Telrad plus 12x70 bino-finderscope madness...

[Ships and Stars]

(NB - see last set of photos below for the best/easiest solution)

This is what happens when a.) my telrad arrived today, b.) it's rainy and I have some down time. My wife is used to this.

Seriously, with a few slight mods to adjust where the binos point, this might work! Perhaps mount the finder bracket at the bottom of the tube. 

Agree it is perhaps 'slightly' over the top, but the Celestron binobracket slots right in the finder shoe...

Never hurts to try, eh? 🤣

Edited September 28, 2019 by Ships and Stars
updated pics at bottom of thread

[Hawksmoor]

27 minutes ago, Ships and Stars said:

This is what happens when a.) my telrad arrived today, b.) it's rainy and I have some down time. My wife is used to this.

Seriously, with a few slight mods to adjust where the binos point, this might work! Perhaps mount the finder bracket at the bottom of the tube. 

Agree it is perhaps 'slightly' over the top, but the Celestron binobracket slots right in the finder shoe...

Never hurts to try, eh? 🤣

Nicely bonkers mate! 

I manage to fill my 'down time' with similar eccentricities and my wife has been used to it for forty-six years, you have to admire their fortitude!

best regards from George In Lowestoft

[Stu]

Looks like the sort of crazy thing I would try 🤣🤣.

One question, how would you get your eyes in place to look through the binoculars? Other than that, it looks a capital idea!!

[Ships and Stars]

13 minutes ago, Hawksmoor said:

Nicely bonkers mate! 

I manage to fill my 'down time' with similar eccentricities and my wife has been used to it for forty-six years, you have to admire their fortitude!

best regards from George In Lowestoft

Thanks George! I'll try this on my larger dob, I already have an idea how it would work on that, even better!

2 minutes ago, Stu said:

Looks like the sort of crazy thing I would try 🤣🤣.

One question, how would you get your eyes in place to look through the binoculars? Other than that, it looks a capital idea!!

Hi Stu! I'd pick up another findershoe from Astroboot etc and mount it towards the bottom of the tube. Agree, would be hard to see through as is, unless I had a neck like Nessie 😁 

This idea is actually for my big truss dob, my Velbon Sherpa tripod has a removable clamp that would attach nicely to one of the trusses, and I could aim the binos with the heavy duty ball-head tripod mount. Hard to visualise, but next time I'll mount it and post some pics. The funny thing is the Telrad shows 4deg and the binos are 4.5deg. This might work!

[Ships and Stars]

Eureka, I've cracked it! This is just a mock up, but would work a treat with a second clamp towards the rear. The binos sit on a heavy duty ball-head tripod mount with ample adjustment. Step one, align telrad with scope. Step two, align binos with telrad/scope on something like Vega and tighten ball head. Binofinders!  

Edited September 27, 2019 by Ships and Stars
add info

[Paz]

Nooooooooooo! 😀

[Ships and Stars]

21 minutes ago, Paz said:

Nooooooooooo! 😀

Sure! Add a second mount on the rear, so basically a fixed rail atop the scope that the binos could slide on securely. You wouldn't have to use 12x70s, some smaller 6x or 8x binos would perhaps be better in some situations. Do realise this is a work in progress here! 😁 It would make a lot more sense on my 20" dob with the clamp on one of the trusses, this is just a mock-up on a 130pds, which is already practically widefield with a 21mm ep anyway. I'll post some of the big dob with the binos soon, then you'll really freak out, lol

Edited September 27, 2019 by Ships and Stars
clarify

[Chinapig]

Fab - love the concept!

[Ships and Stars]

7 hours ago, Chinapig said:

Fab - love the concept!

Thanks! It certainly seems to be a love/hate thing. I just like taking something simple and making it more complicated than it needs to be I suppose. This is really intended for my larger dob, I've a few small bits to sort but the bino will look much more at home there than on the little 130pds (great scope btw).

[Ships and Stars]

Got it! The easiest, most elegant and by far the best answer for the binofinder solution was right in front of me, literally. The Velbon tripod's ballhead screws right into the stud on the scope's rail clamp. I then rotated the OTA about 120deg. I could easily flip the focuser if I wanted, but this is just a mockup, the telrad is even temporarily taped on. I will test this idea on my 200P on the EQ5 which is a much larger tube obviously. I see no reason why it shouldn't work and also serves as a solid mount for using the binoculars on their own for really widefield views...