Apollo-High-Resolution 22x85 BInoculars. First Light.

[Grotemobile]

http://www.firstlightoptics.com/helios/helios-apollo-high-resolution.html

Got theses yesterday. They are the 22x85. Paid £274 for these in  

the clearance sale. First up was Venus. Just a blob. Bins needed  

focusing. U have to do one side at a time. It looked like a planet

now. On to Jupiter. The street light was in the way. Could see the

4 moons & the planet its  self. Could not make out the bands on

the planet. Swung the bins round to Saturn. Wow, Very small but

clear. Did not expect this for 22x mag. Could make out a couple of dots

which were moons. The only problem was the tripod. As it got colder

it got stiffer & stiffer. Only 2 bolts holding the top together. To  save sending

it back, I thought I  would have a look. Full of   thick, Chinese grease. 

Y to they put this stuff in there. Cleaned it all out ,&   re greased  it

with silicone grease. Works great now. On now to the seafront, to do

a bit of ship watching. This is what I got them for. 

 

Steve.

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Nice first-light report. Could you see the phase of Venus?

[Grotemobile]

Nice first-light report. Could you see the phase of Venus?

Yes I could. I was quite amazed.

Did not expect to see that. Normally

it is bright blob, through the scope, a

lot of the time.

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Yes I could. I was quite amazed.

Did not expect to see that. Normally

it is bright blob, through the scope, a

lot of the time.

That is a good test of control of glare in the optics. I can often catch the half and "thick crescent" phases with my 15x70s. When Venus is a thin crescent, even my 10x50s can show it, but then it is much closer, and therefore larger (and the thin crescent does not show as much glare

[Chris]

Good report Steve, nice binos

[Demon Barber]

Steve ,great bino`s only improvement i would suggest is ditching the horizon tripod and upgrade to a manfrotto tripod and a fluid head,you will find them so much easier to operate,i find for a few quid more the horizon could have been  a great  buy but i found it very frustrating and limiting,no twist lock ,i use my 28x110 on the manfrotto combo and find them a dream.

Your report is first class and you got a great set of bino`s at a steal of a price,and superb quality.

Regards 

Mike

[Grotemobile]

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Manfrotto-BeFree-Compact-Lightweight-Travel/dp/B00COLBNTK/ref=sr_1_4/278-7451263-9704156?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1434014696&sr=1-4&keywords=manfrotto+tripod+and+head

I presume these are the ones U mean. A lot better.

Did not know about these. Thanks for the heads up.

There is no way, that your bins would be ok on the

horizon tripod. Mine are just on the limit.

Steve

[Demon Barber]

Hi Steve,the combo i`ve got is a secondhand Manfrotto 075 tripod,solid but it has a long reach,and a Manfrotto 804RC2 head,

Regards

Mike

[spike95609]

A friend of mine has the same binoculars on the same tripod, and it can be made to work but things go loose on the tripod often and you end up spending a lot of time wrestling it. I've got the Manfrotto 475B tripod and 502A/H head. Very expensive, but believe me it's worth it for bins as large and heavy as these. We had another binocular session the other night and were also quite surprised at how much 22x was able to show of Saturn. Those were definitely rings with a gap on either side to show where they ended and the planet started.

[ghostdance]

Hi Steve,the combo i`ve got is a secondhand Manfrotto 075 tripod,solid but it has a long reach,and a Manfrotto 804RC2 head

Lovely report on your 22×, Grote. They sound highly impressive

My s/hand 075 arrived yesterday - solid it is! Very pleased thus far. Will definitely be trying it with my 20×60 Tento and 222 head.

Sorry to be a bit of a duffhead, but what d'you mean by 'long reach'? The 075 is certainly a tall beast, maybe that?

(another!) Steve

[Grotemobile]

A friend of mine has the same binoculars on the same tripod, and it can be made to work but things go loose on the tripod often and you end up spending a lot of time wrestling it. I've got the Manfrotto 475B tripod and 502A/H head. Very expensive, but believe me it's worth it for bins as large and heavy as these. We had another binocular session the other night and were also quite surprised at how much 22x was able to show of Saturn. Those were definitely rings with a gap on either side to show where they ended and the planet started.

I have ended up taking the head apart &rebuilding it.

The mount seems ok.It is just the way it has been

assembled.A 5 year old, could do better. It seems

to be ok now. Just needed, good  bit of tweaking.

It should have been ok, out of the box.

Steve.

[Demon Barber]

Steve,i had just meant that the tripod is very tall (reach) great for looking vertically, i find Manfrotto gear well worth the money but i nearly always buy secondhand,very robust and spares easy to obtain

Regards

Mike