Do you know what it is yet?

[Stu]

Managed a quick but rubbish first light with these through a few gaps in the clouds.

First impressions favourable. I was concerned about not being able to see the full fov without having to jam them into my eyes very hard, but in reality they sit very nicely against your eyes and I could see the field stop with no problems.

The individual focusing is a little fiddly, and because the eye cups are against your eyes there is a risk of the focus changing as you observe but I'm sure I will work that out.

The other issue I noted was that if you do not have the optical axis correctly align with your eyes you get flaring off to one side of the stars. Once correctly held though all is well. It is very natural to pan your head around without needing to pan your eyes around within the fov.

The build quality is excellent, the binos have a very nice weighty feel in the hand. They are actually very small but feel very good to use. The strap is annoying, because of the position of the strap connection points and the balance of the binos, they don't hang down like a normal pair, they sit objectives up against your body. Not a big issue but it feels odd!

I clearly didn't buy these to observe the moon, but it was interesting to view, just like naked eye but bigger and with a little more detail. Some CA visible as you would expect but that's not what they are for, so no problem! Full assessment will have to wait until I get to a dark site under a good sky whilst lying in a comfy chair. Hopefully they will strut their stuff there! Interested to see how they perform with filters fitted, could be fun!

[John]

Should be great under a warm, dark sky, relaxed in a reclining chair and with a glass of nice wine / cold beer

Actually the effects of forgetting that you have them on after a couple of bevvies might be quite interesting

[LukeSkywatcher]

I'm laughing so hard,im crying. Funniest thread ever here on SGL.

[Stu]

I can just imagine me, stumbling around a dark field in my speedos.......

[Moonshane]

Could you rig up a strap to allow them to be 'fixed' to your napper?

[DirkSteele]

4 hours ago, John said:

Should be great under a warm, dark sky, relaxed in a reclining chair and with a glass of nice wine / cold beer

 

Definitely!  When I first put the Vixen SGs through their paces it was in Namibia in September 2014 when the night time temps were in the mid 20Cs and I used a sun lounger in the observatory, just laid back and swept up the centre of the Milky Way. To be able to stargaze in shorts and t-shirt....

[Stu]

1 hour ago, Moonshane said:

Could you rig up a strap to allow them to be 'fixed' to your napper?

Are we talking about the speedos or the binoculars now? I'm getting confused!

I reckon you could with the binoculars Shane, I might give it a go.

[PeterW]

Have to compare them to my "home brew" Nikon 2x54 constellation bins. Mine don't have a snazzy case (obviously), but I made some eyecups and straylight shields for them. I seem to have a low power disease as I picked up some 11degree 7x35 and also hit eBay for some 5x25 15degree bins! Damn it's aperture fever in reverse!

 

PEterW

 

PS the Kasai do have a handsfree option... look towards the bottom of this page.... http://www.kasai-trading.jp/widebino28.htm 

[Moonshane]

47 minutes ago, Stu said:

Are we talking about the speedos or the binoculars now? I'm getting confused!

I reckon you could with the binoculars Shane, I might give it a go.

Now you mention it, could you use the speedos to attach the binoculars?

[John]

3 minutes ago, Moonshane said:

Now you mention it, could you use the speedos to attach the binoculars?

Now I'm confused - speedos are swimming trunks aren't they ?

[Moonshane]

Lol

Check out earlier in in the thread (although maybe you shouldn't)

[John]

5 minutes ago, Moonshane said:

Lol

Check out earlier in in the thread (although maybe you shouldn't)

Have done. Thats a relief .... I think

[Stu]

37 minutes ago, PeterW said:

Have to compare them to my "home brew" Nikon 2x54 constellation bins. Mine don't have a snazzy case (obviously), but I made some eyecups and straylight shields for them. I seem to have a low power disease as I picked up some 11degree 7x35 and also hit eBay for some 5x25 15degree bins! Damn it's aperture fever in reverse!

 

PEterW

 

PS the Kasai do have a handsfree option... look towards the bottom of this page.... http://www.kasai-trading.jp/widebino28.htm 

Hmmmm, even I have my limits!

[iPeace]

1 minute ago, Stu said:

Hmmmm, even I have my limits!

If those are your speedos, then why... Never mind.

[andrew63]

After some amusing posting, lets get back to business    I wonder Stu, what part of the sky would yield the most DSO in the field of view ?  My guess would be Sagittarius - i feel a sky safari chart coming on !

 

andrew

[Stu]

4 minutes ago, andrew63 said:

After some amusing posting, lets get back to business    I wonder Stu, what part of the sky would yield the most DSO in the field of view ?  My guess would be Sagittarius - i feel a sky safari chart coming on !

 

andrew

Your wish is my command Andrew , yes, Sagittarius should be pretty amazing, although I shall enjoy Cygnus a lot too!

[PeterW]

More for star fields and dark nebulae... give you another 1.5magnitudes, help us urban observers to see the constellations in context. You won't see a sky full of stars, you need more than speedos and carrots!l for that!

Peter

[Peter Drew]

I've had a pair of the Vixen model for some time. You have to reset your expectation concerning binoculars. Traditional low power binoculars have a wide apparent FOV but not as large TFOV whereas the Vixen and similar units have a large TFOV and a smaller apparent FOV. The Gallilean optics result in not getting the magnitude gain that you would expect from a 40mm objective in a traditional binocular with which an individual object would be better seen but for the effect of a naked eye view x1.6 apparent gain they can't be beaten. 

[PeterW]

There has been talk about some 5x25 Visionking wide angle bins on CN https://www.cloudynights.com/topic/541006-dark-sky-and-visionking-5x25-wide-angle-binoculars/ giving a "step up" from the Galilean units and one down from "regular bins" (the widest of which are probably wide angle 7x35... 11degree). You certainly see how things fit together better when the field of view is bigger.

cheers

peter

[edjuh]

As these 'units' seem to be quite a slim fit  (could not resist, but did opt not to graphic)

Why are they so expensive ? I myself would consider it a gimmick, but coming from that orange-glowing country, I could be missing the main feature, being darkness.

On the other hand, would I should my foot of wondering if/when the chinese will make a cheap but worthwhile knockoff.

[PeterW]

There are several cheaper Galilean units out there and I made some from old Nikon digital camera multiplier lenses and a 3d printer (search Nikon TC-E2 or 2x54)

 

peter 

[Racey]

On 3/10/2017 at 17:39, PeterW said:

Have to compare them to my "home brew" Nikon 2x54 constellation bins. Mine don't have a snazzy case (obviously), but I made some eyecups and straylight shields for them. I seem to have a low power disease as I picked up some 11degree 7x35 and also hit eBay for some 5x25 15degree bins! Damn it's aperture fever in reverse!

 

PEterW

 

PS the Kasai do have a handsfree option... look towards the bottom of this page.... http://www.kasai-trading.jp/widebino28.htm 

Peter

I've just scavenged a couple of the Nikon TC-E2 converters from eBay and I'm getting 3DHubs to print the Thingverse plans for me... Thanks for drawing my attention to them.

I've read the "Read Me" file and it all looks pretty straightforward. But can I ask, if you used the Thingverse plans, is it obvious how the lenses are retained securely in their shells when they arrive ? Or did you need to fashion someway of achieving a snug fit so the lenses stay in place ?

Thank you

Simon

[PeterW]

I used the strips of double sided tape on the lenses, then pressed it all together... I wouldn't want to pull them out now. I *think* in bought spare M5 nuts, in case you need one.

 

peter

[Racey]

Just now, PeterW said:

I used the strips of double sided tape on the lenses, then pressed it all together... I wouldn't want to pull them out now. I *think* in bought spare M5 nuts, in case you need one.

 

peter

Noted. Thanks. I'm sure it will all "fall into place" (as I want it to !!) when all the bits arrive... I've sourced some M5 bolts and Dome Nuts from eBay for a couple of pounds... But thanks for the offer. 

[Stu]

Had another brief session with these the other night, conditions not great.

Findings so far. I'm not overly keen on the images on bright stars, they are not particularly tight and suffer a coma type effect unless you have the binos exactly on axis with your eyes.

On anything outside bright stars, they are great. The field of view seems close to the quoted 28 degrees, although I have planned another test to check it out more accurately. I will check whether Rigel and Aldebaran fit in the fov and they are 26 degrees apart. So far though, I can easily fit Orion, Auriga or Gemini in the field with room to spare.

Even under my rubbish skies, the increased visibility of fainter stars allows you to properly see the constellations and asterisms just pop into view that you normally would not see. 

I'm expecting the filter adaptors soon so will hopefully be able to try these at DIYPSP. It's a very different type of observing but I'm looking forward to relaxing in my chair under a dark sky taking in great chunks of the Milky Way in one go.