Firstlighting 15x70 binos

[Tiny]

Always trying to find something portable (to go in luggage) but powerful enough to see wide fields and deep sky stuff I noticed an advert for 15x70 binos which, a quick calculation showed, have the light gathering ability of a 4" scope and work at around the power that I run my 4" at for deep sky and wide fields.

A bit of web work found that the binos in the ad were not to be recommended but others were - and they were the same 15x70 sort as were sold by some manufacturers at near twice the price.

Cut to me trying to buy the said binos on the Telescope House site. This used to be user friendly but since it's been improved it seem very unfriendly to me and my system. It demands I remove firewalls and other stuff to allow it to send cookies when I try to use various bits of the site. Amazingly it started up in it's demands (again) when I'm trying to buy the binos. The attitude that I must do this before it will allow me to buy reminds me of a shop worker demanding I allow a body search before he will let me in the shop. To me it is really annoying and I wonder how many others take their business elsewhere because of it! But in this case, as Telescope House is the only place I know that sells these binos and I also know that when its open the staff is as helpful as the website is not helpful I phoned in office hours and ordered the binos...

Next day, just after lunch we hear strange noises outside our house. A white van has arrived and from the racket coming through the double glazing there is a rhino loose in the back of it crashing about and banging off the walls. As I believe in woman and children first I send the wife out to find out what is happening and she finds (no surprise) it is businesspost and the man is hunting for our parcel in a nice quiet careful way... Luckily the parcel he presents has been packed by Telescope House people who obviously know it will be handled with the care it has got from rhino-man - being marked glass and fragile - so it arrives in a big box with masses of packaging and in the middle the binos are undamaged.

By the time the van drives off the blue sky has clouded over and an hour later it's raining so, apart from screwing the binos to a tripod and pointing them out the front door at the standard electric pole to focus them there is little to be done - or so I think...

In fact I am amazed to look out as it gets dark and find that not only has the rain gone but the clouds have rolled away and the stars are coming out. The only downside to this is that the weather lady has just announced that tonight will be the coldest for some time...

[jgs001]

A good read Tiny, Waiting eagerly for part II

[Tiny]

Part 2

We have a few tripods. We use them on our PSTs and sun binos so we get plenty of practise of setting up and aiming. Unlike a telescope equatorial or Go-To mounts I use a tripod like a zimma frame - as in you pick it up and plonk it down when the thing on it (binos or scope) is pointing in the same vertical frame to the object of choice. This pointing is easy as you simply look down the tube or the centre bit of the binos. Once there you move the binos/telescope up and down until the thing you want to view either appears in the scope finder or in the binos view - binos have nice wide field.

With this in mind it is coat and hat on and out we go as it gets dark. First object is Orion's sword - all of which fits in the view and, even though it's not fully dark very impressive the sword is as you can see all the various bits from the funny little star group at the top down past M42 to the two brighter stars at the bottom. M42 is quite nice - with binos, using two eyes you can have a look round and see a bit of mist - though it still isn't dark. On to Saturn - still rising - and there is a bit of atmospheric colour there but if Galileo had had these binos even with the buggers closing he would have known Saturn had rings!

By now its darker and we switch to stars with Alcor and Mizar - which are split by eye as we have a nice 7/10 sky. In the binos their separation plus number 3 star of the 4 is a fine view. As the seeing is good we try for M80/81 but my navigation is off so we move on quickly round the house and line up on the Pleiades. The binos give a good view of these. A few years ago I would have said a great view but good wide angle lenses in Williams Optic scopes have spoiled us. In them the stars of M45 are perfect points surrounded by the mist. The binos by comparison are slightly blobby but, hey, what do you want for £49? As it is the view is still superb - how anyone could look at it and not rush out to buy scope or binos and take up our nutty hobby I don't know!

After the Pleiades the Hyades - all those pairs, then back to M42 - which is now nice a misty. I always have trouble with M42. I have seen so many photos of it that I'm not sure what I see and what I imagine when viewing live. I once read a letter from a newbie who complined he had the same scope/eyepiece as the (magazine) expert and he could not see what the expert could see. The reply was that it took practise but still I wonder if it is that plus imagination. Certainly looking at M42 I see the running man - or parts of him while the wife, who has better eyes but less imagination can't. Still in the binos M42 is nice, clear, sharp. Time for some colour tests...

Orion gives you the perfect pair of stars to try. Up top Betelgeuse (or whatever) is massively large and red while Rigel is on the blue side of white. How blue is easy to see as blinding white Sirius is nearby to give a nice comparison. All colours are as stated and, as my right eye shows more orange when my left shows orange/red who cares for exact colours in any star. (Just think - no human knows what colours another sees we just agree on names for them!)

Last on the list comes Saturn again. It's got over its atmosphere troubles now and is nice and yellow/white and comes complete with Triton as a little nearby dot. (I know that is Triton as on the Sky & Telescope site they have lots of useful free to use things and one current one allows you to move the moons of Saturn about hour on hour, showing their positions at any time. The inners really fly about as you will find if you visit the site.)

By now the weather ladies prediction is coming true as in we are both feeling the cold so it's a good time to quit while we are ahead. Total time out is just 50 minutes - but that's the thing about binos on a tripod - you can point, see and move on very quickly.

Verdict of the binos - amazing value for money - very good quality views and easy to adjust. They are a mite heavy but our tripod (which cost nearly twice as much as the binos) can handle them and it goes up high enough so even up 6 footers can look up above, getting a crick in the neck, without crouching down. I think we will take binos and tripod on holiday. Maybe we will buy another pair to have one each!

[jgs001]

Tiny, thanks for a very enjoyable read. Sounds like they are really good value for money and will get lots of use. Yet more to add to the shopping list...