Helios Apollo 15x70 Binoculars

[digitaldave]

Yesterday, I ordered a pair of Helios Apollo 15x70 binoculars (and a Horizon 8115 tripod to put them on), and as promised, they arrived today! Excellent service from FLO, thanks guys .

Here's a pic:

Interestingly, although I've seen similar versions that had a greenish tint to the rubber armour, these ones are definitely black. Of course, that's not the real problem, it's the poor weather we're expecting for the next few days .

Dave.

[philsail1]

Look very nice Dave!

I like the individual eyepiece focusers - no central bar to worry about, much less to wear, and should give spot on focusing.

An instrument crying out for a clear night!

You will have to post a "first light" on those Dave.

Best wishes,

philsail1

[digitaldave]

Argh! My initial excitement is somewhat diminished, as I've just noticed that the distributor has sent out the 10.5x70 version, not the 15x70 version that I ordered (and they put on the dispatch note). Pants!

[FLO]

Oops! They are very busy this time of year so mistakes do occasionally happen. We now have the Appollo 15x70 binoculars in stock here so will dispatch a replacemant first thing in the morning then arrange collection of the 10.5x70 at your convenience.

Apologies for the inconvenience :oops:

[digitaldave]

Steve,

Thanks very much for the reply. That's excellent customer service, thanks .

Dave.

[digitaldave]

First (and second) light update...

Thanks to the excellent customer service of FLO (Thanks Steve!), I now have the correct 15x70s, and the 10.5x70s have been returned. I've only had a couple of opportunities to use them so far, but the results have been excellent, and I'm glad I got them as they are a definite step up from my 10x50s. The sessions with them have also been relatively short, 15-30 minutes each time, but that's the beauty of binos - I can pick them up and be observing literally in seconds, something I can't do with my C9.25 and EQ6 Pro! I have been using them on a tripod, which helps a lot, but they can be used hand held for short periods (i.e. a couple of minutes at most for my arms). I did try a new grip I'd read about (I think it was on Cloudy Nights) - hold the left barrel with both hands, and rest the right barrel on my right fore arm - it sounds a bit strange but give it a try, it's actually simpler than it sounds, and is perfect for this size of binoculars (I doubt it would be much use for 10x50s for example). It seemed to work pretty well, at least for a short look.

So, some thoughts on the views... I'm not an optics expert, so I'll leave the critical analysis to people with more experience than me, but suffice to say, I'm very pleased with the views. I haven't done a side by side comparison with my 10x50s, so can't comment on how much more light they pull in with real world use. The larger magnification does a better job of framing many objects - for example, the Pleiades fills much more of the FOV than in the 10x50s. Speaking of the Pleiades, I can now see why many people rfer to the bowl shape, as I could clearly see it, a close approximation of the bowl of the Big Dipper.

Orions sword looks spectacular - I'd estimate that NGC1981 was approaching one edge of the FOV and iota Orionis / Struve 747 was approaching the other edge (it fills less of the FOV in the 10x50s), and the nebulosity of M42 was very impressive. On my first viewing, I noticed first two stars coming out of the gap on the eastern (I think... IIRC E and W are reversed in the sky, so it's on the left as you look at it), but after a very short time, this chain grew as I was able to see first one, then another star as I became better dark adapted.

I did some general sweeping around, and noticed quite a few stars with very nice colours - I took a few minutes to look at Betelgeuse and Aldebaran, both of which stood out from the crowd very nicely with their orange glows.

During my quick session last night, I also had a look (for the first time, I'm somewhat ashamed to admit) at the Hyades. This makes a very nice target, with the stars following the shape of the V in Taurus. It's defintiely something I'll be coming back to in the future.

Armed with my copy of Gary Seronik's Binocular Highlights book, I thought I'd try to track down something I'd never seen before, and thought I'd give Kemble's Cascade a try. I'm not that familiar with the constellation of Camelopardaris, so I followed the tops of the W in Cassiopeia, and without too much hunting around, there it was. To be honest, it's not hard to find (especially with the relatively wide FOV of bioculars) since it's almost a dead straight line, with one star conspicuously just off to one side of the line. Unfortunaely, I didn't spend very long on it, as it was almost exactly overhead. However, now I know it's there, it's something else that I'll be returning to at some point. I had planned to have a quick peek at the Double Cluster as well, but it was getting late, and my neck and arms (I was hand holding at this point) were tiring, and I couldn't be 100% sure I was looking in the right place (overhead again), so I'll come back to it another day when it's a bit lower down.

Overall, I'm very impressed with these binoculars, and I'm very glad I bought them. Their ease of use makes me think that they might become my primary observing instrument, replacing my C9.25...

Regards,

Dave.

[philsail1]

Nice Review Dave,

15x70 gives you a 4.6 exit pupil. Good bright views eh!

I'm sure you'll have some great times with those binoculars during those warm summer evenings next year!

Best wishes,

philsail1

[FLO]

Good to hear you are pleased Dave

[binman]

i measured the true appiture of these with a loupe and you get a full 70mm which is more than the celestron skymaster 15x70's true 63mm. the exit pupil was measured at 5mm making these apollo 15x70's 14x70's... super bins these with very sharp center field and excellent contrast/colour correction

regards mark