Show us your binoviewers

[Moonshane]

In the tradition of SGL I have been prompted to start this thread.

I don't actually have any pics of my own setups to load yet but hope users of binoviewers will show how they have addressed issues associated with them such as adapters and shortening the optical path. I hope this will become a good resource for others starting down this road.

[Davey-T]

Mine are in a box somewhere, tried them a couple of times and couldn't get on with them, will try to remember to take them to PSP2 to get other opinions 

Dave

[Timebandit]

 

Well thought I will put my binoviewing set up on the post?

 

 

 

 

 

 

The TS Binoviewers in the equinox 120ed apo. Use this on my AZ4 mount. And this is fitted in the straight through position in the photos.

I mostly use the Baader Genuine Ortho in this set up , but also have some televues plossl.

Find the above combination very effective☺

 

[alanjgreen]

Here is my bino kit (in its box waiting for the weather to change!)

The binoviewer is a Baader MarkV,

- I use the Zeiss T2 prism diagonal (to connect to both the CPC and the short tube Borg89ED using standard 2" nosepiece) , it has a baader heavy duty quick change T2 to connect to the markV on the other end

- I use the x1.7 GPC (small circular item in picture, screws up inside the markV) with the Lunt 60mm to which I have a baader heavy duty Quick change T2 connector screwed directly onto the B1200 blocking filter

- I have the x1.7 Newtonian Coma Corrector ready for the big dob (attaches to markV directly with a grub screw)

Eyepiece pairs

- Panoptic 24 & 19

- Delos 17,14,10

- Delite 7 (not shown)

 

[mikeDnight]

Here's my humble little binoviewer. It's only a cheapy costing £99 new about five years ago, but its the best £99 I've ever spent. Since buying it, its been alongside numerous other brands, even at one time a Zeiss bv, yet it has always proved itself a worthy opponent. I'm not saying the more expensive bv's weren't better, but usually the difference was only noticeable in their construction and not so much in optical performance.

I rarely observe fuzzies with it, though M42 is spectacular through it, but rather I use it for lunar and planetary, and its stunning! 

It's a Revelation! 

Mike

 

[alanjgreen]

6 minutes ago, mikeDnight said:

Here's my humble little binoviewer. It's only a cheapy costing £99 new about five years ago, but its the best £99 I've ever spent.

Mike,

great pics!

do you use any glass path correctors to achieve focus in the fracs?

Alan

[Moonshane]

1 hour ago, Timebandit said:

 

 

 

The TS Binoviewers in the equinox 120ed apo. Use this on my AZ4 mount. And this is fitted in the straight through position in the photos.

Find the above combination very effective☺

 

I am getting a crick in my neck just looking at the photos.  don't you use a diagonal?  

 

[Moonshane]

Wonderful set Alan.  mine will be more modest I think. It am aiming eventually for pairs of TV plossls in 32, 25 (got), 20 (currently got 18mm bcos) and 15mm (about to buy), and possibly 11mm.

[Moonshane]

Great stuff Mike!

Your comments have just saved me so much that my eyepieces are effectively free!

[niallk]

I have the Baader Maxbright BV, with a 2.6x GPC.  I purchased it for my Skywatcher 250px 10" f/4.7 dob.

The standard way to use them is to use a 1.25" nosepiece, and the GPC sits between the nosepiece and the BV unit. Unfortunately to my dismay, I found that I still couldn't reach focus with my standard plossls.

So here's how I use them:

1. Take the 1.25" adapter out of the SW stock focuser 

2. In screw the 1.25" barrel 

3. The SW adapter is threaded and matches the thread on the BV unit. The GPC is inserted in the middle

4. The GPC has a large flat flange that must go towards the BV unit. There is no recess to receive and center it, so I just hold horizontal and centre visually 

5. Screw the SW adapter down onto the BV unit. It traps the flat GPC flange and securely holds it in place.

6. Ready for BV fun My favourite EPs are a pair of TV 15mm plossls.  Stunning on Jupiter, Saturn, Moon!

 

 

[Stu]

I use a pair of Baader Zeiss Mark IVs which I am very pleased with. They don't have self centring eyepiece holders, but the tolerance on the holders is very precise so I never have any issues with merging of the two channels.

I largely use them for white light solar, and find the detail visible under good conditions to be quite incredible. Combined with the Tak and Baader Zeiss Hershel Wedge this is the best WL solar setup I've used.

I use a pair of Zeiss 25mm Orthos which are converted microscope eyepieces. These have consistently outperformed any other eyepieces I've used, including when barlowed up to silly multiples. I don't bother swapping eyepieces any more, I just add additional extension tubes to increase the power. It gets a little unwieldy with two tubes added but works just fine.

In the attached image, I was using an eQ platform to give me tracking which worked very well.

[mikeDnight]

1 hour ago, alanjgreen said:

Mike,

great pics!

do you use any glass path correctors to achieve focus in the fracs?

Alan

Hi Alan,

Yes, I use a 2x Barlow lens that screws directly into the nose piece of the Barlow (shown alongside the bv in the image). Without it my refractor won't reach focus, but it allows the use if longer focal length eyepieces while still giving high power views.

Mike

 

 

[Timebandit]

 

 

Binoviewing with the diagonal 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The TS Binoviewers with the diagonal fitted in the optical chain. The straight through method I find fine for planetary or lunar that is relatively low in the sky'. But as you increase the degree of altitude then the straight through method becomes impractical . 

 

Here the equinox 120ed apo refractor has a 2" William Optics dielectric diagonal in the focuser. The 1.25 converter is in the eyepiece end of the diagonal. Due to the fact that this scope will not reach focus with the TS Binoviewers straight into the diagonal. Then an additional element was needed in the optical chain to assist and rectify this optical focus issue. After some experimenting the televues 1.8x ,1.25 barlow was introduced to assist the focus problem. The scope seems now to focus fine with the eyepieces i use in this scope. The additional effect of the televues barlow in the optical chain is that it also increases the focal magnification of the standard eyepieces, so this needs to be taken into account and adjusted as necessary on eyepiece choice. And I mainly use binoviewing for lunar , but also some planetary. IMO binoviewing excels on the lunar viewing at low and medium magnification . I find this I such a relaxing way to view and you can spend longer at the eyepiece than with Cyclops viewing as binoviewing seems less stressful on the eyes, also binoviewing has the added advantage of a 3D type of views. 

[Dude_with_the_tube]

ok you asked for it Shane

here is my humble set up.Meade 178 "Darth Vader" 7" ED F9 with Zeiss custom binoviewers,i use Baader BHSS T2 diagonal.On telescope side it has the 2" nose piece screwed straight to diagonal,on bino side its the T2 quick connector.Shortest light pass possible.I reach focus in native with out the need of barlows or GPC,however,i do have a x1.7 GPC if needed to increase the mags.Again i can reach focus with GPC installed too as i have sufficient back focus available.

What eye pieces i use? Well, NONE at the moment lol.I recently sold my 2 sets of Meade RG`s and i am replacing them with something more interesting.Awaiting for a large-ish box to arrive any day now.End result should be from 18 pairs i should be down to 4 pairs only.

 

[YKSE]

My bino setup:

1. White light with 120ED

 

EPs and connections:

GPC is screwed in the nosepiece with adapters, 1.25x GPC gives 1.5x, 1.7x gives 1.82x with this connection. 1.7x GPC most used since it give 66x and 91x .

Wtih 1.25" clicklock inbetween diagonal and BW, it give 74x and 103x instead.

2. Lunar and planetary with C8:

2.1. shortest light path:

2" zeiss prism screwed on the SCT rear port directly, 1.7x GPC or 2.6x GPC gives 1.4x and 2.5x when used between the bino and prism.

2.2. Easier GPC change:

GPC in front of 2" nosepiece as in white light, 1.7x GPC give 1.5x, 2.6x GPC gives 3.1x. with 1.7x GPC in front, adding the 1.25" clicklock between the diagonal and binoviewer give 1.83x.

All the mags between 120x to 370x covered.

[Stu]

What a couple of cracking posts! Gaidis that looks awesome! I bet the low power views with no GPC are amazing. Can't wait to see which eps you are getting!

Yong, lovely kit, and thanks for all the detailed shots, really informative and useful for finding solutions to reducing optical path length. I have just bought a T2 to SCT short adaptor after Shane's recent post and am waiting to receive a 'little' package which includes my binoviewers and this.....

I shall be back in the Ha game but need another pair of binoviewers  

IMG_8047.TIF

[Moonshane]

Next time the sun comes out I'll take some pics - that said I might as well set up in the dining room later as it might be a while!

Brilliant posts so far - thanks guys

[F15Rules]

On 08/01/2017 at 20:26, Moonshane said:

Wonderful set Alan.  mine will be more modest I think. It am aiming eventually for pairs of TV plossls in 32, 25 (got), 20 (currently got 18mm bcos) and 15mm (about to buy), and possibly 11mm.

Hi Shane

Great thread?.

I see you're looking to replace your 18mm BCOs with TV 20mm Plossls...Is that just to keep the "brand uniformity" and maybe parfocality (is that a proper word???).

Optically I think the 18mm BCOs would at least match the TVs, with similar FOV, although I appreciate the TV might be very slightly sharper right to the edge. On axis though the 18mm BCO is superb (I still have one for Cyclops viewing, sadly no BVs at the moment).

The best performance in smallish sized EPs at that range that I've ever looked through were Takahashi LE 18mms, just superb transmission and sharpness.

I do see the advantage of a parfocal set for binoviewing though..One of the biggest frustrations I've found with binoviewing is the constant need for micro tweaks on fine focus with non parfocal sets. I know that some people swear by Hyperion zooms to get around that very issue.

Dave

[Moonshane]

hi Dave

Yes, I admit it, I do prefer TV over anything although I have been very impressed with the BCOs. The TVs focus just a little bit outside of the BCOs too which is a help when in-focus is so critical.

I am not completely decided yet but although I generally buy cheaper options as fillins (I am currently looking for a pair of 32mm Baader Classic Plossls) I usually do so with a view to working toward the TV equivalent in due course. As always it's down to gathering the funds to buy the next thing. At circa £120 used for the 11mm, £130 used for the 20mm (minus maybe £60 for the sold BCOs) plus £200 used inc the eyeguard extenders for the 32mm TVPs it will not be a cheap exercise!

 

[F15Rules]

It's interesting, when I had my BVs I often found that relatively cheap eyepieces (usually Plossls) worked really well in binoviewing, delivering excellent views, and appearing to get much closer to premium brands in performance than they did in Cyclops mode.

I think somehow two eyes seem to better compensate for eyepiece failings than one eye can?

I do plan to get another bv at some point, there's no doubt that the lunar and planetary views in particular can be spectacular. I wonder if Baader will ever actually launch their much trailed replacements for their current Maxbrights?

A decent upgrade with a full 25mm aperture or so and self centering helical focusing eyepiece holders and shorter light path for around £300-£350 retail would a be very attractive proposition!

Dave

[Moonshane]

I agree Dave

The problem is every time I look in my case it bugs me when there are non-TV eyepieces in there. Sad or what??

The good news is that although I sold my 26mm Nagler, I have not missed it really but was considering a 27mm Panoptic or even a 35mm to sit alongside my 24mm for 'widest field'. On calculating the gains, I have concluded that I may as well save my money and use a different scope if I want wider field views. With the 24mm Panoptic, my 16" dob still gives 0.9 degree true field down to my 102mm f7 which gives 2.3 degree true field which I find to be plenty. All of this leaves more funds towards the pairs! 

 

[Moonshane]

I have found a slightly historic pair of images to add toward this thread.

One of the issues with using BVs is of course reducing the in-focus as much as you can to accommodate the 110mm or so taken up by the  BVs as most scopes have limited available in focus. This is especially true when using with PST mods where you have to place the etalon 200mm inside the focus point of the objective and this is effectively a fixed distance. The first image below shows my previous stage 2 mod set-up which is inserted into the focuser of a shortened TAL 100mm f10 refractor. (which has a sub aperture Baader D-ERF in a cell part way down the tube).

This worked perfectly for cyclops mode and I have used it in this way for some time. However, when I wanted to consider BVs, I realised that I had to remove around 100mm or so of optical train but only behind the etalon (the bit in front of the silver ring). One way to do this is to buy a 32mm Baader t2 prism which has a much shorter light path than most other options. Which I did. See second image below.

Luckily, the thread on the black ring behind the silver ring was M57 and this worked out nicely as FLO sell a M57 - t2 adapter as a standard item and this allowed me to remove a large chunk of the train in one go.  I can now connect the t2 prism directly to the etalon and I am just awaiting an adapter to be made so I can connect the PST eyepiece holder/blocking filter to the male t2 thread on the prism. As a bonus, with the BVs I can now get full disk Ha views with 68x and 94x magnification all with the resolution of 100mm aperture - yummy! All at a price a lot less than a 10mm blocking filter.

[alanjgreen]

Hallelujah !! Finally got out to see the sun, have been waiting "months" for some action.

Anyway, here is my bino setup on the Lunt60

 

As you can see, I did not trust the cheapo chinese Lunt focuser with the MarkV's so I swapped to a Baader NT focuser (it is rude to compare it with the focuser that Lunt supply - they really should do better for the prices they charge)

The Lunt blocking filter has a T2 thread, so just unscrew the supplied eyepiece holder and there it is.

Then I added a baader heavy duty T2 quick changer to the top of the blocking filter.

The MarkV has a x1.7 GPC screwed up inside to achieve focus on the Lunt60. And it attaches directly to the T2 quick changer.

Alan

 

[Moonshane]

Finally got a chance to photograph my kit in various forms.

First here's my 102mm f7 Astrotech ED which is really my main travel scope or the one I use for grab and go or when I want to challenge myself and my skies (or need widest available view).

I use it for white light and lunar in its BV guise.

The Baader prism shown for lunar allows the light path to be shorter and I have recently started using the standard duty Baader quick release system and albeit expensive for what it is, this really is worth every penny.

Next is my 120mm f7.5 ED which is a wonderful scope and fab for white light.

Same set-up really as the above 102mm

Finally my PST mod. This was a great buy and performs amazingly.

The design of the eyepiece holder of the PST means that although I had a 1.25" nose cut down leaving a bright edge this does not cause internal reflections. The glasspath corrector screws into this nose, then the BVs and then into the eyepiece holder.

One advantage of the quick release system is that using the nylon ring that comes with the glasspath correctors, you can insert the GPC between the BV and the quick change ring thus making the whole changing issue easier and more secure.

Hope this helps people with some ideas!

 

[Highburymark]

So many great set ups on this thread. I binoview with my C8 Edge and Equinox 80ED with a pair of TV plossls and stock WO 20mm EPS - haven't yet got round to using my Tak FC-100 with for two eyed viewing but looking forward to doing so.