Lunar binoviewing zoom setup

[HollyHound]

Unbelievably, we had a clear night last night, the moon was out and nicely positioned/phase for testing my new (and now permanent) lunar observing rig 👍

I've been dabbling with a pair of WO binoviewers for the last 10 months and using various pairs of eyepieces... Naglers, Panoptics and Meade Plossls. All of these have worked well, but the biggest source of frustration has been swapping eyepiece pairs when wanting to change the magnification. Sometimes I like to just pan across the lunar surface at a relatively lowish magnification and then when spotting something of interest, move to a higher magnification for more detail, and this means swapping two eyepieces, which sometimes loses the moment.

Barlow/Extenders can be used, but this is also fiddly as the whole binoviewer needs to be removed, which can mess with balance too!

The answer was obvious and don't know why I didn't do this months ago... zoom eyepieces 😮 Fortunately, I already had a Baader Hyperion zoom and when used with my Mak 127 (my primary lunar scope) at f/12, this gives very nice views indeed. I'd already established that I find FoV between 50 and 70 to be perfectly fine for me and this zoom, although having a fairly narrow 45 degs at 24mm, opens up to 68 degs at 8mm.

Another Hyperion Zoom arrived a few weeks back and all setup ready (see photo) to explore the moon... and then of course the weather played its part to prevent this from happening until last night.

With the Mak 127, binoviewer and two Hyperion Zooms and a WO star diagonal, mounted on the ScopeTech Zero and Report 372, along with a lovely simple little 6x30 right angle finder, I was able to spend a glorious two hours just soaking in stunning views of the moons surface, usually with 16mm on both zooms, but then zooming in to 12mm or 8mm when required for closer detail. After a short while the binoviewer just disappears and it became both effortless and (I think) more detailed, due to using both eyes... truly the only way to view the moon for me now 😀

The only slight issue is that the binoviewer, prism and zooms back quite a heavy backend for the scope and so needed to be moved quite well forward in the saddle to maintain balance. With this done, the Zero mount is more than capable of not only remaining easy to move by hand, but also still retaining slow motion control to move over the moon surface.

I did also try a WO erect image prism I bought last year, but whilst it was nice to have things "the right way round", I found it degraded the fine detail on the moon surface too much, so reverted back to the WO star diagonal. I will also be trying my Baader prism, which if it's the same or better, can be mounted to the SCT ring on the back for a slightly shorter/permanent solution 🤔

I did also briefly have a look at M42 with the same setup, and did a decent job of DSO viewing too, although I couldn't really see any advantage here to the binoviewer setup... perhaps will try this on the Bresser 10" dob sometime.

All in all, highly recommended and this scope, binoviewer, zoom combination will now be left permanently as my lunar observing setup, either as grab and go with the mount/tripod described or on the iOptron AZ Mount Pro if I want to be super lazy and observe with tracking. This may also be useful for planetary too... we'll see when they're better positioned again...

Cheers

Gary

[vineyard]

That sounds like a lovely evening 👍🏾 It's great when everything comes together!

[HollyHound]

Well I've now had four sessions with the moon in various phases... happy to report I have now achieved lunar viewing nirvana with this setup 😀

It's also proving to be a very effective setup for double stars too, as having both eyes in operation seems to make them easier to spot for me 👍

Now I need to try the whole binoviewer/diagonal/zoom setup on the StellaMira 80mm f/10 too...

[Paz]

Great report, I'm impressed that those zooms actually work on a binoviewer, I find binoviewing to be so sensitive to everything being just right that I assumed zooms would not be up to it.

[HollyHound]

6 minutes ago, Paz said:

Great report, I'm impressed that those zooms actually work on a binoviewer, I find binoviewing to be so sensitive to everything being just right that I assumed zooms would not be up to it.

They do indeed work wonderfully for me. I find that I can now view continuously for a good time without any strain at all. In addition, because I'm using both eyes, I find that when the moon is brighter it is easier to keep viewing without a filter. With one eye, it gets bombarded with light and then it feels really weird as the other hasn't... almost like being blinded in that eye.

[Ricochet]

The thing that has always stopped me trying the Hyperion zooms is the wide looking eye cup. Have you tried any of the smaller eye cups when binoviewing? 

[Stu]

Very nice @HollyHound. You obviously find achieving balance easy enough so that’s great! I opt for the barlow and extension tube method myself, which as you say is another way of avoiding changing both eyepieces. I use T2 quick hangers so can add or remove a section in a few moments, and it generally doesn’t change balance too much.

It’s great when you find a setup which you know gives you what you want with excellent views; you can just forget the kit now and concentrate on observing which is what it’s all about 👍👍

[HollyHound]

41 minutes ago, Stu said:

It’s great when you find a setup which you know gives you what you want with excellent views; you can just forget the kit now and concentrate on observing which is what it’s all about 👍👍

Exactly, this is what I've been trying to achieve for months now for lunar observing (admittedly bad weather has slowed things down too)... I can now just grab this whole rig which remains setup in the corner of my office and be outside viewing the moon... or rather "observing" the moon now, actually spending time looking at objects in greater detail... very liberating 😀

Admittedly haven't tried your method of varying magnification, glad that works for you too 👍

Edited January 30, 2021 by HollyHound

[HollyHound]

1 hour ago, Ricochet said:

The thing that has always stopped me trying the Hyperion zooms is the wide looking eye cup. Have you tried any of the smaller eye cups when binoviewing? 

Funny you should ask that... I neglected to mention that I had already swapped out the wide (adjustable) eyecup for the narrower (fixed) eyecups that also come with the Hyperions... I have no problem at all getting these as close as I need for my eyes with plenty of space to spare. I could still use the adjustable ones too, but these give a bit more space and just more comfortable 👍

[garryblueboy]

I have a power switch which allows me to up the mag comes in handy for those times 

[Ricochet]

25 minutes ago, HollyHound said:

Funny you should ask that... I neglected to mention that I had already swapped out the wide (adjustable) eyecup for the narrower (fixed) eyecups that also come with the Hyperions... I have no problem at all getting these as close as I need for my eyes with plenty of space to spare. I could still use the adjustable ones too, but these give a bit more space and just more comfortable 👍

Thanks, I guess that's another two eyepieces I need then. 😂 

[HollyHound]

16 minutes ago, garryblueboy said:

I have a power switch which allows me to up the mag comes in handy for those times 

Yes, I did investigate these (Denkmeier I believe), and may still look at this option down the road, most likely as a complete setup 🤔

[garryblueboy]

1 hour ago, HollyHound said:

Yes, I did investigate these (Denkmeier I believe), and may still look at this option down the road, most likely as a complete setup 🤔

They really are good I have the Earthwin system same thing as Denkmeiers but made by bill Denkmeier the ones I have are for Newtonions and refractors and I have a SCT power switch also 

[RobertI]

That's a great setup Gary. As we have discussed on some other threads the BVs are working out great for me too. I have also been looking at the twin zoom option so it's really good to know it works well. I think the Hyperion Zoom was designed with BVs in mind. So far I've only used the BVs with my 102ED and with a 2.25x barlow I get about 180x - I've actually found this perfect for Mars and the Moon and haven't really felt the need to change magnifications yet, but it's early days and I want to give them a go with the C8 and try other types of object. Wierdly the biggest problem when using the 2.25x barlow and standard 20mm eyepieces is that every single tiny piece of dust on the outer eye lens shows up as a big black blob, so the eyepiece has to be cleaned srupulously before each session!   

[Kimboman]

Hi great to hear other members are hooked on Bino viewers I use mine  all the time with my Meade ETX90 its really good.

I also have a Celestron 6se but the bino viewers make the telescope judder due to the  weight.

[HollyHound]

2 minutes ago, Kimboman said:

Hi great to hear other members are hooked on Bino viewers I use mine  all the time with my Meade ETX90 its really good.

I also have a Celestron 6se but the bino viewers make the telescope judder due to the  weight.

They are really very useful 👍

I did try with my C5 and it was more difficult to balance, but with the Mak 127 it works well, possibly due to the heavier corrector plate at the front 🤔

[Kimboman]

Hi I think this may be the problem but I use my Meade ETX 90 the most

[GazOC]

I've just ordered a pair of Svbony 7-21 zooms for my 127mms Mak, I couldn't stretch to the Hyperions especially as I don't envisage using the zooms for anything but lunar views. Hopefully the IP distance will be OK as I've only binoviewed with small plossl EPs in the past 

[RobertI]

29 minutes ago, GazOC said:

I've just ordered a pair of Svbony 7-21 zooms for my 127mms Mak, I couldn't stretch to the Hyperions especially as I don't envisage using the zooms for anything but lunar views. Hopefully the IP distance will be OK as I've only binoviewed with small plossl EPs in the past 

I’ll be interested to know how you get on with those. 👍

[GazOC]

Reviews seem to be good "for the price", Rob. I got the pair for just under £90, hopefully they'll be reasonable quality for lunar use 

[HollyHound]

17 minutes ago, GazOC said:

Reviews seem to be good "for the price", Rob. I got the pair for just under £90, hopefully they'll be reasonable quality for lunar use 

I think for Mak and SCT scopes like we’re using, with higher f ratios (f/10 and higher), almost any eyepiece is more then good enough, as it’s for smaller f ratios that the expensive eyepieces become more critical 👍

I got the second Hyperion as I already one (in fact it was my first major eyepiece purchase). The SvBony are well reviewed. 

[GazOC]

Aye! Having one Hyperion already would have made my choice easier too. 

[Saganite]

On 30/01/2021 at 23:44, Kimboman said:

Hi great to hear other members are hooked on Bino viewers I use mine  all the time with my Meade ETX90 its really good.

I also have a Celestron 6se but the bino viewers make the telescope judder due to the  weight.

It is true that binoviewers are not for everyone, but for me, on Moon and planets mostly, there is no other way.

[HollyHound]

1 hour ago, Saganite said:

It is true that binoviewers are not for everyone, but for me, on Moon and planets mostly, there is no other way.

I'm with you on that. Suddenly lunar viewing has just become about perfect now with this setup. Haven't tried the binoviewer on the dob yet, but this grab and go lunar rig works for me 😀

Edited February 1, 2021 by HollyHound

[Saganite]

1 minute ago, HollyHound said:

I'm with you on that. Suddenly lunar viewing has just become about perfect now with this setup. Haven't tried the binoviewer on the dob yet, but this grab and go lunar rig works for me 😀

 

Congratulations  with the pair of zooms.

As you know my bino's are the Denk II with power switch and they work perfectly on my f15 & f7.7 refractors and f5.3 Dob.  Bino's attached to my 12" dob give simply jaw dropping views so I would recommend trying yours asap. I had the WO bino several years ago and it worked perfectly on my 12" dob at that time but I had to put 60mm of tube extension between the nosepiece and the 1.6x lens to reach focus..... Beware,

low flying over the surface of the Moon is very addictive ..