Advice for what eyepieces to use with Binoviewers & reflecter scopes

[yelsac]

Hi

Just recently acquired some William Optics binoviewers & was wondering if any use them with reflecter scopes & if so what eyepieces would you recommend?

I have a 6" & 10" skywatcher scopes on NEQ6. I can reach focus with the WO Binoviewer using the supplied 1.6 Barlow & a low profile 2" to 1.25" adapter. I've only used the 20mm eyepieces that came with it so far on the moon which was good. Have also tried them with 5" Mak which was ok but the magnification seemed a little much.

Any thoughts & advice would be great. Learning all the time....🤦‍♂️

Yelsac

[Zeta Reticulan]

I have the WO's and normally use them with a 127mm Mak'.

I find 20mm SWAN's (not the bundled WO 20mm eyepieces) and a pair of 15mm GSO SuperViews get the most use.

Merging is a bit of an art form with the WO's and I find the wider the eyepiece FOV the easier it is to merge.

I also have the WO 1.6x and 2x Barlows. Plus a third (TS Optics) 2.6x Barlow. The shortest focal length eyepieces are a pair of 12mm GSO Plossls (with WO barrels) and a pair of SvBony 10mm aspherics.

Admittedly I really only use the bino's for lunar/planetary. In the past I've successfully used a pair of 25mm Ohi (Astro Hutech) orthoscopics and a pair of 32mm Baader BCO's. I also have used a pair of 19mm Panoptics but found them heavy for the set-up I was using.

Edited August 11, 2022 by Zeta Reticulan

[yelsac]

On 11/08/2022 at 18:07, Zeta Reticulan said:

I have the WO's and normally use them with a 127mm Mak'.

I find 20mm SWAN's (not the bundled WO 20mm eyepieces) and a pair of 15mm GSO SuperViews get the most use.

Merging is a bit of an art form with the WO's and I find the wider the eyepiece FOV the easier it is to merge.

I also have the WO 1.6x and 2x Barlows. Plus a third (TS Optics) 2.6x Barlow. The shortest focal length eyepieces are a pair of 12mm GSO Plossls (with WO barrels) and a pair of SvBony 10mm aspherics.

Admittedly I really only use the bino's for lunar/planetary. In the past I've successfully used a pair of 25mm Ohi (Astro Hutech) orthoscopics and a pair of 32mm Baader BCO's. I also have used a pair of 19mm Panoptics but found them heavy for the set-up I was using.

Thanks for your reply.

Noticed in your sig you have a 6" Newt have you tried the binos with that?

Had a go last night with 5” Mak & was extremely impressed with the view of Jupiter, could see a lot more detail with both eyes than Cyclops.

You say you don't use the supplied WO 20mm eyepieces aren't they any good? To be honest that’s all I've been using to this point because they’re the only ones I've got two of.

Would you recommend the 10mm SvBonys? (I know they aren’t too expensive)  I presume you use them without the Barlow?

Might try & get some 15mm from somewhere as well.

all the best

Yelsac

 

[Zeta Reticulan]

7 minutes ago, yelsac said:

Thanks for your reply.

 

Noticed in your sig you have a 6" Newt have you tried the binos with that?

 

Had a go last night with 5” Mak & was extremely impressed with the view of Jupiter, could see a lot more detail with both eyes than Cyclops.

 

You say you don't use the supplied WO 20mm eyepieces aren't they any good? To be honest that’s all I've been using to this point because they’re the only ones I've got two of.

 

Would you recommend the 10mm SvBonys? (I know they aren’t too expensive)  I presume you use them without the Barlow?

 

Might try & get some 15mm from somewhere as well.

 

all the best

 

Yelsac

 

 

 

I haven't tried it in the Newtonian, although I'd assume there would be focusing issues. There's nothing wrong with the bundled 20mm EP's, it's just that mine suffered from some visible debris. Rather than return the entire bino I decided to just replace the EP's. I can't use the entire FOV of the SWAN's in the bino anyway. The 10mm SvBony's give me 154x in the bino without a Barlow. I might get 246x with the 1.6x Barlow in very good conditions with the 127mm Mak. I have done this with Mars and the Moon, although it would be a bit high for most targets. The SvBony's are fairly easy to merge I find. They're also very lightweight.