What Binoviewer Eyepiece Set?

[Andy ES]

I’ve been reading a lot about the benefits of binoviewers and would be interested to get views on what would be a suitable set of EPs for them.

I am drawn to starguider EPs as they seem to be good value for money.

Obviously I could just double up on my Baader Morpheus but this would be massively expensive.

Any advice or recommendations on what would be considered a suitable set of binoviewer Eyepieces gladly received

this set up would be used with a C9.25 SCT

Thanks.

[dweller25]

I wear specs, so use Plossl/Ortho pairs - 25mm/20mm/18mm.

Then I have a pair of Viven 15mm LV's

And finally a pair of Pentax 12mm XF's for high power (x240 in my setup).

I use either a x1.25 or x2.6 glass path corrector in my prism diagonal depending on which scope I am using to get the best magnification - which is usually high for the planets.

Your C9.25 has a long focal length so maybe plossls/orthos bought second hand would be a good choice.

 

[Franklin]

18 minutes ago, Andy ES said:

recommendations on what would be considered a suitable set of binoviewer Eyepieces

Baader BCO 18mm and 10mm are a great binoviewing pair.

[niallk]

I use TV plossls

[Ricochet]

1 hour ago, Andy ES said:

I am drawn to starguider EPs as they seem to be good value for money.

Starguiders make very comfortable binoviewing pairs. At slow telescope focal ratios (or short with a barlow/gpc in front of the binoviewer) all of them are well corrected. Their coatings aren't as good as those on the Baader Morpheus and you might see some reflections or ghosting from bright objects. I happily used a pair of 25s for a long time before upgrading to 24 Pans. 

[Zeta Reticulan]

A lot depends on how the binoviewer itself is attached to the visual back. 

Mine are just placed in a diagonal.

So weight will be a factor. The next significant point to take into consideration is being able to merge the image with the eyepieces themselves. 

After much experimentation I'm basically down to 20mm SWAN's and 15mm SuperViews.

Edited August 25, 2022 by Zeta Reticulan

[Andy ES]

Thanks for the responses, I’ll have a good look at these tomorrow and probably have a few more questions.

cheers for the help

[Louis D]

SVBONY 68° Ultra Wide Angle 20mm pair:

At f/10, they're not going to be quite as sharp across the field as at f/18 in my setup, but they won't be too bad.

Microscope eyepiece pairs also work well, but require some adaptation.

[Don Pensack]

18 hours ago, Andy ES said:

I’ve been reading a lot about the benefits of binoviewers and would be interested to get views on what would be a suitable set of EPs for them.

I am drawn to starguider EPs as they seem to be good value for money.

Obviously I could just double up on my Baader Morpheus but this would be massively expensive.

Any advice or recommendations on what would be considered a suitable set of binoviewer Eyepieces gladly received

this set up would be used with a C9.25 SCT

Thanks.

This may end up in a grey area, but I have found that apparent fields wider than about 68° do not work well in a binoviewer.

Why?

Well, in a mono-viewing situation, if you want to look at the edge of the field with direct vision and the field is 70+°, you slightly roll your head over to look since you need to keep the pupil of your eye at the 

exit pupil of the eyepiece.  It's no problem at all to do so.  You can't just simply move the eye to look directly at the edge with foveal vision because that moves the pupil of your eye away from the exit pupil

of the eyepiece.  The head movement is so slight, most people don't even notice the movement.

Therein lies the issue with ultrawide fields and binoviewers.  You need to roll the head slightly to look directly at the right and left hand edges of the field.  If you do so, one eye gets lifted away

from the exit pupil and that side goes dark.

You can simply ignore the edge and only focus on the center, but that means you cannot follow and object across the field from edge to edge in an untracking scope.

But if you stick to 68° and smaller in binoviewers, you can see right and left edges of the field by merely moving your eyes and you can track the object from edge to edge.

This is the main reason, I believe, that it is a very rare binocular that has an apparent field in excess of 65°.

 

So how wide an apparent field can you use?  Therein lies the grey area.  If you don't care about looking at the right or left edge of the field with direct vision, then the only limit is your IPD and the scope's focuser's ability to handle the weight.

If you do care about seeing the entire field with direct vision, then smaller eyepieces of up to 68° will work best.

60° eyepieces are almost universally bino-friendly, and because they are modest in price, having dual copies of each will likely not be much of an economic hardship.  And many of them are quite good.

[Zeta Reticulan]

I don't think the WO bino's have more than a 66° FOV. It doesn't preclude using wider angle EP's though. 

Edited August 26, 2022 by Zeta Reticulan

[Andy ES]

Thanks all, also what is the favoured unit from these?

I’m considering the WO, like the second least expensive wine in the restaurant 😂

[Zeta Reticulan]

The Baader are probably the best. I don't mind slumming it with the WO's lol.

[Franklin]

WO binoviewer set is a great buy IMO. Others more knowledgeable than me have said that they are all the same. I would say that the WO set is a step up from the budget binos. The build quality is great, the 20mm eyepieces are fantastic and it all comes in a presentation box.  

[Franklin]

5 minutes ago, Zeta Reticulan said:

The Baader are probably the best

Yes, they have a larger clear aperture and helical focusing with clicklock holders. Plus of course the Baader T2 accessory range.

[Andy ES]

9 minutes ago, Zeta Reticulan said:

The Baader are probably the best.

I feel the Baader quality all the time but I don’t know if the extra cost returns much better views?

[bosun21]

I have just ordered a set of the Baader Maxbright which will be delivered on Tuesday, however I need to wait 7-10 days for the 1.7x GPC. I am directly attaching it to a Baader T2 prism diagonal with a 2” nosepiece. Are the clicklocks 2”? Do I need to buy the clicklock adapter to 1.25” if I want to use the smaller diameter eyepieces?

[Zeta Reticulan]

30 minutes ago, Franklin said:

Yes, they have a larger clear aperture and helical focusing with clicklock holders. Plus of course the Baader T2 accessory range.

And there's that.

[Zeta Reticulan]

27 minutes ago, Andy ES said:

I feel the Baader quality all the time but I don’t know if the extra cost returns much better views?

Difficult to say. There's more to a bino than views. A lot has to do with ergonomics, design, practicality, suitability etc.

[Don Pensack]

40 minutes ago, Franklin said:

WO binoviewer set is a great buy IMO. Others more knowledgeable than me have said that they are all the same. I would say that the WO set is a step up from the budget binos. The build quality is great, the 20mm eyepieces are fantastic and it all comes in a presentation box.  

The William Optics is a re-packaged Norin binoviewer.  As such, it has the disadvantages of a low end unit:

--small clear aperture (20mm)

--The WO OCA has significant chromatic aberration and spherical aberration.  Use another brand if you can.

It's probably a good "gateway" to see if you like binoviewers.  If you like binoviewing, it won't be your last binoviewer, though.

[MalcolmM]

21 minutes ago, bosun21 said:

I have just ordered a set of the Baader Maxbright which will be delivered on Tuesday, however I need to wait 7-10 days for the 1.7x GPC. I am directly attaching it to a Baader T2 prism diagonal with a 2” nosepiece. Are the clicklocks 2”? Do I need to buy the clicklock adapter to 1.25” if I want to use the smaller diameter eyepieces?

@bosun21 where did you order the Maxbrights from? I thought they were on very long lead times everywhere!

Thanks,

Malcolm 

[globular]

3 minutes ago, MalcolmM said:

I thought they were on very long lead times everywhere!

From Baader's website ....

[bosun21]

11 minutes ago, MalcolmM said:

@bosun21 where did you order the Maxbrights from? I thought they were on very long lead times everywhere!

Thanks,

Malcolm 

I bought the last one from the Widescreen  centre and they were shipped today for delivery on Tuesday. HTH   

     Ian 

Edited August 26, 2022 by bosun21
Typo

[Franklin]

34 minutes ago, bosun21 said:

Are the clicklocks 2”? Do I need to buy the clicklock adapter to 1.25” if I want to use the smaller diameter eyepieces?

No, 1.25" will fit straight in.

[Shimrod]

10 minutes ago, MalcolmM said:

@bosun21 where did you order the Maxbrights from? I thought they were on very long lead times everywhere!

Thanks,

Malcolm 

Check Microglobe as well - they are showing as in stock again for the basic set (all kits were out of stock when I looked earlier this week) .

[bosun21]

7 minutes ago, Shimrod said:

Check Microglobe as well - they are showing as in stock again for the basic set (all kits were out of stock when I looked earlier this week) .

They have a poor reputation and also trade in eBay as “Optics land” with a 20% mark up. 3.5/5 in Trust pilot.