough to make everything wobble all over the place, but it is perfectly do-able for a quick look at something.

It was daylight at this time so I did a bit of terrestrial viewing with them. I don't have any long range views around my house to take advantage of, so I looked at the top branches of a very large oak tree about 200 yards away and was quite surprised at the level of detail. I tried this again in twilight when all my eyes could see was a silhouette of the tree, but through the bins I could easily make out bark and lichen. It reminded me a bit of the time when I borrowed a pair of Swarovski EL 10x42s from a friend and could see the same level of detail at 300 yards and found that they lit up twilight conditions almost as if it were daylight. The Apollo's don't have quite the same impact of course, you have to pay £1800 for that, but still the impression is that these bring in an awful lot of light to the eyes.

The night was cloudy but there was a brief break in them around 6:30pm. The skies were nowhere near dark enough to do justice to their capabilities so I won't be able to report as much wow as I am sure these things can deliver. M45 was up and I picked more detail out of it than I've seen with any other binoculars. I found M31 too about 80 degrees overhead, a bit of a blurr but so much more distinct than I'm used to seeing it. What impressed me though was Jupiter. In my old cheap 10x40 binos, which aren't at all bad for what they are, I had to look at Jupiter and then stare a little away from it to see the dim impression of two moons around it. With the Apollo's I didn't have to look away at all, there they were in the centre, BANG, easily visible. Without a tripod to hold them steady I cannot be sure, but I think I saw three moons not two. Two spaced apart and away from Jupiter at about 7 o'clock, and another one very close to Jupiter and in line with the others at 1 o'clock.

So all I can say so far is that I'm impressed with everything and am desperate for a tripod and dark skies so I can see what these things can really do. More ramblings will no doubt follow.

Thanks for listening,

Mark

[Damo636]

Nice report of your early impressions Mark and welcome to Club Apollo!

[Mark at Beaufort]

Mark welcome to SGL and congratulations on your purchase. I love my 15x70 binos and often use them rather than taking out the scopes.

If you have chance go and have a look at Comet Lovejoy before we lose it. Here is a link to its position over the coming weeks -

http://cometchasing.skyhound.com/

[spike95609]

Thanks for the comet link, I shall keep tabs on that for anything that my binos can see. I went out again last night for another brief hand-held session. The skies were a lot clearer and the same objects I saw before came up in more detail. I also saw M33 and M42, the latter being quite a bright white cloud. Jupiter was impressive again. My tripod is in the post so hopefully whenever the skies are next clear I should be able to have a proper play around!

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Glad you like your new bins. The Helios Apollo 15x70HDs are really great, you will have loads of stargazing fun with them

[spike95609]

My Manfrotto 475B tripod has arrived and I have to say I don't regret spending above and beyond on this tripod at all. It is utterly immense. The big surprise was that I thought I was going to have to find a chair to observe from, but I've been happily standing up all the time without putting my neck or back out of joint. I'm 5' 8", and have found that if I keep one of the two leg extensions only half extended (so there's an extra 8 - 10 inches to play with) then I can stand comfortably in between the legs and don't need to bend over at all if I use the geared extender to compensate for the elevation of whatever object I'm looking at. The video head is great too. I'm very impressed with both. So much so that I'm looking at my 15x70 binocular and thinking that the tripod deserves something more unwieldy. That time will come I have no doubt. Anyway I've only been able to squeeze in a couple of evening sessions in between the cloud. I don't think I've seen the best that this setup can offer yet, but so far all is going well and I've been gradually finding my way across the sky to see what they can pick up.

[Damo636]

So glad to hear you are pleased with the new set up, it's a quality combo, and will keep you future proofed in the event you do add a larger instrument to the stable at some point.

Clear skies!