New Baader Maxbright bino viewer

[25585]

If combined with the right eps, current or new MaxBs give an equivalent view & brightness to a pair of Helios Lightquest 20 or 25x100 bins, I will be happy. 

Perhaps a Mk 6 at the top end will follow. What would definitely be innovative from any maker would be image stabilisation bino viewers or diagonals. It's in binoculars, just needs to cross over to telescopes!

[Louis D]

1 hour ago, 25585 said:

What would definitely be innovative from any maker would be image stabilisation bino viewers or diagonals. It's in binoculars, just needs to cross over to telescopes!

Image stabilization only makes sense for handheld usage.  Telescopes are always mounted.  Are you suggesting moving telescopes off of mounts into the realm of handheld usage?  I doubt any image stabilization system could compensate for human jitteriness above about 25x or so.  Certainly not at 100x to 200x for planetary observation.

[25585]

1 hour ago, Louis D said:

Image stabilization only makes sense for handheld usage.  Telescopes are always mounted.  Are you suggesting moving telescopes off of mounts into the realm of handheld usage?  I doubt any image stabilization system could compensate for human jitteriness above about 25x or so.  Certainly not at 100x to 200x for planetary observation.

I think IS would be good for higher magnification especially. A large image in a small FOV can be hard to stay vibration free. Maybe less so for Dobsonians (even then) but given any cause of vibration IS would be helpful. 

Cameras have IS in bodies & lenses. Useful whether hand held or pod mounted. 

[25585]

Email from T-E this morning saying the MaxB out of stock & backordered, delivery from Baader not known. 

I cancelled my order & requested repayment in full. @Highburymark if you have bought a pair too, did you get an email as well?

Update T-E have refunded me in full. Great to have such service!

[Highburymark]

4 hours ago, 25585 said:

Email from T-E this morning saying the MaxB out of stock & backordered, delivery from Baader not known. 

I cancelled my order & requested repayment in full. @Highburymark if you have bought a pair too, did you get an email as well?

No - didn't buy one Richard. What I really want is a MkV (or IV, or VI!) but was hoping details of the new Maxbright would have been released by now to see if it might be an alternative. My binoviewer use is 99 percent solar using T2 adaptors, so have focused on Baader, but also thinking now about Siebert.

[25585]

3 minutes ago, Highburymark said:

No - didn't buy one Richard. What I really want is a MkV (or IV, or VI!) but was hoping details of the new Maxbright would have been released by now to see if it might be an alternative. My binoviewer use is 99 percent solar using T2 adaptors, so have focused on Baader, but also thinking now about Siebert.

Think I'll sit it out until the new MaxB price is made known. Mk 5 too expensive, the Tele Vue with 27mm prisms is less expensive, but also over my budget. 

[Louis D]

22 hours ago, 25585 said:

I think IS would be good for higher magnification especially. A large image in a small FOV can be hard to stay vibration free. Maybe less so for Dobsonians (even then) but given any cause of vibration IS would be helpful. 

Cameras have IS in bodies & lenses. Useful whether hand held or pod mounted. 

One problem I foresee would be with manual nudging.  Image stabilization systems on video cameras like to try to counteract any motion, even gross motion temporarily before letting go and allowing the image to snap to where it should be without IS.  It makes for jumpy video, so I usually either disable IS when using video cameras on tripods, or put it in a less aggressive mode.  Some cameras (still and video) do have a pan IS mode that attempts to detect these motions and tries to not counteract it.

I have a feeling something like this is much more likely to show up in spotting scopes long before astronomy scopes.

[25585]

2 hours ago, Louis D said:

One problem I foresee would be with manual nudging.  Image stabilization systems on video cameras like to try to counteract any motion, even gross motion temporarily before letting go and allowing the image to snap to where it should be without IS.  It makes for jumpy video, so I usually either disable IS when using video cameras on tripods, or put it in a less aggressive mode.  Some cameras (still and video) do have a pan IS mode that attempts to detect these motions and tries to not counteract it.

I have a feeling something like this is much more likely to show up in spotting scopes long before astronomy scopes.

Spotting scopes would be the next step I agree. Those though are very conservative in design, took ages before the optics advances in binoculars caught up, apart from the high end. Swarovski are the leaders for innovative spotters, as Borg are for small refractors. 

It would be interesting to know if astro imagers & digi scopers use the OIS in their DSLRs & phones when imaging. 

[Louis D]

47 minutes ago, 25585 said:

It would be interesting to know if astro imagers & digi scopers use the OIS in their DSLRs & phones when imaging. 

Technically, the imager shift bodies could be used to counteract small amounts of periodic error if there was a way to access the microactuators directly from astro imaging software.